Poker Metaphors
Sometimes it’s a game that can best describe a situation. When other forms of expression fail to describe what’s going on in an area, say for example what we’ll be talking aboutpoliticsit becomes painfully obvious that we need to understand it in other terms.
What we have, what we’re talking about today, is the current state of the economy. We’re sitting at the online poker table as the short stack right not. And out bankroll, well it’s pretty much nonexistent, and we’re borrowing to support our habit. Our sponsor is all out of funds, so it’s this tournament that has the world riding on it, literally.
We’ve busted out twice now, going “all-in” trying to steal the blinds with 2-7, once with the AIG bailout, and again (we failed miserably) with the Fannie May and Freddie Mac stimulus.
And it’s interesting, especially in terms of poker. This is alteration of the table image in the extreme. It’s intentionally spending lots of money making oneself look like a reckless player, in an attempt to get more of your money back in the long term. I mean let’s face it, if this is the image we intend to present to the rest of the professional players (countries) in the world, we’re using a grand stage to do it on. And we’ll be remembered as that aggressive bully for years to come.
It just kind of makes me wonder if we’re trying to bust, so later when we’re in a position to try to win back some of the chips we’ve squandered, we can appear as the fully transformed poker player who buckled down, learned the game, and showed marked improvement. Whatever it is, it’s an incredible risk for such a short sited gain.
