Originally published in The Papyrus, Fall 2000. A Publication of Hermes Econometrics

A Modern Day Fairy Tale Grim but True

There once was a happy dollar. It was so happy with all the news it had heard about the NASDAQ candy store on Pleasure Island, it had to go see for itself. There was candy everywhere in 1999! So the happy dollar ate and ate and ate. It ate so much that it grew to $1.86!! All in one happy year.

Then the evil emperor "Y2K" came to town and declared the year 2000 the year of the candy diet crash or just the crash diet! The happy dollar was forced to lose 39% of his weight in just one year! He shrank to $1.14 but he still loved NASDAQ candy and decided to eat more and more.

But the evil Emperor did not want the year 2000 to end. He liked dieting more than anyone else in the land, so he stayed well into 2001. He even poisoned the candy so that all of the little dollars would keep right on shrinking. By April Fool's Day, a day of sacred dignity for Emperor Y2K , the little dollar had lost all his extra weight and was now worth only 3 shiny new quarters. He was only worth 75 cents. The little dollar was now very sad. If only he'd listened to the little cricket "Hermany Cricket" he would never have stayed on Pleasure Island! He would have left the candy store with most of his gain.