Funny money is money that doesn’t exist!
But… how can money NOT exist?!
Think about this…
Crooked CEOs create funny money
Today, Ramalinga Raju, CEO of Satyam Computers, resigned – after admitting to cooking the account books of India’s 4th largest IT company to the tune of 40 billion rupees.
That’s funny money – money that didn’t exist, except in his fertile imagination and the fradulent records of his corporation.
Banks create funny money
For decades, banks have created money – by printing it, or by lending it out. How? In a simple primer, I have explained how this works – read it here.
Lehman Brothers led the crash of huge financial institutions in 2008, thanks to the creative adaptation of the concept of coming up with funny money – cash that doesn’t exist, but is conjured up out of thin air.
Scammers create funny money
In the ‘make money online’ niche, there are scam artists whose talents extend to using Photoshop to craft replicas of PayPal accounts, Clickbank control panels, and even pictures of checks mailed to them.
Only, all of this adds to the circulating pool of funny money – because the images they depict as ‘proof’ to convince the gullible is no more than a figment of their fancy!
Are you buying funny money?
At the root of all these funny money deals lies a common and very human failing.
GREED.
Comedian W.C.Fields once famously said: “You can’t ever cheat an honest man.”
That’s deep. Only when you assess ‘value’ fairly, and believe in exchanging it at fair price, can you confidently expect to escape funny money scams.
It’s at that point when you’ll look at someone peddling “get rich quick” schemes, or promising sky-high returns on your investment “risk free”, or answer a phone-call offering you “unlimited” personal loans or “rock-bottom interest” on your next mortgage… and say,
When you do that, you’ve really understood funny money!
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This Satyam self-exposure is just too crazy (ok – funny).
A few hilarious comments borrowed from the letter written by Raju (ex-boss):
“It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off, without being eaten.”
“The aborted Maytas deal was the last attempt to fill the fictitious assets with real ones.” (Maytas was owned by Raju’s sons and you will be amused to read the Maytas name backwards).
“None of the board members, past or present, had any knowledge of the situation in which the company is placed.” (So what did they do in the board meetings?)
Funny how some people can fudge books beyond belief and get away with it – for a significant amount of time, with one of the best auditors in the world watching
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