Quantitative easing, trading, and the viral bunnies
A new YouTube video uses two bunny-like creatures with computer-generated voices to discuss 'the quantitative easing' of 'the Ben Bernank.'
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is pictured at the financial stability oversight council (FSOC) meeting at the Treasury Department in Washington, Nov. 23. A new YouTube video discusses 'the quantitative easing' by 'the Ben Ber-nank.'
Jason Reed / Reuters
When Ben Bernanke and his colleagues at the Federal Reserve announced their plan for $600 billion in new quantitative easing, I am sure they expected criticism. Angela Merkel? No surprise. Hu Jintao? Ditto. Domestic inflation hawks? Ditto again.
But could the Fed have anticipated that its most vocal critics would be a pair of talking bunnies?
If your email, Facebook, and Twitter feeds are anything like mine, you know the video: two bunny-like creatures (I’ve also heard them called smurfs and dogs) discussing “the quantitative easing” of “the Ben Bernank.” It’s hilariously effective but, as Jim Hamilton helpfully points out, also quite wrong in places.
In case you’ve missed it, here’s the video:
The folks at Xtranormal have been offering the ability to make such movies for a couple of years now, but the idea appears to have gone viral in the economics and finance space in the last week. Indeed, YouTube already has a bunch of rebuttal videos to the quantitative easing one.
So far, the funniest video I have seen (ht: Jack B) features a bunny interviewing for a Wall Street trading job. I usually keep things G-rated here, but I’ll make an exception today. Be forewarned, some of the language may be NSFW — unless, of course, you are a trader:
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