Here's an oldie:
You have two cows - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
- Socialism: If you have two cows, the Government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
- Communism: If you have two cows, Government takes both and then gives you some milk.
- Fascism: If you have two cows, you keep the cows and give the milk to the Government; then the government sells you some milk.
- New Dealism: If you have two cows, you shoot one and milk the other; then you pour the milk down the drain.
- Nazism: If you have two cows, the Government shoots you and keeps the cows.
- Capitalism: If you have two cows, you sell one and buy a bull.
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Enronism: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by your CFO who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on six more.[6]
The ending of the joke varies in most interactions. The magazine Wired in 2008 ended the joke with Enron selling one cow to buy a new president of the United States, that no balance sheet was provided with the annual report, and ultimately the public buying Enron's bull.[7] In 2002, Power Engineering ended the joke by announcing Enron would start trading cows online using the platform COW (cows on web).[8]