Crumbling Economies?

Watching the politicians of the western democracies flop around as their economies crumble is somehow comforting. They are having as difficult a time staying on budget and living within their means as I do.

School Days

A new generation of college freshmen (including a grandson of mine) is preparing to face the future by equipping themselves with an education. The speed with which the world is changing is astounding.

I believe that these kids would be best prepared for the future by studying the past, a difficult task because history is so rapidly being rewritten.

So do YOU have any advice for this year's freshman class?

A Positive Attitude

According to the LSW (Long Suffering Wife) I am wildly and irrationally optimistic about the future, I on the other hand, am constantly trying to pry her out of what she sees as "realism".

After a "philosophical discussion" between the two of us in which I futilely tried to get her to see the current situation with a "positive attitude", I decided to draw this two-guys-talking cartoon.

I hope that she, and others like her, will find this cartoon amusing, if not funny.

Banking Bloopers

I've come to believe that more damage has been done in more areas by human stupidity than by conspiracy.

Israel's Economy

In today's cartoon I used King Solomon to ask a question that I can't answer. Neither could he. Or his advisor. I think I got this cartoon in under the wire (i.e. just in time). Israel is now moving into election mode so any suggestion that we're doing something right will soon sound like a partisan campaign claim.

Quicksand

While Uncle Sam is trying to figure out what to do, Uncle Dry Bones is also looking for help. I need a savvy HTML, CSS programmer to do some work for the Dry Bones Project on a volunteer basis. The task is to write some code which will show the pages of a Dry Bones comic book at the proper size to fit the screen of whatever device it is being displayed on (i.e. ipad, pc, tablet, etc.) Each page is a separate gif image.

So while Uncle Sam tries to get out of the quicksand I'm hoping to get out of my mire with your help, if you know how, and are willing to give me a hand, please email me at blog@mrdrybones.com. Thanx

Israeli Income

Here in Israel we are having labor problems. We just went through a general strike. One sector, however, has no problems. It just gave itself a retroactive raise in pay. Yup. The Knesset.

Details from the Jerusalem Post:

MKs unanimously approve raising their salaries

"One day before a planned general strike by the Histadrut labor federation over contract workers, the Knesset House Committee on Tuesday voted to give MKs a monthly raise of almost NIS 1,200, as well as a one-time payment of almost NIS 15,000.

MKs’ salaries are raised according to increases in the country’s average salary. In 2008, the increase was 3.3 percent. In 2009 there was a freeze.

The freeze remained in effect until now, although in 2010 a public panel that determines MK salaries recommended that legislators receive another 3.3% raise, which came to NIS 1,191 per month, with the updated monthly salary being NIS 40,891.

The eight MKs attending Tuesday’s House Committee meeting, all of whom were from the coalition, voted in favor of the raise.

MKs will also receive a one-time payment totaling NIS 14,995, representing a retroactive raise for January 2012 and all of 2011."-more

Winds of Change

I decided to introduce a new character.
He's called the Whetherman (because his predictions are based on "whether" one event or another happens).

He could be a useful cartoon device because we live in a time of wild changes and so much of the future does depend on whether one or another of possible next steps takes place.

I don't know if I'll use him again, but it was fun to try him out.

We Beat Inflation (1986)

November 07, 1986

Today's Golden Oldie is a cartoon that I drew 25 years ago this month. It's from November 7, 1986. At the time, I was doing a special cartoon for the Jerusalem Post every Friday. It was, appropriately, called the Friday Dry Bones.

Back then we suddenly discovered that we Israelis had apperently beaten our runaway inflation into submission. We didn't, as the cartoon shows, know how we did it, but we had done it. And the Israeli Shekel has remained a strong currency to this very day.

My alter ego, Mr. Shuldig, who had been running a comic "anti-inflation" campaign at the time, appears in this cartoon in his "Spirit of the New Israel" caped superhero costume. Notice the "S" for Shuldig on his forehead.

Turning Point

History can be seen as slow evolution and subtle change, or it can be seen as a series of major "turning points". I think that history will note the world's ignoring of the Iranian threat as one of those turning points!

Greek Dancing

The economic Euro trouble means that for Greece to remain in the Eurozone they've got to become less Greek?

Thinking of a dancing fun-loving Greece brought to mind, for me at least, the image of Anthony Quinn as Zorba the Greek. I assume that nobody remembers Zorba these days, but for those of you who do, below is a shot from the movie.

Anthony Quinn as Zorba

BOO!

Happy Halloween! This is one of the cartoons I posted before leaving for China on a university speaking tour sponsored by SIGNAL (the Sino Israel Global Network Academic Leadership).

I plan to return home to Israel on or about November 1st.

American Life

This Halloween cartoon is one of the cartoons I posted before leaving for China on a university speaking tour sponsored by SIGNAL (the Sino Israel Global Network Academic Leadership).

I plan to return home to Israel on or about November 1st.

Germany in the Eurozone

If Germany left the Eurozone, then Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the others would be in balance, the Euro would fall to its real value and the German Mark would be re-established as a stronger currency alongside the British Pound.

Or is there something that I don't understand?

Credit Ratings

the story:

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg)
". . . Italy’s rating was lowered yesterday by one level on concern that weakening economic growth and a “fragile” government mean the nation will struggle to reduce the euro- region’s second-largest debt burden. Italy was lowered to A from A+ with a negative outlook four months after the company warned of the risk of a downgrade. S&P today cut the creditworthiness of state-owned lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. . . Italy follows Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece as euro-region countries whose credit rating have been cut this year" -more

Manufacturing Jobs in America

The first thought I had while listening to some recent American campaign speeches was "The American manufacturing know-how that built the mighty industrialized Capitalist American powerhouse was trumped by out-sourcing its manufacturing, so now they want to manufacture something new . . . jobs!!"

My second thought was "Hey, that would make a good cartoon!"

Spectator Sports 2011

The daily reversals on the Stock Market are serious business. They are signs of the economic crisis, a possible "double dip" recession or worse, the collapse of the Dollar, etc. . . . yes, there is much to say about the current situation of one day's sell-off panic and the next day's mini-boom. But at heart I'm a cartoonist, so the up down motion of the market reminded me of a tennis match. I couldn't resist, gave in to temptation, and drew today's cartoon. Superficial, but fun. . * * * Last minute notice: I'll be at the cartoon and animation festival at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque tomorrow presenting my Yale findings on the secret codes of antisemitism and explaining the detective work involved in finding them. I'll be speaking in English. The date is August 18 (Thursday) at 7:30 PM. There's a 37 nis entry fee. The TA Cinematheque is at 2 Sprinzak St. Tel: (03) 606-0800

For details click here. If you're in the neighborhood, come on over and say hello.

Economic Analysis

Watching the economic experts on TV, or reading their newspaper attempts to explain the wild ups and downs of stock markets from Asia to Wall Street and the collapsing economies in the Euro zone, doesn’t leave me any wiser, but it does remind me of an old Jewish joke.

The old joke is about a Jewish “curse” that goes “May you become so rich that every day you wake up in a different one of your many mansions, and are driven by one of your many uniformed chauffeurs in one of your many luxurious limousines to a different medical specialist. … and nobody should know what’s wrong with you!”

Every day we’re being diagnosed by a different “expert” and, as far as I can see, nobody knows what’s wrong …which reminds me of another old joke.

This old joke is about a guy who goes to a doctor and explains “my head is spinning, my throat is sore, I’m seeing spots in front of my eyes, and I’m covered in a strange yellow rash!” The doctor says “Hmm, have you had this before?” The patient replies, “Yes I have.” And the doctor says “Well, you’ve got it again.”

* * * To sum up, my analysis of the current world-wide economic crisis can be expressed with the punchlines of two old jokes:
"Nobody knows what's wrong with us" and "It seems to be happening again."

Credit Rating

The fun in drawing this cartoon was the writing of all those IOU notes.

I had so much fun writing the little IOUs, that trimming them to fit inside the cartoon frame would have saddened me. So I convinced myself that breaking the frame was "okay". In fact it made the cartoon "better" ...and hey, I'm the cartoonist! Nobody can tell me what to do!

So I had my fun! I wrote all those IOUs and just didn't stop ...like America.

Watching America

Watching the U. S. debt limit crisis from outside of America is scary. The collapse of the American economy would pull us all down.

But watching America’s crisis from outside of America is scary for another reason. For much of the world America was a goal, a symbol of the future, the one world power, the world’s policeman. No matter how many times she disappointed us or frustrated us, we assumed that America would be there to lead the world.

It looks like “them days are gone forever."

What do you think?