Unless you are German or a European national, chances are you are probably not familiar with the classic but macabre Struwwelpeter children's stories written by a German named Dr. Heinrich Hoffman. Simply put, Struwwelpeter is a classic book of stories designed to literally scare young children into listening to what the advice of their parents and elders by showing them the consequences of failing to heed. 

I don't know if people still buy this book for their kids in Germany. It was very popular in the early part of the last century.  I do know that I somehow wound up with a copy when I was a kid and it failed to influence my behavior in the least. However, the artwork left a long lasting impression. It is really a book for kids and adults with the same problem. It has been parodied on many occasions and was made into a show more recently. I published a whole series of Subprime Struwwelpeter stories back in March 2009. Take a look at this.

The original book consists of a series of vivid stories with titles like "The Dreadful Story About Harriet and the Matches, The Story of Cruel Frederick, The Story of Little Suck a Thumb, The Story of Little Augustus Who Would Not Have Any Soup and The Story of Johnny Head In The Air." Basically these little bratwursts or kids, depending on your point of view, never listen to any warnings and suffer terrible consequences as a result. It can be readily found for online viewing in English. Here is an example of one Struwwelpeter story.

So where am I going with this?

All week we have witnessed an army of "Davos Men" consisting of PhD morons, globalist policy wonks, feckless government bureaucrats, self important billionaires, businessmen and business women, TBTF bankers and heavily sedated politicians playing, networking and blathering on and on about turning the economic corner, sustainable growth and stability and the dawn of an emerging market better tomorrow.

Collectively, these are the same people who failed to spot the last crisis, barely dodged the subprime silver bullet and have now ushered in an era of even greater hyper-networked, closed-end systemic and macro economic risks that have simmered all week. Today we see things are starting to boil again.

They are all a bunch of Ponzi Struwwelpeters who want us all to believe everything is swell and dandy.

I am not going to repeat the litany of reasons why this is just a plain farce. I don't have to direct you to the other posting activity on ZH today. It certainly seems to confirm that these morons are wasting their time Piste Off in the Alps literally studying how to "identify and address" global risks. Thats right, go to the website and check it out.

Remember little Johnny Head In the Air? Well up there in the Alps are a few thousand Johnny Heads Up Their Asses partying like its Benny Ink Jet's 1999.

Welcome to 2011 Ponzi Man. The party is just getting started.

WB7