Le billet de cent (bis)

Au moment où les gouvernements de tout poil et de tous pays font couler à flots dans l’économie un argent ordinairement introuvable, et que le citoyen lambda, ébahi, se demande par quel miracle tout ceci redevient soudainement possible (on avait assisté à la même chose lors de la crise financière de 2008), une petite histoire recommence à circuler qui m’avait naguère inspiré une chanson.

Je l’ai retrouvée dans le mail d’un correspondant américain*. De cet apologue ne se dégage pas à proprement parler une vérité morale, mais une curieuse leçon de finance, montrant comment une société vivant à crédit, c’est-à-dire avec des dettes, peut finir sans effort et sans douleur par les annuler et s’en affranchir.

* It is a slow day in the small Kentucky town of Pumphandle, and streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.
A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night. As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. 
The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op. 
The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her “services” on credit. 

The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner. 
The hotel proprietor  then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves. 
No one produced anything. No one earned anything… However, the whole town is now out of debt and now looks to the future with a lot more optimism. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a Stimulus package works.

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WIM

Brilliant story, Jean-Pierre!