An army of pundits are raking it in these days as they declare the end of capitalism. The writing's on the wall. These are terrible times. Bit like the Great Depression, some say. But it's all relative, innit? Arriving in New York from the jungle in 1933, Cheeta the chimp has a unique perspective on things.
"Now I don't know whether or not April 1933 was some sort of an economic peak in American history — I'm an entertainer, not a historian, never claimed to be one — but it seemed to me like you humans must have been going through a quite mind-boggling period of success. 
Over the course of the first awestruck walk I saw lines of men and women patiently attending huge vats of steaming soup, not shoving or fighting for it as we'd have done, but respectfully observing a hierarchy that ended back down the street for hundreds upon hundreds of humans. They also had a miraculous system of circular receptacles on the trails beside the streets, into which humans would toss scraps of food for other humans to discover and relish. Even in the gutters there could be found pieces of exotic fruits, which I saw several humans scoop up and savour! New York wasn't, good grief, a 'jungle', as it's so often described — the forest, now that was a jungle, with its everyday infanticide, and cannibalism; there were no leopards, no snakes here. 'Nothing to fear but fear itself!' was the boast I would keep hearing."
Given this Krugman-like acumen of a common chimpanzee, it is not surprising that The Financial Times is asking What is the point of economists? More wisdom from Me Cheeta next week.
