She realizes that virtually all of  her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no  longer afford to patronize her bar.

To solve this problem, she comes up  with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now,  but pay later.

Heidi keeps track of the drinks  consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers' loans).

Word gets  around about Heidi's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy  and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into  Heidi's bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit .

By providing her customers freedom from immediate  payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular  intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and  beer, the most consumed beverages.

Consequently, Heidi's gross sales  volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic  vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer  debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi's  borrowing limit.

He sees no reason for any undue  concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as  collateral!!!

At the bank's corporate  headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge  commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINK BONDS.

These  "securities" then are bundled and traded on international securities markets.

Naive investors don't really  understand that the securities being sold to them as "AAA Secured  Bonds" really are debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless,  the bond prices continuously climb!!!, and the securities soon  become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading  brokerage houses.

One day, even though the bond prices  still are climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank  decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts  incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar. He so informs  Heidi.

Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic  patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back  their drinking debts.

Since Heidi cannot fulfill her loan  obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and  Heidi's 11 employees lose their jobs.

Overnight, DRINK BOND prices drop by  90%.

The  collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank's liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and  economic activity in the community.

The suppliers of Heidi's bar had  granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their  firms' pension funds in the BOND securities.

They find  they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with  losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds.

Her wine  supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family  business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier  is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the
local  plant and lays off 150 workers..

Fortunately though, the bank, the  brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and  bailed out by a multi-billion dollar no-strings attached cash  infusion from the government.

The funds required for this bailout  are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class,  nondrinkers who have never been in Heidi's  bar.

Now  do you understand what hit you?