In these hard economic times, it’s always great when someone can produce some humour from our suffering. Over at the Washington Post, Tim Harford (whose work is always a favourite at Lively Thought) has produced a piece that explains the current crisis using the game of Monopoly as a metaphor.

As Harford explains, Monopoly is a perfect analogy because the whole game is a giant real-estate boom with vague rules and easy money, thanks to an overly-generous central bank. Properties can always be mortgaged instantly, and when the bank runs out of money, they just print up more by scribbling numbers on a piece of paper.

Plenty of nice little Easter eggs as you work your way around the interactive board that the Post has put together.