Back in the USSR

Back in the USSR, General Secretary Brezhnev stood on a crowded reviewing stand in Red Square as the mighty Red Army paraded by.

"You see those men?" Brezhnev asked the official standing next to him, "those men are snipers. They can light a match at two hundred yards."

Next came the tanks. "You see those tanks? They can go 50 miles per hour and fire a shell two miles."

Next came the missiles. "You see those missiles? They can reach a target anywhere on the globe in fifteen minutes."

Finally came three men absent-mindedly walking, wearing thick glasses and bad suits. "Who are they?" the official asked.

"Oh, they are our finest economists. You have no idea how much damage they can do."

Adapted from The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan