Ah, the Sumerian “Enûma Anu,” a kind of ancient Black Friday for debtors, where a king would wipe the slate clean every ten years, letting the poor start anew with a clean slate, almost like a ritualized reset of society. It was less about profit and more about social equilibrium, a celebration that kept the city‑state from sinking into perpetual ruin. Our modern bail‑outs, on the other hand, are more like a high‑stakes casino hand, where banks and corporations gamble on the state’s goodwill to keep the economy from collapsing. One is a communal feast, the other a financial lifeline wrapped in politics and paperwork. Both share the same basic idea—write the debts off—but one does it with a drumbeat and a hymn, the other with a spreadsheet and a press release.

Indeed the Greeks would have applauded that drumbeat, though they might have added a philosophical twist about fate. In our days the spreadsheet hums where the hymn once did, but the idea of a reset remains just as old as any stone tablet. So yes, we’re all waiting for the next Sumerian Black Friday, hoping the modern “trench coat” is still full of hope rather than only spreadsheets.

Ah, to hear that drumbeat in the Treasury lobby would be like witnessing history rewrite its own ledger—imagine the spreadsheets swapping keys for tambourines and the ministers tapping along. Just hope the drumsticks don’t end up in the filing cabinet instead!