My blog - CatharineColon

Rats had featured largely in the history of Ankh-Morpork. Shortly before the Patrician came to power there was a terrible plague of rats. The city council countered it by offering twenty pence for every rat tail. This did, for a week or two, reduce the number of rats - and then people were suddenly queuing up with tails, the city treasury was being drained, and no one seemed to be doing much work. And there still seemed to be a lot of rats around. Lord Vetinari had listened carefully while the problem was explained, and had solved the thing with one memorable phrase which said a lot about him, about the folly of bounty offers, and about the natural instinct of Ankh-Morporkians in any situation involving money: 'Tax the rat farms.' Soul Music by Terry Pratchett This is, of course, the well-known Cobra Effect, but I prefer this illustrative anecdote. Anyway. In case you didn't make the connection: Business is drying up for K&R insurance companies? I can't help but wonder how long before they start -- secretly, of course -- financing the activities of pirates and kidnappers in certain parts of the word.