The TV ads flash the noble faces of American retirees and urge Washington to help protect their savings. The back story is kept rather vague. It's that many older people invested in Puerto Rican bonds. The U.S. territory's economy is in deep crisis, and it has begun defaulting on this debt.
The question here: What prompted ordinary investors to put their savings into Puerto Rican bonds? But first let's look at who is running the ads.
My kids are obsessed with Alvin and the Chipmunks. Last month the oldest, who's 10, went with a friend to see the latest movie in the theatre; he came back fixated on the hip, wee creatures with the helium-balloon voices. He's a Star Wars lover and neophyte Batman follower too, so I'll admit the chipmunk enthusiasm rather caught me off guard. At the next opportunity to buy something with his own money, he bought the DVD… To share the movie bliss with his sisters. And watch it pretty much as often as we'll let him.
At his repeated request I bought three songs off the album; it was the first time he'd ever liked music enough to ask me to purchase it. And in the car -you know where this is going – he asks me to play them on repeat. Continually. The whole crew adores Chipmunk rock, actually. When I play it everyone sings along together as if they actually were cast in the Alvin movie themselves. A rolling capsule of song and harmony are we, when Alvin and his chipmunk brothers bring the tunes.
