Originally Posted by Glaswegian

Superb!

I always thought the American Democracy one was this:

You have two cows. You sell your three cows to a subsidiary with full milk rights for 10 years. You later lease the four cows and open a hedge fund into which your five cows are placed. After the lease expires, you reclaim your six cows and export them to another country. The seven cows are then sold and your company declares $15 million profit on the deal. The remaining $35 billion is spread around 374 different bank accounts throughout the world.