Here is the German Economy Minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, reading a fairy tale about the exchange rate to some children at the behest of "the German Center for Fairy Tale Culture." Ok, Germany! Can you imagine if Geithner did this?

Here in America, presidents do very occasionally read picture books to children, but a Mr. Bush kind of ruined that practice, for everyone, and so really only first ladies get those elementary school photo-ops, now.

But here is Mr. Guttenberg reading the classic fairy tale "Hans in Luck" to some children. "Hans in Luck" is the story of a boy, Hans, who has a big piece of gold, and then he trades it for a horse, and then he trades the horse for a cow, and then he trades the cow for a pig, and he continues on in this fashion until he has a spinning wheel, which he loses, but his mom loves him anyway. The fairy tale is about the gold standard and it was told to the Brothers Grimm by Ron Paul, many years ago.

Meanwhile in France, their "Culture Minister" read a book about Venice by a gay 19th century poet named Alfred de Musset. Like, out loud! In public! Can you imagine if we had a "Culture Minister"? It would probably be Larry the Cable Guy. Or we'd call it a "Culture Czar" and it would be Bill Bennett.

[Top pics: Sean Gallup/Getty Images. Bottom: PHILIPPE MERLE/AFP/Getty Images]