Chris Madden Cartoons

A searchable archive for licensing

UK planning regulations to be relaxed to stimulate the economy – cartoon

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planning regulations relaxed cartoon

UK planning regulations relaxed – cartoon

In an attempt to kick start the economy, the UK government plans to relax planning regulations, meaning that more building work can be carried out without planning permission

This sounds a bit like a goldrush for cowboy builders to me, with jerry-built extensions and conservatories springing up everywhere
A cartoon about the economic recession, austerity, Keynesianism, building regs.
Cartoon drawn: 2012
Cartoon reference number: a382

Euro bailout fund cartoon. Euro crisis cartoon

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euro crisis bailout fund cartoon

An editorial illustration about the euro bailout fund and the eurozone debt crisis.

Editorial illustration for the euro bailout fund and the euro crisis

The euro symbol as a sinking boat taking in water, with someone bailing it out
A political cartoon or financial cartoon about the economy, the eurozone debt crisis, the debt in the euro zone, European monitory system.
Cartoon reference number: a379

Euro crisis cartoon. The euro symbol as a broken harp

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EEC euro financial crisis - broken harp cartoon

An editorial illustration about the eurozone debt crisis.
Euro crisis cartoon. The euro symbol as a broken harp.

Editorial illustration for the euro crisis, showing the euro sign as a harp with broken strings

A political cartoon or financial cartoon about the economy, the eurozone debt crisis, the debt in the euro zone, European monitory system.

Cartoon reference number: a377
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Barclays Bank chairman resigns cartoon

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barclays chairman resigns cartoon

Barclays chairman Marcus Agius resigns as the chairman following the libor inter-bank lending rate-fixing scandal

Cartoon about the scandal of banks rigging the libor rates to their own advantage.

Barclays Bank accused of “systematic dishonesty”.
Cartoon about financial malpractice and institutional corruption.

Cartoon reference number: a314

Bankers’ pay cartoon. Morality of banking

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bankers pay dollar sign painting

Banker’s bonus cartoon

Joke about bankers’ salaries

Cartoon showing a job interview in a bank.

The interviewer is asking “What is it that attracts you to a job in banking?”
On the wall of the bank is a gigantic picture of a dollar sign.
A cartoon about bankers’ bonuses, and the bonus culture, the ethics of capitalism and corporate greed.

Cartoon reference number: a312

Banking cartoons – bankers’ bonuses

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bankers robbers cartoon

Cartoon depicting bankers as bank robbers

A bank scandal cartoon – about the moral crisis in banking, evidenced by such incidents as the libor interest rigging scandal

Showing a banker as a thief, robbing from the public (or elsewhere).
The illustration represents a banker’s attitude to the public (The manipulation of the libor rate to the bank’s advantage meant that many customers had to pay more for their mortgages amongst other things).

A member of the public is shouting at the running banker “Stop thief!”
The joke is that the robber is running into the bank, whereas usually robbers are running out of banks.
Barclays Bank accused of “systematic dishonesty”.
Cartoon about finance, financial institutions, financial malpractice and institutional corruption.

Cartoon reference number: a310

Barclays Bank interest rate rigging cartoon.

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Barclays Bank interest rigging scandal cartoon

Barclays bank interest rigging scandal cartoon

An illustration about the scandal of Barclays Bank and other banks rigging the libor rates to their own advantage.

Showing a Barclays Bank logo defecating on the head of a customer.
The cartoon represents Barclays Bank’s attitude to its customers (The manipulation of the libor rate to the bank’s advantage meant that many customers had to pay more for their mortgages amongst other things).

Did Bob Diamond know about the practice of rigging the libor rate?
Barclays Bank accused of “systematic dishonesty”.

Cartoon reference number: a308

Banker cartoon

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cartoon - bank thieves operate in this area

Banking cartoon
Barclays bank interest rigging scandal

The scandal of traders at Barclays Bank and other banks manipulating the libor rates to their own advantage.

Gag cartoon showing a bank with a sign outside it reading “Warning. Thieves operate in this area”

Did Bob Diamond know about the practice?
Are bankers thieves?
Barclays Bank accused of “systematic dishonesty”.
A humorous comment about finance, financial institutions, banking corruption and libor rigging.

Cartoon reference number: a307

Spain economic crisis – Spanish bank needs propping up – Bankia cartoon

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spain bank bankia propped up cartoon

Cartoon about the Euro crisis in Spain.
The bailout of the Spanish bank Bankia – cartoon

Cartoon about the financial crisis in Spain, showing the fact that the bank Bankia needs propping up.

The joke in the cartoon is that the building that houses the headquarters of the Bankia bank is of an unusual architectural design, appearing to lean over dramatically.
The cartoon shows a person taking a photograph of another person who is standing so that in the photo he looks as though he is propping up the tower that is the hq of Bankia. This is a direct reference to what tourists do when they are standing near to the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

As well as being a straightforward joke about the leaning tower, the cartoon also has the more serious underlying point in that it asks whether the support given to Bankia will be effective, and whether the effectiveness in holding back the possible collapse of the euro currency will be illusory (shown by the illusion of the man holding up the bank in the photo).
A cartoon about the euro crisis, bank bailouts, struggling economy, banking debt.

Cartoon reference number: a287
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Will Greece drop the euro? The Discobolus (Discus Thrower) in a metaphor for the Greek financial crisis

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greece euro crisis discobolus cartoon

Cartoon about the Euro crisis – Greece. Discobolus (Discus Thrower) dropping the euro

Cartoon about the financial crisis in the euro zone, especially in Greece.

Chris Madden cartoon showing the ancient Greek statue or sculpture the Discobolus, or Discus Thrower, by Myron as a metaphor for Greece and the Greek economy, with the discus replaced by a euro coin which the discus thrower has dropped. A pedantic note – the statue of the Discobolus in the cartoon has got the head pointing in the correct direction – most versions of the statue in existence (all are Roman copies of the lost original) are reconstructed from fragments and have the head looking forwards and down, which was found to be incorrect when a nearly complete version was uncovered.
The cartoon is about the possibility of the Greeks dropping the euro.
If Greece drops the euro they will return to the pre-euro Greek currency, the drachma

The dropped euro has cracked the plinth on which the Greek statue stands, and the euro coin is bouncing into a dustbin (which mirrors the shape of the plinth on which the Discobolus stands.
Chris Madden cartoon about the financial crisis in Greece, political cartoon about the eurozone falling apart.

Cartoon reference number: a286
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Thieves Operate in this Area! Cartoon about banking and the City of London

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thieves operate in this area - bankers - cartoon

Warning – Thieves Operate in this Area!
Cartoon about bankers and banking in the City of London (or any other financial centre)

Cartoon about the dubious morality of some areas of banking and the financial sector.
The cartoon likens bankers and financiers to thieves or robbers.

The cartoon is an illustration of one aspect of the current popular image of bankers – that bankers are greedy and amoral and are only interested in their bonuses.
A cartoon about banks, bank ethics and morals, the morality of the financial sector, City of London, banking district, financial quarter, capitalism, credit crisis.
Cartoon reference number: a285
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Cartoon – bankers’ bonuses creating instability in the economy

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banker with bonus cartoon

Bankers’ bonus cartoon

Cartoon about bankers’ bonuses. Showing a banker holding a bonus, with the ground beneath the banker cracking under the weight of the bonus.

A cartoon about large bankers bonuses and the effects of the bonus culture.
Bankers’ bonuses and salaries are so grossly inflated that they are destabilising the economy and are causing economic and social fracturing (symbolised in the cartoon by the fact that the ground beneath the banker is fracturing and cracking due to the large size of the banker’s bonus, thus destroying the economic base on which the economy is built).
The cartoon is an illustration of the social and economic instability that is resulting from the runaway growth of bonuses and top salaries under the current unregulated version of the capitalist system.
Cartoon reference number: a116
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Euro debt crisis cartoon. A balloon in the form of the euro coin

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Cartoon. Euro crisis coin balloon

An editorial cartoon responding to the eurozone debt crisis in the period around 2010. A cartoon showing the euro coin as a balloon plunging downwards.
The balloon, being made of metal – like the euro coin – is too heavy to fly, and thus it is plunging downwards.

The idea behind the illustration is that the design of the European currency, the euro, is fundamentally flawed as it didn’t take into account fundamental issues of financial structures within the European community (the eurozone) or politics. This is symbolised by the fact that the balloon is incapable of flying.

The flat euro coin has to be transformed into a sphere for it to become a balloon. The ambiguity of the flat form of the coin and the spherical form of the balloon is a deliberate aspect of the cartoon.
Drawn: 2010
Cartoon reference number: eur13
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Cartoon about the euro debt crisis

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Cartoon. Euro debt crisis

An editorial illustration about the eurozone debt crisis. A cartoon showing the euro slipping down a slope.

A cartoon showing the euro symbol on a slope (representing a downward graph).

A cartoon about the eurozone debt crisis, the debt in the euro zone.

Cartoon drawn: 2011
Cartoon reference number: eur331
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Euro debt crisis timebomb

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Cartoon euro financial crisis timebomb

An editorial illustration about the euro zone debt crisis. A cartoon showing the euro as a ‘cartoon’ timebomb.

The cartoon includes a fuse to the bomb, with the spark on the fuse as a star (one of the stars in the eurozone symbol that represent the countries within the eurozone).
The implication is that one of the countries in the euro-zone will somehow detonate the bomb (or escalate the euro crisis).

A cartoon about the debt in the eurozone and the euro debt crisis.

Cartoon drawn: 2011
Cartoon reference number: eur411
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Euro debt crisis cartoon

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Euro symbol carried onto bridge

Euro cartoon
An editorial illustration or cartoon about the euro crisis

Illustration in the form of a silhouette style image depicting the euro symbol being carried over a rickety bridge. The bridge may or may not collapse, and it’s unclear where it is leading anyway

An editorial cartoon or illustration dealing with the eurozone crisis, the future of the euro, the euro debt crisis, the European community financial crisis

Cartoon drawn: 2011
Cartoon reference number: euro17
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Euro crisis cartoon – European currency depicted on a disabled sign

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euro debt crisis illustration

European debt crisis cartoon

An illustration showing the symbol for the European currency, the euro, as the wheelchair on the disabled access sign.
The wheelchair is about to go down a flight of steps that resembles a financial graph

The illustration is about the European community financial crisis, euro crisis, eurozone crisis, the future of the euro, the euro debt crisis

Cartoon drawn: 2011
Cartoon reference number: euro15
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Euro debt crisis financial cartoon – the euro as the weakest link in a chain

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Euro crisis editorial illustration. The weakest link

Euro crisis editorial cartoon
Illustration showing the euro currency symbol as the weakest link in a chain

If the euro symbol breaks the chain (symbolising the European community will fall apart.
At the time of drawing, the weakest link was Greece, but the Italian economy was showing signs of unsustainable interest rates creating a debt crisis in Italy

An illustration about the EU debt crisis, European cohesion, European unity, monetary policy, finance, financial interdependence between the nations of Europe.
Drawn: 2011
Cartoon reference number: euro91
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Cartoon about overpopulation – and expanding markets

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Overpopulation timebomb cartoon

Overpopulation cartoon

A cartoon showing the author of a book about overpopulation realising that the more people there are on the planet the more potential purchasers of his book there are.
This is a cartoon that is partly about the fact that some types of measurement of economic ‘progress’ are dependant on a rising population (as a way of supplying more consumers)

A cartoon about overpopulation, expanding markets, consumerism, misleading statistics, population timebomb, economic growth

Drawn: 2011
Cartoon reference number: pop91

Finance cartoon: Greece and the euro crisis

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debt crisis Greece cartoon

Editorial illustration – Greece and the euro crisis, 2011
Finance cartoon – the EU debt crisis in 2011

The Greek effect on the euro
The European currency, the euro, is depicted as a balloon, with Greece, in the form of an ancient Greek archer, firing an arrow at the balloon

A cartoon about the financial crisis in the eurozone in 2011, the future of the euro, political crisis in Europe, cohesion of the European community.
Drawn: 2011
Cartoon reference number: euro002
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Editorial cartoon. The euro crisis – the euro walking off a cliff

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cartoon - euro crisis - walking off cliff

Financial cartoon
Euro crisis cartoon

A cartoon showing the european currency, the euro, as a person with the euro sign as a head, walking off the edge of a cliff

An illustration about the financial crisis in the eurozone, the future of the euro, political crisis in Europe, the European community, the euro on the brink of collapse, financial markets in free-fall

Cartoon drawn: 2011
Cartoon reference number: euro001
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Capitalism profiting from anti-capitalism protests – cartoon

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anti-capitalism protest campsite cartoon

Capitalism cashing in on anti-capitalism protests
The adaptable nature of capitalism – cartoon

Cartoon about anti-capitalism protest camps, such as the one at St Paul’s cathedral.
A cartoon showing an alternative campsite for the anti-capitalism protestors being set up by businessmen (possibly in anticipation of the anti-capitalism protestors being evicted from their original protest campsite).
One of the businessmen is saying “That’s the great thing about capitalism –  it’s so adaptable.”

One of the advantages of capitalism is that it is adaptable to circumstances and can react to new opportunities (which planned centralised economies such as socialism are less adept at)
Cartoon reference number: cap123

A black and white version of this cartoon was published in Private Eye magazine, December 2011.

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Migrant workers cartoon

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Low paid immigrant workers using negotiating tactics of bankers cartoon

Low pay cartoon
Bankers bonuses cartoon

A cartoon showing low-paid immigrant workers (vegetable pickers) attempting to use the same negotiating tactics as bankers. The tactic is to threaten to move abroad where the remuneration may be greater.
The employer is saying “They’ve got us over a barrel by deploying the classic ‘banker’s gambit’. Give us more money or we’ll go abroad.”

A cartoon about pay negotiations, labour markets, migrant labour, low pay, minimum wages, pay rates, global economy, city bonuses, city excess, greed is good mentality, competition, capitalism, economics, finance

Cartoon first published in Private Eye, December 2011
Cartoon reference number: bank31
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Cartoon – product bar code as prison bars

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Illustration. A bar code as a symbol of consumerism

Bar code cartoon.
Bar codes as prison bars

A person locked into the consumer society, symbolised by a bar code as bars of a prison
A metaphor for the way that people can become trapped by dependence on consumerism

A cartoon about capitalism, money, spending, debt, credit cards

Drawn: 4th November 2009
Cartoon reference number: bar001

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