[Verse 1]
Running pell-mell and harum-scarum
Running as hot as they do or dare
Stick out your tongue and drink down all the venom
From Cut-Throat Cuthbert and Millicent St. Cyr
From the real old Macau to the new False Americas
In the liberated territories unusual suspects
Shake down, shake down, shake down
Various dubious characters

[Verse 2]
Mother's in the kitchen picking bones for breakfast
Boiling them down by the bushel and the score
Pull out your thumb and count what's left on your fist
There's a wolf at the window with a ravening maw
Did you find how to lie? Did you find out how to cheat?
The elite bleat, they’re obsolete, so what are your prospects?
Exact, perfect object
Now, if you'd only genuflect

[Chorus]
They're running wild
Just like some childish tantrum
Meanwhile we're working every day
Paying off the national ransom
[Verse 3]
Woe betide all this hocus-pocus
They're running us ragged at their first attempt
Around the time the killing stopped on Wall Street
You couldn't hold me, baby with anything but contempt
Letters peal slowly from our speech, the claxton attempts to preach
Stretching out for stars still out of reach
Drowning, flailing, outside someone's wailing

[Chorus]
They're running wild
Just like some childish tantrum
Meanwhile we're working every day
Paying off the national ransom

[Chorus]
They're running wild
Just like some childish tantrum
Meanwhile we're working every day
Paying off the national ransom