Thank you, Mr. Gutenberg

When Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1439, power was dramatically shifted from a few (those that could read) to the people (who could not), thus changing the course of history as millions of people learned to read as a direct result.

Who knew that, in 2008, the printing press would again change the world. How, you ask? The United States is printing money faster than any time in its history in order to save the financial stability of the Western World.

Today, the Federal Reserve agreed to "buy" all of the bad loans made by banks and financial organizations at a potential cost of $1 trillion dollars. The last time I checked, the United States Government doesn't have any money. But thanks to the printing press, we can just print more. It is a marvel of our time.

The financial markets are in sheer euphoria over the idea of a "stabilized" economy. But the underlying problem, a trillion dollars of bad home loans, and billions of dollars of underlying derivative securities are still bad, now they are just the property of the American taxpayer. In essence, we have just kicked the ball of bad debt down the road a couple months.

Maybe we can just give money to our friends for Christmas this year because the more we print the more worthless it becomes.  And we won't be able to buy anything with it anyway.