Matt Taibbi has a priceless link to Zero Hedge’s cartoon using two bears to explain what Ben Bernanke is up to with this “quantitative easing” aka “printing a ton of money”. It really is worth watching to find out why the plumber is smarter than the Ben Bernank and why we are so screwed.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/matt-taibbi/blogs/TaibbiData_May2010/233953/83512
QE is designed to buy Treasuries and other assets, but the Fed does not simply go out and buy Treasuries itself; it does it through its primary dealers, who include of course banks like Goldman, Sachs. The Fed all but announces when it’s going to be doing this buying and in what quantity, which allows the banks to buy up this stuff at lower prices ahead of time and then sell it to the Fed at inflated cost.
Watch the bears. At one point one bear says, “Is this an episode of the Twilight Zone?”
HELP!
Maybe, but for sure we are on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride with the ride operator on a permanent lunch break.
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Feral Cat of Freedom's Blog 
Tabbi has a wicked sense of humor. The only quibbles are that I wouldn’t want “Joe the Plummer” (from the 2008 election) or his ilk (Sarah Palin) to fix my plumbing problems. They probably would want to break more of the system.
Bernake had some gov’t experience before his current job, but it doesn’t mean he provided good experience (being on the Council of Economic Advisors for Shrub).
Glad you to see you are blogging again.