Horatio Algier Eats His Own

...a.k.s. lifting yourself by your own bootstraps into your own gaping mouth.

With the Chinese and Japanese increasingly preoccupied with their own dysfunctions, last year the Fed bought 80% of the money it borrowed.

Now, that's creative bookeeping. We know what Bernie Madoff's prison job is.

It's nice to own your own electronic printing press. It eliminates the middleman, so to speak.