"We're not printing money, we're creating reserves" - Ben Bernanke, 7/13/11
Magicians with their wands
pull rabbits from mere air,
make flowers disappear,
and we so want to believe it all is real.
Thus money is created, like a prayer,
and we pretend the glitter's gold
but we're victims of the trick.
When the flash powder clears
we owe in exponentials
to invisible flesh and blood
that spritzes every spoke
on the chain of the machine
with magic air
to keep the wheels in constant turning
from the labor of the slaves
who pledge their children's dreams to keep it moving
'til more is pledged to debt than does exist:
we must double-down in sacrifice
so that the hand we allow to wave the wand
can continue to believe
that what it conjures with its frail twisting
is not really sleight-of-hand.
