Merry Christmas, Pounders and other Personae who have found a medium for projecting themselves (in their plurals) through the Internet. Today's words of wisdom come from Mark Twain who wrote that "It is by the fortune of God that, in this country, we have three benefits; freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the wisdom never to use either." Twain again makes me aware of my shortcomings. Nevertheless, if the bankers are still on line maybe they could explain what was meant by the following discussion which took place between Congressman Wright Patman, chairman of the Banking and Currency committee and Marriner Eccles, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in 1913. Mr. Patman: "Mr. Eccles, how did you get the money to buy these two billion dollars of government bonds? Mr. Eccles: "We created it." Mr. Patman: "Out of what?" Mr. Eccles: "Out of the right to create credit money." Don't get me wrong. I'm as willing as the next guy to be a "believer", and I wouldn't want to think that some group of cyclical, precession of the equinoxes, "occult" nuts have a monopoly on the poetic truth, nor would I want to throw a wet blanket on the chrematistical meliorists' burning embers of faith in the goose; but why do we never see a bank call itself "The First Fractional Reserve Bank"? And why is it inversely true that as the standard of money goes from the most precious metal to the lesser, and then to none at all that the credit card advertising hype proceeds from nothing of value to the "Silver Card", to the "Gold Card", to the "Platinum Card" on to a "God-knows-what-metal-next Card". Some like it shiney? Any comments or should I borrow Joe Brennan's copy of "Nostrodamus" for answers? CDM