We are in the Age of Mammon.

If the pollsters told the major parties they could win the White House by renouncing the Constitution, the Bible, and the Theory of Evolution…they'd do it immediately.

Consubstantiation, transubstantiation…who cares about any kind of '-ation' if it doesn't have anything to do with money?

Does anything matter more than money? Is anything more delicious than showing it off? Is there any fight more important than winning 'effervescent supremacy'?

You don't know what that is, dear reader? Read on…

The Chinese are still communists…but they're heroes to every investor in the world. They've got the world's most dynamic economy and its most exciting stock market. Who cares about the fossils in its government?

No. What matters now, dear reader, is wampum…bread…dough…dead presidents…moolah…

Yes, from the center of MoolahMetropole, otherwise known as London, comes news that one single employee of Barclays Capital made history last year with a paycheck estimated at three times the total remuneration of the entire executive board. Roger Jenkins took home between $70 million and $140 million last year. Good work if you can get it.

But what kind of work do you have to do to get that kind of money? Do you have to invent something like Velcro or suitcases with wheels? Do you have to write a hit song, such as 'White Christmas?' Do you have to make a movie like 'Gone with the Wind,' or start a business like Microsoft? What do you have to contribute to the wealth, health, or enjoyment of the world to earn that kind of money?

Mr. Roger Jenkins - nicknamed 'Dodger' - runs a part of the bank…the part that does 'structured finance.' What kind of dodge is that? We turn to this week's The Business for an explanation:

"Jenkins' division devises complex structures that are designed to improve the profitability of transactions carried out by other parts of the bank. While the transactions can take many forms, their structures have one common aim - to reduce the tax liability of clients."

In other words, what the Dodger dodges is taxes. Readers will note that reducing the taxes of the super-rich is not exactly what economic booms are made of…at least, not usually. The cost of government projects - wars, bureaucracies, humbugs - doesn't go down because the rich escape taxes. Instead, the money has to come from somewhere. Overall, the economy is no richer, however grateful the Dodger's clients may be.

'Never have so few done so little and made so much doing it,' we said last week. We repeat it, dear reader, so you can write it down.

Money shuffling doesn't make anyone richer. It merely moves money from the dull people who earn it to the sharp people who skim it off.

But at least the sharp people are having fun with it, this time around.

Normally, you see, rich people try to be a little discreet. They don't want to foment envy or discontent and end up like Marie Antoinette, who famously joked within earshot of the hired help:

"Why are those women protesting?" she wanted to know.

"Because they are hungry; they have no bread."

"Then let them eat cake!"

What a wit. Too bad she had to lose her head.

But the wits who are living it up in 2007 may not be half as sharp as they think they are, either.

A survey of 294 hedge fund managers, with an average net worth of $197 million, says they spent the following amounts of money last year:

$3.9 million on fine art

$429,000 on yacht charters

$376,000 on jewelry

$204,000 on clothes and accessories.

When you've got it, flaunt it…is the 11th Commandment of the Age of Mammon.

Here in London, the hedge fund managers are conducting 'champagne battles,' according to the Sunday Times. They don't just drink champagne; they shake up the bottles and spray each other. According to one club director, a single night battle for 'effervescent supremacy' set the sharpies back $150,000.

"Come the revolution…" says a disgusted friend.

Bill Bonner is the President of Agora Publishing.  For more on Bill Bonner, visit The Daily Reckoning.