The Federal Bank’s latest move to inject $1 trillion into the economy has created quite a stir this week. But what does it mean when the bank of all banks creates money from what some may see as “thin air”? Many may ask where does money come from anyway? Since the 1970s U.S. currency is not measured against the gold standard, so how do we measure it these days?

Helping us to decipher what this all means is Dan Gross, columnist at Newsweek and Slate and author of the new book, Dumb Money: How Our Greatest Financial Minds Bankrupted the Nation. He joins us today from WSHU in Connecticut.

Want to see how money is really made? Here's a clip from Modern Marvels:

Veteran journalist Steve Coll has turned his investigative skills on the SEC’s relationship with Wall Street, the secret history of the CIA and the legacy of the Bin-Ladens. Now he is taking on a great civic feat and endeavoring to read all 407 pages of the stimulus plan. He’s been blogging as he goes, in what reads like a combination of explanatory journalism and travelogue. Steve Coll is the president of the New America Foundation and staff writer for The New Yorker. He has come up for air this morning to give us the lowdown on his journey through this colossal document.

Each Monday morning The Takeaway invites a person-in-the-know to look into their crystal ball and tell us about the events of the coming week. Today we're joined by Marcus Mabry, the international business editor of the New York Times, for a look at this week's economic numbers, Europe's involvement in closing Guantanamo Bay, what may be ahead for Pakistan, and maybe the winning lottery numbers.

The U.S. Senate voted to lift some restrictions on relations with Cuba imposed by the Bush Administration in 2004. It says that Cuban Americans should be allowed to travel to the Communist island once a year and send more money to relatives there. The Senate has also agreed that restrictions on sending food and medicines to Cuba should also be eased. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law later today.
BBC America Editor Americo Martins joins The Takeaway to discuss what this means for the U.S. and Cuba.

Transit systems around the country are facing higher fares, service cuts and layoffs; with little help from government agencies. Some are facing increased stress because of what once seemed like a win-win financing scheme called “sale-leaseback agreements.”

Rick Karr, a reporter for the PBS production Blueprint America talks about the situation. His two-part series begins airing tonight on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

The Takeaway covers this week's hot button items. Among these are President Obama's lift on restrictions to federally-funded stem cell research, the government's spending bill, politicizing the recession, mortgage crackdown, market research on China, President Obama's visit to Turkey and a "card check" legislation for unions. Joining the discussion is Marcus Mabry, international business editor at the New York Times and Todd Zwillich, a reporter for Capitol News Connection.

The Commerce Department is reporting that the economy contracted at a staggering 6.2% pace during the fourth quarter, the worst contraction in 25 years. Declines are across the board from consumer spending to business investment. Kelly Evans, an economics reporter for the Wall Street Journal joins us to help dissect and digest this.

Watch a video of Kelly Evans talking to her colleague Phil Izzo about how inventory build up at the fourth quarter inflated the GPD report.

Among the more creative ways the White House plans to pay for its spending is a carbon emissions cap that the President says will produce $150 billion. The money would finance renewable energy projects and pay for middle-class tax credits. President Obama's budget blueprint is a nearly $4 trillion plan that includes major spending and major deficits as the government tries to combat the severe recession. Joining us this morning to discuss this plan to cap and spend is New York Times Reporter John Broder who has been covering this story.

For more, read Drilling Down on the Budget: Setting ‘Green’ Goals in today's New York Times.

The Obama administration's budget plan asks Congress to raise taxes on the wealthy to help stem the flood of red ink. One of the strategies to increase tax revenue is a cap on the rate that high-income taxpayers can use to claim charitable deductions. This is part of a plan to finance changes to the country’s health-care system. That news is sending shudders through the nonprofit and philanthropic world. Joining us this morning is Peter Panepento, a web editor with the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Matthew Bishop from The Economist and author of Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World joins us from Barcelona.

Now that the American Recovery Reinvestment Act has been passed into law, the Department of Education has been given an unprecedented injection of money. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has $100 billion dollars of emergency aid at his disposal, $5 billion of which is going to early childhood education. Is this enough to pave a future for today’s infants and toddlers? This week we’re taking a closer look at how the stimulus will affect education in the U.S. Cornelia Grumman, executive director of The First Five Years Fund, an advocacy group for early education, talks to us about how these funds will be distributed.

Happy days are here again for a group of former senior government officials who were involved in the savings and loan bailout of the 1990s. Now they are lawyers, investors, and lobbyists perfectly positioned to profit from the $700 billion being handed out by the U.S. Treasury Department. Eric Lipton of the New York Times gives The Takeaway his analysis.

Want more information? Check out Eric Lipton's article in the New York Times.

In just weeks Robert Gibbs is going to become one of the most watched people in Washington DC as he is slated to become the White House press secretary. He's a young veteran of politics from Alabama and few people are closer to the president-elect. New York Times magazine writer, Mark Leibovich, has just written a profile of Gibbs that will run in this weekend's edition and he joins The Takeaway to tell us what we can expect with Gibbs as press secretary.

Kokomo is Indiana’s 13th largest city and it came in third on a list of the nation’s fastest dying towns. With 14% of the town’s population relying on Chrysler for their income, how will the town cope with the stalled auto bailout and the city's four manufacturing plants idle? Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight joins John and Adaora to talk about the future of his town.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested on Tuesday on charges that including attempting to sell Illinois Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama. Political reporter for Chicago Public Radio, Ben Calhoun, joined John and Adaora from Chicago this morning.