John Hodgman has quite a gig going with his “You’re Welcome” series on The Daily Show. This one’s terrific — our debt ceiling is now a “debt convertible.”

“Also like a convertible our economy is expensive, impractical and only seats a couple of wealthy jerks.”

Stewart asks Hodgman what we should do about the $800b we owe China and, following on my commentary on gold, Hodgman suggests turning the lead from the children’s toys and pet food China sends us into gold (as the two are just a couple of electrons apart).

Alchemy? Heck no, science!

One minor problem: the US isn’t churning out the math and science minds it used to.