LOADED!

Humorist and Morning Joe co-host Geist teams with writing partner McDonnell to produce funny new book all about the Benjamins.

Neither the authors nor Bill Richter and Bill Lachey—the fictional financial gurus they tap to help boost their bottom line—know a thing about high finance. So what? The cockamamie “Dollar Bills” are flush with attitude—or ’tude as the deluded duo might say. According to these bankrupt buffoons, all you need to get rich is to look rich. Their strategy starts out simply: Get a Bluetooth and brand-new cigarette boat with a mermaid painted on the side and Boom!, you’re off. Plenty of harebrained get-rich tips follow, such as showing up at a job interview in a horse-drawn carriage or building a golf course in Afghanistan. The Dollar Bills’ “Plain English to Confusing Financial Terms” glossary and faux transcripts of their Internet-only call-in show keep the uninitiated up to speed while reminding everyone who wants to get rich to lease a Picasso as quick as you can. Don’t sweat those scary predatory loans, the Dollar Bills advise. In their whacked-out world, predatory loans are just money given to cheetahs, crocodiles and jacked dudes with brass knuckles. It’s all very amusing in small doses, but ultimately, it feels like a so-so Saturday Night Live skit that goes on a little too long. You might already be in the poorhouse pining for the long-lost American Dream, but at least the Dollar Bills provide some absurd laughs while you’re there.