Merry Christmas, Mark Teixeira! Love, Rudy Giuliani

Don't tell baseball's Mark Teixeira that we're in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. He just got a $180 million Christmas gift from the New York Yankees and-- indirectly-- the New York taxpayers.

And who could be the Secret Santa that made it all possible? Why it's none other than Rudy Giuliani, America's Mayor!

For those who haven't heard, the Yankees have spent the past month signing essentially all of major league baseball, paying Teixeira, C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett a total of $423 million. Question is, how can a team, even the Yankees, afford such utter gluttony?

Answer: It's remarkably easy, assuming your city's mayor basically gives you a free stadium at taxpayer expense. (Note: This works best when your team president is the mayor's former deputy.)

See back in 2001, Giuliani, in a preemptive strike against Osama bin Laden, announced that the city would be bellying up $800 million toward a brand-new Yankee Stadium, along with an extra $390 million to cover transportation fees. Never mind that the city was in a budget crisis at the time. The aura! The mystique!

Now with its opening just months away, the new Yankee Stadium is projected to generate a boatload of revenue for the team that hardly paid for it. And where better to invest the cash than in multi-millionaires like Teixeira?

So once again, the Yankees, who-- we can't emphasize this enough-- hardly paid a thing for their stadium, now get to blow what is essentially taxpayer money on any free agent they like. While rival teams who-- heaven forbid-- paid for their stadiums with their own money... get left with the scraps.

And by the way, don't think that Teixeira and his fellow bloated stars are the only people making a killing on New Yorkers' tax dollars. A certain Guiliani Security & Safety, LLC made out pretty well, themselves.

You'll never guess who owns that company.