This graded intellecktuals

• leck (Ger) leak

• degraded intellectuals, the passage that follows is (I think, clearly) explaining the Heisenberg's uncertainty problem (measuring position and momentum) and quantum mechanics (how 'virtual particles' may -or may not- appear and disappear)

However, the 'k' in intellecktuals reminds me also of Ezra Pound's 'Guide to Kulchur', specially since the Burrus character here seems to suggest certain passage in the 'Cantos'. Nevertheless, the economical connotations of the text could rather be attributed to an explanation of inflation/counterfeiting, in any case to the 'usura' that Pound condemned extensively.