By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com

Baltimore — (TFN): I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Down in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a four-year-old boy managed to grab a beer, walk out his front door and break into a neighboring house to steal Christmas gifts.

True story. But it gets better.

Inside of one of those gifts, was a girl’s dress. The youngster donned the new attire and continued his late-night spree. His mom tells us it was all in an attempt to get in trouble so he could spend a night in jail… with his old man.

Smart kid. He’s going to have a great career as a banker some day.

Although the names and the ages are different, it’s essentially the same story on Wall Street and in Washington. Drunk on greed and wearing a stolen cloak of authority, our elected officials and the pigs that feed at their feet have stolen from you and I once again.

Remember way back when in the days when the financial collapse was still fresh on our minds? Do you remember the pundits warning that the federal government’s decision to buy a massive stake in Citigroup was a disaster in the making?

Washington poo-pooed the notion, saying it has to be done, right now, right here. The consequences of the future don’t matter today.

Guess what… the future is knocking and it’s not wearing a frilly little dress.

In an effort to get out from Uncle Sam’s massive shadow, the boys at Citigroup decided to offer up more shares of the company and even managed to convince Geithner and his gang at the Treasury to unload their shares.

Turns out, the free market wants very little to do with owning a stake in Citigroup. It’s over a year later and the bank is still just as financially repulsive.

With news like this, does anybody really believe the notion of economic recovery is sustainable? Not me.

Judging by the quickly strengthening dollar and the drastic drop in gold prices today, the situation across the globe shares similar pessimism. When the greenback looks like the best place to park your money, you know there is trouble brewing.

That reminds me. Want to know the best Christmas gift this season? Cash. It’s the only thing going up in value these days.

You can thank your leaders in the nation’s capital for that.

*** Actually, that is an oversimplified view. Of course cash is not the only thing going up in value. Put options are soaring, too. But so is one tiny, overlooked segment of the commodities market.

During the couple of summers I spent as a fishing guide, one of my good friends was a real-live Alaskan lumberjack. After a couple of tours in Vietnam, the woods were the only place he felt “comfortable.”

Although he is the foulest man I ever met, he has great insight. One day while we were tossing streamers in front of migrating silver salmon in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, he looked around and said, “Yep, we’re surrounded by millions and millions of dollars.”

He went on to tell me North America’s forests aren’t worth much right now, but they would be as soon as “those Asians” started buying. His words, not mine.

How right he was. I plan on calling him up this weekend to ask if he heard the news out of Shanghai. China’s largest city just changed its building codes and opened the door to wood framing.

Almost overnight, it opens the market to a construction industry that is half the size of our domestic market. And that is just one city.

As the housing market comes back to life (hopefully with a little bit of juice from Washington), we are going to watch timber prices soar. When it happens, my lumber-cutting friend will be onto to something very, very big.

But so will we. Not only did I just recommend a set of timber-related options this morning to TFN Strategic Trader readers, but the group’s publisher, J. Christoph Amberger, recently pulled the curtain on his latest research.

He recommends three unique ways to play the upcoming boom in the timber industry to Hot Stock Confidential members. It’s a down-and-dirty report you won’t want to miss.

You’ve got to read his report.

*** Finally, we got out of the natural gas markets just in time. After locking in gains of 400% on the first half of one play, 100% gains on the second half, 50% on a separate play and 56% gains on a third natural gas pick, the sector has turned around and shot right back up.

Thanks to word of a record withdraw for this time period, natural gas prices are on the rise. While we are still holding a couple of related plays and half of an original position, the plays are far enough removed from the effects of rising prices that we don’t have to worry.

But going forward, with natural gas prices on the rise once again, we are on the brink of yet another major opportunity. With word this week that Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) has nearly quadrupled its Marcellus gas production, we have all the proof we need to say the gas industry is in for a rough ride.

It’s simple supply and demand. Now that natural gas is all over the place, and far easier to pull from the ground than once estimated, the markets will continue to be oversupplied.

Even with today’s strong withdraw, storage levels remain well above five-year averages. I am convinced we will have yet another set of triple-digit winners on our hands in no time.