Baltimore — There is no debating the private sector is more efficient than the public sector. Give a hundred grand to a small business owner and he will quickly spend it in a way that provides his business the most reward.

Give the same cash to just about any government entity and the bureaucracy will spend another hundred grand studying how to spend the original allotment.

Baltimore — Who do you trust more, the Chinese government or the politically connected folks at the helm of Goldman Sachs?

For years, the Street has looked at any Chinese economic data with a weary eye. Without the checks and balances of a democratic government, Beijing had plenty of reasons to manipulate its growth figures.

Baltimore: If today’s action from the markets is any indication of what investors think about Uncle Sam and his Washington minions, the upcoming mid-term election is going to get interesting.

Nothing talks in Washington any louder than money.

Baltimore — (TFN): I stuck to my word and bought gold. If you follow the markets long enough, you earn a full grasp of the psychology behind it all. After a while, you notice the tiny quivers and false starts that signify a move in either direction.

I used this insight and logic to warn investors about an imminent downturn in gold prices earlier this month. I got a lot of “feedback” from disappointed gold bugs. But it didn’t take long for them to eat their words as the price of an ounce of gold fell by nearly 10% in the last month.

By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com

Baltimore — (TFN): I have lived “off the grid.” That means I know what it feels like not to get an electric, phone, cable, Internet, water, gas or sewer bill every fourth week.

By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com

Baltimore — (TFN): There is no doubt the purchase of a home is the most important investment of your life. Sure, your retirement portfolio will likely grow to eclipse the value of the house, but no other singular entitiy’s value, or the preservation thereof, is so vital to our financial wellbeing.

By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com

Baltimore — (TFN): Maybe it is time we took a lesson from the French. Not the new-age work-fearing, café-going French, but the old-school, take-back-the-country kind of citizens alive during the French Revolution. Those folks knew how to stand up for themselves.

History buffs will be quick to point out the similarities of late-18th century France and modern America. There was a financial meltdown, runaway government spending and a constituency fed up with aristocratic fiscal shenanigans.

By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com

Baltimore — (TFN): Well, look at that. There are consequences for our actions. Even in this day and age when it is virtually illegal to step on your neighbor’s toes or wish the corner beggar a Merry Christmas, we are still held responsible for our wrongdoings.

Just ask Balloon Boy’s old man. The trickster just got sentenced to ninety days in jail, with two thirds of the time allocated to a work release program. But even better than his time defending himself from shivs and bathroom sneak attacks is the four-year time span in which it is illegal for him to profit from his eye-popping stunt.

By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com

Baltimore — (TFN): Sometimes a little stress pays big rewards. The last four days have been about as haywire as I ever want to endure. On Friday, my pregnant wife endured a surgery where the ever-dreaded “C” word was discussed.

By Andrew Snyder, TodaysFinancialNews.com

Baltimore — (TFN): You don’t believe all the hype do you? As we close out another year and another decade, the pundits are busy rehashing the action of the past ten years.

The political types are discussing the rise and fall of the Bush administration, a couple of wars and the nation’s first black president. The Hollywood folks are talking about the end of the sitcom, the death of an icon and the phenomenon that is American Idol.