What’s worse than having Wall Street kingpins like Bernanke and Geithner in charge of America’s economic future? China taking the reins, that’s what.

While Washington’s all-powerful ego may have our leaders believe they still control our fiscal fate, they lost that power long ago. Now, the Fed and the Treasury may dictate who gets what, but China decides how much and when.

Baltimore — It is too late to debate. A debt-fueled crash is imminent.

I made a promise to my wife late last fall. Once the holidays were over and she was well on her way to recovery after a recent surgery, we would hit the local furniture stores and redecorate our living room.

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.

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.

John Stepek (Money Week UK):
Deal making is back!

That was the general reaction from the press when US food giant Kraft launched its first bid for British confectioner Cadbury less than two months ago. Pundits spewed out potential target prices like bingo numbers – £8, no £10, no £12! – and analysts scribbled out scenarios involving white knights and rival bidders from across the globe.

Gold gained yet another powerful ally yesterday — hedge fund icon Paul Tudor Jones. The man who famously called Black Monday in 1987 and the Nikkei crash a few years later now thinks “gold appears to be cheap.” In a note to his investors, Tudor said, “I have never been a gold bug. It is just an asset that, like everything else in life, has its time and place. And now is that time… gold’s value should increase as its scarcity relative to printed currencies increases.”