“In plain English, the idea is for the government to take your retirement savings in return for a promise to pay you some monthly benefit in your retirement years.” ~ Newt Gingrich and Peter Ferrara, “Class Warfare’s Next Target: 401(k) Savings.” Gingrich and Ferrara are correct in their recent editorial ...read more

Since the stunning result of the Massachusetts senatorial race, President Obama has softened his tone quite a bit, essentially saying to Republicans that if they have any good ideas, “Bring ‘em on.” Whether he’s sincere or not remains to be seen, but the implication is that he’s unworried, because in his ...read more

There is a silver lining to every snowstorm — getting to know your neighbors both good and bad. With forty inches on my block this week, I’ve learned a lot about my neighbors and, strangely enough, socialism. My corner of Baltimore seems like a good place to ride out a storm. ...read more

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, or the stimulus bill, passing into law. While the debate over its success has been focused on whether or not it is stimulating the economy and on various questionable uses of funds, in my estimation this legislation ...read more

Tuesday the Fed auctioned off another $37 billion in 4-week T-bills. My first thought was that this is reminiscent of "payday loans" shops, except the rate of interest is far lower when the question is, "Buddy, can you spare $37 Bil' until next month?" but the mechanics were very interesting ...read more

I logged 9,814 air miles. Took four different flights. Spent a total of 54 hours traveling. All to meet with a man they call “Mr. GO Deep…” “Mr. GO Deep” is the go to guy in offshore oil development. Oil companies pay him HUGE consulting fees in hopes to identify the ...read more

The European Union and the United States should consider the successful freedom model of Swiss confederation government rather than the failed top down examples of other nations and empires. Few would question that Switzerland is the most secure, stable, and freedom-oriented nation in the world but it is time to ...read more

Most people think that "special drawing rights" have something to do with the IMF and don't affect anyone below the top levels of the banking industry and heads of state if they have ever even heard of them. We here in the Whiskey Bar not only know what SDR are ...read more

Now... about that ‘recovery’... It’s true that there are some signs of “stabilization.” The unemployment rate is not getting badder as fast as it was a few months ago. And house prices seem to have stopped falling - for the moment. It’s also true that the economy managed to register positive ‘growth’ ...read more

Wow! Did you notice? The IMF didn’t get any bids for its latest offer to auction 191.3 tonnes of the remaining gold that it wants to sell. Apparently the Central Banks of the world have shown a distinct lack of interest in the proposed bullion sale. Gold game-over, correct? Not exactly. Recall ...read more