Help is coming for 9 million overtaxed, indebted sods -- so goes the jingle from our newest president of these United States. That’s a little more than those who are drowning right now. One in five U.S. mortgage-payers is underwater.  That’s over 8 million of us.  In times like this I cross ...read more

"We will not apologize for our way of life...." This unfortunate phrase from President Obama's otherwise sturdy inaugural address, echoed through my mind last week as I cruised the suburban outlands of Montgomery, Alabama. All the usual commercial furnishings of consumerist America hugged the flattish ochre and dusty-green landscape of played-out ...read more

I was looking through my pocket-copy of the U.S. Constitution for the “Bailout Clause.” I must have missed it. If any readers out there can find the Bailout Clause, please send me a note and let me know where it is. There is, however, a “Bankruptcy Clause” in the ...read more

I often mention that I live in Pittsburgh. Well, the truth is that I live in a leafy suburb of Pittsburgh. I grew up in the Steel City. But when I got married I moved to the suburbs to be near my wife. Life in the Leafy Suburbs There is a problem ...read more

IF YOU’RE GAME FOR A LAUGH, I’d like you — in reading the following quotes — to imagine the words “tax-payers’ cash” wherever you see the words “government” or “central bank.” Better still, imagine they spell out the words “your savings” instead. Here’s goes... “We need concerted action by governments, central banks ...read more