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Today's topics are "Best Of Clark" repeats from recent shows

There's a lot of turmoil in the savings world -- once considered the safest part of market -- and much of it involves money market mutual funds. Money market funds are not federally insured, but have historically been designed to be a safe place to put your money and allow you easy access to it when needed. The way they work is that you buy them for a dollar per share and then earn on every dollar with the change in interest rates. They're often sold by mutual fund companies and stockbrokers, and have proven to be a safe haven for three decades. Money market funds obey the "don't break the buck" principle, which is like an unwritten law stating that they'll always be a dollar per share.

Now there are news reports about similar investment opportunities that mimic money market funds but take on additional risks. Sentinel Management Group, for one, is sitting on nearly $1.6 billion in investments of this type and is not allowing people to get to their money. Other major players in the field have experienced a drop in value. For example, Yield Plus is down five-and-a-half percent. Keep in mind that a true money market fund couldn't drop in value because it's always a buck. So how do you know if you have one of these impostors? Clark says to beware if they have the word "plus" in their names. But Wall Street couldn't be happier that a lot of people have these cousins of traditional money market funds. After all, investors are being socked with higher fees for these new investments that are supposedly safe. Clark wants everyone to look at their money market funds statement and know what they own. If you're in one of these fake money market funds, try putting your savings in CDs, a plain vanilla money market fund or a tax-free municipal bond. The latter works well for those in a high tax bracket who make more than $100,000 per year. Meanwhile, for everyone else who lives paycheck to paycheck, retailers like Wal-Mart have hit tough times because their customer base doesn't have much expendable income. Looks like it might be tough holiday season for retailers.

For the last few years, Clark has trashed Capital One -- one of the nation's largest credit card issuers and the purveyors of those memorable "What's in Your Wallet?" commercials that people either love or hate. Well, today the company gets some praise from Clark because it's agreed to change a policy about how it reports your information to the credit bureaus. In the past, Capital One would not report how much of your credit limit you were using. That way it always looked like you maxed out 100 percent of your credit, effectively destroying your score. According to Clark, this was an intentional move on Capital One's part because they wanted to hurt your credit and prevent other companies from poaching their customers.

Now the company has agreed to report credit limits to the bureaus. So some Capital One customers will have big score boosts and be eligible for better auto insurance rates, homeowner's insurances rates, mortgages and more. Capital One's change is huge because 30 percent of your credit score is based on how much credit debt you're carrying versus how much credit is available to you. So someone who has a card with a $5,000 limit and uses only $1,000 (20 percent usage) has a higher score than someone who has a card with a $20,000 credit limit and uses $15,000 (75 percent usage). Also it's important to know that when you change credit card companies you shouldn't close your old account. You need to keep it open -- even if you don't plan to use the card -- so that you can get a higher credit score.

Have you been receiving phony e-greeting cards in your inbox lately? If you open these, you might get spyware and others kinds of malware on your computer. Clark is really upset about this trend because e-greeting cards should be a pleasant thing. Unfortunately, something so innocent has been corrupted. The latest incarnation in this rip-off scheme works in the following way: Criminals send out bogus e-greeting cards and if you open it, you download a program that steals e-mail addresses from your contacts list. Once the criminals have those e-mail addresses, they send out another fake e-greeting that appears to be coming from you, staring the cycle all over again. The worst part is that when you opened the initial e-greeting, you probably also unknowingly downloaded a key logger program. This program tracks every key you type, including usernames and passwords for your bank, brokerage or mutual fund accounts. Under the law, you are protected if money is stolen from your bank account, but not from your brokerage or mutual fund account. Some brokers have issued their own policies that allow for customer protection. But the bottom line is that you must run anti-virus and anti-spyware software on your computer. Clark likes Spybot - Search and Destroy, a free program that will eliminate key loggers and other spyware on your system. Hopefully the legitimate e-greeting businesses will find a way to regulate their industry so people can again have faith in their products.

It's no secret that the nation's housing market is in bad shape. Foreclosures in California are at an all-time high, and the market is equally hurt in Nevada, Arizona and Washington D.C. How did we get in this mess? Well, after 9/11 people became nesters and saw their homes as safe harbors. The tech bubble in the stock market had just burst and people psychologically started clinging to "real" estate in the tangible form of their homes. The home improvement industry enjoyed a surge in popularity as a result. But in the middle of it all, the standards for home lending fell apart. People with bad credit who had no money got horrible loans with low teaser payments that were like ticking time bombs. After two years, there was a huge increase in the mortgage payment and they could no longer afford it. Foreclosures started to become more common. There was a false demand for houses, and speculators bid up the prices. Also, all speculative buyers used to have 30 percent down. But that requirement was relaxed during this time, too. Clark says he knew we were in trouble when he started hearing about people buying houses they'd never seen and property in states they've never visited.

Thankfully, the teller window is now closed for people with bad credit and no money down; those who can't document their income; and those who want to buy on spec with no money down. Clark thinks this a good thing. He's just amazed that now the feds are starting to make noise about wanting to ban these kinds of lending so late in the game. Capitol Hill wants to make it so that when you take out a loan, you have to get an explanation of all the details in plain and simple language. But the funny thing is that the feds aren't considering making hard-and-fast rules -- just some proposed guidelines. Well, the American Enterprise Institute beat them to the punch by drawing up a mortgage cheat sheet (and definition of terms) that tell you exactly the right questions to ask of your lender. Clark really likes the AEI's version because it helps homebuyers avoid getting ripped off. He also thinks it's so much easier to understand than the feds' guidelines.