Edmunds.com - A website for automotive comparison shopping
magicJack - Unlimited local and domestic long-distance calls for $40/year

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

Clark's daughter has his Honda Civic hybrid at school and she's happy to be getting about 45 miles/gallon. It seems that hybrids with good fuel economy are now selling like gangbusters. Remember back just a few years ago when this wasn't the case? Ford had to offer incentives just to move their Escape hybrids. Now The Washington Post reports the Escape is so hot that dealers can't keep up with the demand. In fact, the vehicles are selling for thousands of dollars above the list price because people want to save money on gas. Psychologically it may feel OK to pay a little more now with the promise of bigger savings down the road, but Clark thinks you should really crunch the numbers before you make this kind of purchase. Buying with your emotions isn't advisable, nor is overpaying for new technology. Take the rational approach by doing some smart comparative auto shopping on a website like Edmunds.com. The same thinking applies when deciding whether to dump your current gas-guzzling ride for a new and more fuel-efficient vehicle. Look for a similarly depreciated vehicle and try to do a trade where you get an older set of wheels that's more fuel-efficient than your current car.

It's been several years since the last "Clarkonomics" segment, but today we have another installment for you. This may again become a regular feature on the show since we're in a time of economic uncertainty. Before coming to the studio today, Clark was talking to a man about the stock market. It got him thinking about how what happens on Wall Street affects Main Street America. If you're one of those people with leveraged investments (investments you've made with borrowed money) this is not a good time. You may be getting "margin calls" from the broker who lent you the money. That's when they call you up and basically ask for more dough or they'll sell out your position.

A lot of people are hurting financially; the very rich have gotten burned by hedge funds and those who are struggling to get ahead in the housing market are getting clobbered on their mortgages. Are the rest of us also going to get squeezed soon? There are so many unknowns. But Clark has a standard piece of advice he gives people when the economy is facing tough times: Reduce the amount of debt you carry. Get your life in a position so that regardless of larger economic trends you're not feeling squeezed. Clark himself is now doing something that he hasn't done in 26 years: He's putting cash into a tax-free money market fund. He wants to build reserves because he believes that next year there'll be good opportunities to buy distress real estate.

Clark's gotten a couple of tips from his listeners about a new product called magicJack. This product offers unlimited local and domestic long-distance calling via your Internet connection. The cost is $40 for the first year and about $20 for subsequent years. The way it works is very simple. You plug your phone into the magicJack and then plug magicJack into your computer's USB port. It takes about a minute to load up the first time, but once it assigns you a phone number you're on your way. Clark's very happy with the service so far, but about a third of people he calls through magicJack report poor sound quality. If you're cheap and want to be a pioneer, you can buy this now. And if the company goes bust, you've lost $40 bucks -- not the hundreds some people (including Clark himself) lost on SunRocket.