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Clark is often billed as a consumer advocate, but in some ways he's different than most others in this field because of his business background. For example, many consumer advocates are upset with President Bush over his plan to charge airlines for runway space based on peak times of arrival or departure. But Clark loves the idea. Here's the scoop: There are certain times of the day when there are no delays (barring weather or a catastrophe) at the airports. But most airlines ignore those times and instead schedule their flights around when business travelers want to leave and arrive. Over-booking that crunch time is partly what causes passengers to be stranded on the tarmac for hours at a time. Clark thinks Bush is right in saying that a runway slot at 5 p.m. is worth more than at 2 in the afternoon. The benefit of his model is that people won't have to sit on runways in queue forever.

Clark recalls a good-weather flight he took out of Newark this past summer. Take off was set for 5:45 p.m., but they didn't get off the ground until 8:15 p.m. The captain announced that they were something like 37th in queue for departure! Clark looked out the window and saw a line of planes that looked like it stretched from Newark to Hartford! So if airlines have to pay more to fly during peak hours, they'll start juggling their schedule around and alleviate the crunch. Or, those that can afford the 5 p.m. flight will take it. Either way, you let the marketplace decide who uses it at what time based on price. It's not only most consumer advocates who are against Bush's plan, but the airlines themselves. Such a plan would probably eliminate those little dippy regional jets that hold 50 people. You'll see the airlines start to run more jumbo jets because they carry more passengers for the same runway price. If Bush's plan comes to pass, Clark will be adjusting his schedule to whenever he can catch the cheapest flight!

Interest rates on savings and CDs have declined overall with the economy in turmoil. But there are still some good offers available on the Internet or in local communities. While looking through the sports section of a newspaper, Clark saw a credit union offering more than 6 percent interest on savings. Then when he was traveling, he saw another newspaper ad for a bank offering around 5.75 percent on longer-term CDs. These rates are much higher than you'd typically find in the marketplace right now. So it's your assignment to seek out these good deals. Right now there's a lot of oddball stuff like this Washington Mutual offer: WaMu is having trouble attracting new checking account customers in Illinois, Texas and Georgia. So their current "Savings for Success" promotion offers 6.5 percent on savings for a year to residents in select states. There's a limit to how much you can put in, but this is a great rate. Clark's advice is to shop locally with small credit unions and banks trying to attract deposits. If you're looking at CDs, longer-term CDs are actually paying lower than shorter-term ones right now. That's because the banks are guessing there's a recession coming and they don't want to pay out high long-term rates. But the great thing is that there are still some banks and credit unions paying more than 5 percent on 5-year CDs. Usually, you'd want to ladder your CD investments (1 year, 3 years, 5 years) so you always have money maturing and could take advantage of historically higher rates for longer CDs.

From time to time, Clark takes his show on the road. But no one wants to go with him to Los Angeles! That's because Clark hates traffic so much that being in L.A. is a nightmare for his staff. He does not do congestion well and basically has a meltdown when he faces it. Clark's executive producer Christa says the anticipation is the worst part of it all; he gets worried about the traffic a day before he has to travel. Clark recalls a book signing near UCLA when he was 45 minutes late. It drove him nuts that people had to wait on him. Now there's a ray of hope on the horizon: L.A. is looking at joining Orange County in building a network of congestion-priced freeways. These so-called "Lexus lanes" will allow people to pay a price for road access, and they'll guarantee a speed-limit ride during rush hour. Our idea of roads being free isn't really free, especially when you think about how much time they cost you.

Have you heard about the new high-speed Internet option coming to a few U.S. cities in the next 90 days? People in Washington D.C., Chicago and Baltimore will be the first to have access to WiMAX. This new technology sends out a blanket high-speed Internet signal that covers an entire metro area. The cable and phone companies' shared monopoly may soon come to an end. Over the next year or so, roughly 2/3 of the U.S. will have WiMAX access -- barring any tech problems on rollout. But this is not vaporware. WiMAX has already been a huge success in South Korea. Clark's beloved Eee PC is one of the first devices available with WiMAX capability built into it. This coming technology will be a real game changer and may soon alleviate iPhone users' complaints about slow surfing speeds.

WiMAX is a Sprint effort, and it's unfortunate that the company's bad customer-service reputation is taking away from its credibility with this new development. Clearwire is planning to migrate to WiMAX soon. The way you think about Internet today is going to be so different in the near future. Clark wants to emphasize that this is the real deal -- not just something for techies. The pressure WiMAX is going to put on monopolies is intense and will force lower prices and a better user experience. Our Internet experience will catch up (finally!) to that of the Third World countries!