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Today's show featured "Best Of Clark" repeats from recent shows

CLARKONOMICS: The slowing economy presents many challenges along with many opportunities. In a reprised edition of Clarkonomics, Clark focused on some of the latter.

The Fed's drop in interest rates has led to an opportunity to refinance. Here's the back-story: People who are skittish about the stock market right now are instead putting money into U.S. treasuries, which are like CDs for rich people. Clark recently saw a 10-year treasury trade going for around 3.6 percent. That low rate in turn affects what you pay for a mortgage.

Let's look specifically at how Countrywide is helping to make refinancing a smart move. The mortgage lender had gotten into all kinds of trouble with their undesirable liar's loans and option payment loans, which they hoped to sell off to investors. But there are no buyers willing to take the risk in these tough economic times. So Countrywide is stuck with them.

The Los Angeles Times reports that right now the mortgage lender may be willing to work with you if you're in one of their weirdo, exotic loans. They'll waive all kinds of requirements to get you into a good loan. Their goal is simply to package you up with other "safe" loans and sell you off to investors.

So keep asking what you can do to get into a better loan -- even if you've been turned down before. Meanwhile, what do you do if this scenario doesn't apply to you because you're in a relatively good loan? The Fed's interest rate cut still means that you may have the opportunity to refinance for an even better rate.

RIP-OFF ALERT: There's something brewing right now that Clark considers akin to a national scandal. The cell phone companies are in cahoots with rip-off artists and they're stealing your money.

Here's the background: Do you recall back in the landline days when people were falling victim to "The Cram"? Phone companies would bill them for fake charges attributed to a "marketing" company.

These bogus fees would pop up on a page of unregulated charges on a monthly bill. The phone companies would get a cut of the action when they teamed up with these 3rd party aggregators who initiated the charges. Many people would pay year after year without question because they were so confused by their bills!

Now this same garbage is popping up with cell phones. The cell carriers are doing courtesy billing for 3rd party crooks that push a variety of messaging services. And, of course, they're getting a cut of the money once again.

People are getting burned in 2 ways, actually, because cell companies are also raising the cost of text messaging. This is a virtually free transaction for them, yet they're raising rates to as high as 20 cents/text message.

People are being billed for messaging services they never signed up for. For example, Clark is getting spam text messages ads. The cell carriers love this -- especially if you're not on an unlimited texting plan -- because every spam message is more money for them.

If the history of "The Cram" is any indication, the FCC probably won't get involved for several more years. So you must take the responsibility of reviewing your cellular statement page by page every month. Many people just get their bill charged to their credit card every month and never see a statement. Don't be one of them! Get a paper statement and scrutinize it. This is war. They think they can get away with stealing your money, but they can only do so if you allow it!

Several months ago, Clark made a lot of listeners unhappy when he failed to bash Bank of America for charging non-customers a $3 fee for use of their ATMs.

Clark defended BoA's right as a free-market enterprise to raise their rates, and he reasoned that non-customers would stop using their ATMs because of the added surcharge. But that's not what happened. In fact, Dow Jones now reports that other banks are following BoA's lead and raising their rates.

We are the ones who have to change our behavior -- not BoA or any of its competitors. They can only rip you off if you allow them to do so. Most every bank and credit union has a network of ATMs you can use for free. You can also shop around for the lowest surcharge before you do a non-customer ATM transaction. BoA and others are raising rates because we're willing to pay!

If this sounds like you, your assignment is to go to the website of your bank, credit union or brokerage house and find out where their free ATMs are located. Another option is to use your debit card during a point-of-sale purchase to get cash back for free. If you don't change your behavior, today's $3 rip-off may be $5 or $10 next year!

Longtime listeners know that Clark despises the gift card market. The only exception to this rule is when you get more than what you pay for from a retailer or merchant. Examples of this include getting a $125 gift card for $100 or getting bonus services thrown in during the purchase.

Business Week recently ran a story that reinforced why retailers push gift cards so hard. It's like stealing money without a gun; they know a large percent of the cards won't ever be redeemed. You may have heard that Home Depot holds more than $100 million in unredeemed gift cards. But now Business Week has discovered that Best Buy is sitting on a whopping $500 million in outstanding gift card revenue!

States are now wising up and enacting laws that require retailers to turn over unredeemed gift card money after a certain period of time. If people go to redeem the card, they'll have to get their money back from the state.

Clark recently was in Austin, Texas, visiting his affiliate station KLBJ-AM. There he spoke to a member of the state legislature who told him Texas enacted its own law after hearing one of Clark's gift card rants. The worst kinds of gift cards are the ones issued by banks, which come with a ton of fees. The federal regulators have not put any rules on the banks as of yet. That alone tells you who they work for -- and it's not you and me.