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The city of Vallejo, Calif., has gone bust. This San Francisco suburb, with a population of about 125K people, fell into a budget squeeze as tax revenues decreased dramatically because of the housing slump. Like many local governments, Vallejo didn't dial back on spending when the revenues decreased.

It's critical for citizens to let local politicians know that you can live with less government -- rather than having to pay higher taxes to maintain a familiar status quo. In fact, government has historically been "smaller" during much of our nation's history. It's only been during the last third of our history that spending spiraled out of control.

In related news, Clark recently read a Wall Street Journal article that detailed how banks are breaking the law by not paying backlogged HOA fees once they assume ownership of a foreclosed townhouse or condo. This is inexcusable. Congress is making noises about reining in this practice, but there's been no movement. Local government needs to put its foot down and pass punitive measures if banks don't do the right thing.

Clark recalls when one of his show staffers lived near a "ghost house." This property remained unsold and woefully unkempt for 2 years after foreclosure. Needless to say, it really depressed property values in the neighborhood. Again, local governments have to be vigilant in making sure banks properly maintain homes they've brought to foreclosure.

Here's an unexpected development: Traffic in Los Angeles is not as bad as it used to be! Anecdotally, traffic anchors have been saying that commute time has reduced significantly. The Los Angeles Times theorizes it's because of the price of gas.

In fact, our gas consumption is down throughout the United States. So we do respond to price, though a 10% increase in price does not mean 10% of us will give up driving. It's more like a ratio of 100:1!

Consider this: Ultra cheap inter-city bus companies like Mega Bus have been successful in the Northeast and Midwest. But not so in Southern California. In fact, Mega Bus may pull out of Los Angeles because of low ridership. It would seem that Angelenos are willing to drive less, but they're not willing to ride a bus with strangers.

Across the country, what people buy and drive is changing. In multi-car households, folks are choosing the fuel efficiency of their smaller cars rather than the comfort of their larger vehicles.

Meanwhile, RV sales have collapsed. People who have them are parking them, and local RV dealerships are going out of business. But with hazard comes opportunity. If you like the RV lifestyle, now is a time to steal a sweet deal on this most unloved of all vehicles. Deals will be especially sweet on used RVs, which historically suffered heavy depreciation even in the best of times. The Wall Street Journal reports that the average price of an RV is down by a third in the last 2 years.

RIP-OFF ALERT: The academic world is embroiled in yet another scandal after the loan kickback controversy on campuses around the country.

Business Week reports that school officials now are getting kickbacks from health insurance companies for steering students toward certain policies. The U.S. Government Accountability Office says these policies have no meaningful coverage in the event of a serious accident or devastating illness. For example, 95% of medical bills may not be covered in an accident. The policies are not worth the paper they're written on.

Schools in Alaska, Kansas, Florida and New Jersey are among those named in the Business Week story. Meanwhile, the Attorney General of New York is conducting its own investigation.

About 30% of the time these ineffectual policies are required by schools and there's nothing you can do about it. But nearly 7 out of 10 times, the university may be on the take. So don't rely on them to recommend a policy for your son or daughter. Do your own research.

How many concerts do you go to a year? Clark went to 1 last year -- and that's a lot for him! Right now the concert industry is facing shrinking crowds. You have the diehards who will pay anything to sit at the front of the house. But the big problem is the empty seats in the middle and back of venues across the country. Clark thinks the problem stems from how tickets are priced.

Enter Madonna and her upcoming Sticky and Sweet tour. The Material Mom is going to allow the marketplace to set the price for tickets. She's teamed up with StubHub.com to allow fan-to-fan resale in the event you can't otherwise get tickets. Sellers on StubHub will be able to charge whatever price the market bears.

Before the Internet era, Clark would often buy tickets to sporting events from scalpers. He'd wait until after kickoff and always buy them below face value. Recently while at his 35th high school reunion, a former classmate recalled Clark buying tickets to a Notre Dame game for a scant $5!