This holiday season, retailers are hurting at the only time of year that some of them ever make a penny. Naturally, many have responded by slashing prices. Wal-Mart is offering toys at $10 a piece to appeal to financially stretched customers. This should have a ripple effect in the marketplace. The mega-retailer is also beginning its full Christmas rollout now as they try to get people shopping before Halloween!

Other retailers are reducing prices too. Home Depot and Lowe's are both getting decimated as people have stopped spending on their houses. So Home Depot has lowered prices on some 1,000 items to create a value proposition. Also, when it comes to home improvement, now is a great time to zig when others zag. Contractors will be more responsive and their prices will be cheaper when their business is in a slump.

If you're struggling this holiday season, try doing something other than buying gifts. Make a meal, craft a gift or just spend time with your loved ones in lieu of shopping for more stuff they'll wind up returning. It's gotten to the point where the holidays are just a shopping festival far distanced from their original religious origins.

Recently, Clark told you he was incensed by the Los Angeles ban on fast food restaurants throughout much of the city. After all, nobody puts a gun to your head and tells you to get a double Whopper or a double quarter-pounder with cheese.

Another problem with the ban was that the city couldn't even define what was fast food and what wasn't. You can go to Subway and get something that has tons of fat. Or you can eat healthy at McDonald's. For example, Kim recently went to McDonald's and had a low-fat yogurt.

Now California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has required chain restaurants throughout the state to clearly post calorie counts on their menus. Instead of an outright ban, the Governator's move encourages informed choice. New York City already has a similar law on the books.

In a related area, Clark also loves the COOL (country of origin labeling) law. This law means you can pick and choose your food at the market based on where it comes from.

Maybe we should rename the show Clark's Financial Hour because there are so many events right now that could affect your wallet!

The Labor Department reported the biggest 1-month decline in jobs in 5 years. Jobs are getting harder to keep and harder to find. Clark believes this is all part of the unspoken recession that we're in.

Yet in the midst of all the negativity, there are some real out-of-left-field positive developments going on. For example, Wells Fargo has made an offer for the failed Wachovia that completely takes taxpayers off the hook. Before the offer, we could have been responsible for up to $270 billion. Now even stockholders that were wiped out before will receive some value for the stock! This is perhaps the first time a failed enterprise came back from the dead with some market value at no risk to taxpayers. The only ones not happy about the Wells Fargo deal is Citibank -- which had been in negotiations to acquire Wachovia for itself.

Many rough patches still remain for Wachovia. The bank had a fund that was valued at just under $10 billion designed for private schools and universities that is now frozen. That means some schools can't pay their bills and may not be able to pay their own staffs!

Likewise, in the world of state government, California's Arnold Schwarzenegger has had to go hat in hand to seek a $7 billion handout from the feds. The state simply can't meet payroll.

There are many aspects that point to a nervous breakdown in our financial world. But it's just fallout from the excess in spending and borrowing that we've been doing for a long time. Clark is not in a panic and hopes you feel the same. You've got to control your own financial life instead of worrying about the parade of unfriendly headlines.

The bailout bill finally has the votes it needs and Pres. Bush's signature on it. So does that mean everything will just work itself out now? No way, not any day. This is just part of the process of starting to heal the markets.

Clark's hope is that the bill will restore confidence in some segments of the market that were shut down. For example, nobody wanted to underwrite mortgages and car loans (unless you were at a credit union for the latter). Hopefully that will now change, though we will continue to have higher unemployment coupled with more angst and uncertainty for your wallet.

If Clark had his way with the bailout, he would have given taxpayers ownership of Wall Street -- much like the government did with the $85 billion takeover of AIG. And there wouldn't have been any severance for the CEOs.

Unfortunately, Clark's role is as a pontificator -- not a legislator.