Well, another day and another federal bailout.

For weeks now, Clark has been warning you about difficulties in the life insurance industry. Just yesterday, with great reluctance, he singled out one troubled life insurer named Lincoln National on the air.

The consumer champ never wants to be a part of the problem, but his duty is to you as a listener to make sure you know how to protect yourself.

The insurance industry has long been regulated by the states. But it became clear that state guarantee funds would not be adequate to handle the insolvency of large providers. So the feds coughed up additional taxpayer money.

Wow, who would have ever thought you'd need insurance for your insurance?!

Hartford Financial Services, Genworth (a GE spinoff), Lincoln National and Prudential are among those insurance giants lining up at the taxpayer trough. A rumored fifth one -- Met Life -- will not comment on whether they're seeking federal rescue funds or not.

So what exactly happened to bring us to this sorry state? Two things, actually.

First, insurance companies made promises to policy holders (in the form of variable annuities) that they couldn't keep. Their risk projection models did not account for the significant decline in the stock market.

Second, the investments that they put policyholders' money into tanked -- just like your own investments over the past few years.

One bright note here: Some of the largest insurers are rock solid and need no bailout money. Dow Jones has cited these ones as Northwestern Mutual, Mass Mutual, New York Life and TIAA CREF.

So if Clark made you nervous as a policyholder from any of a number of insurance giants over the past few weeks, you now have nothing to worry about. But as a taxpayer, you're going to be paying for it through the nose.