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In the weeks leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, reporters are asked to come up with new angles for coverage of the big game and the teams. So Clark has seen stories about Tom Brady transcending his sports celebrity to become a bona fide celebrity; and the NY Giants' Lawrence Tynes lobbying for a reduction in his brother's prison sentence. But here's a new one: Beer prices are skyrocketing just in time for the game!

This is not a conspiracy or a price gouge. It's because the cost of barley and hops are up, according to MSNBC. Keep in mind the raw materials that go into beer are a tiny fraction of what you pay on the street for the finished product. Much of the budget goes into distribution, packaging and advertising. But Clark has the best plan for coping with the rise in beer prices: He doesn't drink, so it won't cost him anything! As a season ticket holder for a pro football team, he has the cheapest seats in the house located in the upper deck end zone. Yet the other spectators around him blow it twice by drinking beer after beer (at 7.50 a pop) and getting so out of it that they can't focus on the game. The environment isn't exactly a family friendly one by the 3rd quarter, so Clark isn't able to take his 8 year old out to a game.

Meanwhile, the Super Bowl seems to be the most heavily gambled sporting event in the world every year. Longtime listeners know that gambling is something that Clark does not understand. Clark was recently in a convenience store where there were ultra-modern slot machines. He marveled as he watched the gamblers. Nobody smiled as they put in dollar after dollar and watched their money disappear. What a loss!

Clark recently read a story about the direct-to-consumer DVD market -- the kind of titles that skip the theaters and go straight to DVD. Clark's kids love everything Disney does, and they've really been one of the pioneers of this business model. The sell-through market for DVDs has become very mainstream -- think Wal-Mart and Best Buy. But Clark has a word of advice: Rent films first before you buy them. Yes, this may cost you a little more upfront, but think about how much you'll save by avoiding movies you only watch once because they're so terrible! Meanwhile, the DVD business is headed for serious trouble because there's now a device that allows you to copy DVDs to a hard-drive. Clark has this device and currently is testing it out. You can put your entire collection on it and have it with you wherever you go. Clark will let you know if it's any good. The only movies Clark and his wife buy are kid's movies. That's because his children watch them over and over again and like them more each time.

In the latest installment of Clarkonomics, Clark discussed the impact that the Federal Reserve's continuing interest rate cuts have had on the stock market. The Fed is the nation's banker and is responsible for managing the size and direction of the economy, plus keeping inflation in check. There's a delicate balance that must be struck between not letting inflation get out of control and not letting the economy tank. Juggling those two duties is extremely difficult, and you'll find there are a lot of gripers when it comes to the Fed.

If the Fed cuts interest rates and there's investor fear about the economy being in sad shape, then the stock market will likely go down as result. It's a fear factor playing itself out in the market. On the other hand, why do stocks sometimes go up after cuts? That happens when interest rates on "safe" savings options like money-market accounts and CDs drop. So long as stock investors are not worried that recession is going to eat up earnings at companies, stocks will look more favorable than the so-called safe options. Therefore, people are more likely to take a chance on stocks when interest rates on the safe stuff are too low.

Right now the Fed is trying to stave off recession or reduce the impact, but it's also trying to prop up the giant monster mega-banks. There's the "Too Big To Fail" concept, an unwritten law that states the collapse of multiple monster mega-banks would be disastrous for our economy. So the Fed's cut in interest rates helps the monster mega-bank lower their cost of borrowing money to survive to fight another day. That's a hidden agenda that the Fed will never disclose -- after all, the free market dictates you're not supposed to bail out companies that make bad choices. If you were to buy stock in a giant monster mega-bank, there's a chance that you'd make money rather than lose because of the "Too Big To Fail" idea. That's not really how capitalism is supposed to work, but that's the reality.

California has a ballot initiative that will allow voters to decide whether or not to continue rent control. Rent control is, according to Clark, an enemy of people finding affordable, decent housing and of capitalism itself. When Clark was in college during the early '70s, he paid $249/month for a rent-controlled apartment. Despite rising inflation, his rent only reset from $249 to $257 at that time. Being 19 years old, Clark loved it and thought he hit the jackpot. But if something broke in the apartment, nothing ever got fixed because the owner didn't have enough money. When you interfere with the free market by dictating rents, owners have no incentive to invest or otherwise fix the property up. As a young person, Clark didn't understand the cause-and-effect relationship between rent control and poor living conditions. But now he does. New York is a case study in the drawbacks of rent control. Whenever you try to fix the price -- even though you think you're doing something nice for people -- you're really just asking for trouble.