DMAChoice.org - Remove your name from catalog and other junk mailing lists
OptOutPreScreen.com - Prevent the major credit bureaus from sending you pre-approved credit card applications
WorldPrivacyForum.org - A non-profit privacy research group

CLARKONOMICS: The story on energy has been ugly for a while now. Every extra dollar you spend at the pump is a dollar that you don't have for your own life, plus it goes to foreign enemies who may want to harm our country. But here's some good news: Natural gas, which is 97 percent domestically produced, is in oversupply. Just under 6 in 10 people heat their homes with natural gas, including Clark. He also runs his car on compressed natural gas, which emits minimal pollution compared to electricity, oil and other types of power. Clark regularly tracks the price trends in oil and natural gas -- and the natural gas picture looks great. We had an affordable winter for heating with natural gas while people who heat their homes with oil have been hurting.

Don't expect natural gas prices to completely collapse; demand will continue because so many power providers can switch to burning gas to produce electricity. You will, however, see a lot of spin-off benefits for your wallet. Clark's home energy bills have been very reasonable. When he fills his car with natural gas, it's so much cheaper than gasoline because natural gas doesn't have to be refined like oil. With oil, there are so many markups along the way from the ground to the pump. The "crack spread" refers to the markup that refineries puts on their finished product. That's before they ship it to gas stations for another markup! With natural gas, it's like a direct sale from the ground into your tank.

Clark is adamant about shutting down junk mail -- not exactly cold, but maybe cool, as he says! The Direct Marketing Association offers a free, online-only service at DMAChoice.org that allows you to stop catalogs and junk mail -- or get more of them, if you desire. Most legit mailers are a member of the DMA, so this could reduce your load of junk mail by up to two-thirds. When you're at the DMA site, you may see a direct link to OptOutPreScreen.com, which will prevent the major credit bureaus from sending pre-approved credit card applications to you. One other website you may want to check out is WorldPrivacyForum.org, which is a clearinghouse for all these matters Clark has been discussing.

One word of advice: People are sometimes afraid to use the DMA site because you have to give a credit card number to verify your identity. You will not be charged. This practice was put in place because some folks were putting others' names on the receive list just to annoy them. When it comes to the OptOut site, people are scared of ID theft because you have to give your Social Security number. But you actually help prevent ID theft by cutting down on pre-approved applications that may be going to an old address where they could be picked up by ID thieves.

CLARKONOMICS: The stimulus package has now been signed into law. The gift certificates from the federal government will come in the form of a check from the IRS -- even if you normally take direct deposit -- just to slap you around and remind you that the politicians have done something for you! The rebates will start at $300 and go up from there, but there are income caps that will make some high earners ineligible. Meanwhile, the Senate has been adding benefits for those on Social Security who have no other income. There is a gotcha you need to know about if you have parents who fall into that category: They'll have to file a 2007 return stating that they had no income. That will enter them into the system and trigger the IRS to disburse funds.

The politicians want you to take your check, blow it to get that endorphin high and then vote them back into office. But Clark wants you to pay down your debt with it. Clark thinks this refund was a waste to begin with for a couple of reasons. First, it only happened because it was an election year; no one in Washington wants to be blamed for the recession we're either in or facing soon. So Congress adopted classic Keynesian economics by creating budget deficits and giving people money to kick-start the economy. Second, the irony here is that the feds will have to issue extra debt to cover their expenditure. The government simply borrowed $150 billion to give you $150 billion!

There is one ancillary benefit that Clark wants you to know about. There will now be a temporary period where you can likely refinance out of your jumbo mortgage ($417K and above) and into a conventional loan. This will mostly impact the real estate markets in California and Boston.

Fortune magazine has discovered that Yahoo! and Gmail are good for their promise that your e-mail account and your contacts are your private property. Meanwhile, MSN's HotMail and MSN Messenger take the opposite position. They argue that anything you do online belongs to them, including your contacts list. So you may want to consider firing MSN for e-mail and IM purposes. On a related note, your employer owns everything if you use Outlook at work. So Clark says that you obviously shouldn't use your work account to job-hunt or harsh on the boss! Finally, beware of unsolicited Valentine's Day e-cards that may contain viruses that turn your computer into a bot. If you don't know the sender, do not open that e-card.