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There's been so much talk about Chinese exports like clothing and toys coming into our country. But did you also know that much of our food comes from mainland China? Now Trader Joe's -- the very eclectic, discount, new-age organic supermarket -- has banned food from mainland China because they're unsure about the sourcing. Trader Joe's has a great legacy of trust with its customers, so this move makes a lot of sense. In a press release, the usually media-shy company basically said that their customers have spoken and they've listened. The communist regime in China offers no system of checks and balances to assure us that their supply is safe. Clark is not jumping on the anti-free trade bandwagon here -- he's actually a fervent believer in free trade -- yet at same time he doesn't want to feed his dog food that may be poisonous. So Clark thinks Trader Joe's made the right move.

RIP-OFF ALERT: Zombie debt is a lucrative and illegal part of the debt-collection world that Clark wants to warn you about. Scavenger collectors buy up expired debts that can be up to 30 years old for as little as 1 penny on the dollar. Then they unleash vicious collectors to try to collect, and frequently violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in the process. They may be going after debts set aside in bankruptcy; stemming from ID theft; or that have passed the statute of limitations, which is typically 4 years on credit card debt. There is no legal way they can collect these debts, but that doesn't stop the scavengers from trying to intimidate you.

This is not a discussion about whether or not you should pay your bills; this is about what your rights are on old debts. The scavengers are so good that they typically collect about 13 cents on every dollar. Many of them also engage in illegal activities by wrongfully putting old debts back on your credit report; harassing you over the phone; or secretly taking money out of your account. If you're being harassed by a zombie debt collector, send them a certified letter stating the debt is invalid and instructing them to stop contacting you. But beware that scavengers don't care if the debt is valid. They've declared war on your wallet and will use any tactics. Be tough and know your rights.

Each year, the Federal Trade Commission puts out a list of the top consumer fraud issues. ID theft is by far the No. 1 complaint. In fact, the FTC gets 4 times more complaints about ID theft than they do about anything else. Last year, there were 260,000 individuals who filed ID theft complaints with the FTC. The most common sub-complaint in this field is people opening credit cards under your name; followed by a sharp rise in people opening utilities using your identity; and finally, people using your identity at a place of employment. There's no marketplace solution to the ID theft problem yet. Clark says the best thing you can do is freeze your credit.

Here are the rest of the FTC's consumer fraud issues: Advance-fee loans (No. 10); timeshares (No. 9); healthcare claims (No. 8); Internet auctions (No. 7); computer equipment and software (No. 6); prizes/sweepstakes and lotteries (No. 5); foreign money offers (No. 4); Internet service complaints (No. 3); and shop-at-home/catalog sales (No. 2). The important thing to realize is how many people are determined to separate you from your money. So be cautious and careful to not fall into these traps.

The state of California has found that some insurers have been rewarding employees for digging through your initial application and finding omissions that allow them to yank your coverage. Meanwhile, New York is suing United Health Group for cheating people by making up bogus reasonable and customary charges. For example, say the average price of a procedure is $100. UHG will come back and say the local price is actually $30, and that they'll pay their customary 80% of that $30. Then they'll leave you with the entire remaining balance. But who can fight the big bad wolf of health insurance?

On a related note, here's a scoop on how insurers rip off small businesses. The math shows that the first 2 years of coverage are very profitable for insurers because few claims are filed. By year 3, however, that trend reverses. So some insurers offer teaser rates for the first 2 years and hike them up the following year. The hope is that you'll leave and go somewhere else for coverage at that point. Clark wants transparency in health coverage and thinks this could be achieved if there were only 8 plans offered to small businesses: 2 HMOs, 2 PPOs, 2 HSAs and 2 of the traditional 80/20 splits. The difference between plans would be that, for example, one PPO might pay for experimental treatments and the other might not. Every insurer would have to sell identical plans, and they could charge what they wanted for them. That way you could switch to another insurer's HMO plan No. 2 if your insurer's HMO plan No. 2 is too costly. As always, Clark says the real risk to insurers will come from socialized medicine if they don't shape up.