Clark Howard's Tips

July 15, 2008

The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter is a popular website developed by former Emory University research Aaron Krowne. This unique portal monitors the overall health of lenders so that you know if they're safe to do business with.

Clark particularly loves the site's slogan -- "Tracking the housing finance breakdown: a saga of corruption, hypocrisy, and government complicity" -- because he believes those words ring very true.

We're still in the early innings of the corruption shakedown. More banks will likely fail; there will be continued credit problems for several years; and more bailouts of institutions deemed "Too Big To Fail" will come courtesy of taxpayers.

This last point really rankles Clark. When we bailed out Bear Stearns with $30 billion in guarantees, we taxpayers should have become owners of the company -- but that's not what happened.

Meanwhile, we indirectly feel the effects of the mortgage crisis whenever we fuel up at the pump. Over the last several months, Clark has explained how the Federal Reserve devalued the dollar to help out Wall Street bigs and their idiotic lending practices in the housing sector. Because of that devaluation, the price of a barrel of oil is nearly double and the price of gas is some 60% higher.

More lenders and banks likely will fail. So now is the time to heed FDIC limits (or NCUA limits, if you're with a credit union) and not exceed $100,000 in the bank. Clark would prefer that you stick closer to $90,000. That way you won't lose one penny of interest in the event of a collapse.

If you are over the $100,000 limit, reduce your exposure by having multiple accounts at different banks. You can also use the CDARS.com program to do it for you.

Consumer advice courtesy of