This was the most popular topic suggested this week. "If buying a house is not advisable, then where would you park your savings?"

The first reply. "HSBCDirect at 4.65%, EmigrantDirect at 4.65%, Citibank at 4.75%. Splitting among these 3 you can FDIC insure 300k, 600k if you open them up as joint accounts."

A followup, "This will only work if FDIC can really cover the defaults, which it may not be able to. 3 month T bills are yielding more than 4.8% at this time so it is hard for me to see why anyone would put their money in a CD with more risk, less liquidity, and less yield."

Another said, "I think those might be money market rates. Countrywide bank offers 5.41% on 12 month cd right now."

There was this exchange, "If FDIC doesn’t back the savings, what makes you think T-bills would be any safer?" Answer, "Treasury bills are government debt. The FDIC is a government insurance company. If the government defaults on the debt, all those dollars backed by the FDIC are worthless any way."

Others discussed liquidity, "'CASH..' 'Ok, but which countries? I am thinking the Yuan.' 'But the Yuan is not readily spendable here in the US. By cash, of course, he means, that which can be stuffed in the mattress and used when the virtual money in the banks disappears, a la 1929. If enough banks fail so that the FDIC was swamped (unlikely, I think, but not impossible. The number of bank failures in the early 90s came close, and this could be worse), you want to have something you can actually put your hands on.'"

More replies, "'Then I would want Loonies!' 'And twoonies, canadian dollar has made some serious advance against the dollar in the last year.'"

Others like hard money, "'Swiss Franc if you are a girly man, Gold if you have a set of nuts, both if you are hermaphrodite.' But, 'When the recession comes and people can’t buy so much bling, gold will go down with the rest of the commodities.' The reply, 'Not true. Given a choice between a stack of paper or a 100 oz bar of gold which one do you think the car dealer will accept?'"

"'What car dealer would accept payment in 100 oz bars of gold? The car dealer will accept dollars, the question is whether gold will go up or down in terms of dollars. The spike in gold may have been merely caused by the spike in the money supply brought on by excessive liquididy, in that case, as liquididy slips away, gold prices will fall. Pretty much all assets have risen together; it would not be surprising for them all to drop at the same time.'"

Another said, "'Gold if you enjoy catching falling knives (which many of those with nuts apparently do…)'"

And finally, "'T-Bills are better than CDs because there is no state income tax on T-Bills. 3 months and 6 months. If you saw this coming like me in 2001, you would have been primarily investing in Series I Savings Bonds (also not taxed at the state level) and municipal bonds (no state tax, no federal tax).'"

"'I do gold and platinum too. The key to successful precious metals buying is to be patient, do not be greedy, and buy small quantities regularly, like an ounce or two every 2 months. I even get into treasury notes. You can buy from 2 years to 10 year notes. I’d stay closer to 2 years than 10 years for now. Park 6 months of living expenses in a high yield money market account."