More than 100 banks have failed this year, and even the government acknowledges that many more will probably fold before 2009 draws to a close. In most cases, ordinary citizens who have accounts are protected by FDIC insurance. Yes, there's certainly a hassle involved, especially if you have bills set up on auto-payment with the failed bank, but the FDIC guarantees that they'll make good on your money up to $250,000.

Unfortunately, this guarantee doesn't extend to the interest rates on long-term savings vehicles like certificates of deposit. As this article reports, a growing number of people are losing the high interest rates on their CDs when a bank with which they have money invested folds.

Americans won't be spending as much this holiday season due to continued worry about their finances, according to new research. The Discover Spending Monitor found that 56% of Americans rated the economy as "poor" in October, a 4% increase over September. In addition, 46% said the economy is getting worse, a 3% increase over September.

Overall, women are more worried about the economy than men. In October, the percentage of women who rated the economy as "poor" shot up by nine points to 58%, while the number of men calling the economy poor actually dropped from 54% in September to 53% in October.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently talked about "green shoots" of economic recovery and declared the recession probably over, but some economists fear the worst is yet to come.

As bad as the residential real estate crisis was for banks, the impact of failed residential mortgages could be dwarfed by the problems now facing the banks regarding commercial real estate.

A loan for a commercial building like a shopping mall is very different from the mortgage you have on your home. Commercial mortgages have a much shorter term, usually only five to seven years. The bank doesn't expect the owner to pay the debt off in that amount of time, but when that time comes, they need to refinance the remaining balance into a new loan.

Small-business lender CIT Group Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the fifth-largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history.

The beleaguered company, which had its roots in basic, no-frills loans to fast-food restaurants, clothing stores and the like, ran into trouble after a former Merrill Lynch executive took the helm in 2003 and pushed CIT into more exotic and risky investments that turned sour when the economy took a nosedive.

The part of the process that's most likely to upset average citizens is this: The terms of the bankruptcy filing wipe out CIT's obligation to pay back $2.3 billion it received from the government in December as part of the TARP program. The bailout was intended to get the company back on its feet, but things didn't go as planned and the lender was back roughly six months later, hat in hand again.

Mammoth credit-card issuer Visa turned a profit in its fiscal fourth quarter for the year, due largely in part to the new way consumers are spending.

While cost cutting contributed to the company's $514 million -- that's 69 cents per share -- profit, so did the growing use of debit cards.

According to USA Today, overall spending with Visa cards dropped by 2%, a result of Americans continuing to look for ways to spend less.

Break out the rotten tomatoes. This is Walletpop's roundup of the priciest, sneakiest and just plain lousiest credit-card deals out there. Trust us, there are a lot of cards floating around the bottom of the barrel, so it took a lot of effort to find the ones you probably want to avoid at all costs.

Interest rate: If your credit isn't stellar, you can be looking at paying 20% or more for the privilege of whipping out the plastic. (Even if you have great credit, some cards will be oh-so-happy to sock you with a rate of 15% or so.) For real sticker shock, we checked out co-branded store cards, which typically have higher rates. Case in point: The Gap Visa card has rates that start at 18.24%. That could tack quite a bit onto the price of that pair of khakis. We also looked into the Best Buy Reward Zone MasterCard, issued by HSBC, but they won't even give users information about interest rates until they actually apply! Thanks, HSBC; you've forced us to leave it to our imagination, and what we're imagining is pretty scary.

Annual fee: To be fair, several American Express cards made our best list, but we've got a worstie here, too. With a whopping $5,000 initiation fee plus a $2,500 annual fee, the American Express Centurion Card wins this one, hands down. Luckily, this card is issued by invitation only, so you'll probably never be faced with the agonizing decision of whether or not to drop the price of a cheap used car every single year for the privilege of using this card. For that reason, we're nominating a second worstie in this category: the Visa Black Card issued by Barclays. It's got an annual fee of "only" $495 and an APR of 13.24% -- a higher rate by several percentage points than our best pick.

Credit cards: Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em, it seems (although some of our fellow WalletPoppers are having a lively debate about just that right now).

The bottom line is, the majority of you probably need credit cards for something. With the help of Curtis Arnold, founder of the website CardRatings.com, and Doug Miller, senior analyst at research firm Corporate Insight, we sifted through oodles of cards to ferret out the best and the worst when it comes to rates, fees, rewards and perks. As with everything, your particular financial situation may or may not make you eligible for the best possible rates, so check before signing on the dotted line. Also, things can change quickly in Credit-Card Land, especially with sweeping new legislation arriving in just over three months, so double-check all the terms here. (We'll also be updating this round-up after the new rules come into play.)

First, the best-in-show. Break out the noisemakers; these cards rise to the top when it comes to all the stuff you want.

Interest rate: Our parent company, AOL, has sung the praises of this particular card before. Remarkably, given all the upheaval in the industry in recent months, the Simmons First Visa Platinum is still our top pick when it comes to interest rates, with an APR of just 7.25%. Of course, you can go online and find 0% interest offers up the wazoo, but those are limited-time only deals. This 7.25% is the regular rate, not some promotional gimmick designed to suck you in.

Score: Little guy, 1; bank, 0. It's a nice change.

Two weeks ago, a bankruptcy court in suburban New York did the formerly unthinkable: It waived a homeowner's mortgage debt after the bank trying to foreclose on the home couldn't submit any proof that it actually had a claim on the property.

According to the New York Times, when lender PHH Mortgage was asked to provide proof that it actually held the deed for the $461,263 mortgage, it couldn't give the judge any records.

David Irving is not a man with whom many of us would want to be associated. The British-born historian has made a career peddling books and speeches claiming that the Holocaust and Adolph Hilter's realm of genocide are fabrications. He's run afoul of strict laws in Austria forbidding statements of Holocaust denial and even has done jail time there for his beliefs.

Now, it seems American Express doesn't want to be associated with him, either. When Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind learned that Irving accepted American Express from people who wanted to buy his books or buy tickets to his book tour events, he got a dozen lawmakers to sign a letter urging AmEx to drop Irving and alerted the media.

Medical journal The Lancet reported a story that's been widely covered by major news outlets: According to The Lancet, more than half of all babies born in the U.S. (and other industrialized countries) since 2000 will live to be 100 years old.

Once a milestone only a handful of seniors reached, this new triple-digit benchmark will become downright commonplace by the time this century winds to a close. Half of all babies born in this country in 2007 will live to be 104 years old.

While the novelty factor is high ("Grandpa, tell us again how there was only one channel of the Internet when you were growing up!"), this announcement has far more serious implications for today's Americans -- both young and old -- when it comes to managing their personal finances. The Lancet study's lead author called the news good for individuals but challenging for societies.

First, a bit of history: While improvements in lifespans over the first half of this century were largely due to decreased infant mortality, longer living today comes on the back end. While the nation braces for the aging of the Baby Boomers, a process that's only just begun and has huge implications on everything from Social Security to health care, the impact of the next wave will be even greater. Fortunately, the study indicates that not only are people living longer, they're staying active longer; in other words, 70 could be the new 40 by the time your kids are adults.

What does this brave new world mean for your personal finances -- and that of your children? Walletpop spoke with John Rother, executive vice president for policy and strategy at the AARP, and asked him to weigh in on the implications for tomorrow's seniors.