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Top national CD Rate steady at 1.85% APY, online savings steady at 1.05% APY. Cypress protects insured deposits. Rate forecast: more declines.

The EU recently forced Cyprus to accept a bank bailout that takes the unprecedented step of forcing losses onto bank depositors. How does this impact U.S. savers?

The Labor Department reported today that employers added 236,000 jobs in February, helping to lower the unemployment rate to 7.7%.

Savings and CD rates continue to drop, except for online savings and money market accounts. The economy continues to trudge along. The online savings account and CD spread continues to widen, making a good case for opening online savings and money market accounts.

With yet another economic crisis looming on the horizon, this time in the form of the Fiscal Cliff, how will interest rates react if negotiations fail?

There has been a great deal written about the next "asset bubble", student loan debt. Does the ever growing mountain of student loans represent a danger to the economy? Or are we over reacting given the recent credit crisis that resulted from the asset bubble the housing market represented?

QE III has been announced and is in the process of being implemented. The stated goal is for the Federal Reserve to purchase mortgage backed securities in an effort to both lower interest rates and increase liquidity in the housing market. Will home buyers and homeowners actually be the beneficiaries of such a program? That remains to be seen.

As our national debt goes ever higher and reaches truly staggering amounts, a great deal of rhetoric regarding the threat it poses both economically and geopolitically has been issued. In truth, many such threats have been misrepresented or exaggerated, as the greatest threat is not a hostile foreign entity such as China, but our long term domestic policies regarding health care.

Recently, Moody's, one of our domestic credit rating agency giants, issued a credit watch on U.S. debt, warning that unless negotiations on the impending Fiscal Cliff achieve a resolution of the impasse, they would downgrade the rating on U.S. Treasuries. While clearly an ominous sounding statement, there remains the question: Does a credit downgrade of U.S. debt even matter?

After months of grinding delays, Europe appears to finally be trending in the right direction, as several notable events in recent weeks have lent optimism to a situation that many have long despaired would ever see a resolution.

Wall Street is clearly thrilled at the Federal Reserve's implementation of QE III, but are the short term gains worth the potentially long term problems the increase in liquidity represents?

After much speculation, QE III will be implemented. Given the lack of efficacy of past, similar efforts, does this action on the part of the Fed even matter?

With the attention of many focused on Europe, another threat to economic stability is beginning to take shape in the political battle over the impending Fiscal Cliff.

As Europe's refusal to implement long term solutions to its fiscal crisis continues and U.S. economic data remains weak, speculation is growing that the Federal Reserve will initiate QE3.

With a dearth of positive economic data available, both current and in the long term, it is looking increasingly likely that U.S. interest rates will continue their plunge toward zero.