SmartyPig, a social networking piggybank is running a small promo on Twitter where you can win one of three $100 gift cards. The contest happens tomorrow, June 12. Here's how it works:

1. Follow SmartyPig on Twitter
2. They’ll ask the $100 question on Thursday, June 12th.
3. Answer the question.
4. Tune in to their Blog to see if you have won.

How are they picking the winner?

Below is what they have to say:

This is how we’ll choose the winners:

1. After 10 minutes, we will be picking 20 random people with a number generator from the pool of correct answers.
2. We will then pin those 20 names into the 20 slots of a dartboard.
3. While blindfolded, we will throw darts and three lucky winners of a $100 SmartyPig gift card will be chosen.
4. We’ll post the process here on our blog, so everyone can see it!

Good luck!

It doesn't look like things are getting any better for the banks.

"Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and UBS AG may post further writedowns of $10 billion on their debt holdings after the two biggest bond insurers were stripped of their AAA rankings, according to Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Meredith Whitney."

Whitney correctly predicted that Citicorp would cut its dividend last October.

What does this mean? Pain from the credit crunch is still impacting financial institutions.

For those with too much money to run around and try to open FDIC-insured accounts at all of the highest-paying online savings accounts, money market accounts are the best way to protect your money. These funds are not foolproof and in a real economic crisis where the underlying assets decline in value dramatically or default, money market funds could and have lost value.

Currently, the best money market rates on this site are paying just under 3%.

I have a friend who is convinced that we are headed towards a credit crisis of epic proportions and who is willing to get a lower return by investing in so-called US government money market funds. These are money market funds that invest only in US government securities and therefore have all of their assets backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. They are presumably still safer than (or at least as safe as) municipal money market funds discussed on this website, but have a higher return (offset, at least to some degree, by the absence of the positive municipal tax attributes).

Currently, I understand that the the best rate of fthe US government money market funds is approximately 2%.

My friend recently discovered that these funds aren't as safe as he had thought when he opened the prospectus for a Western US government money market fund that he had invested in. It turned out that this fund, which was being hawked by certain large investment banking firms, has large exposure to government agencies such as Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and even Sallie Mae.

Why get 2% return to take risk that is probably as great as those taken in a standard money market fund?

If you invest in a US government money market fund, you should be especially careful in the current environment to invest only in a fund that buys US Treasuries, not these risky agency bonds.