There's no slowing down this recent upswing by CD rates. The average yield for a one-year CD, as surveyed by Bankrate.com, is 2.29 percent, 6 basis points higher than last week and up 11 basis points in the past month. The average five-year yield is now 3.39 percent, just a 1 basis point gain for this week but a whopping 29 basis points since June 4.

The jumbos also rose nicely this week, with the one-year running up 11 basis points, to 2.54 percent and the five-year coming in at 3.6 percent, a gain of 6 basis points.z

Money market accounts are languishing at 0.71 percent for the third straight week.

The banks are certainly trying to woo back CD buyers who were thrown under the bus by the Federal Reserve and the banks during this financial crisis, but are these yields good enough when the latest government report shows inflation at 4.2 percent? A fair number of economists think the government's inflation numbers are a tad low, perhaps by as much as 3 percent. Even if they're dead-on, these yields still don't protect your principal from inflation.

You can do better by perusing Bankrate's database for high-yield CDs and money markets.

-- Laura Bruce

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