Are There Any Safe Investments Left In This Economy?

Maybe this is a sign of the new normal, but I have been searching in vain to find some safe investments to park money that earn a respectable amount of interest. Now I realize that with return comes risk and that nothing in this world is guaranteed, but aside from parking money in a CD that is yielding in the 2-3% range or a money market fund with an equally dismal rate of return, there are not a lot of options. I think the best places to park short term cash right now are FDIC insured online banking institutions. They offer much better rates of return than traditional brick and mortar outfits and more liquidity than treasuries or CD's. A quick Google search can return the usual suspects. As of the posting of this article the banks below were offering rates higher than the national average for 1 year CD's of 2.28%.

E*Trade Bank: 3.01% (no minimum deposit)
ING Direct: 2.5% (no minimum deposit)
FNBO: 2.6% (no minimum deposit)
Capital One: 2.64% (no minimum deposit)
HSBC Direct: 2.45% (no minimum deposit)

If you see any FDIC insured banks beating these rates or offering sign up specials please drop me an email at goldenparachuteblog@gmail.com or leave a comment on this post.