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Bulls & Bears
This week Brenda Buttner was joined by Gary B. Smith, Tobin Smith, Eric Bolling, Pat Dorsey and Steve Murphy.
Greek Violence: Wake-Up Call for Big Gov't Spenders in D.C.?
Eric Bolling, Fox Business Network: The U.S. and Greece are far too similar. We're almost $13 trillion in debt and President Obama wants to spend almost $4 trillion more over the next few years. Since he became President, we've lost 3.7 million jobs. I know we gained 290,000 in April, but that's what happens when you start to come out of a recession. When you spend another $4 trillion, borrow it from China and against our kids' futures, you're in serious trouble. That's the sort of the stuff people in Greece should be protesting right now — the fact that the country has sacrificed its future.
Steve Murphy, Democratic Strategist: We are nothing like Greece. But we are fighting two wars without paying for them. We started the war in Afghanistan almost nine years ago, while cutting taxes for the wealthy at the same time. That's fiscal idiocy. We are nothing like Greece, though. We lead the world in science and technology, Greece leads the world in riots. Greece is a relatively very unproductive economy, while ours is the most productive in the world. The U.S. has huge economic assets. The two countries just aren't comparable.
Tobin Smith, NBT Research: Our welfare state has doubled in size over the last 18 years, and we're still on a rate to keep increasing it. In Greece, they had to get rid of the national health plan. Why? They couldn't afford it. Currently, our debt is about 90 percent of GDP, and that debt load is projected to hit 120 percent in a few years — where Greece is at currently. That clearly has bad implications for our future.
Gary B. Smith, TheChartman.com: Obviously, the U.S. is going to have to continue to be productive. We're just not absorbing new workers into the job market very well. With all the money we've spent, I'd have expected to see some sort of positive movement in the unemployment rate. Instead, 10 percent is essentially the metric the Obama will measure the unemployment rate with. And it's true we aren't properly accounting for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, but President Obama is just continuing what President Bush did during his administration. That said, I don't think we're like Greece, but we certainly seem to be doing our best to head down that road.
Pat Dorsey, Morningstar.com: This is an absurd comparison. The U.S. does spend too much, and our spending is out of control. But comparing the U.S. and Greek fiscal situations because our debt levels are similar would be like comparing the U.S. with Bermuda because we both speak English. The major difference here is that Greece doesn't print its own currency — we do. As long as you can print your own currency, you don't default on debt. You may have to deal with inflation, but that's not as big a problem as defaulting on your debt.
First the Stock Horror, Now the Hearings; Which Is Worse?
Tobin Smith: Any new regulations the government puts in place due to the market plunge on Thursday will reduce the return you get on investment and your 401(k). If this inquiry by the government follows the script we've seen recently, there'll be like 50 new commissions and 18 regulatory agencies that come out of this thing. That will add to the cost of trading. When cost of trading increases, that hits your 401(k), and it's something you should b worried about.
Steve Murphy: I don't think Congress hates Wall Street. A lot of Democrats including myself like Wall Street, but we want to see it operate productively. We have to investigate what happened in the stock market Thursday. People thought they were buying stock at a good price and found out that just wasn't the case. The equity markets are where we'll raise money to grow the economy and create jobs, and making sure it operates properly is essential.
Eric Bolling: It's rare for Congress to have a hearing and actually get something out of it that makes any sense at all. The Congressional members sit at those hearings, read prepared questions, and don't understand what's going on anyway. But let them have their hearing, just don't change the rules and implement unnecessary and undue regulation on a market that needs less regulation. Otherwise, businesses are going to go overseas.
Pat Dorsey: This isn't Congress' role. It might be one of the regulatory agencies. There are like 40 different rumors out there about what happened. But we have to remember 70 percent of trades happen off exchanges. It would be beneficial to move these trades to an exchange where they're visible and transparent. As they say, sunshine is the best disinfectant. I'm okay paying a penny more per trade if it prevents another day like Thursday.
Gary B. Smith: I think what we saw yesterday is hopefully a one-off event. But it's the natural evolution of things. But you know, I'm sure Congress is thinking we should go back to some form of the old days where brokers made $100, $200 commissions and stock auctions happen under the old oak tree on Wall Street. These latest means of trading are the natural evolution of the markets. Congress inquiring into this would be like me questioning Steven Hawking about physics. They just don't know how this stuff works.
New Rallying Cry to Legalize Illeals: Do it for Our Debt!
Tobin Smith: This plan is a bust. Illegal immigrants do pay into Social Security, but that doesn't do anything for the deficit. When you legalize illegal immigrants you make them eligible for food stamps, for Medicare, Medicaid, and other government benefits. This would be an absolute nightmare for the federal government and state governments. It would cost far more than it would save.
Steve Murphy: This would not take care of the deficit, but it would be great for the economy. We have about 10 million of the hardest working, most productive workers in this country involved here, with 75 percent of them working with a fake Social Security number. When that's found out, they lose their jobs. It's highly disruptive to the contribution they make to our economy. Legalize these immigrants, and get these problems solved.
Eric Bolling: The total number of illegal immigrants is probably closer to 16 million. There's no doubt they work hard. But there are Americans who are looking for jobs, and they'll gladly take these jobs. And better yet, Americans will actually pay the state and local taxes on those wages. It's Americans and legal immigrants who need and deserve these jobs.
Gary B. Smith: Putting illegal immigrants on the fast track to becoming legal is the right one. It helps the economy in so many ways. Even if they don't pay payroll taxes, they pay sales taxes, cigarette taxes, transportation taxes, etc. They allow businesses to grow faster because they take jobs Americans don't want. And illegal immigrants have a higher percentage of their potential workers in the jobs market, which really helps contribute to our economy. The quicker we legalize them, the better.
Pat Dorsey: Long-term GDP growth in any country relies on two main factors — population growth and productivity growth. We do pretty well in terms of productivity in this country. And compared to any other developed country, our population growth is off the charts. The fact is, we're much more welcoming to immigrants than almost any other developed country. We really should focus on allowing more skilled, educated workers into this country to help ensure our long-term growth.
Predictions
Gary B. Smith: Greece done free-falling! "NBG" rebound 50 percent by 2011
Pat Dorsey: Profit from the selloff! "BAC" up 40 percent in two years
Tobin Smith: Terror scare lesson... buy security! "NICE" captures 50 percent gains in one year
Eric Bolling: Oil containment dome a start; but "PG" really cleans up 30 percent in one year
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Cavuto on Business
This week Neil Cavuto was joined by Ben Stein, Charles Payne, Dagen McDowell and Adam Lashinsky.
Conservatives Fail to Win Majority in U.K.; Omen for GOP?
Charles Payne, WStreet.com: A couple months ago, it seemed like U.K. conservatives had a win in the bag. But this is definitely a message for Republicans here. We have chronic unemployment and mounting debt, but Republicans lost their advantage over these last couple of months. They aren't going to waltz to a victory in November, and if they think they are, they'll probably be sorely disappointed.
Dagen McDowell, Fox Business Network: People are disgusted with politicians here, in Europe, really everywhere. If you're a part of the political machine, look out. People want something different, they want to see change. And politicians who have voted in favor of, for example, tax hikes better look out. Also, the rise of the Tea Party movement could fracture more traditional Republican or conservative voters, and pose issues for GOP wins in the mid-term election.
Ben Stein, Author, "Little Book of Bulletproof Investing": I don't think either major party does have the answer. Neither party has the answer to our debt problems, or Iran getting a nuclear bomb, or solving unemployment. No one has answers. Republicans are obviously in a position to make gains against Democrats, but they largely don't have any strong candidates out there with strong chances of winning. The Republican Party has lots to worry about this election season.
Adam Lashinsky, Editor-at-Large, Fortune Magazine: There're a couple things to point out. The U.K. conservatives are very tied to financial interests in that country — their equivalent of Wall Street. U.K. voters did not like those close ties. But also, the U.K. conservatives have talked very tough about getting the country's debt under control, and implementing tough measures to do it. Some voters don't like that. Those two things probably prevented them from gaining a bigger margin of victory.
Media Making Financial Excuses for Times Square Bombing Suspect
Ben Stein: The media refuses to take the brave, though politically incorrect, line that this guy is a Muslim from Pakistan — a country filled with people who hate America, despite the fact we help them get nuclear weapons. But of course, the media is not allowed to say that. But this guy is clearly a militant Islamist. We had the media talking about how his house was foreclosed on, as if that would cause him to try and bomb Times Square. There are millions of Americans whose homes have gone into foreclosure, and they're not bombing anything.
Adam Lashinsky: I guess I have to defend the media here. The media doesn't justify things, the media explains things. There are plenty of people who are in financial trouble in this country. They're complaining, they're protesting, and letting their voices be heard peacefully. If this guy was angry, the media isn't justifying why he's angry — the media is explaining why he might be angry. Explaining the why isn't wrong.
Dagen McDowell: What, so if this guy ate at Red Lobster, maybe it was the festival of shrimp that set him off? Or the fact he shopped at Walmart? C'mon. Let's just blame who's responsible — the terrorists and their extremism. Since 9/11, anytime there's an attempted terrorist attack in this county, the media somehow pins it on being America's fault.
Charles Payne: The same media leaps to a negative conclusion about the Tea Party. They're just a bunch of hillbillies in the Appalachians, and rich people whining because they don't get to play with as many expensive toys. It's just a negative assumption when it's Americans, far more so than when it comes to these Muslim extremists. The media has gone crazy, and a lot of it emanates from the White House. The White House is willing to put a boot on the neck of BP, but they'll never use that vitriol when it comes to Islamic terrorism.
States Voting for Tax Hikes: Sign of Things to Come in D.C.?
Dagen McDowell: We saw in Greece that people aren't willing to give up a whole lot in terms of programs and spending. The danger here is that about 50 percent of Americans don't pay federal income tax. But they are voting on how to spend the money collected from those who do pay income taxes.
Charles Payne: People might feel like they're going to pay more, but they're not buying a Rolls Royce. They feel like other people are going to pay more. At some point, you have to look at all these people not paying taxes, and increasingly relying on a smaller and smaller few to pay them, we will end up in a Greece-like situation. We've got to stop this spending.
Ben Stein: Americans are addicted to government. The government can and does do a lot of valuable things though. If we have a community of like-minded people who say they want to keep government services going, they'll pay more in taxes. But think about what a different America we'd have if only the people who paid substantial taxes could vote.
Adam Lashinsky: This is an act of responsibility, this is sacrifice. People are sacrificing by raising their taxes. It's like a home-owners association. People know the halls have to look good and the fire sprinklers should work. People want these government services. This is not Greece. You have to cut spending where you can't afford it. Voters decide what they can and cannot afford to have tax dollars spent on.
Charles' Top Stocks for a Rocky Market:
Freeport McMoRan (FCX)
Laboratory Corp. of America (LH)
Boyd Gaming (BYD)
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Forbes on Fox
On Saturday, May 8, 2010, David Asman was joined by Steve Forbes, Bill Baldwin, Neil Weinberg, Stephane Fitch, Mike Ozanian, Quentin Hardy, Victoria Barret and Kai Falkenberg.
Flipside: America's Multi-Billion Dollar Contribution to the Greek Bailout Is a Good Investment!
David Asman: $6.6 billion and counting! Chaos in Athens streets putting American taxpayers on the hook, and someone at Forbes says this is the best investment America ever made. But is it?
Hi everybody, I'm David Asman. Welcome to "Forbes on Fox." Let's get this Flipside from Steve Forbes, Victoria Barret, Neil Weinberg, Mike Ozanian, Quentin Hardy and Bill Baldwin.
Vickie, why is it good for American taxpayers to spend several billion dollars to bail out Greece?
Victoria Barret: I know the idea sounds a little far fetched and I'm no fan of bailouts, but the issue here is contagion. While we won't be able to directly measure the return on our taxpayer dollars, we're potentially preventing this problem from spreading to the rest of Europe, where debt levels are high, and then spreading to the rest of the globe. Economies around the globe are coming out of gnarly recessions. It's a fragile time and that’s why it’s important that we help Greece.
Steve Forbes: Greece needs to meet those austerity measures which are why they are having those riots. But it's an incomplete, un-Reaganesque package. There's nothing about tax cuts to get that economy growing, nothing about removing regulations which makes Greece one of the most anti-business countries in Europe. If you're going to do something, do the whole thing so that the country can revive. We have Greeces here at home — they're called California, Illinois, New York, Michigan and others. If we're going to do it for Greece let’s make sure we do it right here with spending cuts and tax cuts.
Quentin Hardy: We need to remember that this is about holding the European Union together, and that's very important not just for the contagion reasons. The European Union was formed because Europe was the center of more chaos in the 20th century than anyone else, and if you don't think that can happen again, remember Yugoslavia in the 90s. These places could be out of control. I agree with Steve that they have tax problems, but they're about tax cheating among the elites.
Mike Ozanian: The real problem with Greece is that they want a high lifestyle but they don't want to have to work for it. That's why they have accumulated so much debt. By us giving them money, we're just putting off their day of reckoning. They are eventually going to have to put debt in line with what people are earning, and they don't like that.
Neil Weinberg: We don’'t want the Greeks to like this. This has to be bitter medicine for Greece because you give them billions of dollars and you require the sort of reforms that don't go down too well with people; I think that's what we want. We don't want this to be sugar-coated.
Bill Baldwin: Ask yourself why Greece's problems are causing problems in our stock market. I think it's a belated recognition by investors around the world that the bailout culture is bad for economics. It means that we are going to be taxing hard-working people and savers, and handing the money to deadbeats and spendthrifts.
In Focus: Will Finishing the Border Fence Be Cheaper and More Effective Than Any Immigration Reform?
David Asman: Mr. President, build up that wall. This week, Republican Senator Jim DeMint calling for the United States to finish the border fence within a year and some here not only agree, but say building the wall will be cheaper and more effective than any immigration reform Washington can dream up.
Kai?
Kai Falkenberg: We should finish the fence. The only way to solve the immigration mess in this country is through effective border control. The last thing that we want is to have serial amnesties, and fences have been proven to work. In San Diego they worked; border arrests went down 95 percent. And in Israel suicide attacks went down 90 percent. This shows that fences are cheap, effective, and where our focus should be right now.
Neil Weinberg: I think a fence around all the politicians in Washington who don't have the spine to create a sensible immigration policy would be really helpful. This makes a mockery of our entire democracy when we can't control the borders, and the key to controlling out borders is a sensible policy. This doesn't prevent people from coming in illegally by boat from places like Haiti and China.
Steve Forbes: Fences work so go ahead with it, but combine it with other kinds of reforms. We do need workers, so go ahead with worker programs (we used to have them in the past). We need high-tech people, so expand the H1B Visas. And make sure the people who obey the rules get through the system quickly instead of dragged along as our bureaucracy does today. And with Mexico, why isn't that country growing the way India, China, and other countries are? Give advice to them so that people have less incentive to cross our border. Put it all together.
Victoria Barret: I agree that this should really be about comprehensive immigration reform. Immigrants are good for our society. If you look at the state of California, a lot of economic studies suggest that our great economic growth has been thanks to a growing immigrant workforce and population. We want these immigrants, but the problem is they are undocumented and they don't pay back into the system. A fence, by the way, doesn't really work. You look at the San Diego numbers, but my bet is that people crossed elsewhere along the border. That's just one small area. You have to look at the whole picture and you can't really prevent people from coming over — they'll find other ways.
Stephane Fitch: I disagree with the people who are against immigration, but give them their stupid wall, even if it costs twice the $8 billion we're talking about. If you put out a smart immigration policy and ten times as many green cards as we do right now, we won't need the wall. But we have to have the wall to make the politics work, so put it in.
Quentin Hardy: The wall won't work. The border is 1,969 miles long. They closed off San Diego — why do you think Arizona is having such a problem now? People went around! It's not going to work. You can't police it. They'll keep coming in other ways.
Debate: Freddie Mac Asking for Another $10 Billion Bailout. Where Is the Outrage in D.C.?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARNEY FRANK, SEPTEMBER 10, 2003: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not in crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
David Asman: Oh yeah, right. Barney botched it back then and look where we are now. Government-run Freddie Mac is asking for another $10 billion bailout. That's on top of $50 billion it already got from taxpayers. And unlike Goldman Sachs and other banks, Freddie Mac has not repaid one single bailout dime. So where is the outrage?
Steve, where are the hearings and the lawsuits from D.C.?
Steve Forbes: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have paid off every politician in Washington they could and their relatives and staffers as well. They've wired the whole thing! They caused the crisis. They've got a $1.5 trillion guarantee of junk mortgages, accounting fraud, and there are more million-dollar executives in Fannie Mae than any other company in America. If you add it all up you have a big fat mess and big fat corruption. What they should do is recapitalize them, break them up, and then privatize them.
Stephane Fitch: Fannie got co-opted by Wall Street. That's why we've spent so much time studying them. Yes, we should put them up in the investigations and be asking them questions, but if you really want to find the bad guy here, look at Wall Street, which was peopling Fannie Mae and sucking fees out of it.
Bill Baldwin: Fannie, Freddie, and Barney rolled the dice with my money and they lost it. Yes we should have outrage and yes we should have a hearing. But I'm going to turn the tables around. For the interrogator at the hearing, I'm going to have the Goldman CEO, Lloyd Blankfein. He's going to call in all the bad guys, which would be the Fannie and Freddie executives and Barney, and he's going to say to them, why did you gamble and take the taxpayer money, and give it to me?
Quentin Hardy: That clip you showed of Barney Frank is from 2003, five years before the crisis. Let's compare that to Jimmy Cayne (former Bear Sterns CEO) exclusively on Fox the weekend before the company went out of business saying, there's nothing wrong at my bank. Those are the guys who stuffed Fannie and Freddie with a bunch of badly-rated, ill-conceived, under-written mortgages that had no place being there. The Bush administration SEC turned a blind eye to it. Yes, Fannie and Freddie inflated out of control, but they were in a process that worked fine for years until Wall Street went crazy and abused them.
Mike Ozanian: Bush wanted to do something about the high leverage of Fannie and Freddie but congress stonewalled them. It's Fannie and Freddie that created the derivatives that were then sold to Wall Street. If Fannie and Freddie hadn't done what they were doing, Wall Street never would have had those securities to sell to the public.
Informer: Forget "Sell in May, Go Away". It's Time to "Buy and Stay"!
Mike Ozanian: American Greetings (AM)
Stephane Fitch: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B)
Neil Weinberg: Clorox Company (CLX)
Bill Baldwin: FICO (FICO)
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Cashin' In
Who Is Right? Folks in D.C. Calling to Ban Offshore Drilling or Warren Buffett Who Says We Should Not Change Policy?
Jonathan Hoenig, www.CapitalistPig.com: The oil spill is terrible, especially the human loss of life. But these accidents are very infrequent. This is an unbelievably safe industry. You have to go back what 21 years to the Exxon Valdez to get anything remotely as big as this. You have to go to 1969 to find something like this. You have billions of barrels of oil pumped every year… a spill rate of .001 percent. Warren Buffett is right, to stop drilling is to slit our own throats.
Christian Dorsey, Director, Economic Policy Institute: Since 2001 alone in the Gulf we've had almost 900 fires from oil and gas drilling and almost 80 people lose their lives. This is hardly an infrequent or insignificant occurrence. Instead of "Drill Baby Drill" maybe a better slogan is "Drills Cause Spills." This is something we really need to take care of. This is clearly a dangerous exploration and for us to continue without pausing at the very least to consider the safety impact would be reckless. I also hope we take this time to think about our long term energy policy and to move away from a fossil fuel alliance which we know is dangerous and dirty and as we now know can be devastating for our environment.
Pat Powell, Powell Financial Group: We've been on notice since 1973 and you know what we've done? Somewhere between little to nothing. We now import 87 percent more oil today than we did in 1973 when the Arab OPEC nations used oil as an embargo against us as a political weapon. We have to drill 11 million more barrels per day just to bring supply and demand into sync to have control over our domestic production.
Wayne Rogers, Wayne Rogers & Co: I hate to tell Jonathan this, but he's wrong. Here I'm holding three sheets of paper listing all the catastrophes with oil that's happened since Valdez. So A, you're wrong Jonathan. B, it's very costly. This in the Gulf right now is not only going to cost fishermen fish. By the way, what makes the fishing industry superior to the oil industry. You're going to put people out of work, you’re going to change lives, you’re going to do a lot of things. Everyone, even though they happen very rarely, is so significant, it wipes out all of the other stuff. It's just crazy. And for us not to wean ourselves off fossil fuels — by the way, natural gas isn't something we can do without having this, you can get nuclear, you have all kinds of alternatives here that you can spend money on and that’s what we should be doing and Pat is right.
John Layfield, www.nutritionmarket.com CEO/Owner: There is no question that this was an absolute disaster that happened. I'm down here in Texas and we will be impacted as well. You say get off fossil fuels. The solar farms are blocked in the Mojave Desert and wind farms are blocked by infrastructure they said would be built. I'm for doing all of this. China owns or controls 90 percent of the rare earth materials and they are buying up commodities around the world. China will be allowed to drill in the waters. China has to deal with Cuba, 90 miles off Key West and they will drill in the waters and create Chinese jobs and send oil to China. I believe that Exxon-Mobil will be better than sea nook since we have the Chinese oil rigs in the Gulf anyway.
Financial Reform or Snooping Through Your Personal Info: Big Brother in Your Bank Book?
Jonathan Hoenig: These aren't detectives getting a search warrant from a judge to sneak in criminal records. These are elected bureaucrats, the same SEC goons surfing the porn, snooping into everything and looking for anything. Right? I mean, my loans, how much is in my mutual fund, bank account, what is it any of their business?
Wayne Rogers: The problem is the IRS did the same thing. Remember when Hillary lost those IRS files and they turned up in her office? They are snooping on you all the time. It's outrageous. I don't know where the ACLU is. They should be on this like white on rice. They should be all over this thing, because the federal government is getting in the private life. Every chance they have. They are monitoring the telephone calls and getting into it. Outrageous.
Pat Powell: This is not about peeking in your bank account. Right now, we have so many laws on the books, if you for money laundering reasons or look at anything you want. This is a lot of hubbub over nothing.
Christian Dorsey: This reminds me of Republican desperation. They were about to lose on health care, they started to talk about death panels and now they talk about Big Brother. The federal government can't look at anything that the private credit record agency like Expirian or Transunion can look into. So clearly this is not anything the government is doing to overreach.
John Layfield: This has gone on for centuries and same thing with Hamilton and Jefferson and the same thing with FDR. Every time there is a financial crisis, politicians find somebody, in this case they have approval rating barely higher than bin Laden. They are going to turn everything they can on the banks. Increase the power because this is an opportunity. We need margin on the derivatives. This is going to swing way too far as the government does.
Did Simon Cowell Just Become American Taxpayers' Next Idol?
John Layfield: Absolutely, because a lot of times what happens in the places in Western Europe will happen here as well. Hopefully so. They want less intrusive government. The sovereign debt issue is bigger than the subprime dreamed of being. We have a problem in this world of politicians not making decisions and passing it off using debt so they don't make tough decisions. Forty percent of global GDP is in countries with 10 percent current deficit to GDP. We have a massive problem with sovereign debt.
Wayne Rogers: No I don't think so. It didn't have anything to do with Simon, himself. It those do with the fact — John is right. The ratio of debt to GDP all over the world, in fact the Bank of International Settlements has predicted that this is a precipitous ride and the next five years it will be a disaster for us if we don't correct it. True in Greece. Greece is a microcosm for what is about to happen if we're not careful in the United States, if we don't pay attention to it, we are morons. Get rid of the Congress who keeps spending money. That's what you do.
Christian Dorsey: I don't think so. What is next? We're going to take investment advice from Kim Kardashian? People always want to see the taxes are reduced and government be small. When conservatives in the country have been in charge of all branches of government, they haven't reduced the size. Face it. We talk about debt and worrying about what the government is spending today. Where were these conversations when we were spending money with the tax cuts in 2000 which led to this crisis?
Jonathan Hoenig: I'm surprised to hear Christian dismiss Simon Cowell as an idiot. He has been kind of successful. He didn't take a bailout and he didn't get one of your green energy windmill programs. Simon Cowell made all this money in the U.S. He epitomizes the American dream and he wrote about that in the U.K. papers. He is an individualist and a self-made man, businessman who is proud of his success. He is a true American.
Pat Powell: But their economy is dead on arrival. He stated the fact they have the GDP growth at 0.4 and 0.2 percent. This is an economy not breathing. The voters in England are speaking. They need a recovery. Our recovery not robust, 5.6 and 38.2 is better. We do not want to follow the British model unless they get it right.
What Do I Need to Know?
Wayne Rogers: I just said it and I'll say it again: Greece is a microcosm for what could happen in the United States. If we don't pay attention to what that is, we are doomed. We have got to cut our debt. We have got to do something about it. We have to do it now! We cannot wait.
John Layfield: Wayne is right, but 9.9 percent unemployment, some companies are hiring. YUM Brand Foods (YUM). You have Bird and Pizza under one roof and they are hiring Americans. You have to love that.
Jonathan Hoenig: Speculation is always, the cause of all of our problems but actually, there was a lot of evidence that Thursday's plunge was due to the high-speed traders that pulled out of the market and it made the markets less liquid. When people need liquidity they buy the Yen. There is an exchange traded fund that tracks the asset, (FXY). If you scared about another plunge this is the trade to own.
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