DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING "Cost of Freedom Recap" CONTAINS STRONG OPINIONS WHICH ARE NOT A REFLECTION OF THE OPINIONS OF FOX NEWS AND SHOULD NOT BE RELIED UPON AS INVESTMENT ADVICE WHEN MAKING PERSONAL INVESTMENT DECISIONS. IT IS FOX NEWS' POLICY THAT CONTRIBUTORS DISCLOSE POSITIONS THEY HOLD IN STOCKS THEY DISCUSS, THOUGH POSITIONS MAY CHANGE. READERS OF "Cost of Freedom Recap" MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN INVESTMENT DECISIONS.
OIL AND GAS PRICES GOING DOWN OVER ECONOMIC WORRIES: SHOULD WE DRILL MORE AND APPROVE THE KEYSTONE PIPELINE TO KEEP DRIVING THEM LOWER AND HELP PUMP UP THE ECONOMY?
JOHN LAYFIELD: Build the Keystone Pipeline. That's part of it. We don't have an energy policy. I've said this month after month, week after week, year after year on this show. We're the only developed country in the world that does not have one. Build the Keystone Pipeline. I really believe President Obama is going to okay this the second he gets reelected, if he does. It's total politics right now. Now this oil may not come to the United States, but if it goes to the Pacific West Coast of Canada, it's going to Asia and we will never see this oil. Remember, we rattled our savers about pipelines going from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean instead of going through Georgia because we said wherever it goes across controls that oil. Why now do we feel differently about Canadian oil? It's absolutely insane. It's total politics.
TRACY BYRNES: Okay but don't forget Cheryl, the oil market is a futures market. It trades on the future right? And if we start to actually show some semblance of a plan here in the U.S., because right now as John has said many times, we don't have one, if we show some interest in doing stuff at home it actually could calm the nerves of the oil markets and the future markets and that actually, in the end, is a good thing.
CHRISTIAN DORSEY: It would be a good thing (lower gas prices) if it were to happen, but it won't. Keystone will amount to a tear drop into a lake in terms of how oil is created on the global markets. That oil is not destined to be sold in the United States. It's destined to be put into a world market where forces far beyond what Keystone can produce are going to influence the price of oil and gasoline. It is not to say that the Keystone is a horrible idea if it's not modified significantly, but to think that this is really going to change what Americans are feeling at the pump is ludicrous. In fact, it's probably going to raise prices, particularly in the Mid-West where a lot of the oil that Trans-Canada is storing there is going to be sent down the pipeline and on to the global oil market. This is not something that's going to change for the better the way that consumers feel about gas prices.
JONATHAN HOENIG: Well Cheryl, more production will unquestionably lower prices. More supply will lower prices. That goes without saying. I think the essential issue here isn't the price of oil however, but it's the protection of liberty. I mean, in a free Capitalist economy, people are allowed to, and by that I mean companies as well, invest however they want. We don't have a philosopher king, a tsar, or a dictator who decides who gets funded, who can build what. What's ironic is the President's against Keystone, but yet you know he's given out $3 billion in energy grants to people associated with his own administration. Here we've got a company that wants to invest private dollars to actually build infrastructure in this country. No, no, no, no that doesn't fly.
WAYNE ROGERS: I don't think there's an emotional nickel in the price of oil. You say it's emotional. There's nothing emotional about it. Supply and demand; if we have more supply obviously the price will go down. It's an interesting thing to note that oil prices have dropped between 20 and 30 cents a gallon here in the last month and a month ago was the time when they made oil traders no longer have minimum margins. They had to put up more money for that. That's when oil prices began to come down. So that would suggest to you that maybe something to the fact that oil traders were creating some of this price rise. I don't know, but you know we have so much in the Bakken oil shale and all these various oil shales. We're going to have plenty of oil for years. It's just a question of supply and demand. Go after the oil; we'll get it and it will come down. I wouldn't worry about it.
FINANCIAL REGULATIONS SLAP STAY-AT-HOME MOMS?
TRACY BYRNES: Welcome to the 1930's again Cheryl. This sets us back a billion years. Look, the first thing they're saying is just because you stay at home, you don't have a job and you don't make any money and therefore you're useless and you don't deserve a credit card. Second of all, women deserve to have credit in their own name. They need it quite frankly. I got screwed when I did not have a credit card in my own name when I was married. You go out on your own you have no credit; you can't do anything in this world. This is another unintended consequence of these financial regulations. The women are out there shopping. We run the households. Just because you stay at home doesn't mean you don't work. Women need access to credit just as much as their husbands who go to work every day.
JONATHAN HOENIG: Regulators are professional destroyers and in this case, as Tracy pointed out, stay-at-home moms are just you know, collateral damage. They're just shrapnel along the way. The fact of the matter is that credit cards had zero to do with the crisis, nothing to do with the crisis, and the regulations, which are now a few years old have had destructive effects. They've made credit more expensive and less available. You know, a man's mind is like his tool for survival. If you can't think, you can't live. Regulations like this tell you, no you're an idiot. So is the government next going to tell me what time to set my alarm clock? How much hot sauce to put on my wings? It's ludicrous.
CHRISTIAN DORSEY: I don't stay at home, but there are 154 thousand stay-at-home dads, so this is something that applies to all non-income earning parents, but you know the whole idea that a credit card is something that is a birthright is wrong. It is tied to your income. It is like a loan. You don't get loans unless you have an income. Now, that being said, there is a simple solution to fix this. You allow the income-earning spouse to designate a portion of their income that can be used for credit purposes for the spouse who's not earning a paycheck. This is fairly easy to do technologically. This is not a huge issue. So you all should get off your soap box. There's an easy fix to this problem.
WAYNE ROGERS: I think Christian is on to something. Forgive me, but he's raised a fundamental issue. Tracy mentioned the 1930's. There were no credit cards in 1930. Who says you're entitled to a credit card? Where do credit cards come from? You're making the assumption that everybody's entitled to a credit card and they're not entitled to a credit card. There were people for years that never had credit cards. Credit is something that's extended by somebody who wants to sell you something. Under those circumstances there is a buy and a sell and it's a free market to do that if you qualify, fine. If you don't, you don't get a credit card, big deal.
JOHN LAYFIELD: Look, I agree with Wayne and Christian. It is not a birthright, but what has happened because of Dodd-Frank, which does not address what would happen with JP Morgan. Look that's a new type of Glass Steagall that needs to be put in place. The vocal rule does not cover risk mitigating hedges, which probably doesn't cover that. It's a huge gray area, but because of Dodd-Frank, $1.7 trillion has come out of the credit card market and that is what is causing this. It is not a birthright but it is affecting the poor who need credit cards for cash management and those stay-at-homes that need this, that don't have an income.
GOV'T SHELLS OUT $20 MILLION TO EDUCATE PUBLIC ABOUT BEING HEALTHY: GOOD USE OR WASTE OF TAXPAYER MONEY?
WAYNE ROGERS: This is outrageous. Here they pass a law that's two-thousand, six hundred pages long. They don't bother to read it. Congress doesn't. Then they pass something that says oh, now we have to explain the law and we're going to have to tell you what to eat, how to eat, when to eat it, do all of those things. They ought to eliminate all of those programs and tell them to use that same money and pay to educate the Congress. The Congress is the stupid people. So if you're going to spend the $20 million. Spend it on educating the Congress. Don't waste it on trying to tell us what to do. It's crazy they're going to tell people everything. They're going to regulate your entire life. Get rid of them. It's about freedom, not about the government.
CHRISTIAN DORSEY: Well two things Cheryl. One, this is mandated in the law. They have to do this and two; it makes sense to do this. Preventive care is something that's an alien concept to many people. They don't know about it and the Affordable Care Act provides a lot of opportunities. People should know about it because it's going to reduce health care spending, but the final piece is, it's amazing how it's become an issue by some people during the Obama Administration given the fact that the previous administration spent over $100 million to advertise and provide public relations about the Medicare law. This is all politics.
JONATHAN HOENIG: I totally agree with Christian about the importance of preventive measures. Eating right; healthy; exercise; I mean it is integral, no question. The question is, is it government's role to do that, to Wayne's point, to live our lives. I mean next they're going to say I should be taking a spin class everyday or cutting the carbs. In fact, it was the government's own food pyramid which recommended multiple servings of carbs everyday that is now discredited. People have the right to live their own life as they see fit. There's no such thing as a national health care bill. Health is a personal issue and that's where it should remain.
TRACY BYRNES: Here's the thing. You know, we have all these ads on the fabulous. Why not some ads on how much it's going to cost us on the extra taxes on the drug companies; the medical device companies; the excise taxes? How about the fact that you're going to be charged 3.8 percent on investments going forward, all to pay for this fabulous preventive care and Jonathan eating chips and whatever the heck else it's going to cost me. This is an expensive bill. It's not going to do what they say it's going to do. So to spend ads on this is hypocritical.
JOHN LAYFIELD: Look, like Ron White says, to Wayne's point, you can't fix stupid. You could spend a trillion dollars. You're not going to help our Congress, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Polio was supposed to be a trillion dollar disease. We eradicated it through prevention. I agree with the prevention. I mean, what value do you put on a kid who never becomes obese and does not smoke? But the way they're doing it is simply a waste. I agree with the premise. I don't agree with the method.
WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?
TRACY BYRNES: New food stamp fraud is proof we need "handout reform" now
JOHN LAYFIELD: Carl Icahn is buying (CHK) and so should you
WAYNE ROGERS: Real estate stocks rebounding, build up profits with (RSO)
JONATHAN HOENIG: Airlines and (FAA) will fly as oil prices keep falling
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox