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.
NEW EBOLA SCARES SPARK DEBATE OVER IMPACT ON MARKET AND ECONOMY
John Layfield: I think it's definitely going to get worse, look at all those crazy swings we had last week and I am not meaning to make light of Ebola at all, but anytime you see somebody getting sick they are quarantining planes, they are quarantining buses, quarantining schools and I think this will continue and I think this is adding to the problems the market is having and the reason is because Ebola has such a high fatality rate and so it is causing this fear of a wide pandemic, but remember the CDC has been wrong about the Avian Flu, the Swine Flu, they've been wrong about Malaria coming to America. They were wrong about SARS, hopefully they are wrong about this also, but I think what you are going to see is make the market have wider gyrations when really the market is dealing with Germany's slowdown slowing down the EU and the Fed keeping interest rates low.
Gary B. Smith: I actually think it is a time to buy. I agree with a lot of what John said. A lot of the volatility is caused by a fear of the unknown. I think it's kind of "Katie Bar the Door" if we discover a person who isn't associated with health care has Ebola then you start "Oh my Gosh!" then, then that's really serious. Now you know everyone has been in the Hospital or came from West Africa and so far it's been fairly contained and I think it provides these panic sell offs and I think thinks its attributed to other reasons too. The panic sell offs we have had I think are buying opportunities as the S&P approached 1800 the other day, two days ago, I was buying. I'm not saying everyone should go all in, I think you start to do selective buying on these big dips.
Jonas Max Ferris: Panic is the only hiccup in the market, it's why we used to have panics hundreds of years ago all the time in the economy and the market we saw stocks moving around for travel like Carnival Cruise Lines with just phantom menaces of this Ebola outbreak that weren't even real and their stocks recovered later in the day. The point is, is that if people behave crazy there is no limit to how far it can go. We could have thousands of Ebola outbreaks and it would have no more effect on the economy than the flu if no one cared, but they are going to care and start panicking if it's out of the healthcare, which we just talked about. You could see people get nutty, not travel and hoard up in their house. They can drive an economy into a recession so I fear the panic and how people behave and not the actual chance of someone getting the flu and that is a very viable thing, we don't know how many people would panic.
David Mercer: Well, I point my finger as I think some exaggeration on the part of the media, the GOP has been using it as a political issue and fear mongering the issue and I think the real, the thing that scares me is the fact that we would have been better prepared for this had we not endured the cuts to the Center on Disease Control or on the National Institute on Health, which would have been better prepared for this. That said, let's put it in perspective, you have more people dying a year, 50,000 dying a year of the flu and pneumonia and of that 4,000 die strictly of the flu. So go get your flu shots, take a deep breath, let's not worry so much about Ebola, let's get our arms around how we can reduce and prevent any others from contracting Ebola
Tracy Byrnes: There is so much volatility in this market really anything can make it gyrate for the rest of the year. But the trend is up for November and December. History has shown November and December to be really good months in the market and I think this was a little bit of the correction everyone was waiting for and the Ebola scare just kind of added to it and moved it along and sped it along and Gary said you should be buying and you know what? People should have made a shopping list for this for this correction and go in and find a stock or two that you wanted to buy and now your can at a cheaper price but I don't think we should panic and presume this market is falling off a cliff.
PRESIDENT OBAMA NAMING LONGTIME POLITICAL AIDE RON KLAIN AS "EBOLA CZAR"
Tracy Byrnes: You know when they created the job description for the Ebola czar, my guess is the first line said "DOCTOR!" This is a medical issue, did they not think of that? Did we just put him in there because he was Joe Biden's Chief of Staff and that's what we do, we give our friends jobs. Look, this man has to understand preventive care, the drugs, all this kind of stuff requires medical background and I'm sure he is going to surround himself with smart people but you would want the guy at the top, guy or girl, to have that in the back of their head at all times.
Gary B. Smith: My wife and I worked right next to Lou Gerstner when he came over from RJR Nabisco. Mr. Gerstner knew nothing, well he knew something about computers because he was an IBM client before that, but he really didn't know anything about the technology industry and he did a fantastic job of turning around IBM. I understand what Tracy is saying and I agree with certain points, but the private sector doesn't always operate like that. Another great example is Meg Whitman before she took over eBay. She worked at Disney and StrideRite and Hasbro and now she is at HP. She didn't know anything about IT and I think she is doing good job. So I think this job is more of a leadership job than a medical job.
David Mercer: Ron Klain has a lot of management experience. This is a gentleman that has served two vice presidents. He has served a majority leader, clerked for a Supreme Court justice, has been the chief of staff to an attorney general so he has covered a wide range of issues. In addition, he has worked in the private sector at the Law firms of Williams & Connolly, at AOL and others. So what we need here, we have enough Doctors at CDC and other expertise at the agencies that are at the forefront at combating Ebola but we need someone who is going to keep the trains running on time, coordinate, identify problems so they don't get bigger, and to work with Congress so we can address this issue in a coherent manner rather than it just over whelming us. And I think he is in that position to do this.
Jonas Max Ferris: It's going to be really difficult to get those people to leave those jobs with the cushy stock options and take this dead end Ebola job. When this blows over who wants to be that Czar? That's the problem with it. Is the job post necessary? Why isn't Homeland Security doing it? They already have in their huge $40 million budget and Infectious Disease/Bio-Terrorism Department that is supposed to be on top of this in case a terrorist decides to come here with Ebola to spread and they had no plan obviously so hiring more people is not going to fix that problem.
John Layfield: I don't know his qualifications, I don't know the man personally, but I don't want a man that served under a lot of people, I want someone who ran something. Why is the President not showing leadership here? This is political cronyism at its absolute worst and if you are going to get someone why don't you go out there, swallow your pride and call Bill Clinton , why don't you get Mitt Romney, reach out across the aisle like Abraham Lincoln did, he at least saved the Salt Lake City Olympics. Why don't you call Michael Bloomberg? There are a lot people who have run very big things successfully he could have called and instead he called somebody he wants to play golf with, one of his political cronies.
SURVEY: 66 percent ARE CUTTING SPENDING; SPARKS WORRIES ABOUT HOLIDAY SHOPPING SEASON
Gary B. Smith: My gauge for how good the Christmas shopping season is going to be is my own feelings and I've been grumpy now for about two weeks. I think it boils down to the double edged sword if you will. You've got one-half the country greatly impacted by the lack of rise in the median income, we are all feeling poor. Then you have the other half of the country and their 401(K)s, their "richness" index so they are all feeling poor. There is no one out there willing to spend right now.
Tracy Byrnes: There won't be anything that will blow your mind come Christmas time other than some technology. People will buy a new phone and things like that but otherwise walk through the mall, there is nothing to buy. If you are tight with your cash to begin with and nothing is pulling you into the stores to buy it you are certainly going to want to keep it and that is what we are going to see. It's déjà vu all over again. I feel like it's been like this for a few years now and we are not getting out of this rut.
David Mercer: The recovery is going well, but I think it's been a bit unbalanced. You have most Americans who have not felt what benefits have accrued to a few Americans, and they have student loans now at $1.2 trillion. There's income inequality, they have no minimum wage raise so they will not be jumping up and down to go and create demand on Christmas shopping. So it's not the Grinch on Christmas, it's minimum wage not being raised and those other issues.
John Layfield: It has nothing to do with minimum wage. We have more Americans not working than in our history even though we have had some good job numbers. I think Americans will spend on Christmas. With gas prices down, I think we will probably see a really good Christmas. I actually bought two retail stocks because of that.
Jonas Max Ferris: For a lot of people, this is as good as it gets economy. I was in a line at the Apple store and I think things are better than they look for many people.
PREDICTIONS
GARY B SMITH: Stream on the go! (VZ) downloads a 30 percent gain in 1 year
JOHN LAYFIELD: Go with GoPro! (GPRO) captures a 50 percent profit in 6 months
JONAS MAX FERRIS: Get ready for Apple pay! (AXP) charges up 20 percent in 1 year
TRACY BYRNES: Parents are now liable for what their kids post on Facebook
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