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Published January 26, 2017
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.
OCCUPY PROTESTERS LOOKING TO SHUTDOWN ALL WEST COAST PORTS: WILL THIS RUIN CHRISTMAS AND ECONOMY?
Jonathan Hoenig: About a roving band of thugs? Oh yeah, Cheryl, I think we should be worried. I mean Occupy Wall Street operates through thuggery; through force. So what does it come down to? A bunch of bandana-wearing hoodlums literally disrupting trade, disrupting mutually beneficial trade, disrupting the economy. A couple of weeks ago they tried to shut down the New York Stock exchange. It is sad but it is also scary. You know half a billion dollars of merchandise comes through that port, so stunts like this cost jobs, they hurt the economy and they cost businesses a lot of money in the process.
John Layfield: No and I gave a lot of leeway to these guys when they first started. But Muhammad boo Assisi, when he first burned himself, the Tunisian vendor, created this entire Arab spring and you wondered where these guys were headed? Well they have been hijacked by extremists and they are burning businesses in Oakland. They are now going after ports to shut down commerce. This does not affect the rich at all. The rich will not even know they are there. This is going to affect your average, everyday workers. This is not about the rich. This is not going after them and this is not helping the poor at all. This is a bunch of kids out there with iPad's wanting to protest so they get noticed. They have gotten noticed and they disrupt normal, everyday lives which is wrong.
Jehmu Greene: The reality is Cheryl, that because of the Occupy Movement, there has been more conversation about wealth disparity in this country than I have ever seen in my entire lifetime. That is the success they are having. Yes, if they shut down those ports and they make it hard for a mother to get a Barbie to her screaming five year old, it is going to make a difference. It is already changing the conversation from just focusing on our debt crisis and really focusing on the growing income inequality. So dissent, disruption that has created so many positive things for America and that is what they want to do in this case.
Tracy Byrnes: I think this is totally displaced. Look, we are on the brink as it is. If I hear there is going to be a protest down at Toys R Us, I am probably not going to go there. So what is happening? The overall economy is continuing to hurt and get worse. That is not going to help these kids. That is not going to help their call for income inequality. It is going to just make it worse. They do not realize that what they are doing is creating more catastrophes. They are not helping the situation at all. I disagree with Jehmu; I think everyone is sick and tired of these bone heads. Go to work already. Your point is not being made at all, whatsoever.
Wayne Rogers: One of the problems in a civil disobedience movement, and I think of that as being mostly peaceful; you take Martin Luther King; you take those kinds of things. Those were peaceful - Mahatma Ghandi - this is not. This is something that's hurting themselves. You think, for example, the Port of Los Angeles last year had something like 330 billion dollars worth of goods that passed through that port. Shutting down a port hurts them. It hurts the common man; John is right. It hurts the people that they are trying to help. As a point of trying to make a disparity between rich and poor; they're in the wrong place. They should be on the Washington Mall. They should be doing this to Congress. That's where the problem is. If they took the same amount of energy, and imagine this, all these people with this energy, if they went after the jobs and did something constructive, maybe if they want to do this go lie down in front of the congressman's house; lie down. Do something that protests who makes the laws, not the people that create the economy that helps people.
CONGRESS LOOKING TO TELL AIRLINES HOW MUCH THEY CAN CHARGE FOR BAGGAGE FEES
Tracy Byrnes: Well it's not like we're not going to cover the bill at the end of the day. Ticket prices will just go up Cheryl; the airlines are going to recoup it somehow, let's face it. Look, the government needs to get the heck out of the airlines and focus on, oh gee I don't know, the debt? Get the heck away right now from holiday travel. That's the last thing you need to be worrying about. We have a debt problem. That should be your first concern.
Wayne Rogers: No, the government shouldn't be telling anybody to charge anything. Anytime the government gets in the middle of it, it doesn't work. Competition is what makes this work. In other words, if the airlines are competing with their fellow airlines, the price of all of those things will come down. If I've got 15 people providing a service, I'm going to get a better service at a lower price. That's what will control this, so if one airline starts to do this and the other airline doesn't go along, that airline is going to get the traffic. The government has no business in this business at all.
Jehmu Greene: Actually, a lot of them are not. Southwest is one of the loan wolves out there, who, clearly they've been able to benefit without charging for fees. I agree with Tracy. There is more important business that Congress needs to be focused on. They should be focused on jobs and they should have passed the jobs plan, but the reality is, because of these checked-bag fees, taxpayers have had to pony-up the security costs that have increased 260 million dollars, and so that is a fee that Mary Landrieu wants to make sure that the airlines are not pushing that fee on to us as taxpayers, but at the end of the day, if you fly, you vote, that's what's behind this.
John Layfield: Government needs to stay out of nearly everything. Look, they've got a $3.6 trillion revenue that they spend each year. They raise about 2.3 trillion in revenue. They can't cut three percent, but we've got all of these super-smart, super committee guys. These buffoons are now trying to regulate an industry that, since 1904 in Kitty Hawk, has never made a profit as a sector. You've got two car wrecks in one garage and you're hoping a Lamborghini comes out? Not going to happen.
Jonathan Hoenig: That's what's ironic. Everyone's saying, oh government should stay out of it; government's already way in it. I mean, everything about the airline industry is already regulated. How many take-offs and landings, how planes are staffed, how they're designed, how airlines are scheduled. I mean all of those regulations now, of course, beget even more regulations; something as absurd as how much to charge for an overhead bag. You know what? Air travel is cheap. It's only gone up about 70 percent since the 1970s. You have no right to a free, overhead space or anything else. I mean, to say the government should stay out is to minimize it. They should completely get out; privatize the airports; Jehmu, that solves your funding crisis for security, and actually focus on what matters; the debt and national security a.k.a. Iran and a nuke.
$1BILLION GOVERNMENT HOMEOWNER PROGRAM MAINLY HELPING 3 STATES
Wayne Rogers: That is correct. The hardest hit were Florida and Nevada, Arizona and California and none of the money got there. This is a typical. Once again you talk about the airline is typical mess up of the federal government trying...it's like Eric Holder's gun running activities and you know the Solyndra scandal. The federal government can't do anything right. The best thing about this program is that it's over. That it's ended.
John Layfield: Wayne's right. It's because of the way this program is setup banks simply couldn't conform. Look, when this program was setup you have to understand the bank...the government just looked at mortgage payments according to total income. They didn't look at student costs, student loans, car loans, credit card; nothing. If you'd have called any community banker in this entire country they could've told you in thirty seconds off the top of their head why this would fail. But, they didn't do that and that's what happened when neophyte administration, but the entire Congress is locked in. They're simply not qualified to run the country and this is what happens.
Jehmu Greene: Well, for the ten million Americans who are underwater with their mortgages, it's not a question of you know, do we continue to stay in this market? It's a question of what more needs to be done and how fast it needs to be done. You know, clearly, the states that benefited from this program, the families that benefited from it wouldn't say, oh just wash it away. It had an impact on them. Who knows why Pennsylvania infrastructure allowed for that program to work more effectively, but there are a number of programs this administration has been working on that are key to fixing this bubble.
Tracy Byrnes: Okay, here's what needs to be done. The Congressional leaders need to get lost on their way back from Thanksgiving recess and detour themselves somewhere else. The best way to solve this housing crisis is for them to stay the heck out of it. This is typical, government flub-up. They did no new diligence a la Solyndra -- the list goes on and on. They didn't go any background work on this they got money out for PR purposes and again just added to our debt, Cheryl. All we're doing is racking up the debt for my kids, our kids and our grandkids.
Jonathan Hoenig: This whole notion that we have to help distressed home owners I mean, my God we've been helping them literally for years now. Does anybody remember Hope for Homeowners Act? The housings acts, assisting act, the helping families save their home act, the hope now alliance? Literally, there is a laundry list of bailouts for homeowners. The panel is right government is far overstepped its moral and constitutional grounds here should stay out and actually let a free housing market exist. Right now it's got a virtual monopoly on mortgage finance on this country and it's a dangerous destructive thing.
WHAT DO I NEED TO KNOW?
Wayne Rogers: Well, I think that the Congress is morally bankrupt; Europe is causing problems so we have a lot of fear take advantage of it because a year from now it will be better buy the Spider.
Tracy Byrnes: Alright, I'm thankful for two things. One, my son's football team won the super bowl shout out to him, Pete Saco and his awesome coaching staff. Two, woman are making more money and men are okay with it. Forty-five percent are actually willing to stay home while women work. I love it.
John Layfield: I want to stay home right now. Google is getting out of the renewable energy business our government is not in any energy business. They don't have an energy plan. Buy the traditional powers like AEP that are a 4.9 percent yield.
Jonathan Hoenig: The tapes have been brutal but GMLP is a natural gas ship and play. The good dividend also encouraging price action I entered it in my fund. Put it on your screen.
https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/occupy-movement-targets-stores