Survey: CEOs' biggest fear is government over-regulation

close

Video

Survey: CEOs' biggest fear is government over-regulation

Is that what's really hurting market, economy?

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.

Markets Snap Three-Week Losing Streak, But Still in Correction Territory

Suzy Welch: It's one huge problem. It kills profits which kills jobs. It's the bureaucrats putting out regulations. In 1936 the federal register had 2600 pages. Today its 800,000 pages long. It has to be to account for the paperwork producing being poured out from the EPA, on and on. Look at this. For ObamaCare, for every 30 minutes a doctor spends with a patient there is an hour of paperwork. The EPA is increasing standards to air conditioners to no environmental benefit. It's the state and local government. You have to obtain a license to close a business in Milwaukee. With scads of paperwork. These regulations are out of control. Of course CEOs are worried. They should be.

Gary B. Smith: The regulations now under the Obama administration are costing the U.S. 200 Billion dollars. That's half the auto industry. That's a third of the financial services industry. That's a huge hit on GPD. We can't make every regulation go away. Its going to cripple the economy.

Nomi Konst: The economy is doing great. CEOs are making 300 times what they did 20 years ago. Taxes are lower. Unions are basically weakened. This is lobbying at its finest. You have corporations which have spent all this money on actually getting rid of regulations. Companies and CEOs are doing better than ever.

John Layfield: You talk about peddling fictions. Those numbers are just flat wrong. Corporate profits are down. This is the weakest recovery in history, the average recovery for 6 years is a GDP growth of 27 percent this has been 14 percent. If you want to cherry pick your numbers to make it look one way. We have too much regulation right now. Its three times the amount of regulations that Bush put in.

Jonas Max Ferris: Let's put this in context. These are global CEOs we are surveying. We are talking about other regulations in other counties. This isn't necessarily ObamaCare. Global CEOs are facing much more regulation than US CEOs right now. The bottom line is there are some benefits to these regulations. The good regulations benefit the industry, as well as people. If we had no fishing regulations there would be no more fish.

Senate Democrats Block Bill to Tighten Screening Process of Syrian Refugees

John Layfield: It's amazing to me that we have a government that wants to extend background checks on American citizens legally buying a firearm but don't want to anything about refugees coming from a place that we can't verify through biometric or biographical data who they are. We are not talking about stopping Muslim, Cuban, or Latin American refugees; we are talking about stopping it for the time being so we can figure it out. ISIS has said they are infiltrating these refugees.

Jonas Max Ferris: In the long run I think it is cheaper for these countries who are taking refugees in, to instead make a safe area and secure it in Syria. The other costs of over staying a visa, they are still spending money here and we don't want to lose tourism because of this, or lose immigration. Good immigration is good for the economy too. We must implement a better tracking system.

Suzy Welch: Here is the good thing about Americans. We feel the need to help and protect those who are weaker and need our help, no matter how much it costs. But Americans have a hard time wrapping our heads around evil. You think about the San Bernardino terrorist, the attended a Christmas party with their coworkers before killing them. So our refugee policy reflects this issue, we want to be the old America but it's the new world. And I think the only solution is the one Jonas mentioned, to create safe places in Syria for the refugees.

Nomi Konst: There is a visa problem and there is a refugee problem. The refugee issue is an issue we have debated over and over. Where refugees are screened by five different agencies, the UN, a 21 step process which includes biometrics. The visa issue is that there is no biometric program. That's how the 9/11 hijackers got in and the San Bernardino terrorist got in. And Congress demanded a report 20 years ago about the visa process and they just got it this week.

Gary B. Smith: I think we are minimizing the problem. I think we are on the cusp of World War III, and its WWIII with terrorism. What did we do during the last world war Dagen, we had the Manhattan project. We took our finest minds we shut down everything, we put them in Oak Ridge Tennessee and the came up with “The Bomb”. This is what we need. We need a pause to figure out what we know and don't know.

New Push to Ban Teacher 'Sick-Outs' in Michigan After They Force School Closures

Gary B. Smith: Detroit public school teachers make more than any other public school teachers in the country at $47 an hour. What they are doing whether they call it potato or po-tah-toe is illegal. Get back to work.

Suzy Welch: This is the United States. People have the right to strike. That's why we are not china. Gary's right. Detroit is a good place to be a teacher. They spend three times as much on students in Detroit than most other places. Only 10 percent of Detroit's students can read proficiently. I like this strike. It draws attention to what's going on in Detroit and the fact that the teachers are part of the problem and need to be part of the solution.

Nomi Konst: The teachers are raising awareness to the fact that Rick Snyder has not passed a budget. He's not been giving money to the schools. They are broken down schools. They are not able to teach properly. These aren't the best optics but the president is in town. It calls attention to the fact they can't teach. That's the problem.

Jonas Max Ferris: They are not legally allowed to strike, first of all. Detroit and Flint are in a serious problem that requires federal interventions. They need to do something when Obama is there. It costs more to fix it after the fact. They are paying $1.5 Million a month for water. Now Obama has to pay to fix the bad water. There is no tax base there. I used to live outside of Detroit. The only way to solve it is federal money and it will be cheaper in the long run. They are in bad decline. You can't cost cut your way out of it.

John Layfield: This has nothing to do with the governor. These schools look like a third world country. This is an embarrassment to the education system in the United States. I'm not a fan of teacher unions. Something has to be fixed in Detroit. This is appalling what the conditions are.

Stock Picks

Gary B. Smith: (TTC) 30 percent gain in 1 year

John Layfield: (HD) 20 percent gain in 1 year

Jonas Max Ferris: (FSAIX) up 25 percent in 1 year