Dollars by mining your personal data from information you give at the checkout line, you knew that. But guess what . Now theyre looking at your facebook posts and status updates. That right. So who is buying all this info . John ulzheimer, credit exper at credit sesame. Com. He joins me with details. Always great to have you on the show. Particularly on a friday, valentines day. Thanks for coming in. My pleasure. Gerri ts is so interesting to me because this has the ring i heard it all before. Didnt this happen during the subprime crisis . S . What theyre doing is compiling information on those of us who have the least that then lenders, subprime lenders, credit card issuers, c go after some o these people. What do you make of it . Yeah, we should probably stop calling private Information Private because it is really not private. Is actually very valuae. It is for sale. It is completely available. It is being aggregated by companies and sold to lenders at want to make offers tailormade for consumers with financial problems. For example, those with tax liens, judgments against them or even bankruptcies and offer products and service that is would resonate to someone in that kind of financial stress. Gerri jon, we always knew that, right . There is certain amount, it makes sense to look t those go to the county courthouse. Thats right. Gerri find out who owes uncle sam money on their taxes. So those are the folks who dont get loans. Now it is way beyond that, way down the road. Looking at my facebook posts. Looking at my social media profile to figure out if im somebody to ld to . Look, my friends cant how is somebody worki for one of these compani supposed to do that . Your point is very wetaken. The challenge we have we try to put ourselves in the position of the company that is actually using and mining the data. Theyre not using common sense methods. Theyre using highly sophisticated analytic process to see is our frequency posting is predictive of something. Is how many friends we have predictive of something . That i telling a story whether were good prospects and targets, absolutely. Gerri really . If i thought Credit Reports out there were highly accurate i might be obliged to agree with you. I know they are not. These are same folks, same 4,000 data brokers looking over your shoulder, reading facebook posts whatever else youre doing on line. Let me tell folks what they are putting together. Look at lists sold to lender. Underbanked prime prospects. Information broken dow by race. Kaching. Let it ride. Mpulsive online gam brothers. Listen to tis. This sticks in my craw. Speedy dinero. These are hispanics in need of fast cash receptive to subprime offers. I said earlier, you know it is interesting, because sound like the mortgage meltdown all over again. Fiing people who cant really afford the loans and marketing loans right to them. Is that whats happening . Absolutely. This is the next generation of highlytargeted marketin instead of just using televisn ads atertain times of the day or certain placents on the radio during drive time. Now were looking at, hey, can we get this information and make it even mortar getted to consumers . For example your one about the hispanic speedy cash is great. The challenge we have. This is all voluntary. We dont have to respond to any of them. Taking out a loan is completely up to us. Were not forced into doing it. Make sure youre doing Due Diligence making offers and gerri hello, mr. Banker, if you offer somedy a loan you should know whether they can repay or not. That is the problem i have with that kind theyre essentially marketing to people who cant afford their produc. That is what is so disturbing. Clearly individuals have responsibility on their own, i do agree with that but it goes both ways my friend. To one of our favorite topics. Suze orman. Suze is out there right now and she wants congress to make some changes out there. Why dont you tell us about it. Yeah. She has gone to change. Org and asking people to vote for her petition to basically forcehe Credit Reporting agencies to accept Prepaid Debit Card information from the Prepaid Debit Card issrs. And this is proematic for a variety of reasons notwithstanding the fact suze orman is pushing an selling a Prepaid Debit Card of their own and theyre called Credit Reports r a reason. Theyre supposed to hous credit obligation prepaid debt card is not credi obligation. It is stored value cd that has your own cash. Gerri i thought with the industry onhis they dont want to grade or sce you how you spend your money. They want to grade or score you how you pay it back which makes a ton more sense to me. Suze says, no, no. Should be turned on its head. The whole world should be changed. My question to you, jon, does she want to chge things because she thinks it is better for america or wants to sell more of her prepaid deb cards . Tha is very good question and who knows what lurks inside of her mind. Herhere is the good news, it aint happening. If you look a consumer feedback over her post it i largely negative. Stay out o my walle im sick and tired of my information being shared. Those are types of comments were hearing. Credit reporting industry has no interest in the government telling it what it can accept and cant accept. Trouble trying to force information on to a Credit Report it doesn solvehe problem. Credit score systems will not conser information that is not predictive of future credit risk. If a prepaid credit card is nothing more than me using cash which does not tell a story about my credit usage. Gerri l me, i will ask the question in a way that is easy to understand. If i go to starbucks, does it mean im a worse credit risk, i dont know . What does it tell you . Literally nothing, rht . It tells me you like coffee. Gerri now befor you go that is what it tells me. I want to tell people fees on suze oans preapproved credit card. Purchase fee, three bucks. Monty account, goes on and on. Withdrawal fees at atm. 2 buck as transition. Balance inquiry, dollar transaction. You get the point here. There is lot of money to be made. I think she would like to make some more. John, thanks for coming on my show. Happy valentines to you and stay away from Prepaid Debit Cards. Gerri thank you, sir. More details for the bottom line concerning the massive merger of the two biggest and frankly most hated Cable Companies in the United States of america. Weve got two of the best here to debate. John berg meyer, senior staff attorney for Public Knowledge, and James Freeman assistant he had orfor the wall street journ editorial page. These two go headtohead on this topic. Ntlemen, start with you, you do not like this merger. Why not . Well, i dont like it i think when you have a company like a postmerger comcast such gatekeeper power over the cable industry and broadband industry it would have effect that is ripple all throughout the country even in areas not covered by either comcast or time warner. Gerri i know you object on the basis of this company will be too big, but to my iue. I thi prices are going to go up. What do you say . Well you know already most people dont have a losthoice in terms of thei cable provider. And that is not going to change. The competitive situation certainly isnt going to be better n ft yesterday, in a press call, comcast admitted that this merger would not lower prices for consumers. In fact it wouldnt even slow their increase. Gerri all right. James to you, you have a fferent view on this. What do you think of the merger . I think it is fine. I tnk markets work pretty well and consumers benefit most when washington allows vigorous competition and that is what you have here. I dont reall see ts great power. The cable guys are competing with satellite on the video end. Theyre competing with phone companies doing broadnd and video. Eyre competing with wireless. The Biggest Issue in the cable industry over the last decade has been people cutting the chord, saying theydont need wire in their house. Theyre going wireless. Gerri gerri, the world changed, competition has changed. Lots of oth players who could get in the middle of this and change the world entirely. I want to read something from your wall street journal editorial though. Heads up here, john, listen to, any giant fundraising deal is bonanza for groups like Public Knowledge which considers toking antitrust violation by definition. What do you say . That is not true. It is not bigness. It is market power. It is how big you are relative to anyone else. You wield so much more power than the nearest competito bringing up cable tv. Look at broadbandarket where if you just count cable and fiber enabled broadba, really high speed broadband, not slower dsl after merger comcast would have 30 million broadband customers and their next nearest rival would have under 10 million. That is, doesnt look like competition to me. That looks like a rout. If these guys have so much power i dt know why we dont see that in their Profit Margins. Gerri explain. Explain, their Profit Margins are roughly similar to what you see with the Telecom Companies they compete agast. Roughly similar to the Satellite Companies they compete against on video programs. Not as good as frankly the content Companies Like yours that travel over the pipes, over the cable pipes. In other words if someo has great monopoly power they should be able theoretically to extract big profits by gouging customers. These guys dont show those profits. Gerri okay. Let me show you monthly cable bill last 10 years, nearly tripled up, 166 . It will go to 200 bucks a month. Seems like they doing okay to me but they are. A lot of that money is passing through to cable channels. Of course espn, mos famously get as huge amount of money per sub desire. Point is americansant this. They like watching this stuff. Gerri john what do you say. If comcast is so strapped for cash amazing to be one of the top lobbying spenders in washingt, d. C. To try to influence the political outcome ofhei favor. I agree high content costs are big driver of cable bills. To the extent that comcast is able, to use its leverage to somehow maybe get better deal from disney or viacom, number one, i doubt they will pass that along to their customers. Number two the content companies will make it up by charging more to other smaller cable provide left in the market. Gerri i have to take you to something i think you both should respond to here. Look at pay tv Customer Satisfaction index. These two companies are at the bottom of the list. Americans think, oh, my goodness, these two people are getting married . I dont like either of the i dope want to go that wedding. They are two consenting adults here. The point is, very possible if consumers dont like them, if they use other options on line, netflix has the most talked about it. V show with house of cards. Gerri thats right. These guys could be out of business in 10 years. This business of bundling a bunch of channels selling them as a package it could be going away. This is the opposite of entrenched market with huge power. John . Thats why this deal isll about broadband. Im not sure how you watch netflix unless you have a Big Broadband internet pipe to watch netflix. Gerri theyre slowing it down now, john. How about at t, wireless competitors there is not monopoly hold on this. Gerrii but isnt there, the way cable works at a vy low level, town by town. Right. Gerri jurisdiction by jurisdiction. Zip code by zip ce you essentially sign adlong Term Contract with o of these companies and their pipes you are using and everybody uses them. They are sort of entrenched in term of that contract. Let john, go. He hasntad a chance. John . I like my Water Company but i dont have a competitive choice for water companies. In a lot of way your broadband and cable tv is similar. You have different providers roughout t country but they dont compete each other headtohead. Gerri in the same market, exactly. It is nothing like the Water Company. You have at t. Youve got verizon. You have wireless competitors. Another market signal if this merger is making comcast the all powerful cable company, why is their stock lower than the moment it was announceed . Gerri that is gre question. Unfortunately well have to leave ithere. James and john. Great job, interesting conversation. I feel smarter already. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Gerri a lot more still to come this hour, including advice on getting your family on board with you upcoming big move. Next ye more changes coming to obama care as some demrats desperate to save their careers are proposing a new plan that is even lower than bronze. Is it really an option . Well talk about it. You know how painful heartburn can b for fast, long lasting relief, use doctor recommended gaviscon®. Only gaviscon® forms a prottive barrier that helps block stomach acid from splashing up relieving the pain quickly. Try fast, long lasting gavcon®. Relieving the pain quickly. So ally bank has a that wothats correct. A rate. Cause im really nervous about getting trapped. Whys that . Uh, mark . Go get help i have my reasons. Look, you dont have to fe trapped with our raise your rate cd. If ourate on this cd goes up, yours can too. That sounds nice. Dont feel trapped with the ally raise your rate cd. Ally bank. Your money needs an ally. 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Legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses, turning dreamers into business owners. Anwere here to help start yours. Gerri consumers are not clamoring for the gold, silver and bronze obamacare plans as white house and democrat hoped for. Notwo democraaic senators facing a close reelecon race are pushing for copper plans to dig them out of this mess. Will it work . Joining me, paul howard, senior fellow at the manhattan institute. Welcome back. Always good to have you here. Copper plans, i thought that what the president wanted out of obamacare ishat you had to have the full menu of all services, all health care services, all the time. That is not what this is . Well the message were hearing now from people it is not flexible enough. When you look at fine print, over seven Million People are eligible for t marketplaces went to them but only 3. 2 million actually bought a plan. A lot of people are seeing prices and plans and walking ay. Gerri walking away. Now we kicked people off plans that we had bore woulde mor likk the copper plan theyre talking abo. I cant keep up. Help me understand. Right now the bronze plans are expensive. With subsidies theyre a good deal. If you dont get the generous subsidies youre facing 300, 400 a month in some cities. This is more affordable plan, especially healthy, dont get subsidies. Lets make it flexible and have people find plans they have before. Gerri that would be more like catastrophic, right . Right now. Catastrophic plans on exchanges, only 1 are buying them but theyre not eligible for subsidies which makes them very unattractive. Gerri lets look at two guys proposing this. Senator mark begich in alaska and mark warner in virginia. They have ds behind their names. What is going on, paul . It is Election Year and two people supported law. Had rocky rollout. Still controveral. Gerri cant keep your doctor. Cant keep your plan. Cant keep virtually anything you liked about health care before. How can you bend the law without breaking it . The president extended employee mandate twice. They say looks at changes in the law to be more flexible. Gerri what is the impact on bottom line if they actually do this. If youre an irsur this is driving you crazy. You price a pla figure out the risk pool will be and put itut there. If they rejigger it this way, on other hand morettractive bet people in the pool but on the other hand people pull their hair out because they dont know what the plan will sell. Gerri everybody is cond. The white house says were thinking about it . Really . Do you think they will do this. Im supportive. Anything that gives us mre flexibility, gives us more affordable insuran coverage is a good thing. Gerri meantime weve completely ripped up the whole other way of doing business which provided exactly this kind of coverage. You know, maybe, two steps forward one step back . At some point the administration gerr one step forward, two steps back, half aile back. Few miles back. At some point the administration got to concede, small employers are not buying plans, individuals are not buying plans they need more options. Gerri interesting to see if it goes through what the president does. Paul, thanks for coming in. Have a great weekend. You too. Gerri later in the show we wrap up valentines day week with our final installment of our users guide to love and money. Next we answer the question, how do you do that . We have advice convincing your significant other to relocate, to follow your dreams. What does everything mean to you . With the quicksilver cash back card from capil one, it means unlimited 1. 5 cash back on everything you purchase, every day. It doesnt mean, everything. As long as you buy it at theas station. It doesnt mean, everything. Unl you t your cash back limit. It means earn 1. 5 cash ck on every purchase, every place, every occasion, all over creation. Thats what everything shouldean. So consider. Whats in your wallet . Thats what everything shouldean. If. Hey breathings hard. Know the feeli . Copd inclus emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Spiriva is a oncedaily inhaleld copd maintenance treatment that helps open my obstructed airways for a full 24 hours. Spiriva helps breat easier. Spirivhandihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace fastacting inhalers for sudden symptoms. Ll your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. These may worsen with spiriva. Discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. Stop taking spiriva and seekmmediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you t hives, vision changes or eye pain, orblems passing urine. Other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. Nothing can reverse copd. Spiriva helps me breathe better. Does breathing wh copd weigh you down . Dont it to ask your doctor about spiriva. Gerri job opportunity opens up but it is across the country. Idea to your spouse in 60up the i must begin my journey, which will cause me to miss the end of the game. The x1 entertainment operating system lets your watch live tv anywhere. Can i watch it in Butterfly Valley . Sure. Can i watch it in glimmering lake . Yep. Here, too. What about the dark castle . You call that defense . come on [ female announcer ] watch live tv anywhere. The x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. Gerri in this tough economy you can be challenging to find a job and even hardtory trn one down but what if, what if that job you hear about is across the country anhow do you bring it up, not only idea to your significant other but sell them on the idea . With more on this, ann copeland, founder of the interchange institute. Welcome to the show. I dont know anybody who hs been married for any period of time who hnt had this conversation, should we move . Particularly in this economy, a lot of people can do very well for themselves by relocating but not easy to talk about. How do you even bring this up . Well, the first thing, whe do you bring it up . You know i think the most important thing that people can keep in mind is involve both spouse, having a discussion about whethe to take a new job and to relocate that involves them very early in the decision. Sometimes even employers involved the spse in deciding whether this is a good move for this family. If people dont buy in from the beginning there is trouble down the road. Gerri absolutely right and the last person i wan to talk t is th employer, let me tell you. I want to make the decision on my own. I think i would be insulted and my husband came home, meet my potential new employer, he will talk you into moving to the other coast. Is there preparation you can do though . Seriously, if your going to have the conversation, what kind of preparation do you need to do . I think first thing to do is listen to what your families concerns would be because there are some really, real logistical concerns that maybe the spouse is in chge of. What will it mean or her or his job . For the childrens education . For elder care . For family involvement. The question is, a lot of those obstacles are fixable. You canddress them. And maybe there is sething that the employer can do and that the family can decide to do to address each of the maybe if the child is in school, getting special services, maybe, we can find out. Ifhere are silar special services in another, in the new location. Gerri thats a great point. Thats areat point and i think people wonder about, then how do you come to this conusion . I mean you sound like youre driving to the move but im driving to, how do you make the right decision. So how do you do that . Thats right. And thats so important. If it doesnt work for the family at this time, it is not in anyones interest toake it and so, so if everybody can be involved in the beginning, can be involved,hat are the good things . Most of these locions work out really well and they can be lifechanging and wonderful experience for families, but lets take seriously what, what it means for the spouse and the family. And so listening for those concerns from the binningnd, i think if the two spouses are in partnership, think valentins day. Lets work on this tether. Ironically one of the things that tend to happen inamilies is, you know, i think all relocation are partly good and partly bad. There is some of each for most families in most situations. Right. If one person takes on the role of loving it 100 , well, that means the other person has to hate it 100 . If everybo gerri got to find Common Ground. Yes. Gerri absolutely right. Got to find the Common Ground and have a real conversatio about the move, what it means, would it work. An, thanks for cooing on tonight. Youre welcome. I think its a fascinating tooic. We had it many times in our household. Hard to know the right way. Thank you very much for your help. Youre welcome. And are you tired of credit cards . You know credit cards, the fees, interest rate, the worry about having your identity stolen. Do you want to live without plastic but dont know how . We want to you take our cash allenge. If you want to dp your credit cards and find a way to live on cash only we want to hear from you. Let me know your stories, friends, families, anybody you know, we want to talk to them. We want to talk to you. You want to go cashonly let us know. Coming up who is to blame for the bad economy, Mother Nature or washington. We have advice how to survive your divorce with your wallet inta. [ laughte] smoke . Nah, im good. [ male announcer ] celebrate every win with nicoderm cq, the unique patch wittime releas Smartcontrol Technology that helps prevent the urge to smoke all day long. Help prevent your avings with noderm cq. Here we are,e and you on the road and we know that it goes on and on [ female announcer ] youre the boss of your life. In charge of making memories and keeping prises. Ask your financial professional how lincoln financial can help you take charge of your future. Oh, oh, all the way oh, oh oh, oh, all the way [silence] for those dealing with the struggles of cing for a loved one, we hear you. Visit aarp. Org caregiving for advice and support. Gerri it is valentines day. Youre tnking roses, romance, but you know what . It brings up thoughts of divorce too. According to a new study by which matches consumers with lawyers. The number of of people out there seeking infoation about divorce on its website goes up increases hikes more than 40 from new years day to valentines day. Its the time of year people think about it. Stacy snyder, a former divorce, shes the author of he had coming. With the dos and donts of divorce. I have this theoy, i could be totally wrong, people are too quick to call it quits. I think your theory is dead on. People dont realize the same problems ty have in the marriage are going to come with them to the next relationship. And instead of spending time trying to work throughthe issues, unless we ae talking about Substance Abuse or criminality. People dont send enough time on loving the one theyre with. I love that sentiment. We have a tweet from rick who said people divorce too quickly. Look at the divorce rate compared t 20 years ago. Too many multiple marriages. People keep making the same mistake over and over again. What was the most common reason for divorce when you were a divorce attorney . Money problems and fights over how to raise the children. And just but the money problems really take control of a marriage and there is no one who comes out on the winningnd of that. Theres anxiety, theres always stress. I have to tell clients know what you have if youudont have the fear that the other spouse is excerting the power over the relationship through the money. And a lot of especially the women dont know what the marital assets are. When they get time to come to vorce, they dont know what is going on and theyre in gerri frustrated. Even so dont you find some folks later regret the divorce . I thinkthe only one regrets getting divorced is elizabeth taylor. Divorce brings out the worse in people. If yo are already upset and go through the divorce process. The monster rears the head during it. I dont think anyone liking each other probably the ony one who has a divorce court. You hear about it but its a rarity. It doesnt happe. Divorce is designed to bring out the animal in the person. Gerri it is. That reason alone, i think, you know, people if youre going to do this, if you made this decision and youre going to go down the road, you need to understand that the cost of divorce are very, very high. s not just what you pay an attorney, its not just the fes for filing the divorce. Going forward supporting two households now with the same income. Talk to us about that. Thats the most devastating part of divorce on the financial e. You have either one income or two ncomes supprting expenses, utilities, cars, insurances, and hen all of a sudden, that is divided down the iddle. Its not lways a fair distribution. One gets the kids. They have to worry about that support. The pressure is enormous to support two different life style on the same income you were together. Its no a formula for success. Gerri you mentioned before women dont really know the marital assets. Ive read when you go to court you have to have locked down at you spend. You need to know the assets so you can ask for a fair share. Informatns the best way to have success ina divorce. You have t know what is in the financial account. You have to know what you own as a couple. If you dont know the marital assets yu are spending a lot of must be to dig through wt exists there. Its wasted money you could be using to send the kids to college. It gets that expensive. Your lawyer hs to o so muc discovery wok to figure out what the other spouse is hiding or keeps in accounts you dont know about. Its throwing dollars down the drain. Gerri we read theres going to be even more divorces because the economy is better and people like now i can afford that divorce. Do you think it is right . I think it cuts a both wy paps lot of people dont get divorced because they cant afford to get divorced. Like we tked about they cant afford to run two households on the same income they had. The other side when the economy is bad and the chips are down and people have employment stresses, and income stresses, that also increases divorces. So i think there will be another study coming out. They do every year. Gerri i have to tell you if you win the lottery, dont you file divorce papers . I got the money nowe go the separate ways. And they fight over the sre of the lottery prize. Who funded the ticket. Gerri i told my husband he could have a divorce one way. What that . Gerri toes up youre going out toes up. I lik that. [laughter] thank you for coming on. Great job. Appreciate your coming in at the stminute. We want to know what you think. Here is our question. Are couples too quick to divorce . Log on to jerry gerriwillis. Com while were asking about divorce. It is valentines day. We wanted to highlight the famou couplings that have gone the distance and given love a good name. The list is tonights top five. David bowieand aman. They have been married for 21 years. The super model wasn our show. Kevin bay conand kiera. Number three tom hanks and rita wilson. One of the cutest couples in hollywood. Celebrating their siiver anniversary. He said im standing here because the woman i share my life with has taught me an demonstrate every day what love is. And number duo, jamie lee curtis. They will celebrate 3 years of marriage they met after curtis a magane in 1984 and called his agent to set up a meeting. And number one is oz city and sharon osbourne. Are you kidding me . Theve been married for 31 years. Thats awesome. They met while sharons father was managing ozzies band. Our legal panel weigh in on the fight between nfl and cheerleaders. E latest winter storm has moved out. The east coast is strug thing to return. They blame the wild weather for the bad numbers. Well have details coming up. We asked people a question, how much money do you think yoll need when you retire . Then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years thaamount might last. I was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. Im going have to rethink this thing. Its hard to imagin how much well need for a retirement that could last 3years or m so maybe we need to approach things dferently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. For what reality tehes you irsthand. In e face of danger, and underhe most demanding circumstances. Experience builds character. Experience builds confidence. And experience. Has built is. Introducing the 2014 glk. The engineering and the experience of mcesbenz. See your authorized dealer for exceptional offers through mercedesbenz financial services. Through mercedesbenz see whats new at projtluna. Com coach calls her a team player. Shes kind of special. She makes the whole team better. Hes the kind of player that puts the puck, horsehide, bullet. Right where it needs to be. Coach calls it logistics. Hes a great passer. Dependable. A winning team has to have one. Somebody you can count on. Somebody like my dad. This is my dad. Somebody like my mom. My grandfather. Im very pround of him. Her. Them. In the northeast with parts of pennsylvania digging out from under nearly two feet of snow. Theres even more than that in upstateew york with around 440,000 homes and busnesses mostly in South Carolina and georgia. Still without ower. The treacherouseather has been blamed for nearlytwo dozen deaths and the most Flight Cancellations in 25 years. Airlines have canceled more than 75 domestic flights with 14,000 this week. Its more than 5 of all flights scheduled in february. Women, we have two weeks to go. Is Mother Nature hurting economic growth. Some economists are saying that when it comes to the financial slump the country has been facing recently. Here with more gary, president of caital management. Im pleased to have yo o the show. I have a feeling you have the say questions i do about the excuses about why the numbers arent as goose they should be. Is it the weather, my friend . A little bit its going to take little bit off the ged f. Ive been saying f three years. The economy has a good quarter and not so good quarter and the real probably of the economy will never be unlocked becuse of the policies out of d. C. Gerri gdp forecast was mentioned by three tenths a peent. Thats down. Take a look at the economic nubers. Industrial production down. Retail sales down, weak jobs report, the list goes on and on, and i think people want to believe the fact that t s been the successive number of storms. They have ben really bad, but its a great place to hide if youre a ceo and youre reporting earnings. Well, ceos are famous especially the company tat are not doing well,hey are famous for using any event to say it effected our businessand thats why the numbers are down. Now look, to be fair you have a lot of airlines that had a lot of cancellations, retail gets affected, especially when it is in populated areas. But overall, you can basically tell what the story is. I have to tell you the Airline Stocks are at new highs here. Restale stocks are way down. What did you think is behind the smp. Its partly weather yes. What is goingn . You dont lie washington policy are we in a situation where people decided im on the the sideline until we have some other kindf government here . I just think its just an economy that really can never really get going. Weve had a good quarter, a not so good quarter. I think the employment numbers are coming out. Our basically are fae. All these people een leaving the work force. You add them in 10 or 11 employment. Not 6. 6. And i think, you know, they keep changing the Playing Field on the rules on obamacare, things like that. Mandates, nobody knows where theyre going to be. I real believe it uts head winds in the minds of Business Leaders and pool who do allthe hiring throughout. Not to mention consumers that want to spend more. Were looking at those bad economic numbers right now giving people a ense of hat has been reported. Where to next . We got gdp down. Can we pull our heads up. Is there any way we see the improvement thealance of the year. I know, what normally happens everybody gets excited about the first sixmonths and the expectations fall off. What is going to happen next . Well, i suspect once we got out of the bad weather things the numbers will get a little bit better. But i think were going have moderate growth. If we keep gowing employment by 150,000, that is piker numbers. It is never going to get us anywhere. With the numbers were seeing with welfare and poerty and food stamps, those numbers are obscene. Until these people can be lifted up o do somehing o lift themselves up,i think the economy remas, as ive been saying for three years, okay, good quarter. Not so good. Nothing really getting going like the past. Gerri oesn supply enough jobs. Typed tepid is theworth. Happy valentineday i, my friend. You too, dear. My two cents more. Our legal panel weigh in on another fight in the nfl. This time the cheerleaders. They say theyre not being paid enough. Stay with us. [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace indust in the u. S. . At t. Rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. Its just one reason over 75 of our mutual funds beat their 10year lipper average. T. Rowe price. Invt with confidence. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. Saying they make illegal wages. Does she have a claim . Well battle a cincinnati bgals cheerleader filed a lawsuit claiming shes underpaid. She cites a laundry list of strict rules each must abide by in order to keep the lowpaying gig. Does the lwsuit have legs . Joining me now a partner a law firm, and attorney paul. Welcome to you both. Great have you here. Im going start with bill. Thiwhole story is so funny. But you say theres a tragedy in you say the women are underpd. Absolutely. She claims shes working 300 hours a wek. Okay. And anything she does kay. A month im sorry. [laughter] gerri i was confuse there had. E. G. Anything she does has something to the employer. When you take the wage specifically the factthey pay her a one shot deal per game of 90 she makes 2. 85 an hour. Shesnot making minimum wage. Tragedy is a little strong word here. At the end of the day theres the allegations in a lawsuit. Thats the bottom lining. When it comes down to is she an independent contractor. The law look a the economic realty test. They determine a cup of things. Whether they are important business. All due respect to the service they render its about football. It about football. Frankly, the beer vender is probably more important to the game than the cheerlead. Gerri you broughtwo good point. The test whether or not shes a employ is whether or not her employment is controlleled by te employee. They tell her where to go, report, practice, the public relations. More than that, my friend. They team her what shes supposed to look like. Hose or underwear what her boobies are supposed to look like. Its so over the top. The jobrelated requirements here. You deal with cheerleaders. They ha to look like them. Iont think its going to be controlling. Its based upon the fact. The court look at to thetalty of render and make a determination. How much does it add . Its a parttime gig. Theyre not working all year. Lets see where it ends up at the end of the day. What did you think about the what tey wear and told. I think when you said over the top. Theres no pun intended. The truth is they drill down on the specifics. Okay, its one thing, you know, be a cheerlead. Theyre getting to dontwear a bra, this, underwear. I think it may be crossing that line to where basically not only trling them, you know, but tting them a position where they are sort of harass by not following them. Are they being harassed . No. Those are jobrelated functions. They can choose exactly [laughter] they are. Some jobs require uniform and different kinds. They require you to look a certain way. Atthe end of the day cheerleaders have to look cheerleaders. Its not part of the lawsuit. At the end day you make a lot of money the plantiffs lawyer. Not there s anything wrong with it. Were talking aut 1500 is really what it adds up to if you bring up the minimum wage. [inaudble conversations] if shes working 300 hours a month and you do the math. Its not even tha theres no overtime. And also 2. 85 is a ridiculous amount of money. People in the ntertainment industry dancers, you know, people trying to make it. Theyll work for anything. They want to work they shouldnt be taken advantage of. Thats what is happening here let the facts fall where they may. There is no overtime claim and claim in the lawsuit regarding how they need to look or otherwise. Its about minimum wge. One employee seeking to make a class out of it. I i was the lawyer it would be about overtime. And also the Oakland Raiders had a similar. Gerri thats right. And same thing. And other teams are paying their cheerleaders proper. You know the origin of the case. Its the ricks cabaret case. Gerri we dont have ti for that. I want to read the statement here. It long has been a program run by former cheerleaders and broad support in the community and memr of th squad. It appears to be acopy cat lawsuit that mimics the one filed last month in clifornia. They will address the litigation in due course. A copy cat lawsuit. If that was illegal and this is just as illegal here. Gerri my heart goes out to the cheerleaders. What can i say . Me too. A little strong. It does too. Hes not admitting it. Gerri great debate appreciate your time. Well be back with our two cents more. Are couples too quick to divorce . So ally bank really has no hidden fees on savings accounts . Thats right, no hidd fees. Its just that imworried a, hidden things. Ok, whys that . Well uhhh. Surprise um. Well, is true. At ally there are no hidden fees. Not one. Thats nice. No hidden fees, no worries. Ally bank. Your money needs an ally. Heres nothing like bng your own boss and my customers are really liking your flat rate shipping. Fedex one rate. Really makes my life easier. Maybe a promotion is in order. Good news. I got a new title. And a raise . Management couldnt make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. 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I didnt see my peers having the same difficulties that i did. And when my professor approached me abouty constant lateness, i ew i had to do something. So i talked to my ctor. And it turns out, i have adhd. A lot of my friends seemed to have no problem keeping a planner and going to class on time. I couldnt organize anything in an efficient way. If this sounds familiar,. Or if y had adhd as a kid and thought you outgrew it,. Find out more. Take a quiz at ownyouradhd. Com, to help recognize the symptoms. Like inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Then talk with your doctor. I dont feel that its anything to be ashamed about. I have adhd. That doesnt mean that its all that im about. Its your adhd. Own it. Users guide to ove d money. We asked are coupes oo quick to get divord. 83 said yes. Be sure to log on for the online question every weekday. Here are some of your emails. The first from julie in North Carolina about the irs. Its clear she says that not only the irs totally corrupt but incompetent. Can we abolish the irs. On executive orders i think they should be termited when the president leaves office. It should be up up to the new president to decide when which he will exte and let expire. I was surprised to see how many orders have been issued by prior president. It amounts to growing dictatorship and not just president obamas doing. Interesting. Here is andre from texas. The odd of the Keystone Pipeline being approved are slim and none. Slim is on a fast but out of town. Thats funny. Finally, valentines day. Its nice day but not really a real holiday. A pleasantthought i try to spend too much i try not that spend too much time worrying aboutwhat i cgree. Secretarys day and that kind of thing. I think love and money are two things worth thinking about as i did all week. Let face it, thh best of intentions whenit comes to money can come if the household isnt on board. We talked a tough topic. Divorce. One many families are too familiar with. I think our society added to throw it away if it doesnt work contribute to the high number of divorces. It it is broke dont fixit. To be frank its enough of an effort for my families. Thats it for the show. Have a great weekend. Well see you next week. Neil its friday. Do you know where the republican congressman is . They seem to be on the debt ceiling. Now on hitting the roof. Theyre focused on winning later this year they given up the fight to ren in spending at all this year. A 1 trillion farm bill that over the top. To start the week off. Then a billion dollar climate measure pushed by the president that pileson the way to end the week. Republicans areafraid to say boo, wine, or complain. They