Transcripts For FBC The Willis Report 20150317

The willis report, where consumers are our business. Two breaking stories this hour. First another big hack at a Health Insurance company. This time blue crossblue shield, an affiliate of that company. Millions of folks are affected. Social security and bank records exposed. Well have all the details later this hour. We begin with a critical election in israel and the crisis in the middle east. World powers reportedly making headway with iran on Historic Nuclear Deal as israelis vote on the fate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of obamas biggest critics in these negotiations. One exit polls, two exit polls, show Benjamin Netanyahu with a slight lead. We have security analyst, kt mcfarland and former u. N. Ambassador john bolton. They are tied in two, netanyahu ahead in one. He appears to doing well. He is tweeting what a great victory he has. Kt, to you tell us a little bit how the system works there. Its a parliamentary system. Are we headed towards a Coalition Government . Of some sort. The difference in our system the guys who gets the most votes win. In israel the guy who gets most votes doesnt necessarily win because he probably doesnt have 51 of the electorate. That will happen this time. They both do well might even tie. But what has to happen now, each of the two leading parties have to scramble around with other minority parties to see who can form a government. We may not know who the new Prime Minister of israel is for weeks. Gerri wow. Could go on for a while. Ambassador to you, what kind of consequences could this have for the u. S. . Well depending on what coalition emerges it could have a pretty important impact on israels foreign policy. And, there are really three possibilities that the israelis have been discussing. One is, netanyahu wins, and is able to put together a coalition. The other is the Labour Party Candidate herzog wins, and it is more of a centerleft coalition of the third possibility is a government of National Unity which is not something we have had experience with before. So it is very uncertain. This is obviously very close. And it is important to understand in israeli terms, a lot of this election turned on domestic economic issues, not on repudiation if it that what happens on netanyahus foreign policy. Gerri i hear there is a lot of concern about the economy which is stunning to me because their economy has done so much better than ours frankly but kt, to you im most interested in these Nuclear Negotiations with iran. What effects might this election tonight have on that . Well, i was in israel in december and talked to people of all the Political Parties and what seemed to be case they seemed to have pretty much agreement on iran. They may have a disagreement on how to deal with the palestinians and whether to negotiate with the palestinians or not but with regard to iran almost everybody agrees a nuclear iran is an existential threat to israel. Can not be allowed to happen. So, lets fast forward to the end of the month, with potentially secretary kerry has a nuclear deal with iran. The president , our president will say it is all great. Secretary kerry will say it will stop Irans Nuclear program but reality what do the countries in the region say . What do they think . How are they judging it . If countries in the region, egypt, saudi arabia gulf arabs turkey, if they this Nuclear Deal Iran doesnt dismantle anything but unplugs everything for a period of time they could get Nuclear Weapons of their own. Israel is in the middle of an Nuclear Arms Race in the most unstable part of the world. Gerri consequences could be tragic. Ambassador, youve been highly critical of these negotiations. What is your take tonight . Kt mentioned the end of march deadline theyre facing. What will happen . Can anything good come from this. No. If they sign the deal today, it would simply be an open path for iran to get Nuclear Weapons and it doesnt much matter how much longer they negotiate. I just think well be making more concessions which iranians get sort of more and more every day. The real issue though now, this is why the outcome of the elections in israel is critical, is if netanyahu wins and if this deal goes through, will israel strike Irans Nuclear Weapons Program as it has twice before in its history, struck Nuclear Weapons programs in the hands of hostile states . So there are a lot of ifs involved but that is the key decision that israel faces. We talked a lot on this show about the letter that the gop sent to iran about the agreement. People who are very upset at the president negotiating this. Kt to you, i want you to hear what josh earnest had to say in reaction to this. Get your comment. Here is josh earnest. There will be ample opportunity for members of congress to both evaluate the political agreement in the short term, to consider the technical agreement, that it is supposed to be reached by the end of june. Then, not over the course of weeks. Not over the course of months but over the long term evaluate irans commitment to complying with terms of the agreement. Gerri all the time in the world kt. What do you say . Well, that is exactly the opposite what secretary kerry just said last week. A year ago secretary kerry said congress has a role in this. Congress was the organization that put sanctions on the table. But now secretary kerry said last week, we dont have to go to congress. Congress does not have a role. Maybe we go to the United Nations instead of the u. S. Congress but at the end of the day the problem with the deal a deal is much worse than a bad deal. Why . If the United States lifts sanctions and iran is considered a Nuclear Weapons threshold state, iran rices to the table. They have a superior economy. They have an economic boom. Liker the California Gold rush. International companies rush to do business with iran. Iran will be a threshold Nuclear Weapons state. Gerri ambassador quick thoughts before we go. I think the outcome of the israeli election is the most important issue before us. I think obama will do almost anything to sign this deal. I think if he does it is singsly a guaranty that iran will have Nuclear Weapons and many other states in the region saudis turks, many others. If netanyahu wins he has a very hard decision to make whether or not to attack the iranian program. If he does not, iran will get Nuclear Weapons. Gerri disturbing thought. Kt ambassador bolton, thank you very much for your thoughts. If we get any news on the election well bring it to you straight away. Nuclear deal with iran set to have impact on your bottom line over here. Easing sanctions could unleash millions of barrels of oil from iran into already flooded marketplace. In fact our next guest says the price of oil could drop to 20 bucks a barrel. Joining us now Patrick Dehaan Senior Petroleum analyst for gasbuddy. Com. Good to see you, patrick. How much oil would be unleashed on the markets if this deal goes through . You know iran is really having trouble finding any customers that want to deal with them right now because of the complexities of the black market and currencies. Iran is smuggling in dollars on planes. This is all you know, very hard for them, very illicit to do. Hard for them . You know they earned those sanctions. Theyre not, they are not under sank schuss there are the nicest people in the world that treated everybody good, lets be honest here. Absolutely. If you see any sort of deal that relieves the sanctions it will be a gamechanger for oil. Suddenly youre amidst the highest levels of production in the u. S. Youve seen since the 80s. Brimming inventories already. And suddenly youre throwing another several Million Barrels a day into the market, it is going to really depress crude oil prices even more. Certainly to the joy of motorists who are going to be planning road trips this summer. Let me ask. Were at 2 heroin 42 right now. I see different estimates 2. 42. Theyre really way offline. A lot of their fields are not pumping oil at all. Some is going to the black market. Largely this a country that has stopped producing. How long would it take to get back in the marketplace . What does it do to gas prices in this country . It could take months to fully restore things. You know weve seen libya take its time with the struggles they have there. So im not expecting those to show up on the market tomorrow. I think the psyche of any sort of agreement would start to show up in the market much quicker than the barrels would. What will it mean for consumers . Right now youre obviously having issues across the country with not crude oil access but refining crude oil. Look at the west coast. Look at the great lakes. Disconnect right now even if crude prices dropped overnight to 20 customers will not notice to the summer months. That is when the crude oil gasoline direct connection happens. If anything happens with iron motorists wont notice until may or june. If Something Like that happens we could test the 2 a gallon mark. Gerri were at 2. 42 right now. Oil prices down 59 since last june. This has Major Economic ripples throughout our economy everybody elses economy. What happens if we do have this glut . We dont have enough places to put the oil we have right now . What are unintended consequences . What could happen . Well, you know, you run out of places to store it. You look at china and low trying prices you know havent really gotten things going yet. Although looking at department of transportation numbers, motorists are driving more. Will they drive more enough during the summer to absorb some of those barrels . Contingent on refineries processing enough of it. You could run into a wall where there is not enough very large crude carries to store it at sea. There are not enough storage tanks at cushing. That will be an interesting situation if it plays out. Gerri lots to watch for, thats for sure. Patrick, thanks for coming on the show. Still a lot more to come this hour including details on the hacking of a blue crossblue shield affiliate. We have the secrets to maxing out your Social Security. In another segment we have the ultimate guide you can not afford to miss. The federal government keeps handing out money to people dont need it. But this time they set a new record. Details after the break. Its more than the cloud. Its security and flexibility. Its where great ideas and vital data are stored. 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Gov business gerri a new federal audit shows the shocking waste across dozens of government agencies. Congressional Budget Office says federal agencies paid out, get this 125 billion last year by mistake the waste is equal to a quarter of the entire budget deficit. With us gop strategist brad blakeman. Thanks for coming in. The president is asking to raise the debt ceiling. We have 18 trillion in debt that you and i and our kids and grandkids will have to pay off. What is your reaction to the waste number . It is an outrage and the fact that is, remember what the president said in 2011 when he stood there were joe biden called him sheriff joe. He will be czar to root out waste corruption and czar. He is not a sheriff. More like barney fife. He couldnt catch a criminal if in front of him. The fact of matter democrats here in washington, this is really telling gerri, look it is cost of doing business. We have to accept there is a certain amount of fraud waste and abuse in a 4 trilliondollar budget. That is an outrage. Every agency is responsible for every dime they spend. And we shouldnt send the message that is certain amount of waste, fraud and abuse is tolerated. Crazy. The president himself has said that cutting waste is a priority. Really . Its a priority . Then why it is up 18 year to year. Up neverly 20 . Are you kidding me . 124point 000 million. Money just frittered away. Nowhere wasted more than earned income tax credits. 27 of that money fraud. As you know, how this works brad. Basically what happens is that people apply for it. Its a tax credit. This isnt a deduction. You get the money in your hot little hand. It gets abused mercilessly. What should we do with that. We shouldnt have a policy of catch me if you can. They shouldnt have the ability to get a tax credit or government entitlement theyre not entitled to. In the age of computers you would think this administration especially by genius use of their computers in their interest in a campaign would be able to develop a computer programs that would be able to tell us who is committing fraud, waste and abuse. Gerri wow. Were relying on technology to you know take pictures of dresses were wearing saturday night. Were not detecting fraud in the government. That would be too much. Medicaid fraud almost 60 billion. That is really the biggest number in the whole thing. Have we lost complete control of the nations finances here . Under this president , this administration, the answer sadly is yes. By having less transparency in government, by, admitting at least telling agencies, certain amount of fraud, waste and abuse will be tolerated, send as terrible message. We need a new sheriff in town. Hopefully that sheriff will arrive in 2017 and start doing the business of the people that should have been done in this administration. Gerri we have a long way to go. We could waste so much money, brad. Absolutely. Gerri this could go on and on. I have to ask you we had a story yesterday, frankly i think teed everybody off. The foia, freedom of information requests, the white houses Administrative Offices saying well not comply with that anymore. It is over. We were the presidency of clarity. Sharing information. Not anymore. What was your reaction . Totally unacceptable but the administration, remember, promised to be the most open and transparent in history. It has turned out to be the most clandestine. Their modus operandi, sue us. We do. Suing health care epa, irs. Gerri waist of time though. Waist of time of course. Money. Gerri should do things right the first time. You bet. Gerri pleasure to have you on the show tonight. Thanks for coming in. Thanks, gerri. Gerri now we want to know what you think. Here is our question tonight. Has the federal government lost its ability to control spending . Log on to gerriwillis. Com to vote. I will share the results at the end of tonights show. Coming up we have another big, big cyberattack. It exposed over 11 million folks personal information. Could you be one of them . The secrets the government doesnt want you to know about. A new book shows how you can max mize the Social Security benefits to earn up to thousands of dollars more every year legally. The coauthor of that book is here to explain coming up. Gerri Social Security is a major source of income for most seniors in america, no surprise there but my next guest says too many of them are leaving money on the table and dont even know about it. Here with how to get the most out of your Social Security is Boston University economist and author of the book, hot new book, get whats yours. Secrets to maxing out Social Security. Thanks for coming on the show, lawrence. Before we get to the book we were talking about the fraud in the system and people levering money out of entitlement programs but here were talking about not fraud, but getting what youre owed and what you paid into the system. Now you say the folks leave money on the table. How so . Well, people first of all paying 12point herstheir pay. That is the combined employeremployee tax paying our entire working lives. We should get back everything we paid for and a lot of people dont know about many of the benefits to which theyre eligible. They know about the retirement benefit but dont know about their spousal benefit or divorcee spousal benefit, married more than 10 years and divorced. Divorcee widow benefit and spousal benefits. Benefits for the parents and passing away were taking care of them. Child benefits for disabled children. Young children. Survive benefits. All the benefits that people dont know about are being left on the table. And so part of the book is helping people get those benefits but also were trying to get people to understand the real value of waiting to collect because, if you start your retirement benefit at 70, it is going to start at value, 76 higher than if you start taking it at 62. So Social Security has an enormous return from waiting to collect. And youre potentially live to 100. You could be opening checks every month that are 76 higher. Gerri 76 higher . Wow. That is a very big difference. So youre saying people dont understand what theyre due or what theyre owed. You list ad laundry list of kinds of benefits people may or may not know b tell us in broad terms what the modus operandi is behind the Social Security rules. How should i be thinking if im trying to figure out if im do more than just the basic benefit . Well, the, three rules that we prescribe in the book are to be patient. The second rule is to understand all the benefits available to you. The third rule is to time your benefit collection so that you take one benefit first, let the other one grow then take it. Because if you try to take two benefits at once, you get larger of the two and wipe out the other benefit. But Social Security has a whole lot of traps, gotchas that we list for, there are 25 gotchas in one of the chapters of the book. 50 secrets in one of the chapters. So you really need to understand how the system works. Really the most complicated thing anybody could really put together. It is our basic retirement system. Nobody really understands it. Gerri right. I have friends that i have made, in the course of two minutes my coauthor paul, who is pbs news hour correspondent, pretty smart guy phil mulder, a longterm personal finance columnist, 50,000 in two minutes with a conversation. He knew nothing about spousal benefits. I had a friend whose wife spas away knew nothing about widower benefits. I made him 120,000 in two minutes. The takeaway here is that you can really miss out. You may be due money that you have no idea. Yeah. Gerri tell me first of all, how many, what proportion of folks leave money on the table, a . B, tell us more about the traps. People out there really need to know about the things you could inadvertently do to rob yourself of money. Well i would say, the vast majority of baby boomers, there are 10,000 retiring every day, are probably making mistakes when it comes to collecting their benefits. Whether theyre single, never married divorced widowed kids, without kids, it is really very specific what you should do household specific. We try to lay that out in the book. The biggest gotchas, well, first of all try to take two benefits at once, you lose one of them. The second big gotcha try to take spousal benefit early, will force to you take retirement benefit early. They have a traps where you take two benefits at once. You have to be careful about what you file for what. There are ways, the book does lay out a clear map how to get whats yours. Gerri sounds like millions of people are leaving money on the table. This is money theyre due and owed. Were talking about money that you paid into the system, right . This is money that you, contributed already and that you can go back in and claim yourself . Yeah. You know, for example, theres a 63yearold man that i know who is thinking about taking his retirement benefit early. And that is actually the optimal thing for him to do, rather than wait until 70 because he can activate disability benefits for his son and also, a child in care spousal benefit for his wife who is taking care of the son. They can collect on his record. He can give up benefits on his own record but get more benefits for the family as a whole. That is optimal strategy for them. Not apartment mall for everybody to wait optimal for everybody to wait until 70. My coauthors are not economists. They have senses of humor. The reading is light. Lawrence, thanks for coming on. Remind people, the book is called, get whats yours, the secrets to maxing out your Social Security. I know a lot of our viewers will want to read that thanks for coming on the show. My pleasure, thank you. Thank you. Coming up tonight on strange inheritance, it is about a Real Estate Developer who fills his model homes with weird and quirky furniture. His kids inherit it. They discover the once obscure furnituremaker became a worldrenowned craftsman and artist. A hardcharging real estate mogul ahead of his time. He was a real visionary. The meet as cuttingedge furniture designer. There was a lot of synergy when the two of them came together. Fills one home with ultramodern piece. Then another, then another. They jumped on it. Puked on it. Came from the Swimming Pool and sat on it. When he is gone his heirs are in for surprise of a lifetime. 22,000. It ratchets up. 32,000. It ratchets up. Im sitting there next to my son slapping his leg, going, Matthew Matthew matthew also tonight, the great, greatgrandson of confederate general george picket is swindled out of his inheritance of civil war artifacts. Find out what happens tonight on strange inheritance, tonight at 9 00 p. M. Eastern time. Its a great show. Later on how to know if a used car is worth buying or a lemon. A major Health Insurer is hacked. Millions of folks medical information. Talking about Social Security numbers, bank records exposed to the bad guys. What you need to know coming up. The lightest or nothing. The smartest or nothing. The quietest or nothing. The sleekest. Sexiest. Baddest. Safest,. Tightest,. Quickest,. Harshest. Or nothing. At mercedesbenz we do things one way or we dont do them at all. The 2015 cclass. See your authorized mercedesbenz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedesbenz financial services. Gerri welcome back to the willis report. In a moment, new details on that breach of primera blue cross, but its time for other stories in the news. The Federal Reserve kicked off its twoday meeting traders waiting to see if its moving closer to its first Interest Rate increase in nine years. February Housing Starts plunged 17 from a month earlier. Analysts pointing to the harsh Winter Weather for the weaker demand. And nfl player chris or borland is retiring after just one season over concerns of the longterm impact of concussions. The San Francisco 49ers linebacker signed a 3 Million Contract last year. The 49ers have the right to recover about 500,000. And rory mcilroy is replacing tiger woods as the face of the popular pga tour video game. Goodness gracious. Ea sports used woods from 1998 but it ended that rich with him in 20 thatwomen with him in 2013. And those are some of the stories in the news tonight. Braching news this hour, weve been talking about it, hackers have hit yet another health care insurer. Potentially exposing the personal information of 11 million customers. The company is called primera blue cross. Joining us by phone with important information, adam levin, founder and chairman of Identity Theft 911. Adam, sorry you couldnt be here on set. So the details here that were just getting our arms around just tonight primera discovered january 29th thats six weeks ago that there was an attack on its systems, and that attack occurred ten months ago, may 5, 2014. Folks information at risk here, isnt it outrageous we cannot get this information to consumers faster . No its a real problem. Part of the problem is that there may have been a lag time that was caused by them trying to determine the size of the breach, the amount of people involved, the finishing bi is involved fbi is involved, mandian is involved and, you know, Law Enforcement sometimes will say to a business youve got to slow down. You and dont agree with it but unfortunately this is one of the facts where if Law Enforcement says youve got to hang on theyve got to hang on. Gerri but every day they wait, every day, every week every month, people can have their information hacked, and theyre not even watching. Theyre paying no attention to their accounts. I think something has to happen. I just want to remind people though, here are the brands that are impacted. If youre worried tonight youre involved, primera blue cross primer blue shed vivacity and connection insurance. Those are the names. If youre covered by one of those brands you may be getting a letter over the next couple of weeks. I just want folks to know about this. The real adding insult to injury here adam, that i want people to know about, yes, they got names, date of birth, email address telephone numbers but they also got Social Security numbers and bank account information. Gerru, the real killer is Social Security number. Once they have your Social Security number, theyve got an option on your life. Youre going to have to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder. And when i read like, the letter from the ceo saying well we have no indication that any of this information has been used improperly, truth of the matter is when someone has your Social Security number they can afford to wait as long as they want to. Its when its convenient for them to pull this option on your life. They will. Gerri so the companys giving out free credit monitoring Identity Theft Protection Services for two years. Ive got to say, who cares, you know . The horse is out of the barn. Youve already been damaged potentially. How does this really help . I think people there needs to be a better solution, and these Companies Need to make sure that the doors are closed and shut firmly so consumers arent at risk. No, the problem now, again, we dont know if premera had the same problem that anthem did in terms of the information anthem was not encrypted. We do not know, i havent seen anything where they say whether or not the information was encrypted or not. We know hipaa, the federal private law, encourages encryption, but it doesnt require it, and thats a huge problem. I think anytime any company has the slightest morsel of personal identifying information, they must encrypt it and use strong encryption. Gerri well, i think they should all get on the bandwagon this very minute. The fbi, by the way is investigating this so its really being paid attention to. Now, ten months after it happened. So were just going to have to wait and see. Ill tell you if you are a client of one of these companies products, i would be taking precautions right now, getting on line, making sure that somebody hasnt stolen your information, isnt taking out credit cards in your name. Well revisit the story tomorrow night. Adam, thanks for coming on the show tonight. We appreciate your time. Thank you, gerri. Gerri and still to come, apple has another game changer, this time its how you watch tv. But will customers be cutting their cords . And next we answer the question how do you do that . How to find the best used car without breaking your budget. And heres your consumer gauge with the numbers that mean the most to you. Take a look. Well be right back. Pause to take a pill . Or stop to find a bathroom . Cialis for daily use is approved to treat both erectile dysfunction and the urinary symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently, day or night. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. Do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. Do not drink alcohol in excess. Side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. To avoid longterm injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. If you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision or any symptoms of an allergic reaction stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. Ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30tablet trial. The real question that needs to be asked is what is it that we can do that is impactful . What the cloud enables is computing to empower cancer researchers. It used to take two weeks to sequence and analyze a genome; with the microsoft cloud we can analyze 100 per day. Whatever i can do to help compute a cure for cancer, thats what id like to do. No one thinks theyre going to be in an accident. Which is why no one wants insurance. So we go cheap. You know, because were never gonna need it. Until one day, we do. Now that cutrate policy is costing us big. Makes you wonder if theres Something Better out there. See Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. Get fastacting, longlasting relief from heartburn with it neutralizes stomach acid and is the only product that forms a protective barrier that helps keep stomach acid in the stomach where it belongs. For fastacting, longlasting relief. Try gaviscon®. Gerri cable prices are always on the rise, right . People are looking now for cheap alternatives to cable, and apple thinks it may have the answer. Ceo tim cook propses the new apple tv promises the new apple tv will reinvent the way we watch television, and sam slaughter joins us to, plain. I want to know what its going to mean for me. How what are they offering us or what do you think they will . This is not a done deal yet right . Yeah. So the wall street journal reported today that theyre working on a deal thats, its called a skinny bundle which is really just a smaller version of what you get from your Cable Company now. 2530 channels that youd be able to get on any apple device. Gerri and while cable costs 90 a month, apples going to come in at about 3040 thats the selling point, right . Thats right. And it is a much better price point than your general cable bundle. Absolutely. That being said, theyre still bundling services together, its not what consumers i think are really looking for. Gerri you cant totally pick and choose. Obviously, missing from this is nbc. Apple had been negotiating with comcast that didnt go so well. So is that why nbc isnt part of this . I would love to be a fly on the wall in the meeting at apple and at comcast nbc where, you know, where this didnt get done. But again, i think its probably a matter of numbers, you know . They just couldnt come to terms on something that would work. But, again, itd be silly to speculate what goes on behind closed doors. Gerri there are other cable alternatives out there, obviously, everybodys trying to break the back of this. And what i think consumers really want, though is to be able to say i just want hbo, i want xyz show. Is that day ever going to come . You know, i want that. I dont think its coming anytime soon, but i do think youre starting to see little pieces of the bundle iceberg, as it were like, chipping off, you know . You go from 150 channels to maybe 25 and youve got, you know maybe you have netflix and youve got hbo, so you dont use any of these things. I dont see the a la carte thing happening anytime soon. Gerri and each this, what were talking about today and we were showing basically the elements of it, 30 40 a month, official announcement june of 2015, this is all till very much up in the air still very much up in the air right . Nothings confirmed so far. Ii think its a good window as to what apple sees their mans as being. But, again, it hasnt happened yet, you know . Well know more when it roms out. Gerri sam, good to see you. My pleasure, thank you. Gerri on to cars. Are you looking for new wheels on a tight budget . Consider buying a car thats been around the block. Tonight we have auto experts that give the best and worst models and what to do before taking it home. Here with me now is Consumer Reports cars deputy content editor jeff bartlett, who grew a beard. Who knew . [laughter] good to see you jeff. Thanks for having me on. Gerri is it a good idea to buy used in the first place . Buying a used car is a great way to save money. A new car do depreciate almost 27 in its first year. So by buying a nearly new car you avoid that initial depreciation hit. But you want to aim new enough you get all the latest safety features and protection. Gerri what are first steps to choosing the right used car . Well, you want to do your Research Just like if you were looking for a new car. Find a car thats performed well in road tests, one thats got a great reliability track record of course, and one b that gets good safety marks. And then gerri go right ahead. Start to look at individual cars, you realize you also want to have the professional help of a mechanic to inspect the individual model to make sure everything is looking good. Gerri so i can hire a mechanic just to look at my used car pick . Thats right. You could bring the car over to an independent mechanic or conversely, you may be able to bring the mechanic to the car. And for a fee usually around 100, theyll give it a bumpertobumper inspection. Jr. Jr. Huh. All right, im used to people talking about car fax, but thats not always perfect either, right . Well, vehicle history reports can give some great insights. However theyre only as good as the information that makes it into the system. In some cases, especially as state rules differ not all of the information may make it into these national databases, so its possible something may be missed. So a useful tool but it doesnt replace an individual inspection. Gerri so best case scenario, you bring in your own mechanic. Now im going to test you, jeff. Are you ready . Whats the best used sedan if i want to pay 15,000 20,000 . What to do you recommend . Theres some great sedans in that price range. You could take a look at a 20082010 honda accord. You can look at a 20102012 toyota camry, or if you want something a little nicer equipped, you could look at a lexus es from 20072008 would fit that budget. Gerri you know make and model is important, but it looks like youre saying the year the thing was produced is also key. Thats very important for numerous reasons. The year determines the equipment including the power train, may impact the fuel economy, the Safety Equipment and also cars tend to get better over their life span meaning the manufacturer tends to make little tweaks to improve it. So you want to do the research so you know what are the sweet years in reliability. Gerri so you dont necessarily buy the make and model the first year its out it sounds like. I want to talk about some of the worst cars. What are cars you dont buy used . Sure. So the cars that you want to avoid are those that have multiple years of reliability troubles. Some that made our list include the Jeep Wrangler fourdoor, the bmw 330 and 335i and the mini cooper s. All of these have been shown to have more trouble than their peers. Gerri so whats going on here though . These are highly popular cars. These are highly popular vehicles, like the bmw, really . What was wrong with that thing . Well, just because theyre popular doesnt mean theyre great. Of course, we can look to top 40 music for that example. But with individual cars things can crop up whether its something with the engine, could be with the suspension, could be with the infotainment problems. Gerri you had a couple of shortcuts for looking at cars. Even if youre not a mechanic, theres a few things you can do on your own. Thats right. Bring a magnet with you. If a body panel is suspect if you hold the magnet against it assuming its not aluminum it would indicate if the magnet sticks, its sheet metal. If it momentum, perhaps theres been a bondo type repair. You also want to look at the tires. You want even wear on the tires. If the tires are brand new, that may be masking an alignment problem. And also you want to simply give the car a sniff test, especially with so many major storms in recent years. Flooddamaged cars are out on the market and one telltale sign is they may smell a little bit moldy as well as show water lines in inappropriate places. Gerri jeff, thanks for coming on the show. I dont know about that beard my friend. Does your wife approve . Its gone in the spring. Gerri hope it comes soon. Thanks for being on. Thank you. Gerri and still to come, my two cents more. And next, its st. Patricks day, right . Think twice before you post anything on social media. While it could help you find a job, it could also sink your chances. Details coming up after the break. Hey, girl. Is it crazy that your soccer trophy is talking to you right now . It kinda is. Its as crazy as you not rolling over your old 401k. Cue the horns. Just harness the confidence it took you to win me and call td ameritrades rollover consultants. Theyll help with the hassle by guiding you through the whole process step by step. And theyll even call your old provider. Its easy. Even she could do it. Whatever, janet. For all the confidence you need td ameritrade. You got this. Gerri no doubt social media plays a key role in the job hunt process. In fact 90 of employers study candidates on various social media outlets. Here with the nonoes to avoid is tony batchish bashar, that is from babbitt and associates. Sorry about that, tony. Quite all right, gerri. Gerri 90 of employers looking at this, what are some examples of things that people have done that you just shook your head at . Yeah, i cant believe that with all the publicity this gets that people still do this stuff. Ive seen mug shots on peoples social media when theyre trying to get a job, i saw a guy, a guy was trying to get a job, and he wrote, he wrote a story about why hes divorcing his wife because she shot him in the head. Gerri oh, my gosh. I mean, absolutely crazy stuff. A recent poll of more than or 2,000 employers by Career Builder found that 46 of employers eliminate candidates because of goofy pictures 41 eliminate candidates for doing for advertising stupid social stuff that they do drinking and drugs. [laughter] 36 of them will eliminate candidates because they bash their previous employer and 28 of them will eliminate candidates because they talk derogatorily about races and sexes and things like that. Its absolutely nuts. Gerri tony, whats left to talk about, my friend . [laughter] youve got to tell me, what is okay . Lets say you know youre going to be in the jobs market. What should you what can you post . Its real simple. First of all, youve got to remember if you walk away with nothing else, remember this people are looking for just as many reasons of not to hire you as they are reasons to hire you. Its got to be professional. You have got to have everything on there thats positive no negatives about anything. Youve got to promote yourself consistently with all your social media. If youre linkedin and your linkedin and your resume dont agree, youre going to have a problem there. Youre going to be eliminated people are going to wonder about that. Youre branding yourself. Youre advertising yourself. Youve got to be consistent and conservative and tell people this is a real im a real good candidate. Heres why you ought to hire me. Gerri who are these people who bad mouth their employers on social media . That is nuts to me. Its stupid. And they justify it. I had one the other day he said, well,st the truth. Its the truth. I said, really, thats great. [laughter] well it may be the truth but it sure as heck isnt going to get you hired. Gerri tony, im sorry, were out of time. Youve got to come back sir. Appreciate your time. I will. Thank you so much. Its always a pleasure. Gerri always a pleasure. Well be right back. You cant breathe through your nose suddenly, youre a mouth breather. A mouth breather well, put on a breathe right strip and shut your mouth. Cold medicines open your nose over time, but add a breathe right strip and pow, it opens your nose up to 38 more. So you can breathe and do the one thing you want to do sleep. Add breathe right to your Cold Medicine shut your mouth and sleep right. Breathe right. And look for the calming scent of new breathe right lavender in the sleep aisle. Help brazil reduce its overall reliance on foreign imports with the launch of the countrys largest petrochemical operations. When emerson takes up the challenge its never been done before simply becomes consider it solved. Emerson. Gerri has the federal government lost its ability to control spending . Is we asked the question on gerriwillis. Com. 96 said yes. 4 said no. Its st. Patricks day, right . Be warned, the holiday has become a deadly one. According to the ntsb 40 of crashes last st. Patricks day weekend involved drunk drivers. The night of march 167th was 17th was especially bad. So enjoy your beers but get a designated driver. Thats my two cents more. And thats it for tonights willis report. Thanks for joining us. Dont forget to dvr the machine if you cant catch us live. Making money with Charles Payne is coming up next. Have a great night. Charles im Charles Payne, and youre watching making money. Hey, the stock of the day dsw, youve heard of it, its a shoe retailer. They carry everything under the sun, and yet they still provide these amazing discounts. The stock beat the street on the top and bottom line. It had a great session up 20 since i gave it to you in november, but heres thick more importantly, you are seeing examples of how money is being made off cheap gas and a cheap dollar. And i though that some of you are bored with the fed, but how can you be bored . 4 trillion poured into the economy. Guess what . None of it landing in your economy. Be frustrated be angry be bored, ip indifferent . No dont be that