Imus in the morning is apple still the king of cool . Good morning, everyone, well, did you watch the big concert last night . Have you watched much football recently . Where were the apple ads . The Samsung Galaxy phone he was everywhe everywhere, so was the microsoft tablet. Nearly 200 below the high, the question stands, is apple still king . Good question. Google is it on the attack and telling apple to get lost, almost literally. And theres a new app which puts google maps back on the ipad, goodbye apple happens. Hipocracy keeps coming after you. Warren Buffetts Berkshire hathaways buying back stock why . To void taxes increases, warren was rooting for, and an estate tax he himself will not pay. Are you getting tired of this . Varney company is about to begin. From the best players in history to the number 1 club in the world. The potential of Manchester United unlocked. Nyse euronext. Unlocking the worlds potential. Youve got to say hes still the greatest, isnt he . Eric clapton performing at the 121212 concert to benefit the victims of hurricane sandy. The event went on five hours and a ton of money. 36 million alone in ticket sales and does not count the donations or the money they got from sponsored like samsung which surely paid a big price to have the galaxy phones featured everywhere and the celebrities answering the calls from people who phoned in donations, galaxy phones they were using. Youre seeing galaxy ads everywhere, they dominate Football Games on sundays as well. Apple, the ipad, ipad mini, the iphone their ads have been swamped by samsung and microsoft. Is apple still the king of cool . Shareholders wants to know and so do i. Lets bring in mark, editor in chief of laptop magazine. Is apple still the king of cool . What do you say. When it comes to the design and getting the latest apps first, would i say yes for apple, but perception is becoming reality when it comes to the marketing ads youre talking about. When people see the big screen galaxy note 2 and in the office when i show people turn it on its side and two applications running on the screen the same time and pen input. In a lot of areas theyre outinnovating apple and outmarketing apple, apples bread and butter for a long time. Stuart mark, well get you more on the Microsoft Surface tablet. Hold on a second ive got this for you. You want cool . Take a look at this house, a mansion this miami on the market more than six months and get this, it was bought by a foreign investor theyre everywhere and sold for under asking price, guess how much . Well be telling you that, how much it cost and other properties, too, at the top of the hour coming up. Here is what we have next. The new microsoft tablet. We have one right here on the set with us. What makes it so cool . Should apple be worried . [ male announcer ] this is steve. He loves risk. 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And now youre protected. Here we go. Thursday morning in the news background today. Retail sales up, but only just. In the latest month. Producer prices down and of course, we had yesterday the announcement from ben bernanke, hes going to be spending, printing 85 billion dollars a month to keep Interest Rates low and try to get the Unemployment Rate to 6 1 2 . Hes been doing it for four years and i dont know how the markets going to react to that. In the very early going this morning, were down five points. The opening trend is ever so slightly down after the announcement of a big printing oranges. Right off the bat, i want to look at warren Buffetts Berkshire hathaway. Buffett brought back 1. 2 billion dollars worth of shares from one investor yesterday and that likely helped that investor, helped his estate save substantially on taxes ahead of higher tax rates, which are almost certain for next year, remember, buffett also called on congress to raise the estate tax on the wealthy and he wants the rich to may more in taxes and im going to use the word hipocracy rightly on wrongly and encouraging everybody else to pay more, but he and his company doesnt pay that tax, very interesting. A new report that the founder of best buy, Richard Schultz is going to make an offer to buy the company back, take it private again. Possibly the offer comes tomorrow. Nicole, ive got to believe that best buy is up. Stuart you believe correctly, up about 15 . Refer time we hear that Richard Schultz is moving forward with taking his baby private, it goes up and every time its not, it tanks. The sales have been dwinldling and is he and a group trying to take it private. Stuart im waiting for solar city, the Solar Panel Company and i think the ipo is today when it starts trading well get back to you then. Thanks a lot. Ill show you about the price of gas because it continues to drop. The National Average for a gallon of regular down another penny, were at 3. 31 now, diesel 3. 97. Ive got to tell you, its still the highest price for gas ever at this time of year. New york still the highest in the continental u. S. , 3. 78 in new york, thats the average and missouri the lowest, 3. 01 a share and missouri is the only city, only place, rather, where we found major cities with the average price under 3. Again, the star is st. Louis, at 298. Lets get back to apple, losing its cool, maybe. And mark is still with us, the editor in chief of laptop magazine. All right. I want to talk about lets see, this is the Microsoft Surface tablet, all right. Yes. Stuart now, is this a threat to apples dominance of the tablet market and apples dominance of cool . Do you like this thing . In the shortterm i dont think its a threat, but there are some things that surface has especially for workers that the ipad doesnt, one of the things off the bat youll notice this has a smart cover, sort of like the ipad, but this one has a deboard built in and you see on the back, this little kick stand in the design, lets you prop it it up. Lets you use it as a mini laptop. Stuart do you guys in hightech like this thing, acceptable, a real player in the tablet market from microsoft. Yes. Its a qualified yes because it has potential, when you think about it this is microsofts first fablet and usually takes a couple of runs for them to get something right, but like the live tell interface, which is dynamic, its a lot more personal than the ios, a lot of your stuff springs to life, that sort of thing. Stuart its an active screen, isnt it the tiles or whatever you call them. The live tiles, keeps you uptodate and so, for example, could i my wife what she posted on twitter or facebook. Stuart automatically, dont have to go to it pops up sitting there waiting for you. Exactly. Stuart hold on a second, youve got a phone, the microsoft phone, isnt it. Right. Stuart now, is that a threat to the iphone . You better turn that thing off im getting all kinds of rf. And is that a threat to the iphone and the coolness of the iphone . I think were still getting the buzz. Are we . 3 c1 you have to turn it off. Im sorry. There you go, okay, so, i do think between these two devices, Windows Phone is bigger threat not only to the iphone, but to android because theres more partner involved and doing more with the software. One feature we like in Windows Phone 8 is a feature kids corner. When you hand your phone to the kids, press power button swipe to the right and only apps you approved for nem on the screen. And another feature, rooms, all members of the family can share messages and photos. Whats interesting to me is that microsoft didnt make these features available on windows 8 itself. And when i asked that question they said were working on it, release schedules were not together, but Little Things like that tells me that microsofts Division Needs to be working more closely together. Nos dialogs must be broken down. Stuart full disclosure, i own stock in microsoft. Everybody knows it im not grinding an ax, youre telling me that that Windows Phone and tablet are pretty good entry for microsoft into the phone and tablet marketplace. I think the phone is a better start, its been around longer, tablet side a lot of of people are confused by the interface. Stuart do you think that phone is a threat to android devices. It will eat into its share other time. Theres more partners getting involved and leverage brand like xbox. And one rumor that microsoft is coming out with a xbox focused gaming tablet, much less productivity, more focused on gaming and entertainment. Something for 2013. Stuart all right. Mark, thank you for being here, good stuff. A good example why you dont see a lot of the daytoday back and forth from fiscal cliff talks reported here on Varney Company because it really is maddening. It turns people off. We know that. Listen to how harry reid responded to, what im going to say is a perfectly legitimate request he whether they will bring the president s fiscal cliff proposal to a vote. Just listen to this. The white house proposal that they floated around on capitol hill will i, i dont know. I have no idea what youre talking about. The white houses plan, the treasury secretary you know what the plan is it . The plan that included ref nigh awn what kind of revenue. The top 2 . What else . And the debt limit and what else. And theres plenty. 1. 6 trillion and the stimulus, 2 it00, 200 billion. I think it was and. Well, joining us now is the man who had that exchange with senator reed from the daily caller. Nick, what did you and or our viewers and myself. What are we supposed to get out of that interview with senator ray reid. I went in to the press conference not knowing id get a quiz about the details. It was a clear question to the majority leader will you bring the president s plan up for a vote and he clearly did not want to answer it and an attempt to distract from the question asking me what are the details of this plan. And i think it points to an issue we have in in fiscal cliff debate, where you know, no one really knows the heart of this debate and the real issues that are at stake here. Well, and then senator reid put you down in a way and the other members of the media around you. I thought they were, they were basically laughing, they were laughing attyou. Now, what does that tell you and our viewers about the establishment media and their reaction to your interchange with senator reid . If i were in the audience when that was going on, i would have had followed up and ive done it before. I asked followup questions about issues that you know people are bringing up in presence conferences when the person on the podium is not answering the question. It makes sense to keep asking questions to get the answers and nobody, nobody did. Stuart thats very true. Nobody did it and you know, its just maddening for us viewers to look at this debate and its not a debate at all. Were on the outside, cant find out whats going on. Nick, we appreciate you being with us, im sorry to cut it short. All kinds of stuff going on today. But nick, thanks for being with us, appreciate it. Thank you. Here is what we have new at ten. The president wants to keep on spending, but thats not what the voters want. New numbers on the deficit and poll numbers showing a strong move towards cutting spending. That will come up at the top of the hour, this program today. Also, in our next hour. Why is john stossel offending commissions two weeks before christmas . Here what he said at 10 45. Apple iphone users rejoicing after news that google is bringing back the map application. Where is the stock of apple google were watching both, google is higher. Whats the story, stuart . What do you think . Is it that apple iphone users are finally happy because theyve been so annoyed with the new map service at apple, it stinks and happy to get it. Stuart and i think that is it that theyre crawling back to google. Stuart no, no, i think the story is google is socking it to apple and say, hey, weve got an app and put it on the ipad and ipad mini through apple. Go away apple maps, its poi pointless. The google guys must be running around the offices with confetti and horns and saying, yes you couldnt do it without us. Stuart thats exactly right. And thats what theyre doing over there at google. Stuart thats right, so google is up and apple i think is barely holding its own, i think its down at the moment. It is down 1 . Stuart weve been questioning whether apple is still cool and well keep questioning. Nicole, thank you very much indeed. Again this thursday morning, ive got to tell you its a dead flat market. Look at that, down 1 points. The day after ben announces a new printing operation. Thats dead flat. All right, thursday morning, 7 early movers for you, maker of George Foreman grills and rayo vac batteries, say that some shareholders are selling and that stock is down big pill. Pep boys the board authorized 50 Million Dollars stock repurchase program. Up a little bit. Boston brew, that is the boston is it boston beer . Yes, boston beer, brewer of sam add dollar amounts and raised the profit forecast and stock is up big time. Look at that, 16 higher. Endo Health Solutions expects profits this year and next year, theyre going to disappoint, down, but not much. Increased sales helped Restoration Hardware to a profit. Its down a little. And retailer pier 1 increases the dividend up just a little. Wider loss at the Telecom Equipment maker sienna. And its down, so what, up. The Health Advocates are winning the battle of the bulge. Whats causing the obesity rates to go down . Listen to some Christmas Music and read a statement. Bring us some figgy pudding im not sure that figgy is at government cannot make man richer, but it can make man poorer. We wont sing until we get some we wont sing until we get some so bring it out here oh, hey. [ male announcer ] at scottrade, we believe the more you know, the better you trade. 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Obesity in children in new York City Schools between 20072011 have dropped. How do we define obesity. For children roughly in the 95th percentile or above compared to the other children. Stuart that definition has not shifted. Youre not cooking the numbers. Not during that time frame at all. So if youre in the top five percentile of weight versus height, you are obese and the number in that percentile is falling in new york city, los angeles, have i got a right. Thats right. Stuart what is your explanation . Why is this happening . I dont think its time for a Mission Accomplished banner, but, i think after seeing decades of rates that triple, that seeing a flattening and even a flight decline is so encouraging, stuart, and i think its and why is it happening . Its validation that when parents become informed, that theyll make different decisions about their children and also, when you look at the cities, philadelphia, new york, l. A. , there is he a multifaceted concerted effort to make change in the environment kids are in during the day. Homes, school, sports programs, so, theyve removed a lot of the junk food. Theyve removed a the lot of agents of obesity and diabetes from the childrens environment and has a profound impact. Do you break it down by race or ethnicity, has that been done . Yes, to a certain extent we saw a slighter, greater he decrease among white children in new york, however, in philadelphia, they saw the increase greater, the decrease, a larger number how do you say that, a bigger decrease among children of color in philadelphia so its not an exact thing, but youre seeing the needle move and i think thats most important. You and i started doing interviews, i think, six, seven years ago. Been a while. Stuart you made a name for yourself when you moved to new jersey i was in new jersey, seven years ago i was in new jersey. Stuart and you objected to your children being offered cupcakes at birthday parties at school. Right. Stuart thats how you got to our attention, i believe, right. Yeah, well, what it is, is look, my kids can have a cuppake during the weekend at a party, but i dont want that all day every day in school and thats the environment children are in. They cant get away from somebody shoving a donut or a cupcake in their face, sign them up for sports, donuts. In school, cupcakes. How do they get away. Stuart im going to let you do this victory lap, i think you had an impact and i respect that. Meme roth everybody. Thank you, stuart. Stuart its that time. The gold report. What are you paying today for an ounce. 1,694. 23 and 8 cents. And thats a drop takes us below 1700, thats the gold report. And Warren Buffett seems to talk a lot about raising taxes on the rich. Were going to check on this. He let an investor cash out of Company Stock to avoid taxes in the new year. Two extreme positions. Hes for taxes for everybody else, but not for him. And Charles Payne and carol roth are here. Stuart . Lets get back to Warren Buffett and my use of the word hipocracy for rich with guilty conscience. Buy back stock and helped save that person save substantially on the higher taxes next year. Warren is all for everybody else paying taxes and bails out this particular investor and so that he paid lower taxes, charles, have you got a number on this . All right, on the back of an envelope i came up with 105. 6 Million Dollars, that was the savings. Stuart savings for the investor whose stock was bout back by Warren Buffett. 105 Million Dollars which did not go to the treasury. Charles right. Stuart and had the transaction taken place next year. Charles absolutely, absolutely. Stuart do you call that hipocracy. Charles of course i call it hipocracy, the worst kind of hipocracy and amazing that they can use Warren Buffetts name in this campaign against small successful people. Stuart carolyn, am i too harsh . Youre not. Berkshire hathaway has a billion dollars in backs taxes its fighting and i dont understand why Warren Buffett think hes the poster child for people who make 200 or 250,000 or even a Million Dollars a year and the thing that kills me, stuart, there is no action here, its just a bunch of words. If Warren Buffett wants to give more money to the government. Step up. He signed a pledge, he wants you to give more money. He signed a pledge to give most of his money away, turn that over to the government. So he doesnt pay tax, no, he gives it to charity. He wants the other people to wealthier than he is. And president obama may have won reelection, but is he listening to the voters . Now, a new poll shows how concerned they are about spending. But the president keeps on doing it. New numbers on that coming up at ten. And check out this mansion in miami, bought by a foreign investor for way below market value. Guess the price . 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Plus get this document shredder free but only if you act right now. Call the number on your screen now stuart new at 10 00, president obama wants to keep spending. Ben wants to keep printing and the voters say please stop. New numbers on debt and what voters want to come out of any deal out of washington. Weve got it for you. And wait until you hear just how dire the situation is in detroit. A third of the people on food stamps . Almost half out of the labor force . And yes, they want a federal bailout. Were talking about all of this. And a whole lot more with this company recovering investment banker. Charles payne is here and Nicole Petallides always on the floor of the new york stock exchange. Thursday morning, i will say it again, dead flat for the Dow Jones Industrial average. And we have dead flat, the rate on 30 year mortgages from freddie mac actually its down a tad, 3. 32 . Hows that for a 30 year . Ive been saying this for weeks now, who would have thought. Heres another number for you, the u. S. Government spent 172 billion dollars more than it took in, during november alone. That means were very likely headed for another trillion dollars annual deficit. That would be the fifth straight. The national debt, 16. 37 trillion dollars. President obama apparently not concerned. He wants more spending. Now, look at this. New poll from fox news, the question, whats the best way to fix the economy . 33 said tax increases on the wealthy. 61 said spending cuts also needed. Is the president listening . Apparently not. Charles, what do you say . Sorry, carol . Charles go carol. Ladies first today. Theyre definitely not listening. The fiscal cliff is all about tax hikes. It is not about the spending cuts. Thens a problem because we have sluggish growth and we have a spending problem and 16 trillion in debt and raising those taxes arent going to fix our problems. Ive never heard of taxing our way into prosperity. And so i dont understand why the discussion is centering so much around the hikes and not around cutting the spending, which is what we need to do. Stuart the president actually wants 50 billion in extra spending in the charles he also wants the power to raise the debt willynilly whenever he wants. The g. O. P. Lost that. They should have drawn that line in the sand a long time ago. Its always been about revenues. Boehners already given in on that. Its just how do we come to that numb number . Heres the thing, the president isnt going to listen to anything outside of the oval office. What they are telling him, you have a mandate, you have a decisive victory, pound, pound, pound. Stuart i think he will have a tax increase on the rich, promise of spending cuts charles weve already had that before. Stuart ignore the debt. Charles weve seen that before. Its getting completely out of control with the spending. Stuart want to move fast to research in motion. Nicole, i think we have news on the stock and i think it is up again. Nicole unbelievable. Up over 18 for the month of december. Today it is up over 3 . Couple of things happening. Everybody is waiting for the blackberry 10 to be released on january 30th. Today were learning that the u. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, they are going to try out the blackberry 10. They had recently dumped blackberry. They went to apple iphone. And it looks like theyre trying to make a go of it and come back to blackberry. Thats huge. Thats what blackberry wants. They want to get corporations and Government Agencies to use the blackberry. Stuart i hate charts but that is a good chart because that tells the story. Thats the kind of chart that i like and can live with. Its really gone straight up. Nicole you should never say hate; right . Stuart when did we put it on death watch . Nicole dont say we. You put it on death watch. Stuart okay. I believe that chart started just after we put it on death watch. Nicole im only part of we when we are right. Stuart thats right. [laughter] im thrilled stuart because im a blackberry user. This means i get to hang on to my blackberry for is a little bit longer. For a little bit longer. Stuart wait till the blackberry 10 comes out. Im excited. Stuart if you watched any of the huge benefit concert last night, you probably noticed the Samsung Galaxy. Those celebrities answering the phones, accepting donations, they were using the Samsung Galaxy phone. Im noticing a really big push by samsung to become the new cool and make your iphone your dad or your grand fathers smart phone. I mean, heres the question, ill think that apple is losing its cool. I think that apple is losing its cool and i think samsung is getting it. You say what . Charles i agree. In part because they have a great product. The marketing has been fantastic. That one commercial where everyone is waiting in line for the apple product and they are looking at the guy with the samsung with all these gadgets that maybe they will get next year. That was a youtube sensation. And, you know, there it is right there on the screen. Its absolutely amazing. Stuart i think the market is taking note because apple is in what, 520, 530, down 180 bucks from the high. Google just moved back well above 700 a share. You cannot trade on cool forever. If you use that as your marketing ploy, eventually the next group of people that come up dont want to be associated with what the people are doing before them. They want to blaze a new trail. You are always going to have that turnover. Stuart cool gives you a profit margin, a fat profit margin. For some period of time until you become uncool. Charles lets give them a credit. Apple has been a major innovator for a long time. Thats where people are catching up. Theyre being attacked on all sides of the empire. And havent done anything particularly innovative in a little while. We will see if apple tv will reenergize. Stuart lets move away from this for a while. What do we have on google . Nicole . The stock is up again. Whats going on with google and apple . Nicole looking good. I feel like were ganging up on apple a little bit because we talked about research in motion getting a contract away from apple. Were talking now about google. Now theyre going to bring the google maps back to the iphone, the ipad, and as you use that word rejoicing, the apple users are so pleased because they have been so frustrated with the maps that apple tried to do on their own. Stuart yeah, but basically google saying hey, we won. We got the map app. Its a good one. Apple app maps lousy. Apple stock down. Google stock up. I think ive got it right. Nicole thats right. There are still a lot of folks who are really hot on apple. I hate to throw them under the bus like this, but in this case today, all of the folks over at google are doing the dances, like what the nfl players do in the end zone, like one of these, something, i dont know. Stuart im just waiting for the microsoft phone to become suddenly cool, you know. Because i own microsoft stock. Everybody knows it. Im looking for cool. Nicole youre cool. Charles they call it retro. It comes and goes every now and then. Stuart all right all right pipe down. Later this hour, why is john stossel offending christians two weeks before christmas . Find out what he said. Hear him defend himself because im going to have a go at him. That will be 10 45 this morning on this program. Now, housing, its said to be a bright spot in a weak economic recovery, but just who is doing the buying . Well, the answer is foreigners are doing a lot of the buying. Joining us now is someone who knows this field, tonya is from team investments. Welcome back. Thank you for having me. Stuart you have four houses to show us. You have four foreign people foreigners who bought these houses. Yes. Stuart tell us all about it. Lets start with house number one. It is in atlanta. It sold for 825,000. Exactly. Stuart can we put it do we have a picture of it . We do. Stuart lets look at this. Sold for 825,000. The asking price was almost a million, 999. Who bought it . It sat on the market for 152 days and a canadian buyer who had family in the area that had lived there for ten years, they are buying a house to be close to their other family. Stuart that place that were seeing . Thats a nice house. It is gorgeous. Stuart youre saying a canadian walked in here with a big bag of money and stole it from under the noses of americans. Thats right. They are the number one foreign buyer right now. Stuart canadians . Yes. Stuart next house, arizona, it listed for what 550,000. It did. Stuart sold for how much . 500,000 in july. And they bought it as a vacation home. Another canadian. Stuart did they pay cash. They paid cash, yes. Stuart thats a nice looking place. Absolutely. Its in scottsdale, prime real estate. Stuart did you handle the sale . I did. Stuart quite prepared to sell america cheap. America is not on sale. [laughter] charles unless the buyer has cash. Okay, it might be. Stuart settle down everyone. I want to show you a place in miami. This, the asking price was almost 6 Million Dollars. Now this is a mansion and a half. 6 million the asking. What was the buying price . We have it under contract for 5 Million Dollars. Stuart under contract means somebody is going to buy this thing . Yes. Stuart they put a deposit down. You have the money. Stuart exactly. We have the money. Who have the money. A Saudi Arabian buyer has it rented for three years. Stuart the per year rental . 30,000 a month. Theyre willing to pay the first year and a half up front. Stuart wait a second. The buyer, the buyer, the saudi . Yes. Stuart hes going to rent it . Already have an agreement for three years at 30,000 a month, 360,000 a year guaranteed income coming in for the Purchase Price of 5 million. Right. So basically its another half a Million Dollars after taxes and insurance and all that, that he can reduce his Purchase Price for. Stuart did he pay cash . He did pay cash. Stuart 5 million, just wrote the check . Yes. Stuart last one, las vegas, this is not a previously owned home. New unit . It is. Stuart im looking at it. Thats the whole unit; right . That is actually the clubhouse. This was actually a chinese investor, and they paid 635,000. The pool is going in as we speak. And they wanted to be in this particular stuart wait a second. Thats not the clubhouse. Thats the house . This is the house. That was the clubhouse in the first picture. Those are pictures of the house. Stuart 630,000 . Yes, in las vegas. Stuart forgive me for saying it, five years ago that would have been a million plus. Mark my predictions, vegas is going to come back in the second half of 2013. Stuart am i right that that place would have been a million plus five years ago . It is. Vegas is about to lift the moratorium in march. Going to have a flood of buyers in las vegas. Stuart i want to talk about a different real estate market. Im going to read a news item about it and i want your comment. Sit right there, tonya. Okay. Stuart take a look at these numbers just out from detroit. More than 45 of the people, 16 and older, living there are not in the labor force. Thats roughly half the people in detroit. They are not looking for work. They are not in work. Out of labor force. About 35 of detroits residents get food stamps. Now, president obama went to detroit this week to make his case on taxing the rich to help the less fortunate. Detroit clearly struggling. Could this be foreshadowing the United States if we stay on the path any longer . Forget that question. Real estate, detroit is not a good location. Well, interesting, whats going on right now, according to the detroilt free press, the Metro Detroit homes have increased 22 , but they are 50,000 homes increasing to 65, 70,000 dollar homes. What scares me is it cant sustain because people are buying because it is cheap. Who do they rent to . Theres no one with jobs. When youre buying investment real estate, you have to look at okay im getting this great deal but what is it going to do for me in the long run . It is interesting. A book was published that said it was the poster child of the recession but it is going to make a comeback. And im, you know, curious to see, but im not buying real estate in detroit. Are these primarily investors who are buying these properties because from stuart not detroit, the other properties. In general, it sounds what you are saying these are primarily investors not people who are buying first and second homes. Canadians make up the bulk of foreign buyers. Chinese are second. 40 of the chinese that are buying in the states are buying as investment problems. Stuart have you sold a property to an englishman . I havent. Do you want to buy something . Stuart no. Im an american. Excellent stuff. Come and see us again. Thank you. Stuart for the First Time Ever the fed links Interest Rates to unemployment. Thats a very interesting prospect. I think i know how the judge is going to talk about this in a moment. Stuart i said it before, i will say it again, i really do sound like a broken record. The market is flat in the early going this morning. Dow jones average is up all of 10 points. Today is the day after ben bernanke unveiled big new money printing program. It is also his 59th birthday, no impact on the market obviously. Yum brands up slightly today. This is the Company Behind taco bell and kfc. Goldman sachs upgrading the stock, says its recent problems in china, only temporary. At this price 68 a share. 68 they say heading higher. Goldman is downgrading darden restaurants. T it says it says the turnaround at olive guaarden is slow. It is down. Boston beer makes sam adams beer, it expects to make more money next year, simple reason it is selling more beer. The stock hit alltime high today. Introducing the ishares core, Building Blocks for the heart of your portfolio. Find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. Ishares by blackrock. Call 1800ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Read and consider it carefully before investing. Risk includes possible loss of principal. Stuart the Federal Reserve is going to start tying Interest Rates to the Unemployment Rate. Ben bernanke says he will not raise Interest Rates until unemployment is down to 6 1 2 . Theres the link. All rise, judge andrew napolitano. I havent even got his name out and he is shaking his head. Whats so wrong with the Federal Reserve saying look we need 6 1 2 unemployment and were going to move heaven and earth to get there, whats wrong with that because i come from a view of the economy which says that Interest Rates should be the product of supply and demand. I know they are not. I know the Federal Reserve has the Lawful Authority to set them, in my view thats a violation of the constitution and a violation of our fundamental right to participate in the free market. But we have to live with it. So now youre basically asking me is this a wise economic move or a permissible constitutional move . Stuart no im asking you is it a wise economic move . We have carol roth reformed investment banker, i will ask the same question. All right. You also have an investment guru. Stuart im sorry, charles. Is it a good Economic Policy no, it is not a good Economic Policy. Stuart why not . It is a stunt to make his decisions appear credible, likable, and soundly grounded. Basically the Federal Reserve is trying to run say way from itself because every time it puts its big thumb on the scale of the free market, it imbalances market forces. It creates false and temporary prosperity and creates false hopes and instability. He knows that. Hes a historian. Stuart but it hasnt created prosperity. Its created prosperity for the banks through which the money gets into the market. Thats the only people that prosper when he prints the cash. The rest of us dont prosper at all. Theres a catalyst here that nobody likes to talk about, and theres a reason why theyre keeping the rates low, and the reason is we cannot afford to service our debt if the rates start going up. If we start getting Interest Rates that rise up and up and up and we have got 16. 4 trillion dollars in debt, do you know what that does to our budget . When Interest Rates are artificially low, that causes a bubble, an inordinant concentration of wealth and investment and resources in a spot that eventually cant tolerate it. We just had a bubble in 08 with real estate. Do we want another bubble because the government is telling us what the rent should be on the cash we borrow . It also destroys the wealth of the middle class and the people who are saving for retirement. The people who are saving for retirement need to put more principle in to be able to sustain a cost of living. Stuart charles schumer, senator schumer, he represents wall street, hes urging ben bernanke, get out there and print. Its because it is good for wall street. Charles it helps wall street. Listen, his goal and what ben bernanke is trying to do is create the perception of prosperity that the judge is talking about. The stock market has doubled in four years. People look and their home values are going up. Maybe they start to feel richer. They start to feel richer. Maybe they go out and start to spend and it becomes transfer wealth. Can i ask you a moral question . Hes already announced that hes going to leave. Hes probably going to go back to princeton. Is it moral for him to make a decision that affects all of us in order to enhance his legacy, other than to do the right thing . I dont think it is going to end up enhancing his legacy. He may think it is. I dont think it is either. Charles he said the Unemployment Rate is a false indicator of the strength of the economy. I think using 6. 5 just buys him time more than anything else. Exactly. Charles he knows that. He just threw it out, 6. 5 because he will never hit it we will never hit it and keep the rates low so we can service our debt. It might be 2015, 2016. He will be long gone by then. Stuart wait till he stops printing. That would be interesting. The London School of economics would take him. [laughter] stuart judge is the author of the book theodore and woodrow. Stuart varney is on page stuart 278. Thanks judge. Pleasure. Stuart my take on the unions is next. There is no massproduced human. Every human being is unique. And there is one store that recognizes it. The sleep nuer store. The only place in the world youll find the extraordinarily comfortable sleep number experience. An exclusive collectioof innovations that totally individualize your sleep. Perfectly comfortable pillows that adjust to your size and shape. Temperaturebalancing bedding. Dual warmth comforters. All designed around the sleep number bed a bed with dualair technology that allowyou to adjust to the support your body needs. Each of your bodies. In the name of human individuality the sleep number collection. Discover how our sleep professionals can individualize your sleep experience. Exclusively at one of our 400 sleep Number Stores nationwide. Sleep number. Comfort individualized. This holiday season, give the gift thats magical the innovative airfit adjustable pillow at special 30 savings. Microsoft will be coming out with xbox focused gaming tablet. It will be focused on gaming as well as entertainment. Thats something to keep an eye on for 2013. Stuart oh yes it is. Were talking a lot about the cool factor on this program today. Samsung appears to have it right now. Apple may be losing it. And google stickle it to apple with that sticking it to apple with that new maps app. Were on it. Nicole, best buy . Nicole 18 higher now. It just continues to soar here all on the potential that its founder Richard Schultz is moving forward and may make a formal offer here. Whats interesting here as you see it by the way he founded this company in 1966. This is his baby. I was into a best buy. I have two little boys. I have been to gamestop and toys r us. I havent been to a best buy lately, have you . Stuart no i havent. Not in that particular marketplace. Hold on a second. Ive got carol roth, former investment banker, youre either shaking or nodding your head, im not sure which on best buy. Maybe a bit of both. I think best buy needs to conduct a major turnaround and im not sure it can do it while it is a public company. I support this Company Going private. I think it is only the way it can do the radical change that needs to be done. I can see that happening. Its got to happen soon. Nicole last thing i want to say is these niche stores, circuit city, one store for just electronics, i dont know if that model works anymore because you can go to walmart, target and get that plus, plus. I dont know if that model works anymore. Stuart but i can go online. Right. Best buy though was supposed to compete on service. They had the geek squad. That was their opportunity to differentiate themselves. They havent fulfilled that promise yet. But it is an opportunity for them to differentiate themselves from an amazon or walmart. Stuart stock is up 18 as of right now. Thanks everyone. Its called the fiscal cliff and we are flat out sick of it. The wall street journals Dan Henninger is coming up on this program 10 35. He says get it over with. Republicans should give a little now but then make a fight of it later. Is he right . Here he comes. Hes on his way. The debate about unions has focused on money, pay scales, union dues, but i think the crisis in the Union Movement goes oh so much deeper. Heres my take on attitude. An us versus them approach does not work in the modern world. But that is the mentality of the unions today. What i picked up is hostility, a stick it to them way of thinking. This is one reason why so much of our Manufacturing Industry has gone overseas, us and them. Hopeless. In so many industries, the Union Contract with its rigid workplace rules, we only do this and you only do that, that stifles creativity and efficiency. See what happened to the twinkie . Some teamster delivery trucks were not allowed to carry some of the hostess products, so they had to send two trucks, goodbye twinkie. You listen to those guys fighting in michigan and it sounds like a rally at a steel plant in 1952. Listen to the language solidarity, workers rights, fight. Watching those guys makes me feel like i am in a time warp. So isnt this michigan revolution an opportunity for unions to reinvent themselves . Not as the enemy of management, but an ally, is that possible . Cooperate to beat the foreign competition . Maybe i am a hopeless dreamer, but if the unions stay stuck in the past, their long slide to oblivion will continue. Stuart california governor jerry brown has prostate cancer. Doctors say the cancer is its in early stages and the prognosis is excellent. Governor brown is expected to continue a full work schedule throughout treatment. He is 74 years old. Why isnt the market rallying on news that the fed will pump 85 print 85 billion dollars a month and stick it into the economy . Why isnt the market rallying . The dow is up 2. Thats it. Joining the company from chicago is larry levin with trading advantage. Will you answer the question, please, larry . Sure, stuart, i went around and talked to a bunch of traders yesterday after the fed meeting because im thinking the same thing myself, why will this market not go higher; right . Were stuck in the mid to, you know, low 1400s on the s p and been stuck there for a while. Most traders said the same thing, stuart, they think if the fed wasnt doing what its doing now, the market would be going down a whole bunch. They really feel and i kind of agree that the market is really being propped up. But it can only go so much higher from where it is right now. If you took the stuff out of the way, maybe the market goes down a whole bunch. Stuart that doesnt sound too good, just being propped up, thats the best weve got, propped up . That doesnt sound too good. It isnt good. And our government continuing to intervene and they have for a number of years now and dont show any signs of stopping. Yesterday was another indication that it is going to continue forever. Its not a good thing, stuart smz i think our government i think our government is unfortunately waiting for the next bubble to blow the market up to bring it a lot higher, whether thats cars that run on water or whatever it might be, thats what they are waiting for, they need a bubble to improve this economy because it is not improving on its own and not improving with what our government is trying to do. Stuart point taken larry levin and thank you for making it. Thanks. You are welcome. Stuart Dan Henninger from the wall street journal joins us now. Dan, you dont particularly like the republican the way the republicans are handling these fiscal cliff talks, do you . No, not at all, stuart. I think they have bogged down into sort of standard beltway process, smoke and mirrors, and the whole country is watching, and theyre becoming very despondent. It seems to me the big question coming out of the elections was what does the Republican Party stand for now . Theyve just lost. What should they stand for . And the fiscal cliff, win or lose, was an opportunity for them to elevate some of the partys Core Principles on the economy, and nobody in washington is doing that right now. Theyre missing an enormous opportunity to define themselves. Stuart whats the core principle . Small government . Lower taxes . Is that it . Whats at issue here in the fiscal cliff negotiations is simply the size of government. How big is it going to get . And below that, whether the government is going to lead the economy or the private sector is going to lead the economy for a generation. The second big issue is the safety net, the socalled idea of preserving the safety net. Is this going to become the most important thing we do in america, as in europe, or is america about something bigger and better and more interesting than simply preserving the safety net . Or even defining the safety net. When i think of a safety net, i think of a high wire and think of the net underneath. Whats supposed to happen is you fall and it bounces and lifts you back. I feel like we have a fishing net here, where people get caught in it and stay in it forever. Thats the difference between the safety net and the fishing net that were ending up with right now. We end up having to work, go to work every day and pay taxes ultimately simply to protect this safety net, rather than create a vibrant growing economy that will create jobs in the future for our children, our grandchildren, thats what the democrats are saying no, we work to just support this safety net. And i think the Republican Party in washington is really missing an opportunity to present to the American People the big picture, why are you resisting barack obama . At the moment it looks as though they are resisting merely for sort of beltway process reasons. Stuart i think were in a mess. I think were printing up a storm. We sere a trillion dollars every year in debt. The president wants to keep spending more, so that means a bigger debt. And weve got a very slow economy. I dont think this fiscal cliff talks will resolve anything. Nothing. Charles the whole thing, though, a lot of conservatives are saying boehner may not be that far away from obama in ideology. In other words, hes purged the tea party within the ranks of the leadership within the g. O. P. And seems to be willing to go down the same path as the president. Im not sure i believe that. I think boehners heart is in the right place, but hes caught up. Its his role to sort of grind out a deal with the president , rather than speak for the party. Noww you know, stuart, in the british system, someone will stand on the floor of the house of commons in the opposition and give a major statement of the partys position in any given fight. I dont see why it should not be possible to designate somebody like paul ryan or eric cantor or even marco rubio to stand down in washington and give a major presentation. Charles if they give the presentation and the lead ser doing Something Different and the leader is doing Something Different, isnt that a mixed message . Boehner needs to put it in a larger context of purpose. He hasnt done that. Stuart hes stuck in the process. Hes boggeddown in the process and obama is defining the narrative. The fiscal cliff deal is really about tax hike, thats the primary component is about the tax hikes. The spending is a very little percentage. Were focusing on a deal rather than the larger economic issues. I think thats the problem, by talking fiscal cliff, its distracting us from the underlying issue, and nobody is talking about that. Charles thats the war that the president won. Thats what you are saying, the president has already established that narrative and the republicans may have missed their opportunity to counterargue. He did ask for more revenue, the question is how does he get it, whether higher rates or simply deductions and such . Stuart you call it as it is. Dan, thank you very much. John stossel said something that offended christians two weeks before christmas. We will tell you what he said and im going to talk to him about it, harshly, next. And heaven and nature sing joy to the world the savior reigns making or losing money can pop up anytime. Thats why she trades with the leader in mobile trading. So shes always ready to take action, no matter how wily. Or weird. Or wonderfully the markets behaving. Which isnt rocket science. Its just common sense. From td ameritrade. I heard you guys can ship ground for less than the ups store. Thats right. Ive learned the only way to get a holiday deal is to camp out. You know weve been open all night. Is this a trick to get my spot . [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. Save on ground shipping at fedex office. Stuart a long steady decline in gas prices, heres the good news, it continues. The new National Average, 3. 30 a gallon. That will be down 14 cents in the month and down a lot in the past three months. Some places like st. Louis, missouri, are below 3 a gallon. Now to the markets, same old story, a dead flat day once more. Plenty of Economic News in the background, but no market movement. Big drop in jobless claims. Retail sales up only slightly in november. Thanks to online retailers primarily like amazon. And the freddie mac 30 year Mortgage Rate down to 3. 32 . How about that. Were coming back in 90 seconds with john stossel. We will debate god versus science. But i want you to listen carefully to these commercials, totally separate. Tv ads cant be much louder than the show you are watching. So as you can see, geicos Customer Satisfaction is at 97 . Mmmm tasty. And cut very good. People are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. So were taking you behind the scenes. This coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. Its not real. Geicos Customer Satisfaction is quite real though. This computeranimated coffee tastes dreadful. Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. Someone get me a latte will ya, please . Stuart lets have a look at apple, down earlier, where sit now . Nicole where is it now, nicole . Nicole right now its still down. More products coming out next year, ipad, iphones, but the news today is they are getting the google maps back for their customers who are excited because they have struggled and been frustrated with the maps program that apple tried to institute on their own. You may remember it actually put a city in the middle of an ocean. Stuart yes i do recall that, yes. All right, nicole thank you very much indeed. Stuart remember the big argument i had with an atheist yesterday about saying Merry Christmas . John stossel is going to do a version of that on his program tonight. He will be debating god versus science. John stossel joins us now. But i will say Merry Christmas. Stuart thats very big of you. What did you say on fox and friends this morning . Did you say im a nonbeliever . I did. I said look i envy those of you who believe. I know religious people have more peace, more joy in their lives. Surveys show they are happier. Whenever i run into somebody who is going to africa to help poor people, odds are they are going with their church group. Stuart two weeks before christmas, right in the middle of hanukkah, you know, you may have offended people by just putting it right out there, im a nonbeliever. I mean its almost in your face, isnt it . Well, thats what were supposed to do in news programs, discuss stuart what i objected to the other day when the atheist was on the show because hes sticking it in my face. Were singing know about the birth of christ and the holy night and all that, now is the time to discuss is there a conflict between science and religion . We have scientists and religious people on to debate that. I think it should be debated. Stuart would you have made such a statement about nonbelief, i dont believe in god, would you have said that right before yom kippur or in in middle of ramadan . Sure. If im asked what i believe, ive tried to believe. I want to believe. You want me to answer honestly. Stuart i think a lot of our viewers feel they are in a corner. That people of faith [inaudible] i mean that seriously. Im a believer. I am a believer. I believe in christ. How can the majority be in a corner . Stuart i feel like im in a corner because the nonbelievers are always coming at me with these statements of i dont believe in god. I dont believe in it. And you never seem to think about my feelings, the way im going to react to this. I would suggest, john, maybe you should show some [inaudible]. How about that . You are the majority. I dont see how you can be under assault. If im not being tactful, i apologize. Stuart i think the minority is having a go at us, bigtime. [talking over each other] im an agnostic. The atheists say i know theres no god. I dont know. Stuart the nonbelievers, the unconvinced, you are out there having a go at it. Youve got the billboards up there. You are a small minority and yet you are having a go at us all the time. We feel like were in a corner. How could 80 of america how can 80 of America Stuart they are out there suing everybody and his brother, if you put up a cross or any kind of religious symbol. You exaggerate their disagreement. Charles john, youve got to admit, the atheists are on a role. Took god out of the democratic platform. People are really worried about this, particularly people who want their kids to believe in god because im telling you the real thrust of this is with the kids. They are attacking our kids, you know, in schools and making them feel stupid for believing in god. Well, im not trying to make anybody feel stupid for believing in god. And people who do believe in god accomplish wonderful things. But i think we should discuss that not all of us manage to believe and what that means and whats the evidence and im going to ask these people tonight, help me. I want to believe. What made you believe. Stuart what time are you on tonight . I am going to watch this extravaganza. Was it 9 00 p. M. Eastern . 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Stuart the title of the show is stossel . This show is science versus god, question mark, is there a conflict . Stuart john, it was good stuff. We appreciate you being with us. Thank you very much john stossel. All right, prounion demonstrators throwing fists in michigan. Now the local Community Steps in to help a victim of those attacks. We have got it for you. It is next. Stuart john mcafee back in the United States. Many years ago he founded the Computer Software company that bears his name but recently hes been a recluse, living in beliz. He left that country after police there wanted to question him in the death of his neighbor. He says he is not guilty. This morning i was in jail. Today here i am. Im not worried at all. If im in front of a court, theres nothing in the world they will do to send me back. They have no evidence. Stuart that is john mcafee and he is now back in america. Union members, caught on camera destroying a tent during the big protests over right to work laws earlier this week. One of the victims of this, a Small Business owner who was selling food. He says two people tore down his tent, overturned his table, smashed his hot dogs, spilled his chili. The community pitched in to raise money to help. Thats pretty good, isnt it . Charles amazing. It shows how the people are generous. We keep hearing how people dont want to pay taxes and dont want to contribute. People naturally are generous and when they are not forced to do something, they step up and do the right thing. I think that was demonstrated here stuart. Stuart i think theyre prepared to make sure that nobody is a victim. Charles i remember in the 70s, they used to have those commercials, look for the union label and people would look for the union label. And now union, watch out were going to beat down anybody in our way. Costing Small Business people of america. 28 million of them, probably not a good strategy. Stuart next topic, which state will be next to go right to work . Pennsylvania . Ohio . They seem to be pretty obvious choices. Both have republican governors. They dont apparently seem that anxious to push the issue. So i am told, reliably. What do you say . Any input on this . Ohio, pennsylvania . I know it is not going to be illinois. I can guarantee you that that will not be the next one. Im willing to put money on that one stuart. Stuart i think it was a revolution in michigan. Im surprised there isnt more enthusiasm to follow suit especially ohio and pennsylvania. But im told there is no such enthusiasm charles. Charles you might even throw new jersey in there. Big blue states, republican governors, you would think maybe they would start to go that way. High unemployment. Its all the right but i dont think the public is going for it. Pennsylvania is possibly more likely than ohio given what we saw happened in the last election. Stuart but never new york state. And never illinois. Charles new york cant make up its mind on fracking, creating jobs. Stuart please, dont tell me about it. The highlight reel is next. [ male announcer ] they are a glowing example of what it means to be the best. And at this special time of year, they shine even brighter. Come to the winter event and get the mercedesbenz youve always wished for, now for an exceptional price. [ santa ] ho, ho, ho, ho [ male announcer ] lease a 2013 glk350 for 399 a month at your local mercedesbenz dealer. [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the Aerospace Industry 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. Invest with confidence. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. Stuart here it is. The highlight reel. Charles apple has been a major innovator for a long time. It has not done anything innovative for a while. If you use it as your marketing ploy, it will become a fad. Stuart if you watched the concert last night some period of time until you become uncool. Stuart are they uncool now . Apple, say it isnt so. They may not be uncool, but Warren Buffett is uncool. He is getting on my nerves. I want him to put his money where his mouth is. Instead of giving it to charity, give it to the government, or work with the government