Holiday weekend as we look ahead this morning on sunday morning futures. President obama entered office on Campaign Promises of a more Multi Lateral militaryow approach. Now, six years later, drone strikes upon u. S. Citizens in the middle east and power vacuums in countries where the arab spring overthrew death pods, the u. S. Is facing a new mission creep, creep right back into iraq. It appears every time this president attempts to define the Obama Doctrine, events changes. What will his legacy be . Rick is a former spokesman for four u. S. Ambassadors to the u. N. Hes a fellow at the Prague Freedom Foundation and retired Navy Captain Chuck Nash is an analyst. Thank you so much for joining us. Good to have you. Rick, what is the president s vision in terms of Foreign Policy . How would you define it . Well, im not sure he has a vision. I think thats been the problem. If you can about they Obama Doctrine, ive read quite a bit on this, and i think its the war or ignore strategy. The president came in, promising us to withdrawal all the troops from iraq and afghanistan and reminding the world in every single crisis that its really none of our business. So this either go to war or ignore the situation, which by the way i think is a very libertarian philosophy that rand paul shares, but the Obama Doctrine of war or ignore has gotten us into trouble. Weve seen the arab spring turn into the islamic awakening on the watch of president obama. Captain chuck nash, do you agree with that . What are the implications of that no vision, war or ignore strategy . Well, the problem is that its inconsistent across the board. Its been described lately as dont do stupid stuff. Well, who makes the decision on whats stupid . Is that person present for every throughout the chain of command . The other thing is, as has been pointed out, if you have a vision that implies that theres a strategy somewhere that youre trying so execute. And a÷ strategy has three components. Theres an economic, political, diplomatic and theres probably a military component of that, as well. And through it runs the intelligence piece, which informs the decisionmakers in those three on whats going on and how to adjust going forward. But without laying that out, and just coming up with a subjective dont do stupid stuff, its very tough for everyone else in the defense and National Security policy arena to make decisions. Well, its very hard to make decisions and, rick, i guess one issue i have isq what is being felt on the front lines . Lets talk about our military for a moment. I was speaking to some military men and women recently who said, you know, were not judging the president on his decisions. We just need a decision. We need to know what the direction is so that we have unionsity and can move forward. Do they have that consistency in terms of confidence and what division is or not . Well, i can certainly tell you that the diplomatic front lines absolutely do not have that direction. Theres no strategy coming from foggy bottom. Theres no strategy coming from the secretary of state. Whether it was Hillary Clinton or john kerry. I think our military is obviously the best in the world. And they can respond appropriately. But they, too, are confused. Our mennies are taking advantage of the situation. Our allies certainly in the arab world are very confused about what the strategy is. You know, saudi arabia decided not to go on the Security Council afterc winning a seat. They decided not to join and serve simply because they didnt want to serve with the americans because, as they said, the americans dont have a plan. And they dont want to be a part of something that is is really chaotic. So were having problems with our enemies and our allies because we dont have a strategy. What about that, chuck nash . From a navy per expect theive or the military men and women on the front lines, do they feel that theyve got a plan . Do they need a more defined doctrine . The folks on the front line dont worry about them. They are well trained, theyre properly motivated and well led. They know exactly what their job is and they will do their job when called upon. Where things start to get a little wishy washy is when you get back up here into washington and you start trying to figure out where youre going to appropriate and authorize money for what equipment to buy going into theafuture to make sure that you have the military component ready to serve that overall strategy. So if were going to do humanitarian work, thats fine. Weve done it in the past, well do it in the future. You want to fight small wars . Okay, fine, you can do that. But now were talking about pivoting to the pacific. Now its a peer competitor, were talking china, a resurgent russia and youve got iran and north korea operate, Nuclear Weapons soon in the case of iran and currently with north korea and theyre sharing Ballistic Missile information. All of these things require investments to be made in the future. Those investments hinge on the strategy and the strategy of dont do stupid stuff is a little bit look, lets face it, the president was facing reelection and it was a very goodf . Story line to say the terrorists are on the run. Osama bin laden has been captured and my team has, you know, finished all these terrorists off. Today, we recognize that is absolutely not true. So what happens next with the budget . You know, we know that the president wanted to cut the military budget, also taking troops out of iraq. Do we have a clear sense of where the budget goes and what we are, in fact, allocating money to . Ill jump in here. Well, let me just start by saying, you know, i think theres always waste that can be cut at the pentagon. Theres no question about that. Even senator mccain has said that. But we have to have the hardware build up. If you talk to any experts, we really are at the point where were at the bottom of the barrel, so to speak, and wex dont have the ability to respond like i think our pentagon and dod officials want to be able to respond. So we need to put money into the hardware build up. But theres a lot of savings to be made at the pentagon and certainly a lot of savings at the state department, which i know very specifically we dont need hundreds of u. S. Diplomates in european capitals. We have to be able to cut back the state department budget, which is growing every year by leaps and bounds. Captain . Actually, there is money that could be saved in defense spending, a former chief of Naval Operations said if he had any points other than his acquisition system, he would use it because the current one needs to be replaced, not fixed. We tend to buy a bunch. We buy a few uber systems, so theyre elegant when, in fact, they way overqualified for use in small wars. But if you were to apply them and use them in big wars, you dont have enough of them. They can only be in one place at one time. So in going against a peer competit competitor, mass has a quality all its own. Real quick, gentlemen, as the president has declared terrorists on the run, would you say isis is a direct threat to the United States . Absolutely. Theres no questiony about it. Weve already seen that they are a killer organization that takes out americans. And i think theyre only growing and they absolutely will target us and they want to target us. There are about a thousand isis fighters right now by estimates. H 400 of them are brit, with british and european passports, probably some american passports. Theyre going to be able to travel around the world and get under a lot of peoples radar. So yes, it is a threat and it is coming here. We have to believe that and defend against it. Gentlemen, thank you very much for your insights. We so appreciate it. Rick renell and captain chuck nash joining us. As kids return to school, congress is returning to washington with a lot of their plates. But will anything get done before the midterm . I hope youre follow on twiser. sundayfutures. Send me a tweet and tell us what you would like to hear about on the show. Ugh. Heartburn. Did someone say burn . Try alka seltzer reliefchews. They work just as fast and are proven to taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. Mmm. Amazing. Yeah, i get that a lot. Alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. Enjoy the relief. Great. This is the last thing i need. seriously . The last thing you need is some guy giving you a new catalytic converter when all you got is a loose gas cap. What . It is that simple sometimes. Thanks. Now lets take this puppy good ol midas touch. Hey you know what . Ill drive and i have no feet. I really didnt think this through. Trust the midas touch. For brakes, tires, oil, everything. whistling at od, whatever business youre in, thats the business were in with Premium Service like one of the best ontime delivery records and a low claims ratio, we do whatever it takes to make your business our business. Od. Helping the world keep promises. Great rates for great rides. Geico motorcycle, see how much you could save. Welcome back. Congress set to return from its fiveweek break with a full agenda, including immigration, another bajt battle with a shut down possible in mid october. All of this wi. Judith is a pull easier price prize winning author and journalist. You heard our conversation with chuck nash and rick renell. What do you think obamas doctrine is in items of Foreign Policy . I dont think he has one. I think he has a Bumper Sticker rather than a strategy. And its nice to say dont do stupid stuff, he used another word, but that doesnt tell us anything as your previous guest said. I think the problem with the president is he misjunked the situation on the ground. He was so intent on taking credit for pulling out of iraq, for pulling out of afghanistan, that he failed to see this incredible looming threat in the form of isis. He himself called that group the Junior Varsity team. His cia director, john brennen, said not six months ago that these guys were kind of living in a fantasy world. They thought they were going to declare anccalicant, they thout they were going to spread islamic militancy and their brand all over the world. Now theyve started to do that. So theyre catching up with events on the ground. Well, what you know, Junior Varsity for isis, we are watching isis do horrible things in terms of really wanting the United States, sort of taunting the United States. Everybody says that theyre a direct threat to the u. S. What do we miss . Well, its hard. Its hard to miss them unless you want to miss them, unless you want to downgrade their importance and say, this vacuum is knot going to come back to haunt us. Look, i think the president would have had a conversation with the American People in which he said, we are not going back into iraq, were not refighting that war, were sending people and advisers and boots there that we dont need the boots on the ground or as many of them as some people are afraid of. But were sending people back to prevent a replay of afghanistan. Because those that was his essential war. The people who had come to us and struck us. Now thats whats at stake. This is what isis wants to do if we let them gather strength. I dont think6 theyre an immediate threat, but if we let them get stronger, they will be. What kind of an effect does this leave behind strategy have on america, the perception of america, the strength and power of america . This does have real implications . Maria, im going to Eastern Europe in a month less than a month. Our arab allies are not only perplexed, theyre so disappointed in the United States. There were many complaints about iraq and the way we fought that war. But the absence of america is an even greater threat. Theyre fighting historic battles and were not there. Were letting other people do it except no one wants to do it. Were the only nation that can. Somebody made the point, unfortunately, when you look at Foreign Policy and this administration, its allxr political, its all senators. Look at who is running things, all former senators, that we know that thats political. Its not necessarily where are the coalin powells, where are the people who we know who are strictly Foreign Policy strategists and not senators . Well, there arent any. If you look at his team, speaking of Junior Varsity, i hate to say it, because many of these people have extraordinary experience. But theres no one in the kissinger, you know exactly. Thats what i waslo referring t. You cant have a strategy without strategists. The president knows what he doesnt want to do. Im not sure he knows what he can and wants to do now that the situation on the ground has changed so dramatically. So whats most important to you as you study this in the weeks and months ahead . What are you going to be looking for in terms of direction, in terms of giving you more clarity . I think what i want to see is a president who is willing and able to lead our european allies into a kind of coalition that tells putin, for example, you cannot go on doing what youre doing in the ukraine. You cannot play this double game of speaking about deescalation and actually still feeding in russians to stir the pot and keep this terrible fight going. You need to rally people behind you. Im not saying america has to do it, but we have to lead a coalition effort. In the middle east, we really do need to do more. We need 20 send in more advisesers, we need to concentrate on how to get rid of isis. They know these people and they know how to get rid of them. Not to mention hamas, where all of our neighbors in the region are side, eisrael, whic is extraordinary. Its extraordinary. It really is. Judy, always wonderful to see you. Thanks so much. Thank you so much. It is, meanwhile, the most wonderful time of the year. Just ask any parent. The ceo of one of the biggest diop line retailers is here nex÷ to explain what back to School Shopping can tell us about the future of our economy. A look ahead on sunday morning futures. Fiber one. New fiber one streusel. 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Well, there are a cple of times a year when consumers can ball with w the economy is doing. Back the school is one of those times. The American Retail Federation expects American Families to spend some 26. 5 billion dollars from everything from clothes to backpacks. Patrick burns is here to help us navigate the back to School Season. Patrick, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us. Maria, its an anner to be on your new ifschool. Thank you. How would you characterize the back to School Season so far . We had a great back to school and back to campus sales. Ours was up about 20 over last year. Were very happy with that. Im not sure our experience was typical among all retailers. I think in general the Retail Industry was expect about a 5 surge. That was good. In terms of your own business, give us your sense of the consumer today. Even though were seven years past the financial upset, it feels like people are still nervous, unsure, and certainly value conscious. They are value conscious. Thats good for overstock. But in any general sense of the consumer, i hate to be debbie downer, but were not under recession. What happens in 08 was just the beginning and all theyve done is reflat a bubble until for the last six, seven years, and now were having trouble reflating the bubble. But there is no real fundamental recovery at all in the economy and i think the consumer is getting harder to fool the consumers into spending money. Yeah. It works okay for us. Value when people are call conscious, its good for us. But in general, i dont think there is. I think weve seen all were going to see of the recovery. Is so, i mean, youre right, the Economic Data will show that its been quite bumpy, choppy, if you will, bifurcated in the retail area. What do you think its going to take to move the needle on Economic Growth . Well, frankly, i i mean, thats a big question. I think that we have to really radically change institutions. All were doing now, we have a central bank thats buying 93 of the bonds that the government issues. So thats essentially monetizing all the debt. And thats to create a wealth effect, prop up the wealth, the market, so theres people, stocks go up and spend money. Thats, you know, just what happened in 06, 0b 7 with the housing market. Thats not any real recovery. What it would take is radically transforming our financial system. I think deleveraging the banks, going to a nonfractional reserve banking system, having real effective government regulation and not what we have now, which is pretty much a revolving door between washington and wall street, things like that would have to be fixed. The fundamentals would have to be nzfixed. All thats going on now is cosmetics. So tell us about the highlights of the back to School Season. What are families spending money on these days . Theres a lot for us the big surge was, in fact, campus, frankly. So theres back to campus and back to school that get mixed together. We saw the biggest surge from people whose children are going to college. And theyre outfitting dorm rooms and things like that. That may be partially skewed by the fact that we started this year giving we have something called club o, its our loyalty program, considered one of the top three on the net. We started giving it for free to students, military, and police and firefighters. And so because weve done that, the college students, that may be why we had such a big surge in sales of kids going back to, their college dorm. What about in terms of value . Where can people find the most value in terms of products . Are we seeing a lot of promotions . And sort of sales ahead of back to school . We are. I think that the inventory in the second quarter, from my read, is the inventory chain got a little bit overstuffed. People order odd a little bit more than they wish they had. And so now there are Liquidation Sales going on, different promotions, because i think the Retail Industry in general realized it got a bit ahead of its headlights and overstuffed its supply chain. You have allowed some customers to pay in bit coin. We do, indeed. We have the first major site to take bit coin in january and as of september 1st, we will be taking bit coins globally from consumers all over the world will be able to spend bit coin at overstock. Com september 1st. D so how do you get paid . Explain bit coin for our audience. Well, bit coin is a virtual currency. Its a lot like gold, except its virtual. Its like gold in that its limited in supply. No government mandarin can tweak it and adjust the supply. Thats why i like it. In our case, as people spend bit coin with us, we convert it into dollars less 10 . We hold were accumulating reserves of 10 bit coin sales, keeping them in bit coin. We think it will be good some day to have a little pot of bit coin. Are we still seeing the online portion of sales taking from brick and mortar or is it more of both strategies working . No. I think that there is very cl3xearly a secular shift. Online retailers growing at about 10 to 12 a year. Walmart samestore sales are now shrinking a little bit, but theyre actually shrinking. So when you see the Growth Numbers in the Retail Industry, you have to disaggregate them from brick and mortar and online. And the truth is, online is grog many, many multiples of the brick and mortar. And theres some positive number, but the truth is brick mortar is basically flat or in some cases shrinking and the real growth is all coming in the online industry. So you mentioned, you know, your sales are up better than 20 , 26 or so, and you mentioned that the broader economy doesnt feel so hot to you, that we are sort of bumping along the bottom. How is it thattor firm has been able to track such a better performance than the Broader Market . Is it thatb value Conscious Consumer because youre get ago better price . Thats a big part of it. Its 22 . Thats just with the back to camp, back to school period. Im not giving away quarterly numbers in advance. Obviously, im bias, but were about 10 cheaper than amazon with better customer service. Hahp hc its taken this long, you know, for the audience to really start to buy into overstock as much as they are. But so, yeah, value when times are really tough is when people when weve had our biggest surges, actually. Its when theres a lot of money floating around and sometimes arent tough, people go shop, they pay full retail. When times are tough. And you know who does it . Youll find this interesting. Who really turns to us are affluent people and low income people. Middle class people pay full retail. They dont squeeze a penny. The people who squeeze a penny are rich people and poor penny, interesting fact. That is interesting. Good to have you on the program. Thanks so much. Anytime, maria. Thank you so much. Well see you soon. Overstock. Com. Isis determined to expend its touch across syria and iraq. How will the United States and world respond . Back in a moment. Whos more excited about back to School Savings at staples . The ladies . These guys . Or these guys . When you get guaranteed low prices on everything you buy the most, ev staples. Make more happen for less. Live from americas news headquarters, im aaron shawn. Iraqi forces claim what they call an important victory against isis, saying theyve ended the terrorist sixweek siege of a town in northeastern iraq. Those new usair strikes and adrops also helping turn the tide there. This as australia now says it will arm kurdish fighters. Joining an International Coalition that includes the u. S. , britain and canada. Just hours from now at the atlanta motor speedway, driver tony stewart will make his official return to nas cac, three weeks after he was involved in that fatal crash that killed driver kevin ward jr. When he got out of his car. There is still no word on whether stewart will be charge odd that incident. Authorities say the investigation will last at least two more weeks. Im eric shawn. Well be back with more news at the top of the hour at 12 00 eastern time. Now back to sunday morning futures and maria. Welcome back. Isis has made it clear [ it wan to expand and maintain its islamic faith. It has seized large parts of iraq and syria. What should be our military response . I want to bring in our panel, ed rollins, a long time strategist to business and political leaders. Hes a fox news political analyst. Katie mcfarland is a fox news National Security analyst. Former Deputy Assistant of defense during the reagan administration. Martin sath, director of md let me kick this off with you. Judy miller was on earlier. She said we are looking at right now we have the smallest u. S. Army since 1940. We have the Smallest Air Force and oldest air force in history. And we have as far as the navy is concerned, it is now back down to the size it was in 1912. I mean, we are talking about real cutbacks for the military at a time it feels to me that isis is probably among the more dangerous players. Well, and the president keeps saying no boots on the ground, no u. S. Boots on the ground as if to say were going to have a small military because we dont need a big military were not going to put boots on the ground. But we have special forces, we keep saying this, yet theyve been there. Frankly, boots on the ground, large, American Military presence has not worked in the middle east. It didnt work in afghanistan, it hasnt worked in iraq, it didnt work in vietnam. But what we need to do, then, is to get the local sandals in the sand. We need to use the locals to fight isis and the expanding threat. And the way we do that . We take out the checkbook and we take out the military weapons catalog and say what do you guys need to take on this threat directly . Well give you air showers, well share intelligence, but not american boots on the ground, but we need to enable you to do the fighting. But, ed, we are cutting military but the other side of that, and kt is the expert on this, unlimited money. Ited they have unlimited weapons. And what was left over from you or the russians or what have you, for the first time we are against significant sources with all the resources in the world. What kt talks of, somehow we have to prop up these people that are there that should be fighting for than own land. Petraeus says we cant be their air force. We are now serving as their air force. Any progress we made in the last week or two has been because of that and we cant do that longterm. Its interesting when you look at the economic impact. Marty, i guess we havent seen much of an impact in the u. S. As spots around the world. Precisely, maria. I think thats a key point. These are important geopolitical issues were talking about. And geopolitical crises occurring. But from a fundamental economic standpoint, its having no impact on the u. S. Economy. It is impacting psychology, its making people more cautious, it causes gyrations in the market. But if you look over the last 50 years at all the geopolitical crysys that weve had, from the standpoint of the stock market, theyve had marginal impacts, theyve had impacts, theyre short lived. The market has been stabilized. You look at 9 11 or the invasion of iraq and all those, you know, momentous geopolitical events that shortterm impacts on the market, they stabilized and then they recovered. So its really uwhats from the market standpoint, its will it have an impact on u. S. Economics, on fundamentals of corporations . They can have it on specific companies, but overall on the markets, its noise, nlz unless we start to get severe, unexpected collateral crimes. Is that sustainable, though . At some point, all of the headlines i would think that it keeps people frozen. You dont want to spend money, you dont i think theyre making money. Theyre like the rest of the country. The rest of the country wants to ignore the stuff thats going on. Its not in background or backyard any more. This is what happened to us in 1976 and 1980 and post vietnam. We got to a point where we were very, very weak. The soviets were on the move all over the world. We now have an economy thats certainly every bit as dangerous. We were talking earlier in the show about the fact that there seems to be no doctrine in terms of obama Foreign Policy. Do we have a vision . That has implications on our military, it has implications on the country knowing where were going. Do you agree that theres no doctrine . Theyre not looking past tomorrow. Theyre looking at theres a Current Crisis in the inbox, not realizing youre getting yourself biggers problems downs the road. This president does everything political, they jumped to take credit on bin laden. You cant fight this thing with drones. You have to let the special services do their thing, but dont broadcast it. And i think thats one of the dangers of this administration. And i would add to that, looking for new opportunities and thats what theyre not seizing. If you look at the middle east today, the sunni moderate countrieses, theyre looking at isis and theyre saying, its our heads on the stakes next, whether its jordan, united arab emirates, if we were looking ahead, we would say we can forge a new antijihadist, using israel, the moderate city states and all the european up. That takes leadership and right now theres no leadership in the white house, thats the bottom line. Stay with us, everybody. A quick programming note, media buzz with howie kurtz is live at the top of the hour. Stay tuned for howie. He will join us in just about 20 minutes or so. Well take a short break. When we come back, more from our panel. Stay with us. When you told me about this candy crush game at first i thought so what . , but now i cant stop playing. Thats not how it works. I mean its so simple. Its like my Car Insurance. I saved 15 in fifteen minutes. Well esurance could have saved you money in half that time. Three in a row sweet 15 minutes for a quote isnt so sweet. Level 2 start with a quote from esurance and you could save money on Car Insurance in half the time. Welcome to the modern world. Esurance, backed by allstate. Click or call. Welcome back pop congress headed back to socalled work in a few days after a fiveweek vacation. Lawmakers campaigning for reelection. Our panel, ed 8orollins, kt mcfarland and martin joining us. The midterm elections begin in earnest. What issues do you think are front and center . Ed . There are no individuals. There individual races are going to be what matters. The president is so weak that he basically cannot generate any turnout. Every campaign will be on challenging the incumbent. Is immigration on the table . Immigration will only be on the table if the president does something in the next couple of weeks Via Executive order and then it will be hot and heavy and it will back fire on him. How do you think the next few weeks play÷out . It all depends. Is it going to be a series of local races or against the preside president s leadership . If its a wave election, if people are looking at leadership, whether its the cities of america are exploding, the economy isnt improving or theres disaster in continent after continent and country after country in the middle east, in far east, in central europe, then maybe people Pay Attention and its a wave election. This vulnerability of the president continues to bring up the thought the gop takes the senate and holds on to the house. If we see the republicans control both houses, what does that mean for some of the legislation that the president has talked about . Marty, tax inversion legislation . As you know, thats been a hot topic in washington from barack obama to carl levin. I think the rhetoric will heat up leading up to the midterm elections by tax inversion. But i think its rhetoric and nothing isab going to get done until after the election. So its created uncertainty, which by the way creates opportunity for us investors because investors overreact to< some of these rhetoric that is taking place. But nothing is going to happen until, in my view, until we get some comprehensive tax reform. Its not going to be isolated to tax inversion. Meanwhile, theyre penalizing some of the stocks and Companies Involved in m a. M a as heated up, as you know, a lot. I think its 2 trillion. Exactly, 2. 6 trillion yeartoda yeartodate. And its been in terms of the european deals and asian deals, more than they have all of last year. Were seeing crosscountry border deals, a lot of tax inversion deals, low borrowing costs, easy credit, you know, tax benefits. That sounds like a positive for the stock market. It is. Companies are sitting, as you know, on huge amounts of cash. Absolutely. Theyre going to redeploy in m a and share buybacks. You have to believe if the gop controls both houses, were not going to see any legislation on tax inversion. No, but at the end of the day,n its a close selection tt republicans may gain in both the house and the senate and get close to the majority. They have to have an aggressive twoyear agenda. Coming 2016 when more voters turn out in the president ial race, all the republicans are up in the next cycle. So you have a twoyear gap here. You have to do something to differentiate from the democrats and i think they will. Is it a positive that we could see a situation where nothing gets done or do you disagree with that, a lot gets done . I think a lot gets tried to get done. The president obviously has the veto power. The vote is not going to overturn any vetoes. Maybe he will, in fact, veto. Then what happens . What happens to the democrats is in the are they the veto president . Are they going to be a Hillary Clinton dont do dumb stuff or youll see, every democrat will be antiobama. Theyll run as far away from obama as possible. Do you think it is hillary, by the way . Who knows. Shes tough to beat because shes a woman. Well take a short break. When we come back, were facing a fall economic season that looks like more of the same. Sluggish job numbers, corporations hold on to those record amount of cash. Can anything change . Our panel will tackle the economy next as we look ahead on sunday morning futures. Thank your sacrifice and thank you for your bravery. Thank you colonel. Thank you daddy. Military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa Auto Insurance can be one of them. If youre a current or former military member or their family, get an Auto Insurance quote and see why 92 of our members plan to stay for life. With the top speedou compare of comcast the top speed of business dsl from the internet. Phone company well, theres really no comparison. Why pay more for less . Call today for a low price on speeds up to 150mbps. And find out more about our twoyear price guarantee. Comcast business. Built for business. Were back with our panel, ed rollins, kt mcfarland and marty sass. We did get a pretty good second ygdp number, but that was on top of a contraction in the first quarter. What kind of a second half are improvements. We saw a precursors to this improvement with corporate earnings. They substantially beat analyst estimates, which is pretty typical, by the way, at this stage of an economic recovery where analysts tend to underestimate the strength in the economy. We had a 9. 3 increase year over year. Second quarter profits. Second quarter s p 500 earnings, way blowing away analyst estimates. They were all in the process of raising estimates now. So is that a reason to buy stocks . Yeah. Well,lt you know, companies wit strong fundamentals that are undervalued, you know, offer tremendous opportunities and theres no Interest Rate world we live in. We have a very accommodative fed. Janet yellen is going to stay with a low Interest Rate policy until shes sure that the economy seems selffulfilling growth. And selfgenerating growth. I personally think youre going to see an improving jobs number, maybe along the lines of Something Like 250,000. I think youll see the Unemployment Rate come down to around 6 from what was 6. 2 in july and 7. 3 a year earlier. There is a problem of Labor Participation rate and longterm unemployed and parttime workers. But that is improving. So i think were going to see better growth. Weve had four years of 2 real gdp growth. I think looking forward, were going to look at 3 to 4 real gdp growth. And good bottom line growth. And thats really the jobs number, is an important catalyst actually to come. Well get those jobs numbers out in about a week, the first friday in september. Theres a real disconnect, though. Marty is talking about a profit picture that is very strong 9 , 10 Profit Growth year over year. Look at these polls, the wall street journal poll basically said 70 of the people out there said their children are not going to have the upbringing, the life< standard that they h. A big push and were still in a recession. People have confidence, those who are investing in the stock market are making lots of money. But theres an awful lot of people permanently unemployed and have given up in the job market. Theres a lot of hope for people to come back. I think the unemployment numbers are misleading. 6. 5 readings reflect how many people are out of work, not looking for jobs any more and is a scary moment for the kids. If you look at this period, and i went back and looked at jimmy carters speeches in the 19. 0s and looking at president obamas speeches today, its a decline of attitude. Its all over. America is finished. Weve had our rise in the sun and now were down in the fall. And the only thing we can do is manage is decline. Thats why the country, given the economic potential, givenst American Energy selfsfushtsy, and potential exports in American Energy, were potentially, two or three years down the road, onek of the biggest booms in world history. Youre right. And i think thats the reason why oil prices havent reacted around the world. People know it, that were talking about a country, america, that will become oil independent. Is that an area to invest . It is. Halliburton, those are the stocks we own that are benefiting worldwide, and u. S. Boom in energy. You know, oil prices have not gone up in the face of all the crises in the middle east. They went up initially, but then came all the way down. Came down. Were around 100 a barrel, despite all the frenzy in the middle east. Of course, borders. And its because theres more Energy Production and also demand is suppressed. Because of more efficient use of energy. The president can make a powerful message by signing the pipeline. Instead, he delayed the decision. Hes not going to do anything. Which is unfortunate. Still to come, the one thing to watch for the week ahead on sunday morning future. Stay with us. Were back the our panel. Whats the wug bin thing to watch or the upcoming week or weeks . Ed rollins . Im watching the president on immigration. What is he going to do . If he basically steps over the bounds, it will basically turn this election into a route for republicans. Immigration, run what that means to me . Jobs. The loss of jobs. Too many people. Kt . Islamic jihad. There are over 7,000 european passport holders fighting in iraq and syria. 700 americans passport holders. What im looking for is those guys are all going back to their home countries, theyre fought going to open waffle shops, theyre goig to wage jihad, theyre going to make sales. So isis is a direct threat to the United States . It is a direct threat to the United States. My focus is investments and so the Economic Data is most important. September 5th were going to have the jobs report. As i mentioned, i think youll see improvement there. Real gdp accelerate. I think this will help sustain a long economic recovery. That will do it for sunday morning futures. happy labor day, everybody. Im maria bartiromo. See you next week. On the buzz meter this sunday, the media plunge into a polarizing debate over whether president obama should step up military action against the isis terrorists in syria. Why cant we get a straight answer on the threat level to america and or american interests by isis . You have to kill their leadership and take out as many rank and file jihaddys as possible. I dont buy into all the fear mongering that im hearing from the right wing. We are bombing the tar out of them. Yeah. I think the president is doing a good job handling it. All this as president obama holds a News Conference and says we have no strategy yet against isis. Well examine the coverage of