Gerri pastor John Mcarthur from the Grace Community church will be our special guest. The irs scandal over targeting conservatives blown wide open, the irs now under investigation for criminal misconduct. So when the chairman asks the important question is there potentially criminal activity here your answer was there is potential criminal activity. Gerri also, its the lawsuit that has pet owners talking. Purina sued over claims its dog food is a killer. And electric cars just became an even worse deal for consumers. Well tell you why. All that and more coming up on the willis report where consumers are our business. Gerri the push to increase credit card security in the u. S. Taking a lot longer than expected with mass credit card hackings at high levels, the industry has an october deadline to get microchipenabled credit cards into the hands of all consumers. But new data today suggests that companies are not on track to meet that deadline. Joining me now to discuss this and more is our power panel, Credit Expert john alz heymer, peter morici and personal finance expert vera gibbons. John, doesnt look like october 2015 is going to happen, my friend. What do you say are we going to make this deadline . Are people going to be safer . Were not and quite frankly, it was an unrealistic deadline to begin with. The issue isnt necessarily so much that the credit card issuers are not issuing these new cards fast enough its that the merchants dont have the infrastructure to actually accept the true chip and pin cards. So it looks like what were going to start with and frankly, ive already gotten several chip cards, theyre all chip and signature cards, not chip and pin cards. So while they do have the microchip the data is not being unlocked by me giving a pin so im still using the mag strip on the back. Gerri exactly. Everywhere i go theyre still taking the mag stripe cards only. Gerri i you know, i dont know what its going to take for us to get where we need to be on this but peter are we getting numb to these reports about people being hacked . Were getting numb to these reports certainly, so people are slow to adapt. And unless its kind of like smoking. Everybody thinks, well, one more day the smokers do wont hurt me . Consumers sort of feel that way about credit card security or personal security until something happens, until they get a scare. The other aspect of this is there are a lot of small retailers out there. Try to use, for example, an iphone or a destroyed at a or a destroyed at a gas station. Droid at a gas station. You cant. Consumers know that. Theyre going to say, gee, you can steal my numbers anyway which will make them slow adapters. Gerri vera to you is it cost . Is that whats keeping retailers from adapting to what we need to stay safe . I think thats a big part of it. Its costing more to produce the cards and the retailer has to informs in the invest in the infrastructure. Its a big investment up front, and theyre loathe to do so, particularly the mom and pop. So the consumers are the one paying the price because the need for these cards is definitely out there. The u. S. Is the last to adopt the technology. Theyre used by just about everybody else. So were stuck between a rock and a hard place, and its because of the retailers reluctance gerri well, i want to move on to the economy. Fourth quarter gdp coming in at 2. 2 . Now, this is down down from 5 in the third quarter. Peter, to you, you know, im looking at these numbers, and im thinking that the job creation the little bubble that burst of activity that we got at the end of the year, that cant be sustained, can it . Well, it could be, but its unlikely. Whats more likely to happen is well return to the low 200s in terms of Jobs Creation which is far less than, say reagan accomplished during his recovery which means a lot of people are going to remain frustrated about finding a decent job. Therell be lots of those starbucks jobs around and as were reading, theyre paying a little better but they really dont give you a life, they dont give you a start, a career. Gerri vera, you know, we had that reduction in gas prices, and everybody said that, you know people were going to spend everybody was going to be out at the shopping mall. That didnt really happen, did it . To some extent, it is happening. Consumers are still spending. Spending has been up its at the highest level its been at a while i think sentiments up. Gas prices is putting more money into our pockets, and if they stay where they are or go to 2. 35 a gallon throughout 2015 as theyre expected to on average, thats going to put the most disposable income that weve had in nine years. 125 billion gerri ive got the tell you to tell you, we may see some pops here and there, but im not seeing what i expected to see which was a big boom. So chain store sales, peter, i want to talk to you about that. Its impressive whats happening, as vera says but are people just trading up from the Dollar Stores . I think thats whats happening. People traded down from jcpenneys nordstroms and the like in the aftermath of the crisis. Now, you know five years later theyre finally starting to feel more secure about their jobs, so theyre starting to buy better products. Today i went online to buy some under armour winter gear for my biking [laughter] and i was yeah. You didnt know that im a biker. Gerri i didnt know that. Not surprised. In any case that stuff got scarce this year. It sold out. I had a lot of trouble getting what i needed. And then im finding with a lot of premium items people are not buying more stuff but theyre moving up market. I think thats good and healthy. Gerri vera, you mentioned j, this penny. They have had jcpenney whats going on there . Theyve been trying to turn around for a couple of years, now they have brands consumers actually want. Kohls is coming out with National Banks like vera wang brands consumers actually want. The traffic is up and theyre spending more at these types of places because theyre finally just doing better on the execution side of things. Yes, consumers have more in their 401 k s, home values are up so its up to the retailer gerri people in the store. Amen to that. Okay, pew survey out there 55 of American Families are just breaking even. Thats the story on their budgets. John, are you surprised by this . I i am not surprised. Quite frankly weve talked about bubbles all the time. This terrifies me perhaps more than anything. Most consumers simply dont make enough so theyre able to not necessarily just tread water, but actually get ahead. This is scary because what happens if you have you have a deficit earning family, a divorce, a reduction in work hours and all of a sudden you cannot make your obligations every single month . You start going to the sharks, the payday lenders, and your going to start youre going to start borrowing off the credit card. Most people do not have that 36 Month Emergency Fund on reserve so they can actually live while theyre trying to supplement an income somehow, and that is the next shoe to drop gerri if for some reason the unemployment starts popping back up again. Gerri good point. And, peter, you can hear the tension in this conversation. For some people it feels like consumers are binging and spending all their money, some are still questioning whats going on in the economy. Do you feel like consumers Balance Sheets are strong now . They are stronger than they were but a lot of that was because of debt forgiveness. One out of ten households went bankrupt, so it got mostly cleaned away. Also consumers have long memories, so they are being a bit more cautious. But lets face it, there hasnt been any wage growth to speak of in the last ten years. If youre a family below 60 70,000 a year, forget about a death or a divorce, a major car repair, making the wrong choice on a car, getting a car thats not reliable and it gives you 2,000 a year in auto repairs, thats a tough nut to bite for those folks. So im not surprised at this at all and i dont think people are binging, theyre just trying to feel a little bit more american and enjoy some things that are a little bit Higher Quality than what you get at a dollar store. Not that the dollar store doesnt serve a purpose. Gerri thats a fascinating analysis, youre totally right. If you make the wrong choice on a big purchase, you could really be hurting yourself. Vera last word here on this pew survey. 33 of folks saying they have no savings whatsoever. Im not surprised by it either. I mean everythings up. Health care, education, groceries gerri good point. Many americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Theyre thinking of the here and now, what bills do i need to pay today, tomorrow . Theyre thinking theyre never going to have a retirement anyway, theyre not thinking about a financial emergency until its right in front of them in which case they scramble to actually deal with it. Gerri john peter and vera thank you so much. Great job guys. Thanks, gerri. Gerri and one thing putting a dent in personal finances is college. High School Seniors across the country and their parents start getting acceptance and Financial Aid letters from colleges over the next few weeks, many will try to forget out how to pay for it. All next week were going to have our users guide to paying for college with advice from top experts. Plus, we want to hear or from you. If you have questions for yourself or a soontobe freshman in your life email me at gerri gerriwillis. Com. Next friday well have a round table of experts answering those questions. And still a lot more to come this hour including why the push for electric cars might be running out of gas. And purina dog food is a favorite with pet owners, but now the company is being sued for putting dogs in danger. Will this hold up in court . Our legal eagles debate the case, coming up. When heartburn comes creeping up on you. Fight back with relief so smooth. Its fast. Tums smoothies starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue. And neutralizes stomach acid at the source. Tum, tum tum tum. Smoothies only from tums. Over the next 40 years the United States population is going to grow by over 90 Million People and almost all the growth is going to be in cities. Whats the healthiest and best way for them to grow so that they really become cauldrons of prosperity and cities of opportunity . What we have found is that if that family is moved info safe clean, Affordable Housing, places that have access to great School Systems access to jobs and multiple transportation modes then neighborhood begins to thrive and really really take off. The oxygen of Community Redevelopment is financing and all this rebuilding that happened could not have happened without organizations like citi. Citi has formed a partnership with our company so that we can take all the lessons from the revitalization of urban america to other cities so we are now working in chicago, and in washington d. C. , and newark. Its amazing how important safe Affordable Housing is to the future of our society. Gerri tonight the lawsuit thats sparking anger and fear among dog owners. Purina under fire for its beneful dog food. There it is right there. A california owner said his 8yearold english bulldog is dead and his two other dogs are recovering from kidney failure after eating purina beneful. Does this man have a case, and should other dog owners be concerned . Litigation attorney, paul mills, and fox news legal analyst lis wiehl. Lis, what are the details . Theyre having a class action suit here in california and broader than that because its not just this one family that lost two dogs and the third one got very sick. This is up to 4000 dogs across this country have been taking this ingredient thats in this dog food propose lean gliokohl which is an antifreeze gerri. Its an automotive add ty. Additive. It is known to be a toxin to dogs and cats, and if its true as theyre alleging that theyre putting this toxin in the food that our dogs are eating and dying in the thousands gerri so if the man at the center of this case who has an 11yearold lab that died and a couple other dogs a german shepard and another shepherd and another dog first thing, 11yearold are all labs. No one likes a dog to die well, he might have been at risk. No question, and im sure that would take a lot of study and an autopsy and everything else. Its all nasty business. The bottom line is that this particular chemical is in additives that humans eat. Gerri oh, yeah . And it is approved by the fda for human consumption. Gerri to consume . Its in grains and bread and other products. You might have heard some situations regarding some fast food restaurants had the ingredient in their food, and they removed it oh theyve removed it now. Okay. Well, there was at lot of because people were getting sick. But the thing is here is causation. Can they prove that this particular substance had the effect of killing these doggings, and there its going to be heres how i think itll help because all these dogs were eating the same thing. And heres the thing thats really key, they die from the same kind of horrible deaths; internal bleeding diarrhea seizure liver malfunction. All of these dogs with the same diagnoses. That cant be coincidental. The lawyers are going to put it all in a basket and all of those things are important, and theyre all going to be referenced as being somewhat relevant under the circumstances, but theyre going to have to get an expert who is going to say that this chemical that is approved for use in hue humans but its removed now because of public pressure. Gerri purina got in trouble over the beef jerky treats is this like a pattern . Is some lawyer going to say, hey, look they should have known. They had warning, and they didnt do anything about it. And thats because a lot of the products came from china and if somethings coming from china dont feed it to your dog. Gerri does this come from china . Whats interesting, most dog foods will say made in the usa with proponents or elements from china. So you should check the label, for sure, because i wouldnt want to serve my dog anything this is kind of a high level you know, highend dog food. Gerri thats right. Its not cheap, and a lot of people go in and ive got a cat, and i admit sometimes i look at that and see if its on sale. This is high end. Its not usually on sale. Not only are peoples dogs getting sickened but theyre paying a lot of money for their dogs to get sick. I would tell my client if i was representing purina millions for defense. Thats what they should do pay the lawyers. Pay the lawyers. So you like paying the lawyers. I dont like paying the lawyers. I dont like nuisance fee cases. You know me i dont like big litigation, but this one where youve got 4,000 little doggies dying because theyre dying horrible gerri are we sure . We dont know. Theyll find in this that out i guess well find that out as the case moves on. But youve got this thing that kills dogs and cats gerri its really sad. Stay on top of this case and we could report on it almost on a daily basis. Gerri i believe we have a statement from purina. I want to read that and get your reaction to it. Please. Gerri do we have that . Coming up right now. We have a statement from purina. It says this gerri thats not theres exactly. Gerri theres absolutely no its not a denial saying this is ludicrous, we have nothing bad in there. Theyre just saying oh, you know, watch whats on the internet. Gerri what do you say paul . Quickly. Prepared by a lawyer, just leave it at that. [laughter] dont believe it, it was prepared by a lawyer. Gerri from a lawyer, thats interesting. Takes one to know one. Gerri you guys are so good. Thank you. Coming up later in the show, why this dress broke the internet over the color. That is blue and black right . Is that blue and black . White and gold. No holy moly. Its white and gold when you gerri another legal debate. And next, the grievances against the irs. Cant get the Obamacare Tax right. They send tax dollars to people in prison but now their own actions could land them in prison. Why a government watchdog is warning of potential criminal activity by the irs. Let us know what you think, send us an email through gerriwillis. Com. Jeez, guys, shut up. [laughter] [ male announcer ] whether it takes 200,000 parts 800,000 hours of supercomputing time 3 million lines of code, 40,000 sets of eyes, or a million sleepless nights. Whether its building the worlds most advanced satellite, the space station, or the next leap in unmanned systems. At boeing, one thing never changes. Our passion to make it real. 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