folks sent us today and your favorite or least favorite as it were, overused business terms and cliches. carter said it's all about work smarter, not harder. he said that was said by a loafer with an overly high opinion of his intellect. susan said a shot for every time they hear at the end of the day. quite a buzz in that house. rick said think outside of the box. every company does it so therefore he feels it's time to think inside the box again. >> you hear that one a lot and it's annoying. we are all trying to think outside the box figure forward. >> you can cast your vote in the survey they are doing as well. pick your favorite. matt miller of forbes magazine. we appreciate t. we will do

lunch. >> let's do it. >> have a great weekend. see ow monday. that's it for us on "power lunch." >> "street signs" is up and melissa is here for erin coming up in 30 seconds. have a good weekend. ford and gm are making optimistic comments about sales figures to be released next tuesday. cash for clunkers will spur the first increase in over two years. strong demand is pushing the price of sugar up to more than a 28-year high. although the tech rally faded, they are up more than 4% after raising the sales forecast. i'm julia boorsten. >> the rally seemingly ran out

of steam, but there is a silver lining. dell up 3% and i'm melissa francis for erin burnett. here's what the street is talking. has too big to fail been super sized? whether the banks have been have become so big we could have a bigger problem. now that the bubble has burst, do we have the money to invest in the biggest of the year? before you buy that kindle, find out if the competitors have the keys to kill together. layaway making a come back and another example of what's old is new again. stocks in the red at this hour and fears about the consumer trumping renewed signs of life. can the dow stage a late-day come back and make it 9-9. we have scott down at the nasdaq.

what do you think? >> a little bit. intel said yeah, we are actually going to do better. there is a little bit of disappointment about that, but when people understand the volume, they get a better perspective. microis up and bank of america has positive comments. they had the idea that they compete in the analog with texas instruments. sales will continue here as chip sales improve in 2010. here's a stock at a multimonth high. the big names like the semiconductors are doing well. asml which is a semiconductor. and that stock is hitting a new 52-week high. that's the highest level in a year. capital spending is looking up and for the last month or so

that is reflected in the price of the stock of the other big names. rick, good to be with you by the way. you are looking terrific as always. how is it holding up? >> thanks for coming and today has been all about yields moving down after a bit higher. we were over 350 and it shows you we shaved about 10 beats on the week. we had auctions and the older, the monmori you made. the two-year is a 101. it's virt yulely unchanged. >> well done, rick. well done. you heard bob talking about

that. nasdaq is a negative territory and we are weak. 2-1 declining stocks are advancing this. dell started it all yesterday and it was better than expected. intel carried it on by raising the revenue. nine billion is what they are looking for. five billion and talking about the profit margins and the compelling story to talk about is definitely marvel. hasn't gotten that much publicity and given a lift to the semiconductor stocks. they had what was characterized as blowout numbers. it helped to lift all the chip stocks and up more sharply than negative territory. we would be in positive territory and well into it if we didn't see the weakness and from the consumer discretionary names. some of them are in negative territory. nearly the stories today. back to you.

>> i like how bob complimented rick's appearance. let's go inside the numbers and find out if the good news will have a ripple effect. >> rick was dapper and that was loads of fun. this was big news. the ripple effect is a good way to put it. able to hold on much of the revenue outlook that is higher. intel said a stronger than expected consumer and they anticipate revenue about a half billion dollars better when they released earnings last month. more importantly the guidance increase is news that intel expects margin expansion. so much has been made of net book that killing profits the announcement seems to suggest that consumers are willing to spend more.

this will drive up the cycle. this is not just an intel story. today is enjoying no less than nine upgrades so far. hp, apple and some in the red and some in the green. momentum seemed to clearly be on tech's side. the updates last year and saw that revenue and margins this time around were so far outside of guidance, they felt compelled to get the information out. >> thanks so much. it's been a pretty good week, but how is the average investor feeling? they did a survey showing 33% of respondents were pullish. nearly half were bearish on the market. what must be done to get investors off the sidelines and into the markets. ceo of intrepid capital funds

and portfolio manager and paul davis, senior portfolio manager of schwabb collect fund. a lot of words. thanks to both of you for joining us. the reason why this matters to me is because half of investors are bearish. they probably missed this run up since march. how do you get them to realize that the market has been bullish for a while. >> can you blame them? >> i can because they missed the rally since march. >> i can understand your empathy and i share that. you can't miss them after bearsters and merrill lynching into the arms of bank america. the s&p 500 has a negative

return. it begins and ends with trust and getting the interest aligned better than they have been. a lot of these financial terms have a conflict of interest and we will have to make changes that more closely align to long-term interests. >> this is a huge problem because there were a lot of people who sent me e-mails or said i have gotten out of my 401(k) because they were burned so badly. they missed rebuilding their portfolio at this point. what do you think about that? >> unfortunately we see that with the individual investor if they are not guided to hold stocks throughout thick and thin, they can be light on the rebound. we we have seen historical periods where it took a lot of time and almost a double in the market before the investor felt comfortable back into the market. we always say find a long-term

asset and stick to it. if you don't have enough stocks, keep the averaging in and that's the best way to go. >> what do do and say to rebuild the trust? >> what we do to the funds and first and foremost, what we buy, we own for ourselves. we buy the same things our shareholders have. the other thing is a lot of the companies we bah have a significant ownership and a family has run the business for a number of generations. we feel if we align the customers with us and our holdings with management that we have a much better opportunity long-term. >> if somebody got out near the march lows and lost a bunch of money and thinking about getting back in and rebuilding that trust, what would you say they should do? >> like i mentioned, dollar cost

average over periods of time, look for high quality companies. two of the largest holdings and have been throughout the last year. ibm and jpmorgan. two companies that we like the cash flows and the safety story. the global difference of ibm and valuations have come up, but during times like this, we think safety, safety, safety. >> what would you tell them? >> smaller market caps is where we fish. names that we like today and weiss markets and ticker wmk and the chairman owns 48% and a 3.5% dividend. comcast cable and the roberts family in control. international speedway that has a nascar franchise. hein ken beer if you are watching, you have to go to the market to buy it and turn on cable tv. hein ken is controlled by a

family trust. >> franklin resources on the list. you are the second person that said that. >> which one? franklin resources? >> is that on your list? >> we thought it was close to fair value and liquidated it, but we were fortunate to hold those shares. >> what's the one piece of advice or thing you would say to make people feel better who lost their faith in the market in investing right now? >> i would say unfortunately the measures we used in the past go out the window. some don't make that much sense. the main thing is stick with the try and true and the companies that do well in all types of market cycles and look at price book ratio and trust companies.

trust companies in the business and know what they are doing in stressful periods of time. >> thanks to both of you for joining us. up next on "street signs," and then there were three. did you know that three banks hold around a third of our deposits, half of mortgages and 2/3 of credit cards. did washington's plan to make sure no bank was too big to fail backfire? how many millions did americans waste on ethanol. will they break the dependence on foreign oil and we waste all the monocorn. first in business worldwide.

>> jpmorgan and bank of america holds $1 out of every $10. they issue 2/3 of the credit cards out there. some like chris think it's not size that matters, but regulation. >> the concentration within banks is an issue of whether or not banks are too big to fail. we see models in canada where there fewer banks than in the united states.

it may be the regulation with the assets. that's more important. >> are the banks too complex to regulate. joining us is dr. robert's chief monetary advisors. we have diana, an economist for the hudson institute. let me start with you. why should i care that these banks are too big to fail? >> the big reason to care is because they are too big to fail and we created a large number of gses like freddie and fanny. when they have that government guarantee, the risk is that that could happen again. >> do you agree with that? >> i think he is absolutely right about that we don't want something to be too big to fail. and they have a government

guarantee and it's difficult to dismantle. we don't want them to be too big to fail. we want them to go through bankruptcy and the assets get sold off and that's the way it has always been done. >> some are well-run. would you break them up because they are so big? >> i would not break up a company because it was too big. what's interesting is that president obama's financial regulation plan has mechanisms for the treasury and other agencies to start dismantling firm when is they undergo problems. this leads to favoritism like gm and chrysler ned of going through the procedures, the creditors lost a lot of assets that they were owe and a lot were begin to the united auto workers. guess what. they were big contributors to president clinton and the democrats. >> you can't have it both ways. you either have to say that

things can't get so big because it's too big to fail or you have to let everybody be as big as they want. you can't say because it's well run, it will continue to be as big as it is. >> the problem is the horse is out of the barn. these firms are too big to fail. the government proved it by willingness to inject funds into the institutions. unfortunately there is no exit strategy. there has been a lot of concern about what the fed is going to do in terms of exiting the asset acquisition programs, but no talk about how we get out of this particular bind and that's where the focus should be. >> how was your director injecting funds into the institutions. way back in october and september, secretary paul and president bush made a mistake by going that route and asking for the funs saying the stock market will go down and you will lose

your retirement and the housing market will go down if we don't get the $700 billion in t.a.r.p. money. they got it and stock market crashed and housing prices went down. >> the stock market is way back up. we are where we are and whoever made mistakes, what should we do right now? >> i think the first thing we need to do is deal with freddie and fannie and they represent a huge albatross as far as the budget is concern and the risk to the taxpayer. we have to put those institutions back into the private system. the only way to do that is dismantle them. >> do you agree? >> i have to throw out the doo big to fail. nothing is too big to fail. we need this which president obama did propose in his financial package. we need to get rid of the idea that if a firm is in trouble, the government needs to pump funds into them.

what we need to do is we have a process of failing firms, big and small. it's called bankruptcy and it worked before and can work again. >> people are sitting on the sidelines saying letting lehman go down is too bad. >> perhaps it was the inconsistency. we rescued 1 and not another. the markets didn't know what we were doing. the assets that were solvent were brought up by barkleys and it can happen again. the sector goes in and they buy out those parts of the firm they think of worthwhile. it's been done before and it can happen again. the market was confused when we didn't rescue lehman brothers. we had rescued others before. >> maybe what diana was saying is if you are going to fail, we have to let you fail. do you agree with that? >> there is a danger to the system obviously.

>> i don't think there is. what we really need is it's not a matter of too big to fail, but institutions should be allowed to fail, but too big to liquidate. in fact i think the administration and the treasury and the fed panicked at the time of bear sterns and they overestimated that potential downside that those failures would have resulted in. >> is there a chance that city and get back on their feet. john paulson who has been right about so many things. is that company on the mend? >> it's the beneficiary of the fact that everybody knows if it gets in trouble the government will step in and bail it out. that's a gse as far as i'm concerned. >> there disadvantages too because they are talking about what bonuses it can give and what it can't.

it promised one trade $100 billion and they are trying to back away from that. that is getting a contract in place. the company could be sued for another $100 million. a bonus and another $100 million in fines. if they are interfering, no knowing where it can stop. >> that's the price they are paid for being rescued. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me on. >> just ahead, the answer to the energy crisis. if it wasn't biofuels, what is it? our next guest calls it the most important energy story of the year and how you can get in on it. will amazon's e reader will e be reading the debate on what the competitors need to do to kill the kindle. coming up, the equity strategist expects the s&p to hit 1043 by labor day. "street signs" will be back after this. ♪ well i was shoppinr a new car, ♪

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i'm mary thompson. breaking news as the man accused of running the largest theft scheme in the country agreed to plead guilty. this was in the u.s. district court in massachusetts. he will complete guilt to 19 counts in a massachusetts indictment no later than september 11 of this year. he agreed to a plea agreement that resolves changes against him in both massachusetts and new york and the u.s. attorney and gonzalez agreeing it is reasonable and appropriate for the court to impose a 15 to 25-year prison sentence on mr. gonzalez. the man accused of running the largest theft scheme completes guilt to 19 counts. back to you. >> thanks so much. let's go down to the nymex and matt nesto with a close on energy. >> about four minutes ago, we saw at 73 again. rebounding here and has been following the dow for lack of a

better index and stock markets in general throughout the session we bottomed out after lunch and have been kurnlging back. we take back a little bit and looking at a losing week and entered at 7389 a week ago. barring a real sprint, we will have a losing week, but up for the second day in a row. checking on natural gas, it has been the weak contract and down about 5%. it's the first day of trading as the front contract is often weak. it is up like the west of the commodities from earlier lows. maybe a nick you will off the bottom so it did have technical support holding that $3 level for natural gas which was the discussion of so much as they were here in the throws of hurricane season even though danny appears to be quite the boy. back to you. >> thanks so much. in 2007, the biofuel industry received more money to nuclear, solar and any other energy

source. it's all a big waste. here to discuss is an independent oil trade and street.com contributor and the seesh vp and energy analyst. thanks for joining me. >> it was such a big deal and now you never hear about it anymore. >> it was a bust. think about it. in 2008, you could look at the charts for corn and the chart for crude if you took away the labels on them. you couldn't tell the difference. in many ways that idea of payinguing food for fuel is kind of a busted ek periment. >> john, it now seems ridiculous, don't you think? >> i will get a lot of angry e-mails about this. i can feel it. >> you are keeping that title. >> i am, but it has nothing to do with ethanol. i have a crown that goes with that also. >> we are getting ourselves in deeper.

there is a big push from a 10% mandate to a 15 or 20% mandate. this is a tar baby that is attached to it at this point. we need to hopefully see the second or 30 generation manufacturing coming on line. >> why? >> as you were just talking about, the corn end was wholly unprofitable and have a big trade with brazil over it. >> i rarely agree with john, but he is dead right on this. biodiesel is worse. this is that they chased last year to try to turn soy beans into diesel. that's a derivative of a market that really is small to begin with. they have thrown a lot of money and it's nothing but losing stock prices and money. >> aren't you going to tell me i'm wrong? no? >> it's a tough one. >> it's a bust.

tell me what's going on. to natural gas and boone pickens was the one hocking it for so long that we will change it to a transportation fuel. this is gaining momentum when looking at natural gas at $3. >> the trouble is that technology outraces the market and the market outraces the technology. the bus technology for engines that can run to automobiles. that was waste and now the natural gas is down at a price where it makes sense. you wonder if the obama administration will get behind it and move that money into that technology. >> i can hear people screaming, but if only we were using ethanol, the environment would be cleaner as opposed to running them off. what do you say to that? natural gas is clean. if you don't mind having a tank in your trunk, they took a cab. the technology is there.

the national academy of sciences did a study and it's a push if not a loser on converting ethanol from corn when you take the energy inputs required to make temperature we have a way to go, but if the scientists break the code to be fair on the allergy technology or the enzymes to break down the switches, it could be a game changer. >> why do you think it's so cheap right now and do you think if we focused all this energy on making natural gas the transportation fuel, the price would go through the roof. >> natural gas has been responding to the fundamentals while crude oil has what i call the endless bid and so much investor and trader interest in it that they are outracing what it should represent. the point is that this stuff even if it goes up in price and the futures curve said natural gas will be twice as much next year, it's still cheap. it's plentiful and you stick a

pipe in the ground and it kps up. you have to import cruel oil and we take it and put it into the funds of people who don't care for us. it's domestic and the energy story of the year. >> we have to convert all of our cars to run on natural gas. that's a huge process. you have fleets like busses and stuff and that's quicker and easier, but if you and my car were going to run, that's a huge infrastructure change. >> there could be cash for that. we have experience now with accelerating the change over of the fleet. i would snit by the way the reason there is so much of a bounty of natural gas and a rush to drill and invent technology, that's the speculators who drove it up over the past several years.

>> i have to agree. once you get the technology in place, there was nothing to say you don't find their interest in natural gas and you see it spike. that's the problem with trying to chase a market and moves as fast and dynamic. >> thanks for joining us. up next on street signs, the white house could be ready to declare victory on the stimulus program as early as next week. was president bush's mission accomplished? are we about to have a krinch-worthy moment? layaway is back and can it lay the ground work for the consumer? (announcer) illness doesn't care where you live...

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vice president bide know is expected to timeout the stimulus, but with only 26% of the 787 billion stimulus package allocated, is it a little bit too soon to claim victory in the economic recovery. here now is the budget analyst of the kato institute and josh is an economist at the economic policy institute. thanks for joining us. we have not even spent this money ylt.

is it too early to claim victory? >> absolutely. the first thing i would say is part of the problem is calling the stimulus. it's not stimulus. it's theft and redistribution. i will put it on a personal scale. >> those are harsh words. if you take money out of my account, my neighbor is worse off. they redistrict income and doesn't generate wealth, but destroys wealth. >> what do you think about that? >> not a lot. i will say a couple of things. so far the package worked really well. if you look at the second quarter of this year, the economy shrank by 1%. if you suck out the impact on that number, it would have been shrinking at 3% to 4% which is the rate in the past year. the private economy, there is very little improvement and any

improvement we have seen in the second quarter of this year was due to the impact of the package. the growth that will happen down the road, was it worth it? >> absolutely worth it. the stimulus package is supposed to do to provide a bridge between the economic expansion and spending money when people in businesses are confident and spending, you don't need a stimulus package. right now the private sector is not confident and we hope that it will be happening and the package aims to build a bridge between the presidents of the the private sector and is the bridge long enough. contrary to criticism, the problem is if there is one, it will run out by the middle of 2010 when the unemployment rate is speaking. >> we are building a bridge to lower ground and that was kind of my point. >> that's right. the latest figures just came out

this week. we will have about $9 trillion more dollars in debt. when the government spends money, they have to take out via taxation or on down the road by the debt we are issuing. the claims coming from my opponent with $100 billion in a $14 trillion economy that represents stimulus is furthering growth. i think if that was the case, under the push administration when we had record spending for years, where was the economic boom? we are in the second recession now. >> the problem with the argument is that if you look at the most recent gdp where the spending did boost for the quarter. not like it is doing good right now whether you agree with it or not. >> it's that and i would like to make another point too.

we talk about the increase for deficits, the deterioration in the 10-year forecast is almost exclusively because of a weaker economy than we thought. if you think the weaker economy is the number one problem facing americans and i do, what our eyes should be on is improving the economy and that is more stimulus needed down the road. >> i'm waiting for the economic boom from the bush spending. where is it? he was a record spender and the state spent 5% to 6% a year. we are in a deeper recession and i'm still waiting for it. you are throwing out the statistics and saying it's because $100 billion went to the government. more state bureaucrats, that's growth. otherwise i don't know what you are talking about. >> that was easy. look, why didn't big bush deficits help?

you are not supposed to run deficits when the economy is near full employment. that's a simple rule of thumb. when the rate is skyrocketing, that's one stimulus that helps. because president bush didn't follow the rule doesn't mean it doesn't apply. >> if the vice president declares victory, why should we do more? he said we won. >> my guess is he will be more careful to say we won. i think he is right that it is a good thing that we pass the recovery package. it paid difsends and saved or created lots of jobs. if he is taking a victory lap and we don't need to do more and we can ob auto pilot, we would have cautionary words. we need even more in the years ahead. >> we will leave it there. thanks for a spirited debate. the word on the street and the buzz beyond as we close in on the final hour of trading for the week. attention kindle competitors.

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the dow is still trading lower on the day. we will not make it 9 of this 9. scott cohen is following stocks on the move. >> a lot of the move is holding its own. they are doing extremely well among the bright spots here as we round out the weekend. they are benefiting still from the strong new home sales data from july and a lot were in the northeast. they have a lot of exposure in the region and all of the home builders are doing well. we know the tiffany story. electric at williams sonoma. the stock is doing well and largely because they are cutting cost. that is helping them squeeze out a profit, allowing them to raise

guidance and it's more on cost cutting than sales. they are strong with all of this. dollar tree is higher along with the scores. january cents only and all this is on the idea that people want bargains. this is a trade that worked really well since the march lows. costco since those march lows up about 20% or so. it is a little bit expensive relative to the peers, but right now all the retail buyers as far as stocks are going towards the discounters with the idea that people want values. >> thanks so much. it's the last trading day in august and as we head into the hour of trading, the s&p 500 is down, but up around 5% on the month. now to give us an update of what we should be looking for is the managing director of jeffries and rosen black and white securities. thanks to both of you for joining us. what should we be looking for?

>> we need to see a consumer getting back into the market. we see that with the more recent computer stocks and tech comes alive. you want financials and tech stocks to lead the rally and be sure it's sustainable. that being said, the market down today and up higher than down volume. we are having a good session not with standing. >> one trading day to make it all happen. what would you do? >> it's a good time to sit back and the volume happening in the top five names. we had a significant move off the lows and we will need more to move us forward. waiting for a pull back.

>> gordon, it doesn't seem like we will make nine here. >> it doesn't right now. the sell indications are leaning to the southside, but considering how far we have gone, the fact that we had a moderate pull back is almost a bullish indicator that this thing is sustainable and right now there is nothing to think we will see that heavy sell off any time soon. >> if huh to make move before the close of the trading, what would it be? nothing? >> yeah, that's a great move to make. it's the summertime. a friday. the volumes are intickative of what people are thinking. wait until next week or the week after labor day. i think there is a lot of dangerous things to be doing. keep an eye on natural gas. that will be one of the most explosive things into the next 28 days and an oversold commodity. >> thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you.

>> up next, is the kindle teflon enough or could the e reader be in the final chapter and in a nation of short attention spans, can layaway be the way to turn around struggling retailers. change it up a bit... and you're sure to get a reaction. [ motorcycle engine growl ] ♪ don't let erectile dysfunction slow things down. ♪ viva viagra! viagra, america's most prescribed ed treatment, can help you enjoy a more satisfying sexual experience. to learn more, cruise on over to viagra.com. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. don't take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain... as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects may include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help... for an erection lasting more than four hours.

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we're joined by a new face on cnbc, slate technology columnist far had manjoun. he's the author of the article how to beat the kindle. and we have john dvorak. farhad, it seems like kindle is way out in front, a lot of people have it. how do you come out and beat it at this point? >> i think what the kindle's rivals need to do is look at the ipod's history. apple was able to lead with the ipod because it did two things right. it was always innovating even though it had huge rivals like microsoft and dell. what it did was it always created new features, smaller, sleeker, better-looking, so the rivals were never able to compete. kindle's rivals, i think what they have to do is beat the kindle on features, not just price. one of the huge problems with the kindle is it has this really clunky directional pad, this interface to get around the kindle, and we saw sony this week unveiled a touch screen

model that has wireless internet connection. so that could be a good way to compete against the kindle. the other thing that apple did right with the ipod was that paid attention to the service and not just the device. ipod had an itunes store. it had great software. it connected easily. and i think that's what the kindle's rivals need to do, make a better store, bigger store, with more selection, and then give people the right to-do things with their books that amazon doesn't do. like you can trade. maybe they can allow to you trade books with your friends or -- sony allows you to borrow books from the library. >> although both of those things really eat into your revenue a lot. john, what do you think? this is kind of apple's sweet spot. not kind of. it is for sure apple's sweet spot, to come out with a consumer product that's very attractive, that everyone wants. i mean, it seems like they're set up to do this well. >> yeah, apple could do something. the problem is, and i actually wrote about this in today's market watch column, is that the thing that's always overlooked

about the kindle is the technology itself that makes an e-reader is just something called e-ink, which is actually a mems -- a microelectronic -- or microleelectromechanical system. in other words, it's not being powered by anything, it's actually there in real time. it's alike a black spot. so it doesn't need a battery to display a page, it only needs the battery to switch pages. it's a very slow cumbersome technology that -- apple, you know, likes to have jazzy product so, if they came out with a new flat panel or a pad, which they're going to do next year sometime, they're going to have either battery issues if they try to go after the kindle or if they try to make a kindle clone with that technology, the mems technology, it's going to be slow. so i think that p al -- and i don't see anybody on the horizon, as a matter of fact, taking on the kindle necessarily. >> so you don't think apple's going to come out and crush them? >> i don't think they're going to crush them. i think they can come out with a

product that can be very competitive. it will be more expensive, which is kind of contrarian. and i think a lot of people will use it. but i think when it comes to reading tons and tons of books it's just not going to have the battery life of a kindle. i think it will be jazzier and flashier, but everything that's being described as what can kill the kindle, the kindle can do all that. they can lower the price, go to a touch screen. they can have other means to distribute other than this proprietary format. the thing is when you talk about the store, though, how are you going to beat amazon? this is like the number one book seller. >> i was wondering about that myself, farhad. you were saying they have to have a better storefront. i don't know who you're going to get to sell books, whether they're electronic or not, to you better than amazon. >> i agree. amazon has a great store. and i'm a huge amazon fan. that's the hardest thing that these kindle rivals have to do. i think one thing they could do, though, is there's a lot of rivals to the kindle. they're all operating on this open format called epub, which means they can sell books that they can promise will work on devices in the future.

so if you buy a boo from amazon right now, it will only ever work on an amazon device. the rivals, they can say, well, you can get a book and it doesn't matter what device you run it on. so that's a huge selling point. and you know, they may be able to all get up and get together and set up a huge store. barnes & noble wants to do this. so there are others in this field who can try at least to take amazon on. >> all right, guys, thanks for joining us. have a great weekend. >> thanks. >> up next, will christmas come early for america's retailers?

retailers are betting big. cnbc's jane wells is in l.a. with the story. jane? >> you know, melissa, those of us over a certain age remember layaway very with the as a great way to get something you wanted but you didn't have enough cash or you didn't qualify for credit because yes, there was a time when not everyone with a pulse goat a credit card. well, now people who have h