you're doing "closing bell" today? >> i'll be back with you tomorrow. that will do it for you pot you lunch" for this hour. >> "street signs" begins right now. have a great afternoon. we'll see you tomorrow. welcome to "street signs." i'm brian sullivan. job number one is restore trust on wall street. polls show many think stocks are a rigged game. why would anyone invest if they did? real solutions to bring back confidence. what income tax rate is fair? are americans really overtaxed? we are going to dig in to the heart and maybe ugly numbers around taxes. middle class, they want to turn their heads. plus, the latest kind of loan where defaults are growing and people are nervous. is it time to sell shares of the magic kingdom, mandy? >> indeed. following disappointing economic data. the dow largely three stocks

today. ibm responsible for more than 50 positive dow points by itself following upbeat earnings and walmart and american express combining for that more than 30-point drag on the average. they're trying for third day of gains. could be the highest close since may 3rd. nasdaq with the biggest gain of the major averages on track for the best weekly gain in three weeks. bob, when the markets rallied this morning, i felt it was for the right reasons. better than expected earnings or better than feared earnings. why have we lost steam now? >> the dollar is sort of changed around. the dollar was weaker earlier this morning and seen the dollar coming off of the lows. that happened half an hour ago. put up the dollar there. when that happens, you see energy stocks starting to reverse. materials starting to reverse and what happened here i think. look at the energy. that's been a big sector here. brent's been moving up.

wti moving up. good earnings reports and as the dollar started to rally, energy stocks moved to the downside. bottom line is this, mandy. i agree with what you're saying. looking at today, indead of dividend plays or telecom stocks the market leaders, tech and materials. ibm leading with earnings. materials with an excellent report. increasing copper production. that's what you like to see. moving on the fundamentals. >> absolutely. rallying for the right reason instead of the economic news is bad and hoping for stimulus. thank you, bob. rick, out to you. when's happening with yield right now? >> well, you know, a couple of things. first of all, not moving very much. yields are still hovering around 150. yesterday was 140s. high 140s. today, 151. note worthy of the middle east, so important as sharon demonstrated today, talking to many of the energy traders, those flight to safety issues of

issues regarding terrorism and bombs in the middle east, you can't notice them in the fixed income markets because we are hunkered down hovering at historic lows. another issue, you know, we're talking about corn prices. even rain and even though they're well off the highs, touched over $8 in september. futures never traded $8. think about ethanol and bob's talk of commodities and energy. we got rid of the subsidy. didn't get rid of the mandate. that starts to goose prices back the other way. something that needs to be addressed back to you. >> talk about the bottom. cozy at the bottom sometimes. you can become complacencomplac. so the s&p hit a two-month high today but is this rally really for the right reasons? let's bring in phil silverman and dosi farr. gentlemen, greet have you on the show. phil, let me get to you, first of all. if we're higher today that makes three in a row but is it for the

right reasons? is it for the wrong reasons? in other words, hoping for more medicine from the fed? >> is that for me? >> yeah, phil. >> sorry. yeah. this seems to be one of those situations where bad news is good news because they're hoping for a ben bernanke to bail everyone out. i mean, you know, we had a weak philly fed number this morning and weak housing sales numbers and continued to see weak employment. even though we bounced off last week when things are pessimistic and down quite a few days in a row, i don't think this is something to have legs for very long. and it's an opportunity to lighten up positions or start to add some shorts. >> okay. so just trading in a range and maybe lighten up a little bit here. would you agree with that? >> i think so. we have been rallying for the wrong reasons recently. people are really looking for policy stimulus and we don't see that as a reason to buy stocks. you also have had some rally because earnings coming in

albeit above lowered expectations but our view is stocks in for a tougher period in the days ahead. >> would you short the u.s. stock market? >> shorting is maybe a bit dangerous with momentum behind it and stocks are viewed as the safe haven right now. but you should play it very carefully and that can be in stock selection or in terms of as phil just said maybe taking positions off the table. >> if you believe u.s. stocks fall, where do you put your clients' money? because they're not going to pay you to tell them to put it under the mattress. >> they're not. we think there's opportunities a tornado globe and asset categories. some in scary places. look at the universe of global equities we see opportunities in foreign developed markets not so much because they're great growth opportunities. we know the struggle to grow but valuations are plain attractive. efx japan at low multiples

relative to its own history and the u.s. right now. so it's hard to know when those things are going to turn around. but for a long-term investor, we see the developed foreign markets as reasonable valuations right now. >> what about europe, then? using your theory? >> so that basically includes a lot of europe, mandy. europe is a dicey place right now because people know that the economy is on the verge of or going in to recession. there's sunrise about the sompb debt problems and the banking crisis and many companies large multinationals not solely dependent on europe and they're trading at attractive prices and we think that's a good place to go for long-term investors. >> phil, beside the fact, of course, of a few days of gains, what would your strategy be? do you agree that u.s. market of a safe haven is misplaced? >> you know, i think in some

respects right now it is. i think the thing is we have got growth slowing here as well as abroad. recently gdp estimates coming down across the board and as long as the rate of change of growth is decreasing, that we're going to basically be seeing pressure on the market. and we're continuing to see money come out of the equity funds every month. the bond market is not predicting any sort of uptick in the economy so i'd be cautious and i am short the s&p. so, i do believe that we're gong to see lower prices before we see any sort of sustainable valley. that being said, the way that the market's operates these days, traders are very, very short-term focused and seeing ups and downs in the range and you have an opportunity to sell the market moving up and cover the positions when it's going down and be very nimble because right now things are moving quickly an it's a very news-driven market. you don't want to be too whetted

to any position in this part of the pole portfolio. >> thank you very much. there you go. let's get a market flash with brian shactman. >> not often to see a stock down 113 bucks. well, if it's trading over 800 more perspective. nvr, a home builder, getting thumped. yes, bad data today and the company also reported light revenues on a spike in cancelation rates so some negative news of housing of nvr a ten macro picture. back to you. >> okay. thank you very much. are you ready, america? ready for the onslaught of campaign attack ads and how much are the candidates paying for each swing vote? and tax talk dominating the campaign trail from fair share to where's the return? but both are missing the real problem. taxes may have to go up for

everybody and that means you, middle class. >> everyone is everyone. and later on, can the new sheriff of wall street really clean house? he made cramer a believer at the delivering alpha conference yesterday. why jim thinks every investor can sleep a little easier now knowing that preet bhrarara is on the case. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 we're hitting new highs. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the spx is on my radar. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and i'm on top of it all with charles schwab. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i use streetsmart edge and its tools like... tdd# 1-800-345-2550 screener plus. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i can custom build my own screens tdd# 1-800-345-2550 or use predefined ones to help me find tdd# 1-800-345-2550 possible trading opportunities quickly. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i can also bounce my ideas off their trading specialists - tdd# 1-800-345-2550 on the phone or face-to-face. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and i can trade wherever i want, whenever i want. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the kicker? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i pay $8.95 a trade. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 that's a deal in any language.

tdd# 1-800-345-2550 hey... a breakout on a head and shoulders bottom! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 that's what i'm talking about. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 open an account and trade up tdd# 1-800-345-2550 to 6 months commission-free. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 call 1-800-540-9872 tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and start trading today.

with less than four months to go until the presidential election, both president obama and mitt romney are ramping up their ad spending but how much are they shelling out to target

the most important audience in america? john harwood has the details on the swing vote spending and what are the numbers looking like, john? >> reporter: it's not evident in new york and california where huge swaths of the american poll lags live and if you live in, like, say, nevada, you are going to see a ton of advertising targeted directly at those swing voters to try to tilt the balance in a very close presidential election. here's an example of an advertisement the obama campaign has been running and it's been seen by nevada viewers 1,200 times over just the last week. here's the obama ad. >> tax havens. offshore accounts. carried interest. mitt romney has used every trick in the book. romney admits over two years paid less than 15% in taxes on $43 million in income. makes you wonder if some years he paid any taxes at all. we don't know because romney

released one full year of the tax returns and won't release until before 2010. >> i put out as much as we'll put out. >> what is mitt romney hiding? >> reporter: now, among the ads that republicans and the romney campaign are running in response is this one accusing president obama for nevada voters of going negative and abandoning hope and change from 2008. >> when the president was elected, he talked about hope and change. whatever happened to hope and change? now it seems he's out of the box with the old-fashioned, negative ads. >> by starting negative, by going extremely tough and extremely hard looking conventional and frankly running ads inaccurate. >> barack obama's campaign and allies run more negative ads against this republican nominee in 2012 than in the history of the world. >> whatever happened to hope and change? >> reporter: in the state of nevada, more than a $12 million spent in the last few days,

fewer than a million people voted in 2008 in nevada. 6% undecided now. when's the math work out? $20 per undecided voter just in the last few days and as you said, mandy, we have almost four months to go until election day. >> that's a lot of money. thank you, john. now turning to more on taxes. right? as you have seen, a central focus on the campaign trail. between the president's calls for higher taxes on the wealthy to mitt romney releasing to release the past returns and yesterday at the delivering alpha conference, treasury secretary tim geithner weighed in saying we need more people paying in to the system. >> we want to lower rates, expand base. to do that, you have to raise effective tax rates on some americans. and we think we should do it on the americans that can easier, more easily bear the burden of that. and so, yes, any effective tax

reform proposal has to have some device and a simple one. not a complicated one to make sure there's a higher effective tax rate through base broadening. >> all right. base broadening. more people paying. not a population position and with spending and debt where they are, is there any other choice? joining us is howard dean and tony frata. both are cnbc contributors. governor dean, i want to begin with you. we seem to become a nation obsessed with tax rates. now it's like a badge of shame to pay the minimum the government requires you to. why is that? >> part of it is because we have the enormous deficit and 60% of the deficits paid for by the bush administration. you have to cut spending and that was not done under president bush. the democrats accused of increasing spending without raises taxes. tough have a balanced budget and

in the long term and the way to do it is balance revenue and spending. and that's not been done, frankly, by any either. >> you know, can we blame it all on the tax cuts, governor? >> no. 60%. the rest of it was the wars not paid for and so forth and so on. >> but a lot of that is because the economy collapsed. >> that's right. >> incomed fell and people paid less on that. >> that's right. >> at current spending with slight cuts, right, going forward, looking at the trends in spending, do you see any way that we can get out of this? >> do. >> without a fairly large tax hike on the middle class. >> i take a very different position than almost every in washington, than the obama administration and i don't speak for the obama administration. i think what they call armageddon is a very good thing. i hope they don't come to a deal and go back to clinton tax rates for everybody. i hope we go back to the very significant spending cuts. if you do that, you take a bite

over time of about $7.5 trillion out of this growing spending deficit. i think that puts us back on the road for prosperity. i really do. >> but i love governor dean. he's my friend and admire him so much and admire the courage of a former office holders. >> that's right. that's true. >> these are really, really difficult issues. none of them are popular. when secretary geithner yesterday talked about, you know, broadening the base and close loopholes, sounds so good. you can find almost universal support for that idea. >> right. >> but it means by definition you have to have some people who are not paying taxes today paying taxes and i mean, most of those people are in the lower and middle classes. >> and talking about tax reform, we are almost unilaterally talking about raising taxes. >> that's right. everyone is talking about revenue, you know, increasing

revenues. finding ways to increase revenue that is are fair. right now the debate is a buy their debate about whether we ought to or ought not to raise the highest bracket. but, you know, there's no doubt that the top 10% right now are paying about -- shouldering about 70% of the income tax burden which is, you know, very high. that's why when you talk about broadening the base, you want more people do it. in my days at treasury, doing, you know, came up with the good proposals on tax reform that we weren't able to bring forward because they're so politically difficult. we go around the world advising other country that is what you ought to do is broaden your base. right? >> true. >> smart economically. >> would you agree with governor dean perhaps going over the fiscal cliff is one of the only ways to shake people up and get real tax conversation going? >> there's no question that on these very, very difficult issues, you know, maybe the only

way to get real reform and action on them is in a crisis environment and you hate to bring upon a crisis. i do fear that if we did go down that road, we are so close recessionary environment right now that that could tip us in to recession so i don't wish that on the country and rather see us have a real discussion about, you know, what is smart tax reform and how does that align with the spending goals? >> yeah. governor, i admire what you said, you know, because we don't -- that's why tony was joking about former office holders. >> right. >> the current office holders won't tell the american people the truth. at current spending you can't pay the bills with a tax hike even on the top 2%. period. not even close. >> well, i think one of the things tony was saying i agree with which is, washington particularly in recent years, nothing down without a crisis atmosphere. tony's also right that the cbo predicted two quaers of recession if we did what i'm

advocating. we are really in deep trouble. people don't understand how deep trouble we're in because of the deficits. i think it's worth two quarters of recession and then out and the cbo projection is grow 2.3% in the next fiscal year. i think that's worth it to get there. we have to deal with the deficit. no other way and that will cause people in congress to sit down and do reform. >> tony, i'll switch to you because i'm going to blame the republicans just as much because we just keep hearing the middle class is overtaxed. they overtax the middle class. tax rates at the lowest level of 30 years. incomes stagnant. but now the middle class sort to speak paying higher payroll taxes. we have conned the american people in to believing somebody else can pay for this. >> somebody else has on china! >> the way that we pay interest on our debt. and, you know, and the large

portion of the income tax burden that's paid by the upper income tax brackets today. it's not that -- look. we probably have to look at some other form of taxation. find ways, you know, i don't know that politically we can get a tax reform that doesn't have progressivity to it and find a way to bring that to it and we need more people paying taxes. the statistic that this is the lowest rate of taxation in, you know, in 30 years, it is really misleading. people out of work they don't pay a lot of taxes. wages stagnant, they don't pay a lot of taxes and we have to think about the growth element and bringing people back to work, as well. >> fair enough. good discussion. governor dean, tony frata, thank you good luck to the pirates. >> thank you. >> how heated a debate of taxes could get. >> somebody's got to say it. unless you cut spending massively, the numbers would not add up. period. end of story.

>> bring it. bring the heat. go for it. >> be nice. my birthday. a rare bit of sunshine for one of our favorite beat down disaster stocks. from bad to worse, the midwest drought is now the worst in half a century. crushing crops. the question is just how much worse can it get? "street signs" back if two minute's time. you can try strategies from independent experts and see what criteria they use. such as a 5% yield on dividend-paying stocks. then you can customize the strategies and narrow down to exactly those stocks you want to follow. i'm mark allen of fidelity investments. the expert strategies feature is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account.

for some reason today, i'm doing the sunshine stock. it is a rare silver lining for consistently disastrous name, nokia. yes, nokia. up more than 5%. second quarter loss in line with estimates. not as bad as some feared. sales coming in better than thought. it's biggest one day jump nor nokia and i think about a decade. >> yeah. since 2001. absolutely. nokia down about 70% over the last year. another real disaster in the headlines, the weather's impact on america's farm lablands.

is there any relief in site? what are we looking at here, todd? >> mandy, not necessarily looking at anything in terms of the true encouraging news and things can go from bad to worse quickly. today, thursday, when the drought monitor's released. the numbers seeing the drought expanding across a few areas, especially the midwest a. number of areas between last week and this week jumping in percentagewise almost 10% with moderate drought and more than that with severe drought areas. break it down state by state. there are a couple of states dramatic. one of those, may 15th, indiana, a little area. check it out by july 15th, a huge percentage of the state. 99% of the state moderate drought. 54% in severe. those numbers jumped over the last week alone. i should mention a number of areas back towards the wheat-producing states seeing those problems. kansas a similar picture and as i mentioned not a huge really

outlook with big time precip. the other problem is above average temperatures, mean more e vap wags. continued issues for farmers. >> seems very, very difficult. thank you very much for that, todd. latest debt crisis. not housing. it's not student loans. it is 401(k)s. >> got to be heard to be believed. disney hitting a all-time high. x do not change the channel. mamama

welcome back, everybody. this is "street talk" time. let's talk about one of the few mattress makers out there getting a good night's sleep recently and it is select comfort. >> shocking the world. shocking the world. because if you look at the numbers recently of competitors, not good at all. select comfort bucking the trend. shares soaring. strong second quarter numbers. right? tempurpedic down from the highs recently. select comfort, i guess, could have been the sunshine stock. >> could have been. >> spring stock. select comfort doing very well. >> got the adjustneable firmnes mattresses. >> up in sympathy and otherwise

lousy. select comfort shocking everybody. >> and reiterating a buy. vf corp., beating estimates. >> very quickly here. they make naugtica, vans. >> meantime, take a look. we have johnson controls, maker of automotive parts if not the u.s.'s biggest. >> 64 cents a share. weak demand for replacement batteries among other parts. obviously, folks watch the auto parts makers. gci, other names, sell to europe, as well. gci whacked today. watch them. >> in fact, with this particular company, also watch for potential job cuts, i believe. >> easy for you to say. >> and maybe divestitures of investments, as well. melonox. strong earnings and guidance. 32% gain. >> i was like, must be a bio

tech. up like a bio tech. makes interconnected devices like networks. like the pipes to connect them. crushed earnings. came in 50 million or so above the wall street consensus. really about 30% higher on sales than wall street expected. all-time high. look at that. 191% year to date. i suspect we'll be calling them for a ceo interview sometime soon. >> no questions about melanoma treatments and stuff like that. that's what i thought, as well. herb, come in here, buddy. >> a stunning tie. >> i told him how nice he looked. >> the women say it's a stunning tie. >> put it on for your birthday. you have a story on cnbc.com. very good story. i read it. lending to the charges of over 200%. >> this is a remarkable story. the company's world acceptance. it charges between 24 and 204%

based on the disclosures. everything is a stunner. i kept saying, really? really? really? what they do is focus on 12 state where is they do their business, based in greenville, south carolina. and what's interesting here is they -- a big part of the story is credit insurance and why you want to pay attention is because the consumer financial protecti protection bureau going after this. this holding -- >> like a payday lender? >> no. >> what do they do? >> consumer spending company and 75% refinance their original loans and keeps rolling and rolling and rolling. >> trap people in debt. >> you can't -- i'm just saying i'm telling you the disclosures in the 10k and one to watch. i got to tell you. i have seen a lot and this one just got me going. it is on cnbc.com. >> it is.

>> a story to encouraged to read it. >> more tomorrow. not done with the story? >> i'll see what -- >> there's laws and limits of the apr to charge. >> it's the state laws and you know there are federal proposals out there for usury and you know in certain states they do this. we'll talk more tomorrow. >> thanks, herb. disney off a bit today and the stock at an all-time earlier on this week and year to date up over 30%. a perfect battleground stock to beg the question here, does this rally have more room to run? here is david miller, analyst, and a hold is matthew harrigan. great to have you both on the show. you have an above average rating and is it because it's a good run? >> first of all, thanks for having me, amanda. first of all, we upgraded at $33 back in october of 2011 when, you know, everyone thought we were double dipping. we just simply didn't believe

it. i'm no macroeconomist but only one double dip in 50 years in this country. we thought there was a huge disconnect of value and where the market price of the stock was and upgraded it to our one buy rating, our highest at 33. we have softened down to two above average at around $47 with a target of 52. so we're obviously pleased with what the stock's done over six months or so. >> matthew, you have a -- in your call you have a hold rating but you also note that you think the parks business will get better. so why have a hold rating when you see the parks business improving? >> well, i thisty company's executing well strategic amly. the studio's going to be back to billion dollars and doing very well on the digital side. you know, watching espn app and all that. but i do think at this level when you look at the macro elements you can tolerate a recession in europe but spreading to the united states

and asia i think the stock is fully priced here. there's cyclicality in the advertising. and certainly the parks. even though they're executing brilliantly with attractions like cars land. >> do you agree of the concerns of matthew particularly the global macroeconomics. it's not a cheap day out with the kids. are these risks to the price target? >> if you look a poll of 100 portfolio managers in the country, 99 of them own disney for two 2 reasons. espn and the parks. pretty much that simple. espn is firing on all cylinders right now. not beholden to the secular forces you are seeing in this sort of tit for tat with the cable msoacom and so forth. they're bringing in pent-up demand and one new cruise ship,

the other about a year old, are sold out through the end of the year. so that's good enough for us in terms of keeping our rating two for now. >> feels like a disconnect of what we're hearing of six flags and disney and the parks and cruises and also talking about on a daily basis with indicators. thank you for joining us on disney. >> thank you. >> my pleasure. thank you. it's been a big day for oil closing at the highest level since may. >> hey, mandy. the best seven days of oil since 2009, up 10% in the period of time and what's driving prices are the tensions in the middle east that are up to a boil now. between syria, the violence there and as well as the bombings that we have had in bulgaria against the israeli tourists and concern about what iran is doing and planning to do in retaliation for the sanctions against it due to the nuclear program. we're watching wti contract that was above $93 a barrel for the september contract and that is the one with the most volume as

the august one expires tomorrow. back to you. >> sharon, thank you very much. coming up there's a new sheriff in town and cramer is here to talk preet brar ra ra and how he plans to take on the wall street crooks. a 450-year-old debt rears a very ugly and very expensive head in germany. what's ahead, tyler? >> mandy, thank you very much. we have a very busy two hours ahead on "the closing bell." google and microsoft, those are the names in focus with earnings out after the bell and we'll have the best trade for you. plus, the always provocative donald trump will weigh in on just how worried americans ought to be about the looming fiscal cliff sen whether congress does anything to stop it soon. finally and not least, the ongoing interest rate sandal prompt more regulations in that's all ahead and more on "the closing bell." here's today's "return on

retirement." borrowing against 401(k)s is on the rise as americans struggle to stay afloat in uncertain times. but defaults on retirement plan loans come with taxes, penalties and a loss of savings. just how hefty is the cost? the answer when we return. we don't have a word for retirement. in the latino community the word that we use is jubilation. as you're getting older, you should be able to do the things that you love. at liberty mutual, we know how much you count on your car, and how much the people in your life count on you.

that's why we offer accident forgiveness, where your price won't increase due to your first accident. we also offer a hassle-free lifetime repair guarantee, where the repairs made on your car are guaranteed for life, or they're on us. these are just two of the valuable features you can expect from liberty mutual. plus, when you insure both your home and car with us, it could save you time and money. at liberty mutual, we help you move on with your life, so get the insurance responsible drivers like you deserve. call us at... or visit your local liberty mutual office, where an agent can help you find the policy that's right for you. liberty mutual insurance, responsibility -- what's youlicy?

today's "return on retirement" question -- what is the total annual leakage of american retirement funds due to loan defaults? the answer, up to $37 billion. for more on retirement, go to retirement.cnbc.com. could we be heading towards a 401(k) crisis here in america? shocking number of people borrowing and defaulting on loans against their retirement. joining us is hal singer, these nubmers come from a study that i believe you conducted, sir, with robert litan of brookings. it's actually quite disturbing. what, about 10% of borrowing against the 401(k)s end in

default? how big a crisis is this? >> it's a big problem and 10% which serves as the baseline for our estimate was the amount of people who defaulted before the onset of the great recession. so, we actually think between '08 and 2010 the default levels would be much higher, as high as 18% or 19%. >> what needs to happen? does congress need to step in? >> well, let's be clear. we think it's okay and you should be allowed to borrow against your 401(k). there have been studies showing borrowing promotes participation in the republicans and contributions and don't want to do anything to limit. i do think and 'argue in the piece there's an intervention needed by congress but it's a minor one. we refer to it as a nudge and that is we'd like to see a change in the default option in plans such that borrow ers are

automatically enrolled in an insurance plan just in case they default on their loan. >> you think that would work, hal? people's own money. you know? that's the thing. that's why it makes it sticky. >> well, so why would it better than the current sell? people are defaulting in droves and losing not just the amount of loan but losing the taxes that are associated with it and suffering other financial penalties. what we're hoping is that if a certain number of people were nudged in to this insurance the idea would be that in the god forbid event they default they wouldn't suffer a pipe-out of the 401(k). >> how can they default on a loan that they're own money? you're borrowing from yourself. >> here's the cause of the default. >> why do you call it a default? it is their money. not paying back themselves. >> default is actually a term used by the fed, by congressional research service. >> proving my point. anyway. >> so here's why economists

refer to it as a default anyway. when you borrow $6,500 and lose your job, under the current regime, you are forced to pay back the loan within 60 days and according to a wharton study about 80% of planned participants put in that position, 80%, fail to pay back the loan. well, if it was just the loan being wiped off of the balance that would be one thing but what happens is your taxes are taken out and then financial penalties are taken out so going back to the $6,500 example, about $10,000 gets wiped off of your account at the time of default. >> thank you for explaining that. thank you very much for joining us, hal. >> sure. thank you for having me. all right. today's "sign of the times" proves that the debt catches up with you. according to the christian science monitor, a tiny german town claims that berlin owes it

a debt back to 1562. a certificate showed that the town of mittenwalde lent the money and repaid at 6% per year and never was. adjust for inflation and interest, the total debt in the trillions. could make mittenwalde the richest town in the world. berlin is in the red. >> my great, great, great grandmother was owed a chicken by the neighbor. i'll try to get it back. why not? >> is that a real story? >> could be. all right. up next, jim cramer is here. he was on fire last night after the delivering alpha interview with preet bhrarara. >> cramer says hoo ray for the little guy. we debate. can bhrarara really restore the broken trust? [ male announcer ] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles,

like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account.

this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com.

it all began with the financial crisis. then the flash crash. add in, you know, facebook. banks behaving badly, you name it. no wonder you name it. it's no wonner that some of you out there lost faith in the market. the little guy and crooks should be afraid. here is a taste of the exclusive delivering alpha interview. >> i want to apologize i don't have enough subpoenas for all of you. obviouslyly i'm kidding, i do have enough. it's disheartening to have the level of insider trading we have now proven because i think people need to believe the markets are fair and the same rules apply to every. >> i don't know why somebody with a billion dollared needs to

risk their liberty and be taken away from their family for years and years. people say to us you don't understand what ewe talking about, prove us wrong. cheating is cheating, lying is lying. we have the evidence, it's a righteous case, and we'll bring the case so stay tuned. >> funny, and tough, can he really help restore trust. we have jim cramer as well. he gave a fantastic interview. i have to go ladies first. we have professor, is there anything that the head of the fcc can do to restore ten years of eroded confidence in the

stock market? >> it was interesting because he said the rules should be the same for everybody, and that's true, but even in wall street played by the rules, the little guy would still get the short end of the stick. even though we had all of these flash crash ponzis wick like leaves crashing on the barrier island. the reason why the same rules won't help the little guy is the little guy doesn't have a big computer. he isn't sittingight next to the pit. he is on main street, and main street is trying to do business, stores and produce things, and wall street is doing what it does and the only way it will get cleaned up is when the big boys police themselves. >> i think that may be true of people who are trading at home. it's not true of the person who

owns apple, amazon, people that own snap on tools. or vf corp. i agree there is not a level playing field, but i think they made it so you think twice about that information that comes available all the time. and they don't think that no one can catch them. >> i think in the article they read, your thoughts were that if he is on line two, you should be quaking in your boots. >> he puts people in jail that is not supposed go to jail. these people are not supposed to go to jail in this country. it's supposed to be a country with the best government can buy. two rich people, i we don't know many prosecutors that would even

take them on because they're so powerful and rich and he didn't care at all. >> keep in min the reason that case went through is one person was made at the other. and i'm going to stick with my few that the little investor was not protected even if every insider trading case is won. insider trading is only the tip of the iceberg of why wall street isn't getting a good deal. >> she has a good point. here is what i'm considered about. when this sheriff leaving, human nature is what i'm concerned about among the greedy. they think they're smarter an the system, and they think they will not be caught. he can pave the way, clean it up now, and then what happens?

>> i think we don't have a mega task force on the justice department. you want to talk about where is attorney general holder? i don't know. there should have been the kind of justice department information, national task force, every single u.s. attorney should have put these people in jail because we all know there was a lot of law breaking. one of the things that happened is the u.s. attorney general for the southern district of new york, is that he made is to that people are afraid that you and you and you are wearing a wire. now you may say that means they use hand signals like when they go to the doctor's office, but when he's done, he made you feel that the justice department is in your office, and when they're in your office, you don't want to take that call that says look out, vf corp, i hear they had a good quarter. you don't do that anymore. jail bad. >> but we're just talking about the tip of the iceberg.

insider trading is a small deal compared to all of the other -- >> i agree, there was a study. maybe it's good, i'm not saying it's not a good idea to try to put them in jail, it's a great idea, but that's not the only reason why there has been an erosion of trust between wall street and main street. >> i'm going to get this in if it kills me, 78% of high schoolers surveyed said they thought the stock market was rigged. >> how do you know? >> how do you get over that? >> you look at johnson and johnson's dividend. you look at intel's balance sheet. i can just point out that until he got involved, it was checkbook prosecution. it was checkbook prosecution. when you go to jail you don't come back. i know guys that went to jail.

that guy went to jail, he is bad, and i tell my kids if you go to jail you're bad. jail bad, man, very bad. >> what about that wall street movie? >> we're going to bring you all back another time. >> jail bad. >> the confidence is right there on wall street or main street. good night, thank you jim, herb. on "mad money" tonight -- >> snap on, cash rich, confidence poor. >> i have nbc sports tonight at 7:00 check it out. world's fastest promo. i'm only in my 60's...

i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it could save you thousands in out-of-pocket costs. call now to request your free decision guide. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital

that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and you never need a referral. see why millions of people have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. don't wait. call now. a passionate belief, and the foundation on which merrill lynch has been built. today, our financial advisors lead from a new position of strength. together with bank of america, they have access to more resources than ever before. a steadfast commitment to help you achieve your financial goals in life. that's the power of the right advisor. that's merrill lynch. syou know, i've helped a lot off people save a lot of money. but today...( sfx: loud noise of large metal object hitting the ground) things have been a little strange. (sfx: sound of piano smashing)