messages. things are heating up. >> see you tomorrow. >> i'll be here. >> terrific, fantastic. thanks, everybody, for watching. sue? >> see you back at the ranch. "street signs" begins right now. and here at the ranch, hello, everybody. welcome to "street signs." nominee paul ryan is set to take the stage for his first solo campaign revent. we'll take you there live. what does small business think of the ticket? how are they feeling about the economy right now? we are going to go ahead many eric to find out. plus, the drought of 2012 and the reasons why the corn crisis is driving up prices at the pump. and the government turning to an ebay-like auction site to sell everything. how much money are they raising? that's all coming up later on this hour. loads of things to get you there. meantime, the monday blues return to wall street after breaking a nine monday losing

streak last week, the dow back on the downside today and putting at least a temporary hold on its quest for a four and a half year high. the s&p 500 is lower and it is currently moving to the downside. the dow at 13,144. none the lesds, we have, of course, been higher for five straight weeks. talking of which if it can rally to finish it higher it's the first seven-day streak in almost six years. the nasdaq also slumping today, but it remains by considerable mar yin the best performer for august among the major averages. august is usually very slow and light volume. any moment now we're expecting paul ryan to address the iowa state fair in des moines. first solo campaign event since the congressman of wisconsin became mitt romney's running mate. president obama spoke in iowa earlier today. so we'll be taking ryan's speech live when it does happen but in the meantime, sully's

interrupting the vacation in wisconsin to join us from green bay and let's start with eamon javers traveling with ryan. great to see you there, eamon. this is a battleground state and hard campaigning going on. how much does the ryan-romney ticket move the needle? >> reporter: well, clearly, it's injected a jolt of energy in to the campaign. you can tell already by the feel here at the iowa state fairgrounds and we can paul ryan's -- just looking at the campaign coming in. he's just arrived here at the fairgrounds. walking in towards us. setting up back here and a sense of jolt of energy that this has given the campaign, we've got a crowd of thousands of people that's been filling in steadily back here. some of the folks tells us they want to hear what paul ryan has to say. not a figure known nationally and if you can swing around and probably take a look, paul ryan right by our position here. take a look around and see the state troopers there. see the traveling press there

with congressman ryan coming in. going past the hot wings, that chos, root beer here. all of that traditional political stomping grounds and here he's making a stop at pretzels and that chos. old-fashioned root beer. the camera guys will block our shot of what paul ryan is doing but you just there with that scrum you can get a sense this is a guy that did not have a scrum like this around him before. not a politician on the national stage. familiar to cnbc viewers, zef in itly. not somebody we have seen on the national stage or used to this kind of attention. this is new for paul ryan and it's sometimes a struggle for candidates to adjust to this kind of total submersion coverage. and that's something that ryan will have to do. >> how much does now the looming fiscal cliff and the issues of the budget now, how much does that battle get intensified? >> reporter: definitely

intensified and changes the focus of this campaign in a big way. that is campaign about jobs and the economy. but now with paul ryan getting involved in the campaign, what we're seeing is a campaign much more about deficits, fiscal cliff and the issues we talk about on cnbc and taking a couple of questions from the traveling press corps and that dynamic changes the focus of this campaign from a campaign that's been focused so much on the short term here and now, jobs, to something that's much more focussed on the long term deficit picture of the country. >> thanks very much. sounds exciting there on the ground and brian in another battleground state, this is wisconsin. brian, putting you to work in your vacation so thanks for taking the time out here. you know, this is wisconsin's native son, right? i love the quote that he gave yesterday at a wisconsin rally. and he was saying, my veins run with cheese, bratwurst and millers, as well.

they must be so proud there. >> they are. you just described my breakfast, mandy, by the way. good to be here in green bay. here's the situation. wisconsin is not gone for a republican presidential ticket since 1984. okay? obama took wisconsin by 56% in 2008. i'm going to give you an anecdote. i was at a friend's 60th birthday party on saturday night. a lot of talk of romney an i meat woman and asked her, she considers herself a republican. are you going to vote for romney? she said, no, because she didn't trust him. so i said, well, you 'll vote for obama? she said, no. so i said, who will you vote for? she said, nobody. and there's no doubt many people that are like that out there. and the pick of ryan is to get women like her to the polling station and to punch the romney ticket. that's the reality. i think if you're going to vote for romney, you're going to vote for romney anyway. everybody i talked to, probably 20 locals over a last couple of

days if they were for romney, they were for romney. for obama, they're for obama. there's a small slice of the undecided sort of middle voter there that maybe leans one way or another that they're hoping that hometown boy you talked about will sway to the romney-ryan ticket. he is a janesville guy. it's on stand by and still technically active, oldest gm plant in the united states. considered fairly friendly to the autos and they hope it sways people like i talked to saturday night to the romney ticket. >> how much do they feel it improves them? not just macro terms but improve the personal finances? we have some exit poll results from governor walker's recall vote in june and said only from the exit poll 20% of wisconsin voters said the personal financial situation is better in 2 years and feels there's not

that much optimism. >> you know, when i drove down here, mandy, today, from up north, and there's construction everywhere. a buddy of mine a truck broker finds big loads, mostly inf infrastructure, pipes, electrical. he's well up year over year and much of the work up on is inf infrastructure related and a lot of people even if they're more conservative will quietly off to the side think stimulus may have helped us because the work we're seeing is benefiting our business so i think if you're on that side, you're probably fairly more confident about the economy. i was a little surprised by those polls given that everybody i've talked to locals up north and northern wisconsin, they're all up whether they're truckers, realtors, whatever. up year over year, so it must be the more milwaukee type urban areas struggling more. >> good point. stay with us. we'll bring in a couple of small

business owners to know what small businesses think of the ryan pick. mark shippon and larry mocha, a tulsa-based manufacturing base making air cylinders of trucks. mark, a simple question. do you think that ryan is a good pick for small businesses and for your small business? >> i think truly believe it is. i like his passion. i have a -- there's a saying in kind of describing him. something i would like for my children, actually, is they three things. integrity, tenacity and compassi compassion. i believe he has all three and i think when people get to know him he'll have great appeal. >> what about you, larry? >> well, i like that, too. the important thing right now is what's wrong with our country. and unlike what your -- what the guy said earlier, it's the economy. we need to elect somebody that

understands business and that understands the economy can do a strategic plan and get us moving again. >> what you were saying, mark, tenacity and passion are wonderful but, you know, don't necessarily get you to the finish post. when's specifically about some of the proposals heard about so far that he has that would make a material difference to how you run your business? >> well, one more thing i want to bring in. the idea that you say -- you don't wait to dig a well until you're thirsty and he's looking forward and i think the business people that i know, small business, we're pretty good sized business, we have about 400 employees but we're trying to think for the future. and a lot of people right now are holding back, for example, with investments. they're wondering what their taxes are going to be. they're concerned with health care. and i think having somebody that actually understands business and what needs to be done is very reassuring to small

business. >> mark, it's brian sullivan. are you up or down year over year? >> parts of our business are up. we have about 12,000 customers in the distribution side and we're up considerably going in to may, slowed in june and july. i think people really -- we had the same number of sales but we didn't have the volume. beginning of august is stronger. but i think it's just very fragile right now and people are waiting to see which way this election is going to go and is it going to be pro business or not. >> larry, bottom line, do you believe your business will be higher one year from now if ryan-romney win? >> okay. i think we've got an audio problem there. larry, unfortunately, we can't hear you there. mark, i'll ask you to be as candid as you can.

has obama been a disappointment for your small business? >> well, i would have to say yes because to be honest i felt for the first two years that being a small business with 400 employees and being successful that i was almost the enemy. and i know it's changed recently but i think if you look at most small businesses they want to do things for their employees. i don't talk about i built my business. we built my business. i have great employees but we all are being successful. my mom -- mother used to say, it's easier to give somebody the shirt off of your back if you happen to have another one and expected you to do things that are positive for those around you. and so, picking on people that are successful i don't think goes well. >> mark, thank you very much for sharing your experience. we apologize we lost larry

there. brian, don't go anywhere. >> thank you very much. here is our poll. what do you think about the ryan pick? 71% of the people who voted at finance.yahoo.com said, yes. 29% said, no. the drought and 2012 not only crushing the corn crop across america and driving up prices for you and me at the pump across america. the corn connection to your gas tank is coming up ahead this hour. plus, mitt romney's new running mate says he has a history of working across party lines. separating the fact from the fiction straight ahead on "street signs." we'll leave you with where we're standing on the dow at this hour. ♪

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welcome back to "street signs." time for a quick market flash. we're watching shares of schnitzer steel. bank of america, merrill lynch downgrading the stock to an underperform boosting the price target by three bucks to 21. higher august scrap prices unlikely to translate in to better earnings. had a great run. 25% in the last 2 weeks but taking a hit today. mandy? >> thank you. top percentage losers on the s&p, first solar down about 5% and wpx energy off about 4. these are the winners on the s&p. sears up about 5%.

salesforce.com up and international paper with a nice gain of 3.5%. let's get more of what's happening on the markets? bob pisani on the floor of the new york stock exchange. looking at the numbers here, i mean, for example incredibly low volume. now in the back half of a slowest month of the year and the vix sitting around 14, possibly below showing an incredible complacency. what is this telling us? >> there are times when the stock market's like the weather. everybody talks about it and nobody does anything about it. telling you right now that we are in a holding pattern waiting for something to happen so you're right about the vix. we broke below 14, actually, earlier. this is a five-year low. it's hard to argue that you should be raising options prices and what the vix is priced off of with very low volatility and not moving much in the last week inform and a half in terms of prices and doesn't argue for sudden spikes in expected earnings,

expected pricing. if you look a little further out, mandy, on the v ix curve and not telling you that much, don't look at the spot vix. look at what's happening in august. 15 here. 20. 23. this is going out in to december. the levels much, much higher. this is a better way to look at the v ix than the pot prices. i'm trying to get people to look at the yield, the curve further out anticipating more volatility down the road. miss merkle is back from germany from the vacation. more on greece very soon. we'll hear more from the ecb in the next several weeks, as well. back to you. >> okay. bob, thanks so much. trying to point to what we need to focus on. well, japan's slowdown is something that's weighing down equities. yet bringing up u.s. treasury yields. for more on equities, we have jason pride, director of glen

mede and great to have you with us, gentlemen. jason, very quickly, your thoughts on the pick of paul ryan and whether or not that changes anything from an equity standpoint. >> sure. thanks for having me on, mandy. our perspective on this has little to do with whether the republican or the democratic candidates end up winning the election. really, has to do with the fact of bringing the fiscal cliff and the whole fiscal and debt debate as a core election campaign issue meaning won't be solved definitively before november and stretched in to november and running up against that january 1st deadline. that's going to create consternation. probably a good thing paul ryan is there to make the central issue a key important election issue and a key important political issue and brings up the risk that we don't get something put in place fast enough. >> really sharpens the focus on the fiscal cliff. what about for bonds in your strategy, dan?

>> we think fiscal cliff is a major headwind for the market. we think it's bullish for bonds. and main reason of many why interest rates stay low. in addition to unemployment rate way, way too high. >> let's get back to what we were originally talking about. weaker than expected growth in both china and japan, world's number two and three economies here. jason, does this mean that we're just going to look relatively speaking a whole lot more attractive from an equities standpoint or bring us down, as well? >> look. i think on the margin the looks better than many of the international markets including some of the emerging markets on a near term basis. on a longer term basis, we go through the same deleveraging of europe going through and probably seeing weakness because of that. our belief right now is that we are still in a growth scare despite the fact that some indicators picked up a little bit. we are in a growth scare and the markets reflect that. >> where do you hide?

where do you not lose money then in the markets? >> so what we have been doing is we have been positioning majority of clients asets in the middle of the risk spectrum. not taking as much risk as tradition aleckties and doesn't mean investing and hiding in cash and treasuries to underperform inflation for next five to ten years and high yields bonds, taking risk and high quality stocks staying defensive in equities and playing anything to pick up an incremental return over the risk taken within the middle of the spectrum. >> talking to treasuries, dan, what outperforms treasuries? >> we would go to markets such as investment-grade corporate bonds. high grade municipal bonds are very attractive here. many with yields above treasury that is are taxable. so those tax xemplt yields are incredibly of great value here for income oriented investors and with the real possibility

that -- >> okay. looks like we're having a few audio problems today but jason and dan, thank you for your thoughts today. next, a lemon-flavored disaster and sunshine from the oil patch. care of legal matters. wouldn't it be nice if there was an easier, less-expensive option than using a traditional lawyer? well, legalzoom came up with a better way. we took the best of the old and combined it with modern technology. together you get quality services on your terms, with total customer support. legalzoom documents have been accepted in all 50 states, and they're backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. so go to legalzoom.com today and see for yourself. it's law that just makes sense. to provide a better benefits package... oahhh! [ male announcer ] it made a big splash with the employees. [ duck yelling ] [ male announcer ] find out more at... [ duck ] aflac! [ male announcer ] ...forbusiness.com. ♪ ha ha! looking for a better place to put your cash? here's one you may not have thought of -- fidelity.

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some questions about quality control for today's disaster du jour. what's going on, herb? >> lululemon. stock down over the last 3 months and actually it's been down 20% over the last 3 months. not as much a disaster today but here's what's interesting. it is off basically because an analyst came out of ubs and said, trimmed estimates an the price target to be more in line with the street but the analyst also noted something a few have been commenting on lately and that's concerns of product quality. issues that started showing up in the second quarter. and the key to this is that is company that's built itself on grass roots support and the question is whether the same word of mouth can work the other way around. >> okay. this is an interesting story and i noted they have a new line, sort of trying to target the

tweens. the young girl market if you like. when's it called? viva athleta. slipped this summer down here south of the border in to the u.s. and i wonder if it revives this despite the concerns of quality. >> people are starting to talk about them. though you do remember you have competition of gap on the low end. you have lucy. nordstrom coming in to the market. they don't have what they had to themselves the way they did. >> we'll get back to you on "street talk." now to the sunshine stock. which is tesoro. now, that stock hitting a new 52-week high, also the topper former on the s&p 500. the company operates seven refineries in the western yooits and also a network of gas stations. and casino operator las vegas sands reportedly under investigation by nevada regulators said to be looking to

see if they broke u.s. bribery laws in china. the department of justice and s.e.c. was looking in to it and now the nevada control board is doing the same and all three probes of a lawsuit filed by former sands china ceo suing the company saying he was fired for not complying with illegal demands by the chairman and as you can see the stock currently down. up next, one of the finalists in the search for the 20 brightest entrepreneurs under 20 years. makes you feel old, doesn't it? plus, fact check claims of the romney-ryan campaign and check in with sully. later, the government trash looking for some steals. the president of govdeals.com explains his auction and how you can bid. [ male announcer ] at scottrade,

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welcome back to "street signs." "street talk" time. we have herb here. yahoo! with a big exclamation mark and downgraded to a hold from a buy saying profitability may be lower than expected because the ceo marissa mayer is

taking the time to get to work. >> well, no. you know what it is? we talked about it last week. what is shareholder value? remember i talked about marissa mayer taking the stock ticker off the personal home page and then going to rethink how they're going to spend $4 billion. >> right. >> might not go toward the stock buybacks and this is not what the street wants to see. shareholder value is more than short-term gains. for some people it is about building a business. that's apparently what she wants to do and what's interesting in when case, i said last week, i'll say it again. she has dan lobe on her side. he ain't going to agitate right now for immediate gains. too bad. tough luck. that's the way it is. >> it is. the shares of salesforce today, look at how they're doing. i think higher by a nice amount. just over 4% there and the deal here is that piper jeffrey said

they're won the largest transaction in the history and an overweight on the stock. >> what's interesting on this, they had a big deal with state farm going way back. what i want to see is this is great rumor, great for them if it's the case. but, what's the margin going to be? how much do they -- is the deal going to be for? that's important thing. their margins coming down looking at over the past four quarters or so. i want to see that and by the way, talking about a company like salesforce, in the end with these companies as we have learned from companies like chipotle, it is the company coming out and salesforce before saying it's not working. something isn't going the way it's expected w. the high beta stocks, high valued stocks, until they say that, i know bulls and bears in the stock. big deal, no deal. >> higher you fly, the harder to fall, right? >> what's he going to say? not the future. >> stock number three, diamond foods here. supposed to have met with the

nasdaq over some listing issues. when is this issue resolved? >> i talked to the company. they met with the nasdaq on july 26th. they have the nasdaq has 35 days to get back saying you're in or out. so nothing right now. we'll see. >> got their friends going on there. >> we need resolution there. focused media, the shares jumped after a bid to go private after a consortium. this is a chinese ad display provider. >> such a bull/bear stock. we've been seeing with the controversial stock. muddy waters known for research own chinese companies had really knocked. i got a hold of car son block today. he's the big critic. the markets are far better off if a few deep pocketed but pocketed investors owned this company instead of mutual funds and other public stake holders. what that really means i don't know. is it throwing in the towel or

just saying that? the deal has to be done. >> of course muddy waters, they were the ones back said they overpaid for acquisitions. but the buyout bid is $3.5 billion. >> and the stock is up on that. tonight on the premier of "20 under 20: transforming tomorrow" peter thiel offering the brightest entrepreneurs, 20 teenage innovators win $100,000 to help them build the big ideas in to real businesses but the condition here is they must drop out of school to focus full-time on their projects. for finalists dylan, it feels like the perfect fit, though his parents aren't quite convinced. >> throughout my life i had a tough time with structured learning environment. and so i definitely did think strongly of dropping out of high school for a long time. we're such a small school we

don't have a sports team. the robotics team is our football team. you know? we didn't have like cheerleaders rooting for us writing code but it was an amazing time. having a way to express myself outside the classroom and to build things and to learn about engineering and programming, i think it saved me from dropping out of high school in the first place. without it, i don't know where i'd be today. >> so when dylan found out that he was going to brown university, we were so excited. it was just the greatest moment. >> i'm strongly considered if i were to get the thiel fellowship to drop out. >> dylan is with us. thanks being with us. >> thank you, mandy. >> i was listening to your mom and dad and excited to drop out of brown and do the fellowship and were they a little concerned? >> they were. >> maybe a little bit of a jump. >> they were very concerned. they're super nervous i think is the biggest thing.

you know, you tell your parents that all their life saying get good grades, go to school, dropping out of college not exactly what the parents want to hear. i'm really lucky to have a supportive family. not just my parents, my grandparents. my family is amazing. but it wasn't until i went to the finalist round that they really saw the fellowship and realized not a bunch of crazy people and a great place for me to be and learn from. and that community was there. >> you know, since you mentioned community, i mean, i would imagine that, you know, when you first met the other federal, state, and localists competing for the fellowship,came across a community of like-minded people. >> that's right. >> did it feel like i'm at snoem. >> it felt awesome. the other fellows, the finalists, i mean, there's -- we're all competing. right? but at the same time there's a sense of comradery. you meet people so ambitious and so many dreams and they want to change the world and that's just

a great room to be in. the people to the left of you trying to cure cancer. the girl to the right is trying to do global health and other dude srks you know, nuclear energy for everybody. i mean, that's a great room to be in. >> how will you change the world? what are you doing here and what do you hope to accomplish? >> sure. so my project is all about making better, creative tools to express yourself online. and the way that we're starting that is we're making an end browser photo editor and some use cases are retouching photographs. another use case could be taking an object out of a photograph. and you can do that and we're making it so it's online and for free and with the quality of a professional would have. >> i'm very impressed. best of luck. >> thank you so much. >> when i was your age, trying to work out the outfit for the woekd. >> i still have trouble for that one. thanks so much. >> even now. okay. thanks, dylan. >> thank you for having me. >> catch the two-part special

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well mitt romney says his new running mate paul ryan has a history of reaching across the aisle to work with democrats. is that true? well, our investigations inc. team is here. fact or fiction? >> a little bit of both. this weekend's ryan rollout is this idea that he has an ability to work across party lines. >> he has that unusual, almost a unique capacity, the find people of different parties who are of a common purpose that can come together to do something that's right for the country. >> paul ryan, a bipartisan

reformer? well, the record is mixed. he is a reliable conservative according to the university of georgia's vote view.org project voting with the party 97% of the time in the last 2 congresses. but he has, indeed, reached across the aisle from time to time. here he is on msnbc in invest with democratic representative van hollen with new line item veto power for the president. >> we want the show that we don't always go at each other's throats around here. we can agree on some things and one of those things we agree. >> it passed the house and stalled in the senate. meantime, the romney campaign pushing the idea that paul ryan's medicare proposals are the product of bipartisanship. >> this man said i'll find democrats to work with. found a democrat to co-lead legislation to save med kir. >> that senator is ron wyden pointing out that, no, they did not co-lead a piece of

legislation. they did co-author this policy paper that suggests a new private insurance option for medicare. offered alongside the traditional plan. wyden said he voted against the medicare proposals in the ryan budget and says romney should quit in his words making things up. we'll do more fact checking on the issue of medicare, a key coming up. >> on the next show. thanks so much, scott. paul ryan spoke to the iowa state fair in des moines. it was his first solo campaign event since mitt romney picked him as a running mate. brian is back with us and heard of scott whether or not he is really truly the bipartisan people say he is. what are your reactions to this? >> i think it depends on who you ask. that's the situation with anything. this is a state that leans to obama, as we noted earlier, not had a republican ticket for president since 1984 and the ryan pick in large part trying

to sway the folk that is are maybe leaning fiscally conservative and also perhaps union members. as i noted paul ryan from janesville, wisconsin. home of a huge gm plant. he was largely in favor of the auto bailout. and i think that there's going to be that effort to say, yeah, he's conservative, he's got the ideas about the budget down the road, 2040, 2050 but not a super conservative fiscal guy as it pertains to unions. he understands, in other words, what the autoworkers are dealing with. his family was solidly middle class from janesville. that's how they seek to portray him and if they don't work, it's not going to work in wisconsin. >> you know wisconsin. i lived there many years ago. it is a polarized state and more so now than ever paul ryan won his district seven times in southeast wisconsin but what about the state? that's a tougher order, isn't it? >> yeah, it really is. like so many states across america, very different

depending on where you go. in the sort of rural areas, right, they may be more conservative to the romney-ryan ticket. the milwaukee area, especially madison, wisconsin, overwhelmingly obama in 2008 in the madison area. but to your point, scott, it is an excellent one. this is perhaps not only a key battleground state for the election, probably the most polarized state in the united states right now. they face the recall election, walker got through it. there's a lot of people angry about it. i can tell you this much anecdotally. take it for what it's worth. on the drive to the studio today, i saw fresh-looking obama 2012 bumper stickers. i'm not sure ryan from the folks -- maybe i spoke to 20 or so people over the last 2 days around town and i'm not sure it changes anybody's votes. >> interesting point. just this morning i saw that in-trade is having obama's re-election chances near

three-months highs. brian, stay with us. just now on cnbc.com you have paul ryan in his own words. the new gop vice presidential committ candidate. check out the video clips, the slar you sound bites given us over time. talking of which, vice presidential candidate in iowa. the heart of corn country and with gas prices on the rise, what impact is the the corn calamity having on prices at the pump? andy is here to explain. how much has high corn prices moved up gasoline prices for us at the pump? >> surprisingly, it's been about six cents a gallon but as far as the ethanol price itself, it's up from $2 a gallon to $2.60 over 3 months. >> would suspending the ethanol

mandate slash the prices that much? >> i don't think it has any impact because the gasoline logistics and distri bus system is so entrenched with ethanol we need it and very difficult for the refining system to change. >> it's interesting. i was reading through your notes and you were saying that ironically pretty much the only place that it does have the flexible system to reduce ethanol blending is the midwest which is the heart of ethanol production. right? >> that's exactly. right because in the midwest selling what's known as conventional gasoline with an 87 octane. we just put the ethanol right on top of it and we're done and that's xlooetly different than the rest of the country where our base stock requires the ethanol to meet the consumers finished needs. >> andy, it's brian sullivan in wisconsin. the campaign ads, at least i had a chance the see up here, are talking about bain, talking about taxes. are you disappointed that neither candidate seems to be

really ma'hammering the energy issues? >> well, i think it's pretty disgusting, actually, because the fact is that you need a whole bunch of things really to get us to be energy independent. we have got a lot of coal, a lot of natural gas. there's constituencies against that. you can see oil production is increasing to multi-year highs here in the country and we still have people that don't want to drill in other parts of the area so it's really a mix that's gong to get us energy independent but we'll be on gasoline for quite sometime. >> yeah, because it would seem like if you want to win wisconsin, if you want to win iowa and i heard a bit of what the president said today, you hit the energy issue. right? that's going to sway a lot of rural america. the president talked about a farm bill and relief for some of the draught-stricken farmers. what do you think romney or obama could or should do to swing votes regarding energy policy? >> i think they have a mixed bag, of course, down here in texas you want to see more drilling. i think in places like iowa,

they're dependent on wind energy now for the farmers leasing to the wind generators so they want to see an extension of the wind generation tax credit. up in wisconsin we have a fair amount of ethanol plants. what they would actually like to see is expanded use offette moll from 10% ethanol up to 15% ethanol and to solve the hurdles preventing that from wider distribution. >> we have to leave it there but thank you very much for your thoughts. >> thank you. >> make sure to tune in wednesday for extensive coverage of the drought of 2012. it is an all-day event here on y thbs and the other networks of nbc. and of course, a very special thank you to brian sullivan. he can go back to the vacation now. coming up, we'll mine the garbage bin for gems. the president of govdeals.com here to explain how the auction works and place your bid. i've picked out a few nice little gems that i would like.

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coming up at the top of the hour, gasoline prices jumping 18 cents in the past two weeks. i don't have to tell you that. we will talk to somebody that says we are just too big global events away from $5 gasoline. we will look at those coming up.

groupones will announce earnings after the bell. those shares have been cut in half recently. is the stock now a deal or a dud? the charts will tell us. a top paul ryan supporter explains why his budget may be the only thing that can rescue our economy right now. sue herera is with me today. we look forward to seeing you at the top of the hour. "street signs" jackie deangelis. >> thanks so much for that. looking forward to "closing bell." i'm watching upgrade of international paper, rock ten. they are higher on a day where a lot of stocks are getting hit hard. taking to outperform while raising eps and prays targets. it is increasingly confident of september price hikes for container board. container board stocks have been up about 10% for the past month or so. cs is saying there's 20% more upside here. take a look at those stocks. seeing a little green on the down day.

>> that's a lot of green. thanks so much. more and more states and local governments are turning extra stash into much needed cash. that's right. many using online auctions to get rid of computers, fire trucks, even confiscated jewelry and cars. is this a good way important the government to boost strained bottom line? let's ask bob, president of gov.com. great to have you with us today. i believe you have about 5,600 different governments, even a few post offices working with you to get rid of their stuff. how much cash does this really raise for them? good it depends on each of the government sales. we feel like we get them 20% to 40% more than they can usually get from a local auctioneer and based on our aggressive marketing, we set up marketing department to help these governments direct their surplus directly to the marketers and

the bidders looking for a specific type of item. we feel like our marketing department has those prices up over our competitors'. >> when you talk about competitors, what you do, does it get these governments more money? more efficient manner if they go something through ebay? >> right. we are designed specifically for governments. we started our business back in 1999. and specifically to handle government local city county, state governments. want to see a system that will be a little more transparent for them. they would also give them the ease of use that they couldn't get on a large companies like ebay. could get a one-stop shop for all their assets plus, you know, a localized billing that where they give one for maybe 100 items when they sell on our site. very convenient for them and transparent. >> how much have you made for them to dating collectively? >> well, we have sold since -- since we started our first auction in 2001, we sold over

$500 million. about 600,000 items. we are doing quite well. we will probably do somewhere between 125 million to $130 million this year. >> what are some of the biggest items recently that you have sold off for these state and local governments? >> we sold -- about a year ago, we sold helicopters for the state of new jersey over $3 million for that sale. we sell a lot of aircraft, fixed wing planes, helicopters, and we will take any government's furniture and broken down vehicles. it doesn't matter what it is. that's why we are so effective. they can go to us for everything to have without having to shop around for those companies that want their big assets. >> what's the oddest thing you had to auction off? >> i will say that back in material day we auctioned off some pauper coffins. back in the early '20s and '30s,

some people didn't have enough funds to actually bury their own. the counties in alabama offered a service of giving a coffin and free burial. we auctioned some of the wood coffins off and i talked to the bidder and asked him what he would use it for. he said at halloween he's planning on putting that on his dining room table and decorating it and serving beverages out of it. >> i'm sure that was a great halloween. thanks for that. perfect using your site myself and fancied a nice yellow school bus starting at $1,500. lot of bargains out there. thanks very much. coming up next, saying good-bye to the fast olympians. and hello to the slowest competitors. when i found out y irregular heartbeat put me at 5 times greater risk of a stroke, my first thoughts were about my wife, and my family. i have the most common type of atrial fibrillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem.

i was taking warfarin, but my doctor put me on pradaxa instead to reduce my risk of stroke. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) reduced stroke risk 35% better than warfarin. and unlike warfarin, with pradaxa, there's no need for regular blood tests. that's really important to me. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have a bleeding condition like stomach ulcers, or take aspirin, nsaids, or blood thinners, or if you have kidney problems, especially if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures, and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval, as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. pradaxa is progress. having afib not caused by a heart valve problem increases your risk of stroke. ask your doctor if you can reduce your risk with pradaxa.

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we believe in the power of people when technology works for you. to dream. to create. to work. if you're going to do something. make it matter. this weekend in france the fastest snail was crowned. first they raced. spectators eat them. except for the wincher was a 7-year-old snail. changing topics completely. let's go to the bottom line from ryan. green bay, wisconsin. does ryan help or hurt romney's chance of beating president obama? >> i will give you a quick anecdote. who are you going to vote for. leaning obama, does ryan change your mind? no. brought up a good point.