if there are there, are going and we'll tell you how to invest in whiskey be which based on that open, we could probably use a little of right now. but first, let us get to steve leisman with the beige book headlines. >> brian, thanks very much. the beige book full of all the economic headlines, saying economic activity expands in most districts. lefting off in new york and slowing in kansas city. residential real estate showing widespread improvement with existing home sales strengthening but prices steady to up. residential construction rose in most districts. mortgage lending was up especially for re-fis. job growth was flat to up restrained by all the headlines you've been reading -- politics, presidential race, fiscal policy and the european debt crisis. several statistics reporting a lack of skilled workers. what we haven't seen is this

next headline where there are job training programs to address that shortage. it's hurting the midsection of the nations though. some districts are saying there's been some recent rainfall and it has helped crops. however, some of the price spikes related to the drought are beginning to show up at the consumer level. beige book is warning overall prices were mostly unchanged with some of those agricultural prices up. consumer spending was flat to up modestly with retail sales expanding modestly. high gas prices, political uncertainty, fiscal cliff concerns all said to be hurting retail sales according to the anecdotal evidence that the federal reserve districts get. manufacturing and service sectors showing some improvement since the last report. nothing to write home about. most districts say manufacturing improved with energy being

robust. loan demand said to be higher in most districts. credit standards unchanged. but several districts reported improving loan quality with falling delinquencies. that's something we want to be watching. small business loans are something else we need to be watching remain hard to get in some districts. not a great beige book overall but interesting pockets of strength and some compelling pockets of weakness. >> we started to also see the markets come off their lows. interesting what you were saying about the lack of skilled workers. we've had so many business leaders and ceos here on street signs and many other cnbc shows complaining about the lack of skilled workers. and finally -- how long did it take before these districts are starting these job training programs? >> i'll tell you what's interesting. it maybe suggests that something on the ground has changed a little bit. you wouldn't train workers if you weren't certain about the demand for those workers. we're a little bit or a touch more confident in the futures. maybe that's a slight sign after

little bit more progress. again if anything in this economy, you don't want to overstate it. the one thing i would overstate is when they say residential real estate, widespread improvement, that's about the most definitive phrase in the beige book all together. >> if somebody is in a job training program which is finally opened apparently, are they considered unemployed? >> yes. if they do not have a job or haven't worked in the past four weeks they would be unemployed. i just went through this with the bls about what constitutes -- >> you see why i'm asking that. a little dancing around the margin there. >> yeah. well -- >> what kind of dance was that, brian? that was the two-step. >> that was about as smooth as the open of street signs today. >> not smooth like the whiskey you drink, i'm sure, brian. >> your beige book today was anything but dull. i did tweet out today that beige does make it seem kind of dull and that if i was going to

choose a color for my beige book, i'd make it turquoise or maybe a uniform. next time you're on -- we've created the perfect -- >> does that mean you believe it is full of myth or possibility? or hope? or dream -- what is the context there? >> unicorns are real. what are you talking about? >> i shouldn't have challenged that. >> next we'll have leprechauns on the show, too. thank you, steve. your money certainly taking cues from the race for the white house. we have a new feature we're launching right now on cnbc as election day approaches, we've tapped our many sources for ideas on stocks to include both cnbc obama re-election indexes and cnbc romney indexes. here's the idea. we use stocks that would benefit from each candidate's policies. obviously theoretical but you can kind of get an idea.

year to date, stocks that we have slapped in these indexes, which i'm sure are available in more depth on our website, which is very fine -- obama stocks up 7%. romney stocks just about break even. draw your own conclusions. over the course of the next few weeks, we are going to dig into the stocks and these new indexes, look at their performance, look at the momentum swings in the campaign, then all go out for ice cream. meantime, america's ceos are now trying to figure out their pre-election strategy and they are not being shy about it. robert frank is joining us now with the unbelievable story, a ceo basically said you're fired if you vote for romney. we have bertha coombs here with a company that's thinking about cutting back on hours if obama is re-elected. uber long intro aside, robert, let us -- >> i need a whiskey! >> i just work here. who was that and why did he say it? >> this story has exploded on the internet. the guy's name is david siegel.

he's the ceo of westgate resorts. he sent an e-mail to employees saying if obama wins they could all lose their jobs. the e-mail said if any new taxes are lev veed on me or my company as our current president plans, i will have no choice but reduce the size of this company. he said if obama wins, you can find me in the caribbean sitting on the beach with no employees to worry about. what makes this e-mail so explosive, david siegel built the largest home in america. he and his wife built versailles, a 90,000 square foot palace near orlando. story was first told in the high beta rich, my book. in a phone interview last night, david told me, "i hav enough money to last the rest of my life and for my children. still, he said he's being taxed to death and people like me who made all the right decisions are being forced to bail out all the people who didn't. he told me that he was trying to ed kuwait, not threaten, his

employees, but what does threaten your jobs, he told them, is another four years of the same president. brian? back to you. >> just wondering, the guy built an obscenely large house. is he the subject of a documentary that's been sort of -- >> we have the director producer here on the show as well. >> now he's saying this. why? >> because -- >> because he can? >> he tells me, look, all in attention on me he said is wrong focus. focus for him is his workers. he went from 12,000 to 7,000 workers during this crisis. he blames a lot of that on bad economic policy. he said if this continues the combination of obama care and taxes would force him to shut it down. >> the house and expense of that house -- >> what's that have to do with anything? it's his money. >> he could take the little hit in profit and cover the cost of it -- >> he did. he did. he defaulted on the house. n they've now paid off the loan. his company's the most profitable as ever. he says we're not going to grow.

>> he has a fascinating movie as well. >> even better book, by the way. >> "queen of versailles." an even better book. darden restaurants is making a bold election move. >> they haven't committed to this yet. but darden restaurants says new staffing measures are just one of the things that the skp trying to figure out in terms of how it can meet higher costs and avoid penalties under obama care in 2014. as with much of the industry, three-quartz of darden's employees are part-time but under the health care law, if they work more than 30 hours a week they're considered full time triggering benefit requirements or penalties. darden is experimenting with boof boosting part-time hires while limiting their hours. >> the law was written in such a way that it lowers the threshold down to 30. it really applies to many more employees who are actually part-time.

that's where the real rubber meets the road. >> he says it is not just a problem for restaurants. it is also for other part-time businesses like retailers. a survey found two-thirds of retailers in fact are looking at limiting hours to avoid penalties under obama care. mercer says because of the individual mandate, employers expect that workers who typically opt out of coverage will now opt in. they're trying to figure out what it is going to cost them and what the new variables are. >> this is just another twist in the tale that we always tell when we get a big number. for example, 200,000 jobs are created. you have to say the devil is in the details. are those jobs great or part-time jobs, temporary jobs, seasonal jobs, that kind of thing. right? >> i remember when the massachusetts law was going in anecdotally, one massachusetts senator told me he was keeping people to a salary cap which would let them buy their own insurance on the exchange with subsidies rather than give them

a lesser plan that he couldn't afford. he paid the penalty and let them buy on the exchange. there are all these variables that go into account as this system moves forward, if it does g in 2014. >> always need to dig beneath the details. with less than four weeks to election day, director of the university of virginia's center for politics is here. and politico's wall street correspondent, ben white, let me get to you first. first of all, i want to get to the market's aspect. at this stage of the game it seems to be the consensus that we get a romney win it is going to be better for the markets. yet they hope a number of presidential democratic presidents under whom we've had some very good markets as well. is that conventional wisdom actually wise? >> i'm not so sure that it is. you look historically, the market has performed pretty well under democrats. i think overall somewhat better under democratic presidents than republicans. the conventional wisdom exists

because republicans tend to favor low tax rates, less regulation, things that are faf favorable to the markets particularly for romney, he said he wouldn't sport capital gains tax rate. that's good short term for markets. i think it is probably right to say a romney win would be at least a short-term market bounce and an obama win may and short-term market decline but in the long haul it is not appropriate to say the market would react poorly to an obama re-election. the major market indices have done very well under his administration. >> not to throw water on the entire segment, i have said i believe the senate race to be more important for the overall economy than the white house race. do you agree? >> they're both very important. obviously the structure of american government requires that the same party be in charge of everything if the system's going to work and the odds are the same party is not going to be in charge of everything after november. >> in terms of where we stand on

the fiscal cliff, ben, whoever gets in, do you think that the outcome of the election is actually going to take away these so-called uncertainty that's hanging over us of the fiscal cliff or are we still going to be dangling in the air? >> we'll be dangling in the air. we're not going to get a sweeping referendum one way or the other no matters who wins the white house. you'll likely still have divided government. the theory is that basically if romney wins you are more likely to get a punt on the fiscal cliff because republicans could be in control of each house if they win the senate. generally speaking, the senate democrats the thought is will not be as intransigent if romney gets in. not sure i buy that. i think the odds are similar under ooet president for a punt on the fiscal cliff. i think if obama wins, you've seen some movement among house trops say we're not necessarily going to be completely stuck on extending the top rate bush tax cuts. they want most of them. but some off-the-record comments say they might be able to move on the 250,000-plus.

republicans if obama wins re-election will be dealing with an electorate that says we a i agree with his position that we can let these top rate tax rates go up. they'd be in opposition to the american people if they do that. the pressure will be off from the election and i think you'll probably get a punt under either scenario. >> i know your famous crystal ball says president obama will win re-election. consensus is he cannot win without ohio. i've done the numbers, he can win without ohio if he gets florida, virginia, colorado, wisconsin and nevada. i know it is a long shot. where are you pin being the odds on a romney or obama victory? >> it's a close competitive election and we'll have to see whether president obama can come back in one of the two remaining debates. i think that's critical. he has to show his own party what he can do, because right now they're depressed. they're not as enthused as republicans are and this is a battle of the party bases. but if you're asking me who is more likely to win the election, i naturally look to the

electoral college. he came up with a scenario for romney winning and are you absolutely right. but you see, the problem for romney is, there are many more plausible scenarios for barack obama to get to 270 than there are plausible scenarios for mitt romney to get to 270. >> i agree. i just wanted to confirm whether you believe romney can -- it would be harder -- but can win even if he loses ohio. >> of course. well, of course. look, it's a complicated electoral college. there are lots of ways to overcome losing almost any state -- except florida. florida's the only one that romney absolutely, positively must win of the eight swing states. >> there's one thing i can absolutely, positively tell you all -- we will know the result in four weeks' time. larry, ben, thanks very much for debating it. jackie has a marketplace. >> sirius bucking a trend and trading higher after a 34% net jump in subscribers growth for

the third quarter. the company upping its guidance for the same metric in 2012. this stock trading on very high volume today, up 2.5%. while these metrics are very important for a name like this there are also people out there who are continuing to speculate about what liberty media is going to do with this company. of course that's the bigger question. >> there's always a bigger question. jackie, thank you so much. record low rates have turned us into -- re-fi nation. but what is everyone doing with the money they're actually saving? in some 30 years, stim tll the go-to rate. we'll break it down next. and forget the fiscal cliff. why that dude is the problem with america. n you take a close. ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level.

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check out shares of home depot. they are down over 1%. oppenheimer today downgraded the stock to perform from market perform. they believe shares will likely trade sideways as earnings catch up with a premium multiple, as they call it. here's what odd -- the target price was increased to $67 from $61. oppenheimer still bullish on house i housing says most of the gains have already been priced in. 30-year mortgage rates still remain historically low. why not refinance? but what are people doing with this extra cash they're saving from the refinance and are

re-fis actually helping the housing market. greg mcbride, senior financial analyst with bankrate.com. greg, i've now re-fied twice. that savings in my pocket. but do most people take those savings and go out and put it back into the economy and start spending or do they save it and do other things with it? >> what we're seeing is that the consumer is still in this deleveraging mode. they're taking that savings, using it to pay down other debt or they're piling that in to savings. people by a margin of almost 3 to 1 know they're unsaved in terms of emergency savings. i think in terms of both paying down debt and boosting that emergency cushion, those are really the two urgent issues that consumers face whenever they get that windfall from refinancing. >> bottom line without oversimplifying, it is not really helping t then in the short term. >> not right now, no. if we want that to take a little bit longer term view, the fact

that people have reduced the percentage of monthly income going toward debt payments, it is the lowest in 18 years. that's ultimately going to bear some fruit at the point when people start to see their incomes go up. now they don't have to lug a safe through sand of the debt burden. it's lightened that load. then they'll have the ability and willingness to spend more. at a time when so many people's incomes are flat especially on an after-inflation basis, any benefits they get from refinancing, they're trying to accelerate debt repayment or boost savings to try to put themself in a most tenable situation. >> i take umbrage with both of your points. how many people are re-fiing from a 30 year mortgage where it is say $3,000 a month or a 7 or 10-year mortgage where the payment is $3,000 a month, yet they'll pay off their home faster. i just can't say that

everybody's saving. >> the 30-year is still the predominant mortgage product for purchases and refinancing. we have seen an uptick in the people going to those shorter term loans but by an large, they are the exception, not the rule. yes, even there, the focus deleveraging. they're going to a shorter term loan, keeping their payment the same or slightly higher payment but their savings comes from the form of shaving years of payments offer in the future. but again -- >> you know you're a smart guy, that this is not what the fed wanted to see from the re-fi savings. they need to that go into refrigerators, cars, clothes, unicorns -- whatever you want to buy. >> you're absolutely right. the whole idea is let's create a little bit of breathing room so people can go out and feel more comfortable spending money. this is not the cash-out refinancing craze of 2006. if anything, we're in a cash-in refinancing era right now where people are bringing money to the

closing table or to the extent that they're able to, they're shortening the mortgage term, keeping their payments about the same. you're exactly right, brian. >> it is good that it is not a cash-out refinancing krae ining. using a house as an atm is not a good idea. dow industrials off 121. nasdaq lower by 12. s&p is in the red as well. certainly the kickoff to the earnings season, lots of concerns about what the earnings season will give us and continued global growth concerns. >> what makes me nervous, we aren't necessarily seeing a pop from alcoa here. let me give you four stocks that are higher. jpmorgan, travelers, mcdonald's and walmart are the only dow stocks that are higher at the moment. the biggest decliner in the dow -- forgive me for look down because that's where my data is -- caterpillar down 2.4%, followed closely by cisco, down 2.2%. >> the problem with alcoa,

despite better than expected earnings that came out yesterday it warned on slowing aluminum consumption and overproduction in china. we are about to unveil our cnbc list of teflon ceos. yeah. we are talking about the top executives of major companies who just can't seem to fail enough. later on, call it apple's teenage dream. the o-m-g-reason why apple is just going to keep on. [ rosa ] i'm rosa and i quit smoking with chantix. when the doctor told me that i could smoke for the first week... i'm like...yeah, ok... little did i know that one week later i wasn't smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking.

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pure capitalism is supposed to reward the achievers and punish the losers. so why are some lackluster ceos still in their jobs in nothing seems to even stick to them. mary thompson joins us now to unveil the cnbc list of what we are calling "teflon ceos." >> some people would argue they aren't really lackluster. it's just been tough times over the last couple of years. >> that's what they would say. >> yes. nevertheless, this list is the result of unscientific poll of money managers, headhunters and money mansiagement experts. two long-term executives struggling over the last few

years after leading their firms through very hard periods. john chambers, the stock is up 847% for cisco since then. it's been years since chambers could promise and deliver 30% annual growth rates. last year chambers cut cisco's three-year sales forecast to 5% to 7% a year, a pullback reflected in the stock's five-year decline. dell's ceo michael dell also considered teflon. he assumed the position in 2007 after a three-year stint solely as chairman of the company founded in 1984. dell made his early money selling computers directly to the consumer. but with cheaper competition and without an answer to the ipad, dell's been unable to re-ignite the firm's initial success. general electric's ninth ceo jeff immelt also seen as teflon taking the helm in 2001 when ge's stock was richly valued. he's been through two global slowdowns and a financial crisis that cost the firm most its

dividend and national debt rating. he's failed to make forward progress on the stock price until late last year. so what's the secret to their longevity? those that we spoke with cite their ability to manage up and down, meaning they can manage their boards and their employees. they have the respect of both sides. they've also remained very much engaged in the businesses. they are not aloof or unaware of the problems that they face. they've all managed challenges rather than bowing to them so they continue to have support of their underlings and overlings on the board. >> that is the key. okay, we can all learn from that, i guess. thank you, mary. let's get out to jackie. what are you watching? >> watching shares of barnes & noble. really bucking the trend today. the stock up nearly 10% after some comments came out from the ceo at the liberty media investor meeting today. headlines on those comments noting that bks is gaining share in nook subscription and also that nook media revenues are looking to be over $3 billion

this year. as you can see, a big pop there on those headlines. >> jackie, thank you. california screaming as if record-high gas prices weren't bad enough, the headlines out of california just got the worse. man with perhaps the hardest job in america. california's controller john chung joins us next. did we mention whiskey? theoretically the prompter says we aren't drinking it. we're talking about investing in it. but we're going to do both, i guarantee it. stick around. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about low-cost investing. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 at schwab, we're committed to offering you tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 low-cost investment options-- tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 like our exchange traded funds, or etfs tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 which now have the lowest

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costco spiking today. >> we're going to keep it tight. spiking earnings rose 27%. membership fees up. revenue up. comp store sales up.

costco not yet killed by amazon. not such good news for h&r block today. down. >> saying they may sell its banking unit, it's hired goldman sachs to advise. the ceo of h&r block saying dodd-frank means higher capital ratios. that will eat into productivity and profits. we don't think we can do it. generally stocks rise on news like this. not hrb today. >> yum! brands reported its earnings late yesterday. >> lot of concern around this company about china. but not today. earnings and sales topping estimates, raised its full-year forecast. stock well up year to date. >> china is its largest market. if you did not already know apple products were popular among teenagers, we now have numbers to prove it. a survey by piper jaffray shows teens, 44% of teens have

iphones, 47% own tablets in general and ipads account for 72% of those tablets. let's dig in more. joining us, gene munster, managing director of piper jaffray and top apple analyst. gene, are apple's goals really -- if they were allowed an ipad nini to get into apple young. once you are in that apple halo, my friend, it is hard to get out of. >> that's exactly it. i hear parents saying apple should come out for a cheap $50 product for their 3-year-old. parents teenagers are buying the full product for them. they hook you young, then you stay with it. >> i'm going to employ the devi advocate. essentially if one teenager has a cool product, the "herd" wants that as well. what if apple is suddenly no longer the cool product and one in that herd gets an android. are they going to move away in droves?

>> i think that they would. i think that if the herd moves against teens and against the broader population, but the reality is that's not what we're seeing. one other data point is 40% obviously have iphones today. but importantly, 62% say that their next phone is going to be an iphone. so it sounds like the hert and momentum is going in favor of apple here. >> what do we do about the stock? it is down from $700, now trading according to thompson at 14 times earnings. bapsed on your findings, based on the down move, should we back up the truck and buy more apple? >> yep. it's dipped down 7% twice in the past six months. this is another 9% dip. you buy it on the pull back. this is not a demand issue. survey results say the iphone has no demand issue, it is a supply issue. own it in the mix of the uncertainty. >> if i own it today, how much is it going to be worth in 12 months? >> we have a $910 price target. sounds like a long ways away. based on what we think the

iphone can do over the next 12 months we think that's possible. smaller ipad 2 is going to be fuel for the fire. >> we are are hearing reports asian componentsmakers are working on a mini ipad. apple may be a california dream but the rest of the state is screaming. their dreams are turning into nightmares with cities on the brink. gas prices are down more than $5 a gallon. john chung, controller, on our hot seat coming up. plus, a small business owner will join us as well. stick around.

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coming up on "closing bell," your portfolio may have a lot more exposure to china's slowing economy than you realize. we'll talk about ways to protect your investments coming up. plus, international paper just the latest company to boost its dividend. but is it coming at the expense of hiring more workers? we'll ask the ceo exclusively in a little bit. and a new report finds a shocking percentage of u.s. banks would fail stress tests if they were held today. we have details on that coming up. michelle caruso-cabrera is here with me here at the new york stock exchange today. see you at the top of the hour.

we don't we take a look at the markets, currently at the lows of the day. gold down, oil is down as well. it's a number of things. earnings season kicked off here in the united states late yesterday with alcoa. bit after disappointment there in terms of its warning about li aluminum consumption even though it did beat the street. california gas prices remain at record highs with some areas still paying more than $5 a gallon. how much longer can californians endure these painful pump prices and what damage is it taking on the state's struggling economy? both sides of this story are covered for you. what the government is doing exend it the the gas fight to how small businesses are feeling the pinch. joined by john chung, state controller for california. thank you, john. we also have -- let's start with john. then we'll get to madelyn. john, how bad of an impact is this having on the state of california? >> well, it has a huge

psychological impact on the california consumer. there's the concerns not only about the gas prices but what is going to happen in the immediate future, how does it impact jobs, what does it do to farm production, what does it do to manufacturing production, what does it do to disposable income. we understand when you have a median income in california here between $52,000 to $58,000, depending if you are an individual or multi-family -- multi-person family household, it puts strains on one's budget. you. >> lots of strain going on in your state. moody's got those 30 california cities for possible downgrade on review. what can be done? this is like a bit of a different nuance from what needs to be done but what realistically can be done right now? >> we need to make sure that we have sound, strong practices in place. i've been advocating legislation for a long period of time to create state red teams where we can go in and assist local

jurisdictions to look at their finances. there is a process in place but it needs to be followed. if you're reviewing the finances of a local jurisdiction, do a situational analysis. then look at -- do a financial ratio analysis so that you can try to change the practices before a jurisdiction gets into deep financial trouble. >> john, do taxes need to go up on everybody in your state? >> do they need to go up? i've been strongly advocating massive tax reform here in the state of california. we know that we're at the 21st century -- >> what's reform? define reform. >> one of the things i would do is try to reduce the nominal rate. california actually compared to a lot of other states has an effective tax rate that's comparable to others. however, we start off with massive -- higher -- strike the massive. higher nominal rates but people don't understand the complexities of how you reduce the taxes, except for the tax experts. that scares away small and larger size businesses from coming to california. >> absolutely. that was going to be my next

question, to what degree are businesses slashing individuals leaving your state right now? >> we don't see a huge exodus but what we are concerned about is that businesses that are existing here in the state, they're growing elsewhere. we want those jobs, we want those sales activity, we want the research and development attached to that company happening here in california. >> let's bring madelyn in. >> in terms of the gas spike hurting small businesses, madelyn is the president and owner of marie's italian kitchen. which is a chain of ten italian restaurants throughout southern california. madelyn, i want to -- okay. i want to ask you first of all how the gas price spike is hurting the customers that come to your chain. >> well, we haven't really -- i don't think all of our kwus mers ha customers have been affected by it yet because many haven't gone to the pump to full up their tanks. we've had a very good weekend.

i don't know if it is because of the columbus day or we just have great italian food. but a bigger concern for me with the customers coming in is my employees and how that's affecting their commute. many of my employees have long commutes. we start evaluating on monday where our employees are coming from, what restaurants they're driving to and we're trying to create maybe a better plan for them, maybe they'll transfer to a local, closer restaurant and also looking at gas cards for those traveling over 25 miles or more. and that's going to impact obviously our bottom line because we're increasing costs to help our employees feel better about coming to work. my philosophy is -- >> i think that's fantastic that you brought your team together and are trying to find ways to help them. but if you can talk about your business, how are higher gas costs raising costs within your own business and can you as a result pass those higher costs on to your customers? >> well, what we find is we do

have a delivery service. the last gas hike we increased our delivery prices by $1.50. we got a little pushback from that. now people seeing that things are costing more. we're more likely to see an increase in delivery. i'm hoping that more of our customers will stay local. we are a local restaurant and hopefully they'll want to eat locally and maybe even walk to work which they -- walk to our restaurants which would be healthier. but i think in turn, it is going to happen where vendors are going to start raising prices of fuel surcharges to our restaurant. >> madelyn, are tips down? >> tips? >> yes. >> no. our servers do really well. they do really well. >> i wonder if servers are being hit. obviously with the higher gas prices, are they getting hit on both sides? >> i don't think -- i think our servers make between 15% to 18%. they're doing really well on

that. but i think what's happening is, people are going to really think about driving to a restaurant or picking up or having their food delivered. once again, if our employees are having issues, that's going to trickle down to other restaurants. casual restaurants seem to be hit the hardest with the economy. >> but is there a feeling that this is just a temporary thing, that this spike is just a temporary thing and things will settle back down? or are you and other restaura restauranteurs digging in for the long term and thinking of a long-term strategy to deal with higher prices. i think a bigger concern for restaurants are going to be the commodities because of what's been happening around the country and that's something we really are going to have to look at. gas is supposed to be coming down. we haven't seen a penny drop today in los angeles. i don't know what tle waiting

for. think we've been through a couple of slow gas hikes and we're kind of weathering it. we will have to eventually pass on the increasing costs to our consumers. >> eventually -- madly. thank you for joining us. john chung, thank you very much as well. california's troubles could certainly drive you to drink if you could afford to drive, right? well, don't worry -- we've got you covered. how pouring money into whiskey may give your investments a shot. fact sizing the affable underachiever or not. why the slacker is crushing america. [ male announcer ] feeling like a shadow of your former self? c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t.

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welcome back to "street signs." i'm jackie deangelis with a market flash on groupon. take a look at this chart today, intraday. getting hit on a reuters report that ebay is testing a daily deal service in a limited number of markets. we're looking at shares of groupon. they are down 4%. look at ebay, little bit of a bid for the stock there. brian. >> jackie, thank you. blame your kids or your adults that are living in the basement. yeah, they're the ones dragging down the labor force participation rate. young men are the biggest culprits. so drag them off the couch in

your basement. sit them in front of the tv. you're going to want to hear what they've got to say right now. derek thompson, senior editor at "the atlantic." data shows young men are the bigger, sort of dropouts, if you will, of the job market. what is going on with slacker nation? do people need to just get off the couch and find something to do? >> right. on the one hand it certainly seems like young men are slacking. they're moving out of their house later. they're getting married later. they're having children later. i think this is mostly the illusion, the circumstance of two trends. a short trend and a long trend. the short trend is the recession. the unemployment rate for young people between 18 and 24 is 16%. that's double the national unemployment rate. the longer trend is education. college enrollment since 1990 is up 50%. more people are going to school. this can make them look like slackers if they don't appear in the labor force, but they're just investing in themselves.

>> but we men? >> we've seen a lot of trends over the last 30 years, especially, that have been disadvantageous to men. we've seen the rise in service sector jobs and health care and education that have always preferenced women. manufacturing now only employs 9%. both long and short trends have been really hurting men, especially young men. >> do you think young men are la lazy? >> certainly some young men are lazy. some young women are lazy. some old and middle-aged men and women are lazy too. i don't think there's any evidence to suggest young men are lazy. we reached to literary interpretations. in fact, it's most likely, at least it seems to me, that what we see is slackers in young men is the result of these two very big, very obvious trends, the

horrible recession and school. >> that implies people have to wait for something to come to them, right? >> right, certainly. in fact, it's interesting you said that. there was a recent report that looked at entrepreneurialism. basically looking at people starting jobs. in fact, there's been an uptick of entrepreneurship in the last few years, but it's been in small companies that aren't hiring many workers. it's been people taking it on themselves saying nothing is going on in the professional economy, i might as well try something myself. it's possible that this is the result of exactly the circumstances i've talked about, which would argue, potentially, that these young men and women are not being slackers. in fact, they're being somewhat entrepreneurial, but in a way that government statistics isn't picking up on. >> derek thompson working hard, and you're young. >> you've enthused people to get out of their basements and start a company. >> we have this programming note on the top of our show. robert frank told us about the westgate ceo who wrote the letter telling his employees they could lose their jobs if president obama wins the

election. well, he has agreed to come on cnbc. watch "closing bell" right around 4:30. this is a cnbc exclusive. this is must-watch tv. we're going to turn liquid courage into liquid gold for your money coming up next. ♪ chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. geico, see how much you could save.

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own your liquor cabinet. whiskey collections are on the rise. some are fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars at auctions. is this liquid gold? when we talk about collections and collectors on the rise, who's collecting and why? >> it's a wide variety of people. people collect beautiful objects. we have a new project we're launching tonight. gorgeous items like this one here, which sells for $20,000. or bottles of vine and rare vintage scotch selling between 4 and $8,000. everybody from people who love scotch and love beautiful things and just like to invest. they're fed up with gold and want something different. >> where are they from? what part of the world? >> we have big collectors in north america. again, russia. china is growing quite dramatically. all over the globe.

>> how much money can you make investing in whiskey? >> we produce the diamond jubilee bottle this year. about three months later, that has doubled in price. last year we produced a bottle for the royal wedding. tripled in price. >> can you hold it for a long time, like wine? will this last almost inperpetuity? >> perfect. as long as you keep the cork in that bottle. that will last as long as you want. it doesn't change materially. >> to what degree do you create investing category of bottles by, for example, having a limited edition? when we say limited, how limited? how many bottles would you give out? >> if you look at this here, there are only 400 in the world. this particular one would be 285. very, very limited for the whole world. >> what does that cost? the one by mandy. >> the one by mandy is $20,000 only 400 in the world. >> $20,000?

>> $20,000. >> where would i go if i wanted to resell it, cash in my investment, so to speak? is this through action, private sale? would you facilitate that as well? >> it's actually a very, very liquid market, if you excuse the pun. it's a number of fine auction houses. >> that was bad. >> it was terrible. the number of fine auction houses will happily sell your product. >> why is that $20,000? what's the difference? i don't know. i drink pabst. >> you're looking at scotch that's 60 years aged. there's been a lot of time, a lot of care, a lot of careful ageing. and it's some of the best crystal in the world. it's not just a bottle of scotch. >> massaged by hobbits every day. >> yes, fine polished. >> thank you so much for joining us today. fantastic to have you with us. don't drink the profits. from whiskey to rum, do not miss our special report on bacardi's blockbuster growth.