welcome to "on the money" getting ready to bring in the new year with two of the smartest guys in the room. the biggest disruptions for 2015 from the way you pay to the way you drive. what happens to oil in russia next year and what it means to you. our conversation about the new york times. and what to do with that otd sweater, strange tie or electronic thingy you will never use. on the money right now. >> this is on the money, your money, your life, your future.

we'll have those stories in just a moment. but first some of the headlines this week. >> here's a look at what is making news as we head into a new week. investors got a nice christmas gift in the santa claus rally with stocks closing above 18,000 and s&p hit a record for 55th time this year, that is a record. markets continue to rise and set new records on friday. america's economy is powering along as a stronger pace than expected. a blow out number came out this week showing the economy grew annually at 5%, the fastest we've seen in more than ten years. consumer spending and health

care led the way. if you're looking for signs of inflation u the price index found it's price of all the gifts mentioned in the twelve days of christmas rose only 1%, total a little more than $27,000. the biggest jump, the price of geese up a ploping $226. that's inflation. happy new year's eve everybody. with 2015 just days away we're focussing on business trends and innovations we could be working on in the new year. walter, thank you for joining us today. >> great to be with you, becky. >> we talked about i lot of disrupters in the past year, where will they be coming from next year. >> part of the industry you know

so well which is financial services and banking. it takes four days to move money sometimes an average person to try to use things like checks and credit cards have transaction costs, looking at ways to transfer money quickly, buy things on the internet easily and some form of cyber cards building on the more narrow bitcoin craze of a few years ago. >> i believe in that. is this something you use right now mobile payments. >> yeah i definitely use all forms of mobile payments. i also have a kimbo card meaning i can give my daughter or kids in new orleans struggling after the hurricane, i can give them something that is a visa debit where i can put the money on it. there's loads of us watching shows like this we don't think of people who are unbanked in

society but want to be part of the economy. it's like globally when you open the market to the next billion people coming online who could make cellphone, text payments, i think it changes the economy radically. >> let's talk about the massive decline in oil prices throwing out all kinds of ripples, dhou you think it will pay out in 2015. >> one we have an over suppose and smaller demand than people thought but also geo statistically it was clear to have lower oil prices. the cloud is as the saudi's know it will probably cut back on fracking and alternative energy in the united states. on the other thing, this is hugely important in our attempts to contain russia and putin's

ambition, low oil prices are truly great for the american consumer and for america's interests and not as good for us to develop alternative sources. >> what happened? does that stuff fizzle out or does it have staying power. >> you take elon musk one of the great innovators of our time, he is doing battery and electric cars, over the medium and long run we will all want battery, we're all going to want electric cars, even with oil prices low, it is no longer in our dna to want to drive around in suvs and burn gasoline. so i think will you see alternative transportation fuel. obviously unconventional sorgs sources of natural gallons, huge for this one uchbt country. hopefully we will start to

export natural gas. that will help us to find ways to do things like solar, wind, battery and we'll become more innovative as we experience with different types of energy production. >> who are the innovators you're watching alongside musk. >> i was reading about larry page. not only is google and larry page great innovators, but when i write about how steve jobs disrupted the computer industry, i think can an established company still be disruptive, i like the way google can be innovative and disruptive. maybe the next ten years will have more substantive things like batteries, health care,

things that can't be done in a garage or dorm room will take collaborative innovators. >> i would not have put north korea on the list of innovators or disrupters until the last couple weeks but what they have done is kind of phenomenal. this is a massive wake up call to get your house in order and protect your information. >> not just american business. we need to develop the next set of protocols, next set of rules of engagement that we will use for cyber attack. this is not an attack on sony pictures or on american business any more so than a nuclear or conventional missile hitting the sony lot or hitting a chip yard in new orleans would be a business attack. so our nation and the west have to figure out how are we going to have rules of engagement just like for nuclear weapons and

chemical or biologic aal weapon. sometimes people breaks those rules of engagement but we need to know what to do as a nation. >> and dealing with cuba, the president changing and opening the relationship what's it mean for business and who comes out on top. >> i think it is huge. i think it is wonderful. i've been allowed to travel there as a journalist. once you allowed to be opened up, every time you walk around and see the restoration of the cities, the people have a very enterprising entrepreneurial way. i think it was whacky to keep trying sanctions decade after decade which wasn't working. instead you send american businesses in there, obviously it bends the arc of history towards freedom.

and that country will open up, you know, they are a lot more repressive and tightly-held weird countries in this world, so the notion to continue to isolate cuba seems strange to me. i think it was the worst thing to happen to castro brothers because once american business gets in there it will be like it was in the 40s and 50s, a real thriving island. >> thank you always a pleasure to talk to you. >> thank you. up next, we'll look at the global hot spots in the new year. and later, why "do you have a receipt?" will be one of the most asked questions after the holiday season. as we head to break take a look at how the stock market ended the week.

looking ahead to 2015, one of the big stories that we'll be watching around the globe, new york times, tom friedman joins us now. thank you so much for being here. there are so many problems around the world that i'm not sure where to begin. if you had to put injure finger on one that concerns you the most what would it be? >> no question, russia. he is lie to the world and lying to himself. >> lying himself about what? what's he telling himself. >> something deep and profound about this moment. he believes in spears of influence. going back many centuries.

russia. like an hon rary degree. may have been true before but not today. today we have emerging citizens. we have people influence what we see between the ukraine and russia, you see emerging class and this guy with a 19th siercey sphere of thinking. >> that's an interesting point, idea of world leaders with people of influence. >> they don't buy it in cairo or in russia. >> the difference in technology it allows them to voice their ideas. >> -- that's right.

he's fighting the market. he's low on oilt, not a good year to be low on oil. he's fighting mother nature. he's fighting human nature. people in ukraine are looking at poland saying they have four times our per capita income we would like to be more like them than this guy. and he's fighting moore's law because he is driving down oil and renewable prices at the same time. not a good bet. >> it's not a good bet. he has suffered in terms of the economy but his popularity is at a all-time high because of nationalism. >> nationalism at $110 a barrel and at $54 are two different things, i think we will see that. >> if we look at oil price where do you think spilt over effects

are. how does it change the map. >> good news is the world got a cut. bad news, certain countries will be under enormous pressure. i think we will see a lot of big geopolitical moves, already seen one cuba and america. it's about cuba dependent of 100,000 barrels of oil from venezuela and they're saying i don't know if we can keep doing this. >> do you look at this optimistically? >> i think it will be optimistic. the price of oil and personal freedom operate in opposite directions. i think we will see that. >> i know you're the foreign affairs columnist but you watch what is happening here in our

political system, we just got through with political election and already back on cycle. how will things shake up. >> president is striking deals with china and cuba and announcing he is on unilateral immigration reform. the initial reaction is impeachment and all kinds of things you hear in the air but here's what i feel. americans like it. whether they like this specific policy i can't say but they are so tired of gridlock. i think people will say, this guy is acting. we're doing something. we're moving somewhere. >> do you have people that you're already positioning for 2016 in terms of who you think the front runners should be or is it too early too tell. >> i think it is way too soon. it will be a good year for geo politics and technology.

every day is another hack, noerng another dump of privacy. i think in 2015 all of this will access rate. who knows what kind of issues that will produce a year from now talking about 2016. >> recently talked about person of year, the ebola caregiver this year, she admitted this is a big parlor game where you sit and try to figure out what is the most telling and influence marshall pers marshall person for the year. who rises to the top. >> vint cerf, the guy that basically invented the internet. he's taken the world to

interconnected to interd interdependent. we see it more and more every day. we're in the middle of a -- scale shift how information is gathered and turned into products and services. one big difference, played out over 200 years. this is playing out over 20 years. i don't hi human beings' ability to adapt is not that quick. >> i just want to thank you so much for joining us. >> pleasure. >> again tom friedman. up next, on the money, electronics you don't want, there's an app for that, the way to give back those holiday gifts. and find us on facebook.

christmas is over and the presents are open, now you have to decide which gifts to keep and which to return. companies have made return policies more complex over the years. we have some good news for your money and your future about how to make returning gifts hassle-free. has it gotten tougher? >> there are restrictions but overall you will have a little bit more freedom and easier return in terms of the amount of time you can take the gift back

and perhaps how much you will have to pay if you have to return ship them. you do need to be aware of some of the restrictions. >> does the count down clock start when someone buys it for you. what if they buy it 30 days ahead of christmas. >> some retailers will last until the end of january for the return policy, which is lenient from past years. other thing when you return the gift you have to think about whether or not you have to pay for it, some retailers offer free return shipping, they will pay for the postage, others say yes, but only on certain items, so check the fine print to figure that out. and may be stricter rules returning electronics. j . >> it sounds stress.

is there a way to cut through that. >> the first thing is to understand the store's policy. the other thing keep the gift receipts. hang on to that receipt just in case you may get two of the same thing. you get two tab lets now turn one. keep the packaging for electronics. make sure you keep all of the packaging particularly for electronics because if you don't have that it will be very difficult to return. >> is there an app for this. >> there is. return guru. take ai picture of the receipt and will keep you up-to-date by which you need to return that. another great app is slight. they will take all of the online receipts you accumulated and keep track of those. the other thing people are giving, are gift cards. you may not want the gift card. can you get cash for it? yes you can.

an app like raise is an online service that lets you buy and sell gift cards. that's something to consider as well. >> good tips. thank you. up next a look at the week ahead. and what were we google most this year. dish issues? cascade platinum powers through your toughest messes better than the competition the first time. cascade. now that's clean.

for more on our show and our guests go to our website and

follow us on twitter and on the money. on tuesday the k shiler comes out and consumer confidence comes out tuesday. and home sales. and 107th first new year's eve anniversary of celebration in new york square. happy new year's markets will be closed to celebrate. and ism manufacturing index will be out. finally if you want to google what people are googling for, the most searched for term starts with robin williams. world cup. ebola. malaysia airlines.

and flappy bird rounded out the top five. happy hunting for 2015. that's the show for today. thanks for joining me. before we go here are some of the people who put out our show every week. they're the best in the business. can't thank them enough. have a good weekend everybody. see you next weekend. female announcer: it's time to make room for the new mattress models!

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[ticking] >> so many kids are homeless, school buses now stop at cheap motels. >> i never really noticed what people were actually going through until now. until we're actually going through it, too. >> jacob braverman's family is going through it in one room. after they were evicted, their neighbors took them in. >> you think all this has changed you? >> yeah, and i haven't realized it, but i think i've gotten very mature in a very short amount of time. [ticking] [train horn honking] >> chances are the electricity your tv is using comes from coal. coal, not oil, provides half