hi, everyone. welcome to "on the money." i'm becky quick. terror and tragedy abroad. what impact does the brussels bombing have here? we'll talk travel, the economy, and of course our safety. low oil prices aren't all good news. we have one business that's suffering and why it could have a big impact on the environment. wedding bells. a new addition or trading in your suit and tie for shorts. how all these big life changes can have a big impact on your taxes. this easter weekend the delicious business of chocolate. we talk to mr. chocolate. jacques torres. "on the money" starts right now. >> this is "on the money." your money, your life, your future.

now becky quick. today we begin with tragedy in belgium. terror attacks that shook europe to the core and raises broad questions about open borders, safety abroad, and safety here at home as well. joining us right now ian brimmer is the president of the eurasia group. also michael o'hanlan, senior policy fellow at the brookings institution. thank you for being here. ian, this weekend is huge for travel. the state department put out these warnings for americans planning to travel abroad. should we feel safe traveling in europe? >> sure. i don't think we should allow this to affect our lives. but there's no question that the concerns about terror in europe are a lot larger than they were before. i would say if i was talking to students, friends, family, i'd be more concerned about turkey, istanbul, with tourist areas, than i would other places. as far as western europe, no, i still would say no. >> why turkey? we have heard recent attacks

there as well. >> it's going to be really hard for president erdogan to maintain control locally. the attacks have expanded from beyond kurdish areas, now getting into ankara, istanbul, and targeting tourist areas. that's kind of new and i suspect that's going to escalate. there you're talking about 2.5 million refugees, numbers expanding. in europe it's a much more contained issue. >> let's talk about the issue of open borders. that's where so many of these problems seem to have stemmed from. not entirely because again, these attackers are people who were born in brussels. open borders between countries. what does that mean to the future of the immigration policy of the eu? the entire eu has been built on this idea of free-flowing traffic, free-flowing goods going back and forth. >> let me agree with ian that i think the general risk of terrorism in most of western europe is not particularly high. the way i would put it, i think president obama sometimes talks this threat down a little too much. we do have to up our game internationally against it. but put it this way, if in your worry about going into an airport and being the victim of

a terrorist attack you took your eye off the car that was coming down the street when you were crossing it, you'd be putting yourself in far greater peril. on the issue of borders, a lot of people are concerned about europe as an entity, as a political vision, as a project. and the notion of anything that would reintroduce any kind of borders would be anathema. i think of it more in terms of maximizing the number of places where you can put spotlights on people who shouldn't be doing what they're doing. >> would you agree with that? >> on balance, my focus would be on let's get more communication and coordination among these individual countries in terms of terror lists, in terms of sharing of intelligence, that sort of thing. you know, coordinating much more effectively. they have a common currency, they don't have common intelligence sharing. >> we are in a situation where people are very worried about what's been happening. there's a lot of recriminations, a lot of finger-pointing taking place.

the same thing happened here in the united states after 9/11. are we better at sharing information between different agencies at this point? in terms of trying to keep people safe? >> yes, and i think ian's exactly right that intelligence sharing is the most important single priority. in terms of going forward on other fronts and the american watch lists, integration of our watch lists. this is one of the reasons why i think we're relatively less likely to be hit here. i wouldn't be surprised if there was another lone wolf attack. but the combination of our muslim-american communities that are pretty well integrated in this country, relatively modest flows from here to syria and back, and the integration of these terror watch lists that has gotten a lot better since 9/11. i think this allows us, especially here in the united states, to view terrorism as a second or third-tier threat to our physical security. not a top-tier threat. >> ian, let's talk about the economy. europe's economy, it was in difficult shape before any of

this happened. we're looking at the central bank there lowering interest rates to negative interest rates. what happens after this? what's the economic impact? >> i think there is a significant economic impact. it's not because of the terrorist attack per se. but it's because of the knock-on implications politically across this region. brexit, where in three months time we have -- >> britain deciding whether it's going to leave or stay in the eu. >> stay in or out, more likely they're going to vote to leave because europe looks like something you don't want to be a part of -- >> you think that's more likely now? that's a very recent change, right? >> i think it's more likely than it was two days ago. that's the point. the markets are worried about that and rightly so, it's becoming increasingly a 50/50 proposition. the markets don't want to see that, the pound is going to take a hit. the big issue is the refugee crisis, impact of that economically, the security backlash, and the political disintegration that that engenders. and that is what the real economic hit to the europeans will ultimately be. >> ian, thank you so much. michael, thank you, good to see both of you.

here's a look at what's making news as we head into a new week "on the money." americans spent a little less on stuff that lasts a long time. new orders for durable goods fell 2.8% last month which is actually slightly better than expectations. the strong dollar and low oil prices are at least partly responsible. stocks had immediate reaction to the terror attacks in the holiday-shortened week. the markets were mixed tuesday after hitting highs for the year monday. they finished lower later in the week. new home sales up by 2% in february. that was slightly above expectations. most of those homes were sold in the western part of the united states. new home sales are a small part of the still-struggling housing market. makes up just about 10%. and believe it or not, smaller may be better. at least if you listen to the folks at apple. apple introducing a new smaller iphone, the se. it has the same chip and power as the 6s but comes in a smaller four-inch design. the company showed off smaller ipad pros. next we're "on the money."

low oil prices are good news for everyone, right? wrong. one company seeing red and why it could be tough on the environment. and later, first comes love, then comes marriage. then comes major changes to your tax return. right now as we head to a break, take a look at how the stock market ended the week.

more than a year of low oil prices have saved you money every time you fill your tank. it's having an unexpected side effect, turmoil in the world of recycling. the price of new virgin plastic is cheaper than buying recycled plastic right now, that's making recycling the bottles you return a losing proposition. morgan brennan has that story. >> reporter: the commodity downturn taking a toll on an unlikely industry -- recycling.

>> here you have only aluminum cans. you can see all different varieties. and a bale of this sells for about $1,100 a ton. down from the peak, we were selling this at over $2,000 a ton. >> reporter: at a sorting facility in newark, new jersey, waste management's cara hemmer says whether it's aluminum destined to become beer cans, cardboard paper to be reused in packaging, or plastic finding another life in astroturf, the market for recyclables has cratered. the latest pressure point? depressed energy prices. >> it is a bit of a tough time for a lot of our recyclers. because virgin material, the combination of natural gas being low and crude oil being low, means that virgin material is much less expensive than it has been historically. >> reporter: that's particularly true for plastics. oil and nat gas are used to make plastic. as those costs have fallen it's

become cheaper to make more plastic than buy repurposed items like water bottles. overall recycling rates are down across the board, tumbling 20% over the past year alone. >> we're approaching a scenario where our commodity prices right now in the outbound don't cover processing costs. >> reporter: waste management, the top recycler in the u.s., has shuttered one-fifth of its recycling facilities over the past two years with no plans to invest in new ones. since the u.s. exports waste paper and scrap metal to china that country's economic slowdown has crimped demand. yet americans are recycling more than ever and it needs to go somewhere. >> this is the final leg of the sorting process where workers sift through materials to separate commodities like paper and plastic. separating all that trash is a costly process. yet companies like waste management continue to do it unless the loss becomes too great. for "on the money" morgan brennan in newark, new jersey.

>> so what do high costs and low profits mean for the environment and the companies that make a living from recycling? waste management is the nation's largest trash hauler and the nation's largest recycler, and david steiner is waste management's ceo. great to see you, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> let's talk a little bit about the whole recycling issue. >> over the last three years when we saw the downturn it fluctuated from slightly profitable to slightly unprofitable. as we've seen the commodity prices come down we've had to take cost action. as you talked about in the piece, we have to shutter some plants. we have to be more efficient in our processing. if we can do that, we can continue to make money. but we could always use a nice rebound in the commodity markets, that's for sure. >> you've said that recycling's in a crisis, how much money are you losing? >> yeah, you know, when we look at it, we look at it as what kind return are we getting on capital? right now we're making a little bit of money in recycling but we're not getting anywhere near the return on our capital. our weighted average cost capital about 8%, we're earning less than 1% on our recycling

assets. and we all know if you're earning less than 1%, you're not making your cost of capital. so we need to find a way to make it more efficient but also to meet our customers' needs and that's what we've been doing the last three years. >> recycling, i remember the movement started, it was hard to get people to recycle, to put things in the right bins. seems to me like we've come a long way in this nation. but how much of that progress is a threat at this point if it just becomes an unprofitable situation? >> yeah, you know, you basically have two different types of situations. you remember when we used to separate everything at home and put it in different bins? >> i still do that. >> that's what we call dual stream recycling. you're putting it into a number of different streams. in order to make it convenient for the consumer we went to single stream recycling, you put everything into the same bin and we'll separate it for you. but the equipment that separates that has some types of recyclables that muck up the system.

so the plastic grocery bags, garden hoses, glass. those things muck up a single stream plant and make it a less efficient processing plant. >> let's talk about what consumers can do. you just mentioned if we don't do things like put garden hoses into recycling that's helpful? >> you're helping us every time you do that. every time you can help us take those processing costs down that means we can recycle more material. when you think about it, every material that we recycle has some value. the question is, is the value of that material higher than the cost for us to collect it and process it? >> how about cardboard? i think that is probably the thing that i'm recycling more than anything else with the increase in shipping of things coming to our house because of the internet. is that a profitable business? is there anything we should do as a consumer to help you with that? >> we always use the example of the pizza box. as soon as that pizza box gets that pizza oil on it, it becomes unrecyclable. so the cleaner materials that we can get, when you think about it, really what we're saying is, give us the cleanest material you can give us.

and give us those materials that you can think about that don't muck up our work. >> and cram the pizza boxes in the regular garbage? >> unfortunately, that's where it goes. but the reality is that even at landfill we're doing things to try to recycle. we have a landfill in california where we take the methane that's produced by the waste you give us and turn that methane into liquified natural gas. it goes back into garbage truck that goes back out to pick up your waste. we call that an environmental closed loop. >> david, thank you. it's really a pleasure talking to you. >> thank you, becky. next we're "on the money." kids cost a whole lot of money. here's the good news, they can help lower your tax bills. we'll walk you through how to make every dollar and every diaper count when you're filing your returns. later, 'tis the season for chocolate bunnies, yay. we'll talk to sweet success, the sweet business of cocoa with

chocolatier jacques torres. recommended probiotic. putee

getting married. having a baby. retiring. they are all big-time events that change your life a lot. but they also change what and how you spend your money and your tax bill. not all the news is bad but there is a lot to think about. joining us to help you navigate everything going on with this is

our senior personal finance correspondent sharon epperson. sharon? >> we're looking at tax withholding, the biggest things you need to focus on, when it comes tax time, when you get married, that's the perfect time. if you have two incomes that might put you in a higher tax bracket. make sure you're having enough tax withheld. >> the only way to do it is run it both ways. >> married filing separately, married filing jointly, do your taxes both ways and see which is most beneficial for you. and the other thing to think about is you may say, my spouse doesn't work, can i claim him or her as a dependant? no, you can't do that. you have to file one of those two ways. do it both ways and see what works the best for you. >> i read something recently that the average cost of raising a child is something like $245,000 just to get them to age 18. >> it doesn't include college. >> what kind of tax breaks can you get along the way while you're spending that quarter-million dollars? >> that dependency exemption can add up to savings. you can get a 4,0$4,000 up to savings, you get a $4,000 for each qualifying child. you can get a child tax credit.

and that's worth about $1,000, depending on your income level. it does phase out. if you're over 110,000 as a married couple, you probably will not be able to get this. but if you're under that level you will get $1,000 per qualifying child. then the dependant care credit. if you have child care for your child and those expenses you can get a credit for some of that. 25% to 35%, up to $6,000 of expenses if you pay for two or more children. so that maximum credit could be as much as $2,100. >> you think of all life-changing events. one biggie is if you retire. how does that change your tax status? >> a lot folks may think, i'm fortunate enough, very few people, to get a pension. that's a great thing. that is usually going to be taxed at your ordinary income rate. a lot of folks know their traditional ira and 401(k) withdrawals will be taxed. keep that in mind, that is income that you're going to have. here's one that catches people by surprise, social security. >> you're taxed on that? >> you could get taxed on that if it's over a certain amount. if your income is over $32,000 for a married couple, $25,000 if you're single, you could potentially have a portion of those social security

benefits -- >> the government giveth with one hand and taketh with another. >> doesn't sound like a benefit, yeah. that's why it's so important at each of these stages of your life to look at your tax withholding and make sure that you're having enough taken out of pay out of your income. otherwise you may owe more than you expect. >> i didn't realize social security benefits were taxed. >> a lot of retirees didn't know this, now they do, sorry. up next "on the money," a look at the news for the week ahead. and the big business of chocolate. this weekend is one of the busiest weekends of the year for candymakers. we'll see how mr. chocolate himself is handling the rush.

for more on our show and our guests go to our website and follow us on twitter @onthemoney. here are the stories coming up that may impact your money this week. on monday we'll be getting personal income and spending for february. tuesday the case shiller home price index for january is released, as is a report on consumer confidence. on friday we'll see which automakers are driving up sales for the month of march. and the big number of the week, the employment report, will see just how many jobs were created in march. also happy 40th anniversary, apple. it was 40 years ago this friday that steve jobs and steve wozniak founded apple computer. more than 100 million chocolate bunnies will be made this easter holiday. with nearly 8 out of every 10 americans celebrating, spending

a whopping $17 billion, that's $2.5 billion on candy alone. with rising sugar and cocoa prices and demand growing for sweets what does that mean for easter chocolate prices and beyond? fortunately we have jacques torres here. he's master pastry chef and founder of jacques torres chocolates, thanks for being here today. people probably don't think of easter as being one of the biggest chocolate holidays. i think halloween, christmas, valentine's day. this is the second-busiest holiday? >> yes, christmas will be the first. then it will be easter. then valentine's. the reason is because at christmas you will buy for way more people maybe than at valentine's. usually one gift for valentine's. >> for one person, a valentine's gift. cocoa prices have really risen. what has that meant for your business and how -- >> the last ten years the price doubled. sugar doesn't rise that fast. what that means is that more demand, definitely in the world of cocoa. so planters are trying to find a

way to produce more. the problem is that by planting more we find new strains of cocoa, by doing that we lose some quality. the price of the high-end chocolate rises more. >> that's a bigger problem for you than someone like hershey's or one of the mass marketers? >> of course we have a price that's a premium. but we cannot rise the price of the rate that cocoa is rising. definitely we try to cut on profit. maybe invest a bit more in equipment. try to find a way to keep the price at the level where our customer can buy the chocolates. >> these are incredible-looking giant bunnies and the rooster here. how much does something like that cost? >> the giant bunny and the rooster go for $1,100, $99. the eggs in front of the rooster, that's funny, eggs in front of a rooster, those will sell for a dollar a piece. the chocolate uses a 62% cocoa content.

less sugar, more cocoa beans. >> in terms what was you see in the economy, price points all over the place, i'd guess you're doing a slightly more affluent customer who's spending more money as they walk in the door? >> yes, we have impulse customer who is anyone who come and will buy a little something. then we have our customer really know their chocolates and will spent a little bit more money. again, i don't look at one group of customer, i actually look at more customer. we want to be the less-expensive of the best makers. this is pretty much the position that our company, jacques torres chocolate, wants to be. >> what's your view of the health of the consumer based on what you see in the stores? >> what we see that is that we have more sales in a number of sales, but the prices are going down a little bit. the average price of sales is down a little bit. so we are flat, pretty much. we sell pretty much the same

amount of money. it's a little bit more to have more customer, we spend a little bit less. >> i know you've expanded recently. you have nine stores in new york city. do you ever see expanding beyond new york city? >> i would love to go out of new new york, boston, chicago, maybe philadelphia. i would love to go outside the city and maybe expand in that direction. >> i know this is an incredibly busy time of the year and we can't thank you enough for being here. this stuff looks delicious. thank you, it's great to see you. that does it for us today. i am becky quick. thank you so much for joining me. my guest next week, nasa administrator charles bolden. we'll talk about the mission to mars. keep it here, we're "on the money." have a great easter weekend. looking for 24/7 digestive support?

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>> narrator: in this episode of "american greed"... ride 'em, cowgirl! rita crundwell appears to be a humble, small-town civil servant, but she's living a double life as a world champion horse breeder. it's a deception that comes at a huge price. >> everything that i've learned about showing horses, you must either be independently wealthy, or you're stealing the money. >> narrator: when this cunning comptroller diverts more than $53 million of dixon, illinois' money into her horse empire, she leaves a city on the verge of collapse. >> people are gonna have to lose their jobs to balance this budget. for what, a horse? for a trophy? are you kidding me?