is ex-. next. >> i'm sandra smith in for melissa francis. here is what is "money" tonight. stepping off the gold standard? momentum grows to make that part of the republican party platform as next week's convention. could resurrecting the monetary relic be answer to stronger economy? one of the top advocates joins us. the drought of 2012 is torch crops across the u.s. but may be putting huge potential profits for wine vineyards. a wine vineyard president is here to explain. anti-doing organization strips lance armstrong of

his seven tour de france titles and hits him with a lifetime ban. we have the breaking details. even when they say it's not it is all about "money" sandra: first, here's a quick look at today's market headlines. stocks charging back after posting the worst loss in a month yesterday. in a series of newly-released letters to congressman darrell issa,, federal reserve chairman ben bernanke says the central bank has further means at its disposal to help the economy if necessary. the news boosted investors optimism that the fed will do more to stimulate the sputtering recovery. the dow closed up 100 points. shares of amazon jumping nearly 2% to close at an all-time high. wall street cheering the company's announcement of a major content distribution deal with nbc universal. the agreement is amazon's latest push to strengthen

its amazon prime individual yes streaming service. gold prices edging out higher today as gold was up to 1672 an ounce was the highest since mid-april. the european central bank giving markets here at home a bump up today. stocks climbing on news the ecb is considering setting targets under a new bond buying program. that might seem logical but here's a twist on the eurozone crisis you may not have expected. the british paper, the independent, reporting that president obama asked the eurozone to keep greece as a member until after the presidential election. will this help or hurt his re-election bid? let's ask karl rove, former deputy chief of staff and senior adivsor to president george w. bush and fox news contributor. thanks for joining us, karl. >> you bet, sandra. sandra: so i guess the big question, what would be the president's motivation to do this? >> well, first of all we

don't know whether the u.s. government has asked the european union to do this or not. sandra: right. >> but, look, president obama's campaign is risk adverse. they don't want new variables injected into the campaign. there were rumors earlier this year, reports in the israeli newspaper that is the government had asked the israelis not to take action against iran until after the election. and that's to be expected. if you are running presidential re-election campaign you don't like things that sort of intrude into the campaign. what is unusual if this is true, rather remarkable that the government would act on the instincts instead of simply keep them to themselves. sandra: karl, could this get in the way of voter confidence for the president if the president is making a decision, and he hasn't yet, if he did make a decision on the election and not in the best interests of the country? >> well i think it does undermine the view of the president as a strong leader. if you're seen doing things

strictly for politics and not for good policy. the president is enured to that for a while. last year in the ar run-up to the election most presidents try to get something big done. president obama in 2011 talked in the state of the union address, high-speed rail, high-speed internet and quote countless green jobs, not simpson-bowles entitlement reform. not budget reform, not reining in spending. not doing something about the deficit. not tax reform about three minor small ball items. it is indicative of the political mind set that governs in my opinion way too much what happens in the west wing of this particular administration. sandra: let's talk about where we stand today. the latest "fox news poll" shows the race is neck and neck. romney-paul ticket at 45% and obama-biden ticket at 44%. you've got to look at this as a tie i guess you would say. what is really going to help either of these candidates

pull ahead? >> well, first of all it is interesting, remember just a couple weeks ago we had a fox poll that showed governor romney well behind president obama. so it shows the strength of this choice of paul ryan as his running mate. but look, this is going to be a close race. each campaign is going to need to take advantage of its convention. frankly governor romney has a slight advantage here because typically over the last, you know, 40, 50 years, the party that goes first with its convention get as bigger bounce typically than the party that goes, that follows with its convention. republican convention next week, democratic convention the week after. it will be a close election, no ifs, and or butts about it. it could widen out in the end. in all likelihood conventions will be key, debates will be key, frankly what the candidates do each and every day on the campaign trail could make a big difference if the president said as he did in

roanoke, famous example, if you built a business, you didn't build that. someone wells did. that could be very important if either candidate makes a mistake like that. sandra: what is interesting, a "gallup poll" said as we enter the election, voters are souring on the candidates. not one or the other but both candidates because of this negativity and negative campaigns that they're both running and the attacks on each other. you know the voters seem to be losing a bit of confidence, karl. >> yeah, look, over the course of the summer it has been interesting. if you look pollster.com tracking favorables and unfavorables on candidates they have both come up. i wrote this in my column 24 week in the "wall street journal" one advantage, president obama has his negatives are lower than governor romney's but only by a couple of points. the advantage governor romney has is that his negatives are more diffuse. they're around the question is he a rich guy? is he outsourcer of jobs to china? is he weird, as the obama

campaign likes to, like to suggest he is. president obama's obama problem his unfavorables are linked to performance in office. they think he has done a lousy job on economy, deficit, debt, health care. they really don't like obamacare. first democratic president in history to have negative rating on issue of handling of health care. his are more tied to the performance in office. it is easier for governor romney to sort of give people an explanation who he is and deal with these issues than it is for president obama to see a significant change in economic conditions which is the only thing in my opinion that will lead to an improvement in his handling of the economy. sandra: one thing is for sure, it is all about the economy as we head towards the election. karl rove, thanks so much for joining us tonight. >> you bet, thank you, sandra. thanks for having me. sandra: well with the gop presidential convention kicks off on monday and you know what part of their platform will be? a return to the gold standard. that's right. for the first time in 30 years, pegging the dollar to

gold is taking center stage. so what is driving this decision? for insight i'm joined about the chairman of the american prince millions project. thank you so much for joining us, sir. >> thank you for having me. sandra: this is coming to a shock, as a shock to a lot of people because we said good-bye to this a long time ago. to even be talking about it today is a bit of a surprise. why are we talking about bringing this back? >> it is to be clear, the draft platform is floating the idea of a commission, proposing idea of a gold commission, not the gold standard itself. i think it is a very reasonable step given four decades of monetary policy on fiat money we've had failed to deliver on employment or price stability. sandra: we're not talking about the gold standard, pegging dollar to gold. we're talking about a commission? >> a commission. we're not going from where we are today in 41st on the standard without a national debate. the commission is a way to start the national debate

which i think is long overdue. sandra: what is driving that system? >> the failure of the current system. what is the great promise of fiat money we're 40 years in. higher employment. clearly didn't deliver on that. higher appreciation. the dollar deappreciated 48% over several years. it brought us a spendthrift federal government and lot of debt. i think it is perfectly reasonable after 40 some odd years and reexamine the system. sandra: do you think we'll get anywhere with this debate? do you think anything will actually come of this? >> i think the american people are conclude onto this. you saw this in south carolina with newt gingrich floating the same idea, a gold commission. now stood i am in good stead in that primary race. this has popular appeal. there is general understanding in america that the middle class is doing poorly. that is true in the data. there is general distaste with with the way our current fiat money system is financing federal spending. there is real popular support for this particular policy. sandra: federal reserve chairman ben bernanke has dismissed the idea. he said the gold standard

wouldn't work. we're talking about the gold commission. governor mitt romney was asked about it. he had sort of a lukewarm response to it. i believe that was in january. i'm not seeing a whole lot of support for this right now. do you think we're going, you're going to see that next week? >> so, i think we will see it. i think there is broad, grassroots support for this. i don't think america and i don't think american politicians right now have had the debate, we haven't had the public debate. we haven't had the education campaign. we don't understand exactly what are the shortcomings of the current system and what would a gold standard bring that is different. or lots of interim steps. what would will be the change in tax treatment of gold today that would allow states like utah that passed legislation last year, allowing their citizens to use gold as money, how would that ease us on the path to gold standard. sandra: that didn't seem to gather that much steam. we didn't see that much come out of the utah decision. >> because the irs's treatment of gold as property and not money, which is unconstitutional,

really prohibits utah legislation from taking its effect in the state of utah. sandra: so i guess the other question would be, everybody is worried about inflation. the price of just about everything is going up. >> right. sandra: when you look what happened to the dollar and what's happened with gold, would this really solve concerns about what we have with inflation right now? >> this is a key problem. if you look at the last 40 years. you have the average household income in america, median household income go from 9 to $50,000. over the same time the dollar depreciated 80%. the average household made relatively little progress. most of the progress they made as a result of two income households growing relative to one income households. so there has been a lot of appearance of prosperity. a lot of appearance of progress without much of a substance. that is because of our failure to deliver price stability that is what the gold standard delivers. that's why we're having this debate because the middle class is not thriving under the current system. sandra: we'll definitely see what happens next week and what happens going into the

election. thanks so much for joining us. well, nuclear negotiations break down with iran, tightening tensions around the strait of hormuz but more oil producer are scrambling to avoid the critical choke point all together. details on that are next. plus why the worst drought in half century could lead to a huge year for the country's vineyard industry. a midwest wine-maker is here to explain. more "money" coming up. ♪ you want to save money on car insurance? no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it. this is new york. hey little guy, wake up!

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snoid ♪ sandra: negotiations with iran broke down today, throwing more fuel on the fire of iran's threat to close the strait of hormuz in response to u.s. sanctions. now arab countries are expanding a system of pipelines that would bypass the strait, adding more than three million barrels a day in capacity. we want to bring in the president and chief analyst at the omni trading academy. oscar, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me, sandra. sandra: oscar, let's put this in perspective first. obviously the strait of

hormuz is a choke point for oil across the globe. 20% of the world's consumed oil flows through there daily, about 17 million barrels. we're talking about three million added barrels of capacity in the pipeline. they're already carrying five million. what does it mean overall for the marketplace as we talk about this? >> well, as know that would give us over a 10 million barrel short fall, which would will be horrible, even at the best capacity, running through the alternative pipelines. there are several alternative pipelines that would take the oil to through the straits of oman, not through hormuz. however the slightest rattling they will close down the straits could propel crude above the 115 mark we saw in may last year. technically on the charts of course there is resistance on the way up. you could see resistance at the 99 1/2 level and 103 and 110. sandra: okay. >> okay. sandra: talking about triple

digit oil prices if something were to happen but looking at this decision to actually add the pipeline capacity, one has to wonder how bad is it getting? are we expecting this threat to continue to increase? >> well, you know, as far as the threat, i have seen this in my life, involved in markets for over 30 years. whenever we're having a new president or a presidential election you do find that iran comes out of nowhere and starts to rattle that say per. we see it every major election for the president. so there is that. the other side of it, yes, i do think if they tried to shut down the straits i it would send crude prices sky rocketing, spiraling. that would not last more than a day or two before the u.s. reopens the straits. the u.s. said they would not allow the straits to be closed. despite the spike would be fast and furious but more opportunity to sell high-priced crude, which you ask me why they're racing to

get the pipelines in place so they can quickly sell 150 crude if it goes that high, knowing it will probably come back down if the u.s. opens the straits back up. i think they're looking to gouge or take advantage of the flying crude prices if in fact we do have a problem there. sandra: considering the u.s. economy is still somewhat weak as we come out of the recession and our oil demand is way down here, we're the biggest oil consumer in the world, one would wonder what has oil prices up near $100 a barrel? do you think it is constant threats to this particular choke point in the world? >> i think that, plus you have china buying more crude now than ever before. china's slowly becoming player in the crude world that we have opinion for quite some time. where china now is taking any excess they can get out of the middle east and they need it. so that's not going away. but i will say this, you must notice this as well, if you drive down the street lately and look around to other cars around you, you see hybrid cars everywhere,

every third car around you is a hybrid. so there is this big push in the united states and rest of the world to find alternative energy. that push isn't going to go away. the u.s. is starting to export natural gas now more than ever before and is looking literally to supply the world in natural gas. so again, i think that, it would will be short-lived for those reasons. sandra: all right. oscar, we have to leave it there. just real quick, what is your forecast for oil prices? >> you think oil prices could rally a little bit but it is really based on the u.s. dollar. u.s. dollar goes down, oil goes up. sandra: we'll be watching it. oscar, thanks for joining us. wine con sures rejoice. in a summer devastating most farmers some vineyards are seeing fruits of their labor. the drought is producing great wine. who knew? the hot dry season causing grapes in parts of midwest to be 2/3 their usual size and concentrating fruit flavor.

here is gene from the vineyard in ohio. >> thanks for having us on to talk about ohio wine. sandra: one angle of this drought that appears to be something, you guys can at least celebrate. >> well, grapes are deep rooted, perennial plant and they tend to with stand hot dry spells very well. so even though our crop size is down we're excited by the chemistry we're seeing in vineyards. high sugars intense colors and very good flavors. doesn't come around all the time. sandra: doesn't -- sounds too good to be true. is drought have any effect on your business. >> farm something tough business. we had three mid-summer hailstorms, two years with early spring and frost injury. this year a drought. last year we had 100 year record rainfall for cleveland area broken. drought is easier to deal with compared to frost and rain that won't go away. sandra: so making your wine

taste better but are you able to produce as much of it? >> no. we're going to see our production fall by 50%, and as i listened to your previous speaker talk about triple digit oil prices we're not going to see triple digit wine bottle prices. we sell in the 10 to $20 bottle range. it is very hard for us to leverage small crops to increase prices either for grapes or wine we sell. very competitive market for wine. we see better quality. sandra: gene, if it is taste better can you charge a little bit more since you're selling lots of it? >> the world market for wine is extremely competitive. it comes from all over the place, chile, argentina, europe, south africa, new zealanded california and also ohio. we struggle to get our name in the market and provide a consistent product in a competitive range. and so some years are little better than others. we try to try for average both in pricing and product we deliver to consumers. sandra: as i understand it you guys might have got lucky. there are certain variety

you haed to planted couple years ago that would have required hot, dry weather. almost looks like you predicted the drought. >> we put in a lot of red grapes in the last five-year and they do very well in the hot, dry weather. so it has been a real blessing to have a good crop and right varieties coming to market at the right time. there is a lot of planting goes into vineyards and investment. takes five years to plant a vineyard to come into production. there is a lot of waiting and $20,000 an acre from the start the vineyard goes in to the time it starts to produce. it is what we do as farmers. we bury the money into the ground and wait for success. sandra: is this wine you buy right away or put in your cellular and drink five or 10 years from now. >> most of our wine is consumed relatively quickly. we're blessed with keeping up demand in limited supply. most of the wine has long been consumed. i tell people put away a

good bottle of red wine in the cellar but we'll see how long it last. >> do you change the strategy next year? i hear you're kirnd about the fact that the hot dry weather might not go away anytime soon? >> i'm been farming grapes in ohio for 20 years. the last three years we've seen more variability with the rain and dry weather. i can't tell you what to expect. last year we had wettest year on record in 100 years. this year we had another drought. is it another drought next year? another wet year? each year we kind of take what comes and do our best. sandra: thank you so much for sharing your story with us. gene sigel from deep bounty vineyards. >> thank you. sandra: the ultimate road rash for lance armstrong. the former cycling king stripped of his seven tour de france titles and banned from competitive sports for life. how quickly could the wheels fall off his multimillion-dollar endorsements? we have an expert's insight next. plus the u.n. moves to spend a $100 billion to fight climate change.

how big a tab could u.s. taxpayers be stuck with? details coming up. do you ever have too much money? ♪ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

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san san it's official, lance armstrong's athletic career is over. the anti-doping agency stripped him of his titles barring him from competing or coaching professional sports the rest of his life. will he keep endorsement deals? i want to bring in two experts on this. fox sports radio host and editor-in-chief of bicycling magazine, peter flax. peter, starting with you. why do you think he stopped fighting the charges? i think the