♪ imus in the morning ♪ >> welcome back to normal, the summer is over, the kids are back in school, but there is nothing, absolutely nothing normal about the day and the week ahead. good morning, everyone. right around midnight tonight,

the debt clock will tick past 16 trillion and we've never seen that before. our debt is never bigger than the entire euro zone debt n a couple of hours, the democrats start the convention, already on defense and trying to answer the republican question, are you better off now? come friday, it's the jobs report. and just a few hours after president obama speaks to the dnc. talk about timing. throughout the week, you will be hearing about ben and mario and how many dollars and euros they will print. and ben bernanke and mario draghi, they run the world's printing presses and that's why gold is closing in on,1700 an ounce. and here we go. nine weeks exactly to the election. "varney & company" is about to begin. you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy.

lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. everyday you see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner. us bank. has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy.

>> good morning, "varney & company" viewers. today is tuesday, september 4th and here is a simple question.

are you better off than four years ago, the question that republicans are asking. and after mixed responses from democrats over the weekend, the answer now is this: blame bush. and according to vice-president biden, america is better off. his brief explanation why. >> america is better off today than they left us when they left. and if it weren't so hot, if it weren't so hot i'd go into detail why, but let me just sum it up this way, folks, you want to know whether we're better off i've got a little bumper sticker for you, osama bin laden is dead and general motors is alive. stuart: however, if you look at the latest polls, a majority seems to think otherwise. 52% of likely voters say the country is worse off today than four years ago, 31 better off. and that's a direct impact on

the president's chances for reelection. and 54% say he doesn't deserve a second term and 40% say, yes, he does. and go to ours facebook teenage, and i want it to hear from people who say, yes, how you're better off and read your comments on the air the next hour. one of the people dnc, jason mattera, a frequent "varney & company" guest and talking to the people there and calling it occupy the dnc. just look at this. >> [inaudible] it's our duty and as society to make sure that they have taxpayer funded-- >>. stuart: much more from mattera and his undercover operation on the dnc at 10:35 this program this morning. speaking of the dnc. if you heard some of the

mainstream media coverage you may have noticed a shift away from protecting president obama. could it be? are the media becoming more critical of the president? alan west does not think so, we'll ask him the question, of the wheel of the year. >> are you better off than you why four years ago? [ male announcer ] let's say you need to take care of legal matters.

wouldn't it be nice if there was an easier, less-expensive option than using a traditional lawyer? well, legalzoom came up with a better way. we took the best of the old and combined it with modern technology. together you get quality services on your terms, with total customer support. legalzoom documents have been accepted in all 50 states, and they're backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. so go to legalzoom.com today and see for yourself. it's law that just makes sense.

so go to legalzoom.com today and see for yourself. one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now.

>> all right. just a few seconds until the opening bell. the back drop this morning, we've got chrysler sales figures in. up 31%, from one year ago. and we also see real movement on the the gold market, getting close to $1700 an ounce. we're not expecting a major move either way when stocks start trading and they've started to trade now. and we're expecting a dead flat open. maybe a trend later on this morning, but at this moment pretty much dead flat. just above 13,000. critics of the mainstream media say that major news outlets are protecting president obama. over the weekend though, i've got to say personally, i detected something of a slight shift. case in point, bob schieffer's questioning, are we better than four years ago, and they pressed

him on that. and alan west from florida and i suspect you disagree with me. i think you believe the media is very much protecting president obama, go, sir. >> good morning to you, i think that you start to see some people in the media pull back away, but overall you're not seeing that happen. now, go back to the sunday talk shows when you had so many people going out talking about how mitt romney was not providing specifics. well, four years ago, all we got from the obama administration was hope and change, change we can believe in and now you see the new theme of being forward, which is a on old soviet union thing, you look the at consumer confidence is down, median family incomes being down and fact that we passed a stimulus plan 5.5, 5.6% unemployment. that's not happening. small business startups not happening, that's not growing. we've got to start pressing this on true economic indicators out

there which are not turned around. as a matter of fact, we're far worse than four years ago. >> it seems like the republican, over the weekend, got a jump on the democrats, just as they start their convention, by asking that question. are you better off now than four years ago, what you're up for reelection this november, nine weeks away. >> yes. >> is that a theme that you're going to be pushing in your district for your reelection? >> well, of course, you have to. down here in south florida one of the key things is our seniors, the seniors are seeing doctors, dropping them off of their medicare coverage because of reimbursable rates are low. we don't have a sustained, what we call the doc fix and also, they know very simply, you have a health care law that once we were hold it would only cost 940 billion and now it's close to 1.7 trillion, and it's 20 new taxes, and one of those taxes includes something near and dear to our seniors, dividend tax increases, and it's simple where you look where we were on

inauguration day january of 2009 and where we are now and we're not hearing plans or policy, facts or regulatory policies at that make things better and i'm very concerned about a stealth quantitative easing part three that's emanating from the federal reserve. stuart: the going to happen, congressman, not only ben, he's signaled he's going to print a lot of money, but mario draghi says i'm going to buy the spanish bonds, i don't care what happens, going to buy them. i want to get back to your area in south florida, i want to get back to the medicare issue, that's always traditionally a democrat issue, they would win on that issue and now you're telling me that in your district where you've got a lot of seniors, using medicare, that's been reversed and you are using it as a winning issue for republicans. that's a real reversal. >> well, this is part of the military strategy, you win on offense, you never win on defense. that's why you saw us come out and ask that question that ronald reagan asked, are you better off? when you get seniors to

understand that you're looking at about 517 billion dollars in cuts, part a medicare, 247 billion dollars in cuts to part b medicare, that's going to affect what we're providing to our seniors right now. and paul ryan's plan, house budget, it does not have any changes for anyone in medicare, 55 years or above. so we're protecting and preserving medicare for future generations and all we're doing, we're going to add in a competitive bidding process and add in the premium support plan and you've got to have an option in the future. i'm 51 years of age and i won't have traditional medicare or a premium support plan and i think that which will be index today income and everyone can understand that because if you look at actuary's report. 12 years and medicare is bankrupt. stuart: and with that military experience, i thought you're 39. >> you're too kind. stuart: congressman alan west, thanks for joining us. >> you've got it. stuart: facebook shares hit a

new low, bank of america and bank of montreal, lowered their price targets for the stock. so, nicole, where is it at now. >> facebook shares hit a new low, tuesday, barely holding the $18 mark, actually went to the $18 and held the the line and moving higher and at 18.14. you noted some of the analysts moves i want today focus on j.p. morgan cut the price target to $30 which clearly is still much higher than $18, but still seem upbeat on the company and talking about the back half of the year and expect ad revenue to reaccelerate the end of 2012 and until 2013. stuart: and out of the tuesday morning, $18 a share for facebook, who would have thought, right, who would have thought. thanks, indeed, nicole, we'll be back shortly. pretty flat for the the open today. down, 13, 12 points. the national average for regular dropped overnight. standing at 3.82 and diesel,

look at that, 4.10, that means this labor day had the highest recorded national average ever for any labor day weekend, that was $3.82 for regular. and as for the price of oil this morning, 96 and change, little changed. democrats are touting the obama administration's bailout of general motors as a major success, here is vice-president biden from yesterday, listen to this. >> america is better off today than they left us when they left. and if it weren't so hot, if it weren't so hot i'd go into detail why, but let me just sum it up this way, folks, you want to know whether we're better off i've got a little bumper sticker for you, osama bin laden is dead and general motors is alive. stuart: all right, let's deal with the reality if you want to call it that and check the share price of general motors at $21 a

share. and it would have to way more than double if taxpayers were to break even on all the money that we've put into general motors. rick newman from u.s. news and world report is here. is it true to say, and for the president to claim that he saved general motors? >> i think it is. it's not clear how general motors would have survived without the government being the one that basically said we're going to finance this bankruptcy process, what would have happened in general motors, would it have fragmented into different pieces and maybe bought by some other automakers? it's possible that parts of it may have survived, but it would have been more disruptive for sure than what we saw. stuart: the implication from the president is he saved 1 million automotive jobs, implication being, had the government not stepped in, all of those million jobs would have gone. that's surely not the case. >> that's from a research group in michigan that's considered reputable. who knows what the right number is. clearly it saved some jobs in the short-term. i think part of the problem with the bailout the way it was package $and sold to taxpayers back in 2009. we know now this is a long-term,

either a long-term investment by the u.s. government or washington's going to lose a lot of money. taxpayers are going to lose a lot of money. probably should have said, look, this is going to take a decade or more to straighten this out. we're making a long-term investment in the industry and flagship company, bear with us. they didn't say that. it was short-term, we'll get in, get out and everything will be good. stuart: bondholders lost everything. shareholders lost everything. management lost big time, including-- but the pensions tens of thousands of management people, they're gone. the people who got the money were the unions, essentially, they were bailed out. is that correct. the unions now own part of general motors and they did have to accept a lower pay structure. stuart: for new hires, for new hires, but they did get their pension and benefit term planned topped off with government money and that came directly from the government, didn't it? >> i'm not sure of the details, but the unions clearly benefitted on this, no doubt a play of the unions. stuart: a tune of 20 billion dollars or more, that's what it

cost for the president with using our money to bail out general motors. that's the way it stands. >> we're waiting for that price to rise and government to sell the shares tcould happen in 5, 7 years, aig, for instance, now been able to pay back most of the money it got from the government. it takes a long time for gm. the question is, will the government stay invested in that company and mitt romney says he would sell it as a lost and get the taxpayers out. stuart: wait a second, make a value judgment. you sell it now. taxpayers out and general motors sinks or swims. >> the-- >> you don't favor return to the public sector. >> shouldn't enterprises sink or swim on their own merits having the bailout. >> tell it to the wall street banks and firms a part of the u.s. economy. yes, in reality they couldn't.

we've had the ugly bailouts for many, many companies. stuart: ford is doing quite well. no bailout. rick newman. always a pleasure. stuart: actually breaking news from ford motor companies and sales are in. august sales up 13% year on year. and about the same month to month. chrysler reported earlier a gain of 31% year on year. we are waiting for general motors. our national debt clock, yeah, it's going to hit 16 trillion dollars late tonight, very early tomorrow morning, not sure when exactly. so, can we afford to be sending more money to egypt to the muslim brotherhood government and how much money are we talking about? that will be new at 10. dow component mcdonald's announces plans for vegetarian only restaurants in india next year. nicole, this is having no impact on the stock. want know know where it's at. >> it's to the down side. quarter to date it's outpacing burger king and wendy's and

interesting how they're going local and regionalizing and what a lot of the big, big nationals do. no park, no beef, and obviously to cater to hindus and muslim and this is why they've actually trying to vegetarian mcdonald's for the first time ever. stuart: all right. we hear it. thanks, nicole. the dow down 27 points, and time is money, so, here is 30 seconds worth of what else what we're watching for you. an area where the president might have a big advantage over mitt romney. social media. our media watcher jon friedman will explain that. we've heard about the tax particular unions are using on cosa mesa, california. and our union guy, will he defend this type of union thuggery, my word. and teachers could go on strike, maybe next monday. what they're demanding. remember, we want it hear from you please, e-mail us right away

at varney@foxbusiness.com we occasionally put your views on the air. seven early movers, i've got seven for you, charles is coming later. and here we go. the dnc kicks off in charlotte, democrats are heralding gm as a triumph the past four years, the stock though languishing at $21 a share, down a bit more today. nts realty said it received an offer from its ceo to take the company private and it's up 56%, there's he a move. and campbell's soup reported better than expected profit and gave a positive outlook, it is up just a fraction. facebook hit a new low, and analyst revised. weak demand for pork, apparently just up 4 cents. the drug maker valeant is buying a rival. and here are shares, they are up 37%, that's a win-win isn't it.

and medicis, they're up 37%. you heard of a rally for stock. ben prints, mario prints. stocks take off? we're going to deal with that. helicopter ben to the rescue of wall street, really? [ male announcer ] at scottrade, we believe the more you know, the better you trade. so we have ongoing webinars and interactive learning, plus, in-branch seminars at over 500 locations, where our dedicated support teams help you know more so your money can do more. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our teams have the information you want when you need it. it's anothereason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade.

it's anothereason more investors are saying... questions. when you're caring for a loved one with alzheimer's, not a day goes by that you don't have them. questions about treatment where to go for extra help, how to live better with the disease. so many questions, where do you start? alzheimers.gov. the answers start here. >> announcer: meet mary. she loves to shop online with her debit card, and so does bill, an identity thief who stole mary's identity, took over her bank accounts and stole

her hard-earned money. now meet jack. after 40 years, he finally saved enough to enjoy retirement. angie, the waitress at jack's favorite diner, is also enjoying his retirement. with just a little information, she's opened up a credit line, draining the equity in jack's home. unfortunately, millions of americans just like you learn all it may take is a little misplaced information to wreak havoc on your life. this is identity theft, and no one helps stop it better than lifelock. see, ordinary credit monitoring services tell you after your identity has been stolen. they may take 30 days to alert you-- too late for jack. lifelo has the most comprehensive identity theft protection available. if mary had lifelock's bank account alerts, she may have been notified in time to help stop it. if jack had lifelock's 24/7 proactive protection, he could have been alerted by phone or e-mail as soon as they noticed an attack on their network, before it was too late. lifelock has the most comprehensive identity theft protection available, guarding

your social security number, your money, your credit, even the equity in your home. while identity theft can't be completely stopped, no one works harder to protect you than lifelock. you even get a $1 million service guarantee. that's security no one can beat. you have so much to protect and nothing to lose when you call lifelock right now and get 60 days of identity theft protection risk free-- that's right, 60 days risk free-- use promo code: notme. order now and get this document shredder to keep sensitive documents out of the wrong hands-- a $29 value, free. call the number on your screen. [♪...] people with a machine. what ? customers didn't like it.

so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if youbank doesn't let you talk to a real perso24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. >> we have it, the latest tracking poll from rasmussen, mitt romney 47. president obama 45. mitt romney's advantage narrowing, this day. fed chair ben bernanke closer than ever friday saying that he would allow more money printing and traders really like that. and joining the company now is joe quinlan across the value. joe, welcome back. >> a pleasure. >> let me layout the scenario for you here. romney wins, the republican wins the senate. and mario prints in euro, europes and ben prints up a storm in america.

we're in for a big rally, what do you say. i think that's the best case scenario, but we don't look at that, we don't look at the clients that way, i think there's a lot of hope that romney does win, i think a lot with the ecb printing money and ben bernanke focusing on unemployment. and a good rally already so be careful. >> and am i right in saying that the market would like a romney victory, would generally like republicans taking it, the markets like really want mario to print and ben to print. all of those if they have them. >> they would be positive in the near term and give the market lift and the expectations weren't met later about a romney victory and the money getting traction and the real economy and see a pullback, you're right the convergence and the factors positive in the market. >> how else do you explain that. we've got a slowing economy here

and profit not doing that great and the rest of the world slowing down and china slowing down and europe is recession, how else do you explain 13,000 dow if it's not in terms of money printing and victory. >> in the sense that china is slowing down, europe is a mess, a lot of foreign capital coming to the united states, whether it's real estate. equities, treasuries, and worst still the united states, the bad lot. people are going to maintain them and we're outperforming and many versus india and russia and the money is slowing out of the u.s. and you see the money coming here. so far so good. and the scenario is right about bernanke being proactive and the money keeps coming. >> every time you come to the program, a great guest for us to have and we appreciate that. you said, look, go for the big name, international companies, are you still there? >> still there because we like the global footprint and the core competencies and the global brand. it takes decades, good

management and core competence to build that out. and apple, ge, ibm, not recommending those, they're good global brands around for 50, 100 years, and they're going to be around for another hundred years. >> joe, good stuff. we appreciate it, thank you so much. sir. time for the gold report. almost at 950 eastern. where are we now? look at that. 1693. big gain friday. and modest gain this morning and very close to 1700 bucks an ounce. president obama's former chief of staff will leave the democrat convention early to deal with a crisis. that's right, rahm emanuel is in a battle with chicago teachers, could end in a strike. charles payne is next and he's going to talk about how the shadow of chicago looms larger over this convention. ♪ ♪ it's my kind of town ♪ with all the opinions about stocks out there,

how do you know which ones to follow? the equity summary score consolidates the ratings of up to 10 independent research providers into a single score that's weighted based on how accurate they've been in the past. i'm howard spielberg of fidelity investments. the equity summary score is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. get 200 free trades today and explore your next investing idea. now we need a little bit more... a little bit more vanilla? this is great! [ male announcer ] at humana, we believe there's never been a better time to share your passions because the results... are you having fun doing this? yeah. that's a very nice cake! [ male announcer ] well, you can't beat them. [ giggles ] ohh! you got something huh? whoa... [ male announcer ] humana understands the value of spending time together that's a lot of work getting that one in! let's go see the birdies. [ male announcer ] one on one, sharing what you know. let's do it grandpa. that's why humana agents will sit down with you,

to listen and understand what's important to you. it's how we help you choose the right humana medicare plan for you. because when your medicare is taken care of, you can spend more time sharing your passions. wow. [ giggles ] [ male announcer ] with the people who matter most. i love you grandpa! i love you grandma! now you're a real fisherman. [ male announcer ] humana.

>> let me show you where we are this tuesday morning, as we get back to normal and back to school for the kids after the long holiday weekend, it's another starting out flat day. and down only 19 points, we're above 13,000, and barely, and 13,070. all kinds of stuff on the news background, none of it moving the market at this time.

all right, teachers in chicago, public schools. they could go on strike, they could walk off the job this coming monday. and mayor rahm emanuel has to fly back from the democrat convention in charlotte, north carolina, he's going to fly back to keep negotiating, come back to the crisis and fix it. one of the biggest issues is over merit pay. the mayor wants it, the teachers union does not want it. but even the chicago trib is saying that merit pay is needed and that's on the editorial page this morning. charles, what do you make of this. welcome. charles: thank you very much. stuart: what do you make of this? i mean, chicago is flat broke. they've got a pension clock that's running to 21 billion dollars and the teachers are possibly going on strike because they can't get all that they want. charles: well, you know, it's been modus oprandi. on the public side, i think it's

help to hurt system. and rahm emanuel is going to be under a microscope. i bet they're vetting him for 2016, the obama side, rather than hillary. that's my crack pot theory, but here is the thing, at some point there has to be some sort of accountability. i understand that the unions are bold and heard over the weekend a union big wig talking about how the democrats can't live without them and they're flexing their muscles, but the greater public scrutiny, we'll see what happens. >> we shall indeed. charles, new at ten, a national debt, yeah, it's going to hit 16 trillion dollars today. and late tonight or early toll morning, can we afford to be sending money to egypt? how much is the u.s. on the hook for? and what do jimmy carter, pat quinn, mark o'malley have in common? front and center at the democratic convention tonight. are they the faces that they

want america to see? ♪ [ female announcer ] they can be enlightening. hey, bro. or engaging. conversations help us learn and grow. at wells fargo, we believe you can never underestimate the power of a conversation. it's this exchange of ideas that helps you move ahead with confidence. so when the conversation turns to your financial goals... turn to us. if you need anything else, let me know. [ female announcer ] wells fargo. together we'll go far. ♪ i can do anything ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i cano anywhere ♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la lla la la la

[ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything solutionism. the new optimis these are sandra's "homemade" yummy, scrumptious bars. hmm? i just wanted you to eat more fiber. chewy, oatie, gooeyness... and fraudulence. i'm in deep, babe. you certainly are. [ male announcer ] fiber one.

stuart: egypt in the midst of chaotic change of government. the new islamist president, women's right in danger but the obama team working to keep the nation flush with cash. our cash. the white house pushing for a billion dollars of loan forgiveness and that is not all. details coming. we are down 38 points. the august i s m index with 39.6, in the manufacturing a green and july construction spending was down. that is having only a modest downside move on the market at the moment down no big deal for the market. charles: it is a big deal but there are a lot of the other important things happening this week but that is a shocking number. manufacturing will save the economy and contrasting -- stuart: the lowest since 2009. that number is the lowest -- more of a broadbased economic indicator which could have a political impact.

charles: talk about swing states and general motors. if all the bailout stuff was so great how come manufacturing can't gain traction? this will save the economy we are in trouble. stuart: here is why the market has not dropped more. it is a raw number. the dow is down 27 points because as an indicator of the economy surely it will push been towards printing more quickly. charles: record unemployment and the euro with record unemployment and a blueprint on that side and this side and wall street rooting for bad news and they can't move good news. it won't happen. stuart: one of these days i will work these things out but right now bad economic news is good for the market. charles: great for the market to go up on good news. i have netflix. got to get to nicole. why is it a big loser today? nicole: this is about a content deal that amazon is working on and as a result netflix is

getting hit hard down 9-1/4%. it is about beating up content with blockbuster films so amazon is making a licensing deal in the u.s.. it is part of lion's gate. and in amazon, hit the new high. stuart: some of the content that made netflix. is going done to netflix is down and amazon -- >> amazon is up when you look at gold is 1697. is moving hire.

stuart: that is because, >> dow is down 25 points. more details to work everything out and get everything right. thank you. after the obama administration preparing a big bailout for egypt. countries are reportedly close to finalizing the terms of the deal. egypt would get a billion dollars of debt forgiveness but that is not all. the obama team is working on $375 million in financing. and loan guarantees for american finance years who invest in egypt. the president is hoping this will buy influence with the new islamist government. stuart: charles: the muslim brotherhood will not work. the president's second visit to iran. remember what is going on in the country with the christian coptic -- two million of them

recently had the tradition -- a christian wanderer burnisher of a muslim. they said after this let's talk about it and figured out. the muslim came back with 3,000 armed friends and they attacked this guy throwing molotov cocktails and one kid caught on fire. every single muslim had to flee that village except for one. every christian had to flee. 100,000 christians left the country. women's rights under pressure. religious rights under pressure. $1 billion. i don't know what we are getting for it. stuart: when you could argue it would be worse if we didn't pay them. charles: egypt was great and friendly with israel. anything else not withstanding we love to see that continue. look at the violence. talking about a place in total disarray.

$1 billion is a band-aid. stuart: another new at 10:00, at check from rasmussen reports. mitt romney leads president obama 46-44. that is the swing state poll from rasmussen. check the debt clock. major issue in the november election. it will cross the $16 trillion mark sometime late tonight. very early tomorrow morning. political indications are huge but the economic indications are big too. they owe more than the entire economy. charles: with $16 trillion. stuart: numbers that say this fiscal year we will be paying out $10 billion a week and a quarter overseas. charles: at this rate we were paying $1 trillion a year.

stuart: half a trillion dollars this year. stuart: democrats have a hard time getting their stories straight this weekend. now they say america is better off than four years ago. most americans don't agree with that. 52% of likely voters say the country is worse off than four years ago. 31% say they are better off. not good news for the president. 54% say he does not deserve a second term. 40% say he does deserve to be reelected. former clinton adviser doug show and is here. republicans take the advantage by posing the question are you better off now. democrats were all over the place with their response which seemed to come down to better off than four years ago when george bush made a mess of things. what the make of their response. >> the democratic response only works on a comparative context. they have to blame george bush because the poll numbers you

cited suggest it is seemingly abstract people say democrats haven't done the job well enough to deserve reelection. stuart: is that a good enough response to win the election? >> it might be. i am not sure. we will know when they night when we hear from bill clinton when people were morses shortly better off. stuart: paul ryan brought up jimmy carter and -- can we roll back for a second? i want to show you what paul ryan said about jimmy carter. >> the president will say a lot of things that he can't tell you you are better off. simply put the jimmy carter years look like the good old days compared to where we are right now. stuart: echoing ronald reagan. most voters do not remember the carter era. >> they don't but i understand those were not good times for america and president obama's worst fear is that this election will become a referendum on him.

he will be compared in the elite media as paul ryan try to do to former president carter and the impact politically will be catastrophic for his reelection. stuart: if you were advising him today and he speaks there is a night what would you tell him to say? >> first he has got to offer a forward-looking agenda and second, to the debt crisis, he has got to offer some sort of vision for swing voters to how we get out of this fiscal mess we are in. he just can't say i am going to help the middle class. he has got to do that as well as the requisite george bush bashing which i know we will get. stuart: president carter appears by video tape. pat quinn governor of illinois and mr. o'malley, what do you make of that line of? >> democrats don't have a particularly deep bench. pat flynn was a client of mine

raise taxes and estate -- [talking over each other] >> a more successful governor but he had problems with that question are you better off. tonight is basically about michele obama if i have it right. stuart: the bank's strength of the regular politicians, the democrats is week tonight. that is not good. >> no it isn't and those are the facts. democrats have michele, bill and barack. stuart: what do you think michele obama will say. >> she will talk about her husband's compassion and concern for people and the middle-class. far better liked than he is and she will try to transfer some of her popularity into empathy for a president who lost the mantle of hope and change. stuart: $16 trillion crossing the mark? >> it underscore is the huge issues we face. bill clinton will speak to that

wednesday night i suspect. stuart: the democrats are going into this on the defense. as they start their conference they are on the defense. >> they are on the defense but to win the election they have got to keep mitt romney and the republicans on their back and so far there is a good chance they can do that. charles: i find it ironic that we can't half ago everyone senate romney has to be human and shows he is a fantastic human being and then he didn't have specifics. that is where obama will go. using the debt as an excuse to raise taxes. >> he is going to be fair taxes and an upper income taxes and raise some revenue and more importantly there has to be some vision of where he wants to take the country. you can't get reelected with negative ads. stuart: we ask are you better off than you were four years ago and we wanted to hear from people who say yes. this is what you set on our facebook page. i am better off today but not a financial way.

government have almost nothing to do with it. rose marie says we are better off than four years ago. my husband's business is going strong and we have enough money to live well and pay our bills. we don't mind paying our fair share of taxes. neel has the best explanation. four years ago i went to work every day and now i am retired and get to watch "varney and company". yes indeed. we love you. follow us on facebook. join in. take a look at a price of gold. we're closing in on 17 -- $1,700 an ounce. we are seeing this as a hedge against inflation because the fed getting ready to fire up the printing press. david jones thinks ben will print. this is what he told us after ben bernanke spoke friday. >> there will be a close call at the september meeting but before the end of this year we are getting q e 3.

ben bernanke is worried about the labor market. deeply worried about how slow the recovery is going. we will see q e 3. stuart: thank you. clean cut. we will see ben prints some money. you think it will work? enough of the economy or the markets it will work. >> not sure. we are down 79 points and i really think going to the magic back twice. and hasn't worked. can it work now? i don't know. maybe wall street might backfire. stuart: the dow is now down 75 points. we have some weak economic news and bad reading and the manufacturing index. the worst since 2009. initially not much market reaction and ben will print. that is good for the market. a few minutes later we are down 78 or 80 points because maybe you are right. the market thinks this won't work this time around. charles: that is a sobering thought that the federal reserve can't move the market or the

economy. stuart: printing a ton of dollars. general motors we just got their august sales figures up 10% over last year, 20% month on month. ford was up what was that? 13% for ford. chrysler 31%. last week we brought the story of jim ricktimer falsely accused of drunk driving after he criticized the police union. next one of our pro union gusts responds to this allegation. >> i have gotten calls from all over southern california and other cities and counsel people and city managers who are being shaken down. the intimidation is unbelievable.

you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work. everyday you see all of us serving you, around the country, around the corner.

us bank. stuart: week news on the economy. the stock market is down. the darkest real average is down 73. it is the i s m report. it is the manufacturing sector being looked at and contracting and the employment component fell to the lowest level since 2009. look at gold. $1,700 an ounce. we hit 1700 moment ago. reaction to money printing likely money printing in europe and likely money printing in america.

auto sales out today. general motors reporting a 10% gain compared to last year. ford up 13% year over year. we are coming back in 90 seconds with build 9. will our union defender defend union thuggery?

stuart: the mayor of one union

california ceases union tactic and manning city. the police union is behind a phony 9 one one call accusing him of drunken-driving. the police came to his house but he passed the sobriety test. he says this is how unions operate these days. >> i got calls from all over southern california and other cities and counsel people lansing managers being shaken down. the intimidation is unbelievable. one of the final things on their playbook to tell you what to do as a police officer are union representatives to get what you help. focus on an individual and avoid spreading your energy. focus on a city manager or council person, mayor or police chief and keep the pressure on until the person assures his loyalty and move on to the next victim. stuart: joining me now is filled by line, author of state of the union's. you are not going to defend this kind of union sudbury, this kind of intimidation? >> i don't even know where to

start responding to that. maybe you can tell me specifically what the union allegedly did in this particular case. stuart: the play book that the mayor was quoting from is the union playbook. advice to union activists on how to intimidate councilmembers and other public officials so that they get their own way. is that not intimidation? >> let me try again. please tell me what the -- allegedly did? stuart: the private investigator was working at the behest of the police union. is that correct? >> now we have a small business -- stuart: are you disputing there is intimidation going on? >> i am trying to unravel from the rhetoric the facts. what i heard is an investigator

made a call, the police investigated, found there was no problem with the mayor. i am trying to find out what the police union or the police officers -- stuart: he was working for the police union hassle to this program by the mayor who was accused falsely of drug driving. irrespective of that you heard the mayor. we just played a sound bite and i will run again for you. reading from the playbook of the union. how to intimidate officials. there's nothing illegal about this form of intimidation but are you going to support it? are you going to say this intimidation, this is the way to do it? this is legitimate? >> this is really ridiculous. you are trying to find the cause of a fire and you haven't identified where the fire is. stuart: i quoted for you the play book as red on this program by the mayor of cost the maze of, california. he was reading from a.

this is what the union people like telling people to do. focus on individual and do things to them, focus on them, isolate them and make them endure will. that is not. it. >> if that is the case is wrong. so far there's nothing you have said or the mayor said that ties the police in any way to this. on the contrary the police came and if the police were involved why did they find the mayor did nothing wrong? stuart: why was he accused falsely of drunken-driving by a private investigator working on behalf of the police union? >> i don't know but if he was -- [talking over each other] stuart: there is no point getting involved in details. >> i guess not. stuart: if you want to get involved in details i can. we will bring the mayor back on

and talk to him directly. getting away from all that are you going to sit there and say that is legitimate behavior on the part of any union anywhere? this is why this country at the municipal and state level is that such a mess financially because they are intimidated by local unions to go along with these outrageous negotiations and tension and wage and benefit agreements. >> i will say two things. show me the cases where that intimidation has been shown, not claimed to have existed and you name a country where the firefighter, police and other union folks who protect us are more honest for hard-working or e efficient than in this country? stuart: that is not the case and you know it. i brought you a perfect example.

i am going to get jim rickira on the program and get you to watch and spelling out all over again exactly what happened and if you wish to defend intimidation you are free to defend it. >> if he shows the facts throw the book at them. stuart: we will do it. always a pleasure. thanks very much. one of our top economists not a politician answers the question of the day. the same one ronald reagan asked in 1980. >> are you better off than you were four years ago? ♪

♪ i can do anything ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i cano anywhere ♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la lla la la la

[ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything solutionism. the new optimis

and waiting in line. i don't have to leave my desk and get up and go to the post office anymore. [ male announcer ] with stamps.com, you can print real u.s. postage for all your letters and packages. it gives you the exact amount of postage you need the instant you need it. can you print only stamps? no. first class. priority mail. certified. international. and the mailman picks it up. i don't leave the shop anymore. [ male announcer ] get a 4-week trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again.

>> -- 51 years of age and so i will be able to have traditional medicare or i can go into a premium support plan which will be indexed to income and everyone can understand that because if you look at the actuaries report we've got 12 years and medicare is bankrupt. stuart: you know with that military background, sir, i thought you were 39. little flattery works wonders in television. that was a congressman on the romney ryan plan. make sure you tune in sharp at 9:20 eastern for varney & company. the dow is barely above 13,000.

look at the price of gold, moments ago we were at 1700. we're now at 1698. pretty close. check the price of oil, down at this moment, $95 per barrel. gas prices held steady over the labor day weekend. the national average holding at $3.82 for regular. diesel, though, moved up again $4.10 is the average there. 1.55 by the way is now the yield on ten year treasury. this morning it is heading south, that is down 1.55 for the government to borrow money for ten years. not bad. back to nicole, a winner, gamestop. why? nicole: a big winner and this is because we got a confident vote there from goldman sachs for gamestop. so goldman sachs raised gamestop to a buy from a neutral. they're talking about -- i was able to get a glimpse at the note. and the note says that they are talking about, quote, a tactical opportunity, right, end quote for gamestop. talking about the fact they have opportunities for growth because

of new releases coming in the pipeline. so it's really a forward-looking call from goldman sachs. stuart: i want to check facebook for a second. i believe it's dropped below $18 a share, somewhere around 17.95 -- new low, i think? nicole: 17.93. it's been dropping. new all time low. may 18th was the ipo, $38 was the ipo price. it went as high as 45 bucks. here it is, 17.95. stuart: the dow is now down 85 points, 13,004. negative news on manufacturing at the top of this hour, worst reading since 09. there you have it, nicole, thank you very much. it took them a few days, but democrats now say america is better off than four years ago. look at the polls, though. most people don't agree with that. 52% likely voters say we're worse off than four years ago. 31% say they are better off. that isn't good news for the president. 54% say he doesn't deserve

reelection. 40% say yes, h e deserves a second term. joining the company now is an economist at brown university adjunct professor. welcome. are you off better than four years ago, as an economist, what would be your answer? >> it depends on who you are, somebody like me, my stocks are up, i'm not retired, i'm not dependent on work. but for the average worker, he's probably worse off than four years ago. wages have not gone up. unemployment rate has gone up. you might say for the top end the republican party things are better off than they used to be. most democrats are worse off. stuart: president obama's constituents, however, they are probably worse off. >> certainly not any better. at best you can say things have levelled off the past couple of years, but that's an optimistic touch. stuart: you didn't mention the value of your home, 60 odd

percent of americans own the home which they live. i presume they're worse off. are they worse off? >> depends on where you are. for most people on average home values have dropped over the last four years. the big drop was in 08. but that continued for another year or two. it's now stabilized. but depends a lot regionally. if you are in places like, florida, arizona, nevada, you are a lot worse off. northeast, not so bad. stuart: how about gas, 3.82 versus 1.84. >> remember there was a hurricane. can't blame the president for that one. stuart: it affects your buying power. >> money you spend at the gas pump is money you can't spend at the shopping mall. stuart: you made a judgment as an economist are you better off now than four years ago, depends on who you are, for most people probably a little worse off. that's your economic opinion. how about america, can i describe its financial culture, would you say that we're a better -- this is a valued judgment. i know it, but i'm asking you.

are we a better country in terms of our financial culture than we were four years ago? >> we've had four years and haven't fixed stuff that needed to be fixed. that's the biggest problem. the budget is still a mess. it is a worse mess than it was four years ago and four years ago it was a mess. debt is now hitting 100% of gdp. that's above levels we think is sustainable in the long run. deficits remain too high, although they are coming down. and we're facing this huge load of entitlement programs that nobody has a real fix for. cheryl: -- charles: what about the culture of success? entrepreneurship down dramatically. 8 million people out of the workforce more -- less people in the workforce, 8 million compared to january when obama came in. aren't those things beneath the surface before economists start crunching numbers that really determine where we go? >> most change in workforce participation is because we are

getting older. charles: i have checked that, the part that's growing is above 50, people in the workforce are going higher, younger people have dropped out of the workforce. i have checked at the numbers. >> i have looked at them too. last year there's been an abnormal drop in the workforce. over the whole period, it's been pretty normal given the unemployment rate. stuart: got to get you out of the universities, got to get you back to rough and tumble private enterprise. david always a pleasure to have you with us. hope you will come back soon. >> thank you. stuart: by the way, the dow has dropped below 13,000. off almost 100 points now, 12,994. negative news on the manufacturing sector, top of the hour. didn't help. jimmy carter, pat quinn, mark o'malley, is this the line up democrats are counting on to kick off their convention in a positive way tonight? perhaps not entirely. there's another person, an unknown actually who has a big spotlight tonight. we will check in on charlotte next.

>> announcer: meet tom, a proud dad whose online friends all "like" the photos he's posting. oscar likes tom's photos, but he loves the access to tom's personal information. oscar's an identity thief who used tom's personal info to buy new teeth and a new car, and stuck tom with the $57,000 bill. [tires squeal] now meet carl who works from the coffee shop and uses the free wi-fi. marie works from there too. she's an identity thief who used a small device to grab his wi-fi

signal, then stole enough personal information to hijack and drain his bank accounts. every year, millions of americans learn all it may take to devastate your life is a little personal information in the wrong hands. this is identity theft and no one helps stop it better than lifelock. lifelock offers the most comprehensive identity theft protection, period services may take 30 days to alert you. lifelock's 24/7 proactive protection would have alerted tom as soon as they noticed an attack within their network, and lifelock's bank account takeover alerts d have notified carl in time to help him protect his money. lifelock protects your social security number, money, credit, even the equity in your home. while identity theft can't be completely stopped, no one protects you better than lifelock, and lifelock stands behind that with the power of their $1 million service guarantee. you have so much to protect and nothing to lose when you call lifelock right now and try

60 days of identity theft protection risk-free. 60 days risk-free. use promo code: be secure order now and get this document shredder, a $29 value free. [♪...] call or go online now. [♪...] stuart: joining the company now from chicago is our next guest. top of the hour, negative news on manufacturing, we all thought that means ben is going to print so the market won't take it on the chin. the opposite has happened. the market is down 88, 90

points. does that mean that the market feels that ben printing money will not do any good? >> i think you are right. i think what he said to us last week was he's got the willingness. he definitely has the ability, but we're not quite sure how effective it is going to be. so yes is the answer to will he print money but whether or not it is going to be effective i think the market is telling us right now. stuart: what about the europeans, i say they are going to print up a storm of euros, maybe that will help american stocks, what do you think? >> look, more debt to solve more debt is not going to work. i mean we have to take a common sense point of view on this thing. there are a lot of people that are a lot smarter than me that could talk about it forever, but at the end of the day, this doesn't equal that. they should follow our lead and see that it doesn't work, we need true growth, not fake money. stuart: i have to get your opinion on whether or not we are better off than we were four years ago, and you say what?

>> absolutely not. unequivocally no way. 8.3% unemployment. 1.7% gdp, are you kidding me? we have a lot of problems here that are only getting worse. and we haven't solved a thing. stuart: and ben can't fix it. very interesting. all right scott always a pleasure. thank you very much sir. appreciate it. the democratic national convention kicks off tonight and the keynote speaker is likely to be someone you probably never heard of. peter barnes is in charlotte. this speaker is the very young mayor of san antonio texas. i have to think this is a strong play to get the latino vote for president obama. what's the man's name and am i right is this a play for the latinos? peter: of course it is. julian castro, he's 37 years old, rising star in democratic party. first latino prime-time keynote speaker at a democratic convention i think perhaps for any convention.

but listen president obama wants something like 80% of the hispanic vote in 2008. he's tracking about the same for 2012. so look at this as kind of an insurance policy for the campaign, which is not taking any votes for granted. also campaigns -- conventions are often used to showcase rising stars in each party. stuart: after the mayor of san antonio, we move on to governor of maryland, o'malley and then it's -- what's the layout for the rest of the night? peter: after him is actually it is michelle obama is going to be speaking after him. of course she's going to talk about her husband and the job he's done as president and some of his policies, what he's trying to do to help the middle class. stuart: right after that, we'll feature the debt clock going above 16 trillion dollars, but that's not part of the dnc. all right, peter, have a good time down here. see you later. peter: thank you. stuart: voters are still talking about clint eastwood's speech from last week's rnc.

do you remember this? >> everybody is crying. oprah is crying. and i was even crying. [laughter] >> and finally -- i haven't cried that hard since i found out that there's 23 million unemployed people in this country. stuart: rasmussen reports did a poll, right after the performance and the results may surprise you. 42% of democrats have a favorable opinion of clint eastwood. only 44% ounfavorable -- unfavorable. not surprisingly nearly 80% of republicans now have a favorable opinion of the actor. democrats are split. charles: i was flipping around on the sunday talk shows and a couple tried to make an issue of this, they couldn't. you know what? you could say it was bizarre and different and all that stuff, but people like clint eastwood a lot. listen, this guy has had an amazing admirable life and he did something very unique that we'll all kind of remember. stuart: i like to admit that i

was probably wrong in -- mea culpa. one of the areas where the obama campaign is way ahead of the romney campaign, social media. how big of an advantage does that give their president? one of our top media watchers is next.

>> the manufacturing sector of america's economy clearly has problems. and that is hurting the stock market. the dow industrials down 90 points right at 13,000. it started to drop when the so-called ism report came out top of the hour. the manufacturing sector of the economy, it is shrinking for the third straight month. and the possibility of money print aring -- money printing apparently is not helping stocks this morning. it is helping gold. 1695 is where it is at now. oil and gas production is getting back to normal after hurricane isaac, down comes oil. gas prices steady over the weekend. 3.82 for regular, but that is the highest gas price we have seen on a labor day weekend ever. we're back in 90 seconds with a look at one place president obama is clearly beating mitt romney. [ male announcer ] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles,

like in a special opsission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account.

stuart: he may or may not get the same numbers as he did in 08, but president obama is likely to beat mitt romney by a sizable margin with young voters. is that because of his campaign, because it is much better at reaching young people on social media like twitter and facebook? john friedman from marketwatch joins us now. okay, there's two things here, you're saying that president obama is better at reaching the young youth vote.

>> yes. stuart: because he's followed by more people on social networks, both are true? >> he always has more commitment to it. he's trying much harder to reach these people so of course they're following more vigorously. mitt romney so far has not tried very hard. in fact -- the fact is it's not that he can't do it or can't do it all he is not trying. obama is putting out several tweets a day, trying to stay up on twitter. charles: he does still have a bigger presence than mitt romney. how many colleges has the president been just in the last four months, he's visited maybe 50 colleges? i mean to your point he puts a lot of emphasis on college-educated kids or kids going through college, younger people who have no real life experience with respect to ups and downs of life, paying bills

mortgages and saving for the future. i think that's a sweet spot for him. >> he cares about twitter. whether it's important or not, he thinks it is. he's putting a lot of his efforts to twitter as opposed to romney who is not. stuart: are you talking about the quality of the tweets? or the regularity? >> the regularity, the volume. the quality is in the eye of the beholder, but the volume is really important. stuart: it is? >> yes, absolutely. stuart: don't people get sick and tired of it? oh here's another one from the president. >> do you tweet? stuart: no. >> people love that kind of stuff. stuart: do you think our viewers are dying to get a tweet from me? >> absolutely. charles, help me out here. of course they are. charles: your viewers would love to get tweets from you. >> of course they would. you're famous, a celebrity. stuart: they just told me that we do tweet. [laughter] charles: listen, how about this idea, last week during the convention, republican convention, romney's name was

appearing more in the blogosphere and the twitter universe. goes back to the old saying that any news is good news as long as your name is being mentioned. >> charles is right. he was front and center on twitter too. i think yes the message is as long as you are tweeting and saying something positive about yourself, you're in good shape on twitter. stuart: isn't this is a boon for facebook and twitter, the companys? >> sure, it makes them seem more important and more volume. stuart: do you see that at the bottom of the screen, something at varneyco. -- @varneyco. got it? charles: it is big, although, you start to wonder because, you know, they are telling kids in college, you've got to be on these thing ifs you want to -- these things if you want to make it. i don't know if it's helping in

the real world. >> every little bit helps. stuart: we are out of time. @ varneyco. >> are you going to tweet before the show is over? stuart: my take on insolvent illinois. very serious stuff and it is next.

stuart: here's my take on chicago, illinois.

what a mess. what an embarrassment. the state of illinois raised taxes across the board. it's still broke and it's debt been downgraded again. nevertheless, its governor pat quinn has a prominent speaking role at the democrat's convention. he will speak tonight. the city of chicago, broke. it actually has its own debt clock. nevertheless its teachers threaten to strike next week, they will not tolerate merit pay and won't work longer hours. the citizens of chicago, they are killing each other in record numbers but the chicago police will send officers to charlotte north carolina to protect the convention. emmanuel has to leave the dnc early so he can deal with this crisis back home. this crisis a all about money. illinois tried the conventional tax and spend policies. they failed. that state is now the poster child for state insolvency, bankruptcy by any other name. chicago, the city overwhelmed with retiree pensions.

it has its own pension debt clock, on the hook for 21.3 billion dollars. clearly they cannot pay that. and here we are that state and that city playing a prominent role at the democrat's convention. obviously there is a very strong obama connection. senator obama represented illinois. and chicago is where he got his political. our federal government wants to tax us more and can't get entitlements under control, like elections, tax and spend has consequences. do you have something to add about this? charles: yeah, because it is morally bankrupt to be quite honest with you. eight days leading up to last saturday, 82 people in chicago were shot. from friday night to saturday morning, 7 people were shot. on meet the press, rahm emmanuel said it is gang on gang violence, he sort of dismissed it. it is a disaster and catastrophe

and it is coming to the entire country. let's take a look at facebook, 17.69, a new low. the highlight reel is coming up next. reener, you can try strategies from independent experts and see wh criteria they use. such as a 5% yield on dividend-paying stocks. then you can customize the strategies and narrow down to exactly those stocks you want to follow. i'm mark allen of fidelity investments. the expert strategies feature is one more innovative reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account.

stuart: tuesday morning, highlight reel, roll it please. >> are you better off than you were four years ago? >> all that bailout stuff was so great, how come manufacturing can't gain any traction? >> there will be qe 3. >> if this is going to save our economy, we are in trouble. >> yes, we will see ben print some money? one of these days i'm going to work things out but right now bad economic news is good for -- [inaudible]. >> one of these days this market is going to go up because of good news on the economy, that's what you are saying, aren't you? >> i'm hoping for. >> maybe they think ben won't do