check. nicole petallides. nicole: we are seeing at the on wall street where you do have a up arrows and mentioned economic news we got in pertaining to housing starts and building permits and that brought some optimism to wall street and bank earnings that looked pretty good. we are in the thick of burning season. a majority of stocks have up arrows and dow jones industrials helping to try to keep new the unchanged line, down 11 points thanks to ibm which is worth over 70 negative dow points. we are seeing the markets here on the move. let's look at the home builders in particular. when we talk about home builders we look at names like pulte home and lenore are hitting 52 week highs and a majority of the names in this group year to date are up over 100% and when we talk about the numbers, the housing starts we got in we saw a rise of 15%, the highest level, four year high and home builder confidence at a six year

high. we are seeing some movement in this group today. back to you. lori: many thanks as always. melissa: will prices turning lower on the latest weekly inventory data breaking below $90 a barrel. $91.96 at the last trade the government reporting bigger than expected rise in crude supplies at the highest level for this time of year since they started tracking the weekly supply back in 1982. lori: could drilling for oil controversy turned into a heated fight at the presidential debate right off the top. one that both business and consumers are watching closely. who was correct? liz macdonald has been investigating, crunching the numbers. liz: it got heated. cn and moderator candy crowley asking if it is the stated objective of the energy sector to keep gas prices hy to get

more consumers on to greener energy and green cars? the president saying gas prices bomb out during the financial crisis. gas prices were down even when the jobless rate was down in december of 2008 -- national average hitting $3.75 and that is up from one dollar and $0.84. very tense moment between governor romney and the president. here they are. >> we increased oil production to the highest level in 16 years. >> production on government land of oil is down. liz: that is where the debate lies. oil ppoduction is high. it is up 15% over the last three years and natural gas production up 24% over that time but the issue is about drilling. production is high but what is going on with the permits? [talking over each other]

liz: let's look at what the government is saying about permits to drill for oil on federal lands and you see they dropped 42% since 2007 and they are down 33% since 2009. the other thing is the president has shut drilling in half of the alaska petroleum reserve. that is a contentious debate. the president's response was use it or lose it. the oil drillers are not using the leases they received permits for. they talk about industry. it takes ten years or more to get an oil well active. how do you define inactive and yank our permits? that is where the debate lies. one of 100 oil wells drilled by one estimate is good. we will yield results. you have to do a lot of geological surveying to get those productive and it takes time. that is where the debate is. lori: thanks for fleshing out.

melissa: what do energy experts think of the exchange? joining me is the ceo of citizens for affordable energy. and ceo and president of shell energy company. thank you for joining us. out of the gate i want to talk about the sound bite lee is used. that was incorrect. if you go to the department of energy and look at crude oil production, it is down 14% on federal lands some it romney was right on that one. the president was incorrect. what did you think of the exchange? >> i thought the president was repeating an untruth so assertively as to make it sound like a truth. the president was wrong in his statement with respect to governor romney's statement about permits and licenses. what matters in the oil business is permits and licenses for future drilling. the kind of increase the president is talking about, the governor is correct. private lands with state

permits, not federal permits. to 40% number, down 40%, is also correct. the president did not want to give on any of those points so he simply repeated an untruth to make it sound like a truth. melissa: going over facts like the department of energy, production, decrease in new leases of 42% for this administration versus the last administration and for outstanding drilling permits those are down 37% so no matter how you slice it existing permits are down, new permits are down, actual crude oil production is down. the only place where we see production going up is nonfederal lands that says 96% of the increase since 2007 of oil production has been on nonfederal lands. 96% on nonfederal lands according to congressional research service. u.s. crude oil production in on

federal areas report. all government data. >> that is correct but here's the message for consumers out of all of this. with the big decrease in federal lands and a big decrease in the gulf of mexico, if we stay the course with the current incumbent and re-elect him, with the overhang of the environmental protection agency threatening to take over hydraulic fracturing, americans in the second term of the obama administration will be standing in gas lines with the highest prices once again in the history of america. this year we have the highest gas price ever in our history and those prices will only go higher because of this president's reluctance to develop domestic natural resources. that will continue and we will be standing in gas lines in plenty of time to commiserate, why did we realize this person. melissa: the president's

argument about the fact that if you are holding a lease and not drilling we will take away from you. that is why we are seeing permits go down. people had them and where not using them. true or false? >> i have testified under oath in congress multiple times the answer to that specific accusation from democratic senators and democratic representatives. the fact of the matter is where companies need time to analyze the leases they have acquired to determine if there is the potential for commercial oil recovery and for the leases that show the least amount of potential commercial oil recovery they go to the bottom of the sack. they're not going to be spending money on leases that are unlikely to produce commercial oil and ultimately those leasts go back to the government but they are not being drilled because there's no oil. they would fire me. my shareholders would find me if i were deliberately not drilling on leases that had toyland could

be recovered commercially. melissa: we appreciate your time. that part of the debate is something i have studied for a long time and found it incredibly frustrating. the fact in-your-face, someone here is not telling the truth to the viewers. thank you for coming on and helping us to sort that out. lori: he won seven tour de france titles and raised $500 million for cancer. people remember lance armstrong for that. and the latest sponsors predictions next. melissa: you can see metal trading higher across the board, gold, silver and copper, you can see copper on fire on a percentage basis. we will be right back.

liz: one week after the doping agency on cheating allegations against lance armstrong two biggest sponsors, nike and radio shack are terminating their contract but with seemingly insurmountable evidence that he participated in dopeing will armstrong and rebuild his land? denis hughes e nelson from s c h a. there are a big bucks from these endorsements so nike dropping lance armstrong, is the door shut for him? >> is. nike in some ways, in more ways

has a stronger brand and this is a stronger message than you could ever deliver. it is a government institution. and to make his reputation they are saying we reject what you have alleged. and we no longer want to be associated with you. a massive blow to plans armstrong and the other brand. lori: the analysis you provided, the wife of a teammate, he wired money to cover up on strong's drug tests. it is incredible to me, that sponsors would be so intertwined dealing with these athletes. >> that is why today was a pre-emptive strike. it has not gotten much attention. some of his teammates might go outside nike headquarters and protest if nike didn't drop him. this is a pre-emptive strike saying we are watching our hands

of lance armstrong. they clearly want nothing to do with lance armstrong and they hope that part of the story might go away. lori: this is part of sworn testimony, out there in the record. what does it mean for nike? >> 90 will be fine. it is an incredibly strong brand, one of the strongest in the world. what it would mean if more allegations were to come out or a fact will prove were to be developed because hard to find pro -- prove when this is just sworn testimony. major damage control. there will certainly be people fired and the like but they are hoping to avoid that by doing what they did today. lori: nike dropped michael vick for dogfighting charges and landed in jail and decided to keep tiger woods, dropping lance armstrong. what went into that? >> lance armstrong is only the second known athlete to be

dropped by 90. you mentioned michael vick. michael vick and tiger woods have plenty of years left in their athletic career so there's a possible -- why get rid of them if they could make you money in the future? lance armstrong, what occurs most likely done. for nike to drop him as a lot easier business decision because most likely he won't be doing much athletically. melissa: what happens is the charity which is meant so much to so many people, symbolized hope and recovery, and the future of charity is in jeopardy. lori: the value of athlete endorsements going down. you had so many of these. >> we have but i don't think so. and these guys are by and large considered heroes. people look up to them. they perform on the biggest stages. there's always going to be a need and a one for these guys to endorse brands. lori: thank you for your time. interesting conversation. melissa: every 15 minutes we

check the markets. nicole petallides is on the floor of the stock exchange. a big day for bank earnings. nicole: we are going to look at some names we have been seeing. we heard from citigroup, goldman sachs this week. the bank index today is higher on a day where we would see the dow higher as well but the bank's overall have been doing well. looks like the a few names -- let's look at the names. their numbers for the quarter, despite $1.6 million in litigation charges. they got a profit for the third quarter. mn t bank, and and we are falling hitting a new 62 week high. that is a winner. mortgage banking revenue did well for them and bank of new york melon, a popular one that we continue to follow posting double digits, jump in earnings from year over year from last year, 11% for those numbers and the names are doing well for the most part on wall street. let's look at bank of new york mellon up 5% at this time.

melissa: thanks so much. the presidential race is a few weeks away and candidates are tied up in the polls, but what if a tie happens on election day? we could end up with an unlikely duo as president and the p. crazy story. lori: it will really surprise you. you will want to stick around for rich edson's report. let's look at the dollar versus trading partners. and draw your attention to the euro. 130 one against the dollar in many weeks. if you follow the sovereign debt crisis specifically the bond yields, they come down to a 5% handle and that is the encouraging for a lot of people watching the situation. back with more after this. [ male announcer ] how do you make 70,000 trades a second...

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liz: 22 minutes at past the hour your fox news minute. iconic santa barbara, a dangerous situation at this hour. mass evacuation due to a wild fire ravaging the mountains above the coastal city as you see from these pictures. firefighters racing to save homes, hundreds of homes and

that means potentially thousands of people moving out of the way of the flames. they're fighting with ten air tankers. we will update you as you learn more about the situation. in denver police say they think the bar was set on fire to hide the murders of five people. the police chief says we for women and one man suffered other injuries and did not die in the fire which was reported at closing time this morning. a new study finding multi vitamins modestly lower but risk of cancer in healthy male doctors who took them for more than a decade. the results considered a surprise because so many studies of individual vitamins have shown they don't help prevent chronic diseases and in some cases have caused problems. those are your news headlines on the fox business network. now back to melissa and laurie. melissa: you did not have to read the coverage of vikram pandit's departure if you watch fox business yesterday. you already know the story of

his dramatic departure. charlie gasparino has the details. charlie: i should not even be here. there's more to this story. and vikram pandit did not resign voluntarily. it is kind of interesting that this developed. and this is an uprising on the board when by o'neill. diana taylor is the girlfriend of mike bloomberg. and those two led the effort to get rid of them. and vikram pandit's job was in jeopardy for months. and it is the smith barney issue. they were selling smith barney

in chunks to morgan stanley. kept on its books at a certain level. independent arbiter said $5 billion too much and had to write down that amount of money. that occurred two months ago. once that happens, is goose is cooked, he was done, just a matter of time and this after other issues. they passed the stress test, they didn't. lots of things which made one board member tell the fox business network made him believe that vikram pandit is a smart guy that a bad ceo. it came down to that. does he deserve the scorn he is getting from some quarters? i would say not. vikram pandit was a good caretaker/c e o of a company that needed to be stabilized, needed to make shore it wasn't going out of business, take care of the basics. he deserves that. citigroup is stabilized but

tremendous government help is stabilized. the question is for the board. mike colonial would say we need somebody to take it to the next level. they will get smaller, how are they going to grow certain businesses? he did not have the vision to do that and that is when it comes down to. lori: does it have to do with looking forward at the political climate with dodd-frank? any concern that we're j. p. morgan, jamie dimon saying they're dealing with the war room to deal with this? charlie: dodd-frank is over the fiscal cliff. lori: there are all these things hanging out. charlie: broadly yes. if you are at an important bank which citigroup is, second biggest, third biggest second, bank of america, by market cap, huge financial institutions. you need someone you think is going to deal with these issues and they probably thought the new guy is better than vikram pandit based on the decisions and things that vikram pandit

has done. it is sort of baffling why they kept smith barney acquisition so high on the books. doesn't make sense. they are a highly regulated institution. it is baffling you say you press the stress test when they did. these are things you don't expect out of a ceo. what is the worst thing jamie dimon did? jamie dimon made a misstatement about the london whale. he thought was a tempest in a teapot but the company makes a lot of money. in the context of their earnings they are the tempest in the teapot. vikram pandit made too many mistakes. to be honest i don't know if jamie dimon can withstand another misstatement of fact like that. very difficult in this environment to be a ceo and say something, give 180 degrees mismatch on reality. you can survive these days. [talking over each other] charlie: i don't know.

lori: just from our show today. [talking over each other] charlie: maybe an e-mail flowing from the top of corporate headquarters. get rid of it now. melissa: the retailers already worried about the holidays. drastic steps from wal-mart and target and best buy. look at today's winners and losers on the s&p 500 as we head to break. foods trading higher by 13%. we will be right back

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the dow is getting dragged down by big tech. >> it really is, melissa. when you look at dow jones industrials you see the divergence between the dow and s&p 500. s&p has been higher and the dow is lower. the only reason why the dow is lower is because of ibm. ibm is down over 5 1/2% right now. intel is weighing on the dow by four points. ibm is worth over 70 negative dow points on the dow jones industrials. both names came out with estimate. we're seeing less spending of pc business. and lower outlook. that's why we're seeing the two names to the downside. back to you. lori: nicole, thank you very much. you have to start thinking about the holiday season especially if you're a retailer. target will match certain competitor prices. joining me to talk about this strategy, the managing director from janney

montgomery scott with plans on target's plans to. great to see you again. consumers are very tight with their dollars. consumer confidence while improve something still at historic lows. target is stepping in with this price matching program for in store and online. tell me about the genesis of this and the strategy behind it. >> it is reality, right. if consumers have transparency behind branded product you have no choice to be price competitive. it took retailers talk about. a lot of people are talking about doing it and you don't really have a choice. lori: does it work? is it successful? you have to question the issue of margin compression. they're going to see that. >> that is the big question this holiday. are they doing it as defense or offense here? are they doing it to protect the current market share? will it help market share or take market share back from online? we'll see. that is one of the big questions this holiday everybody will be watching.

lori: what are you expecting in holiday sales. >> retail sales looking stronger that on expected. >> we had a big note out there. we do quarterly macro. housing is better. sustainability is in question. people dipping into savings to spend again. whether this is good near term or longer term. we don't know. there is a pretty strong compelling kise that the holiday should be fine and pretty good. the sustainability into 1, different question. a lot more questionable. but i think the holiday will be good. lori: i tend to be agree with you idea of pent-up demand we've been so worried and so concerned about, in the future we're in heated election season right now. there are some things. you talk about climbing this wall of worry. i don't think we're quite there yet but i think people are generally starting to feel better. will that pent-up demand you think even lead to stronger than expected season? >> i think it is a very realistic assumption or assessment. no reason that shouldn't happen. people, confidence numbers are up. people are willing to dig into savings to spend more money feeling that the future will be brighter i

guess. as long as that's happening it should be fine out there. lori: is it a battle between online and brick-and-mortar retailers, or are they working in tandem now? target obviously has online and brick-and-mortar. wal-mart, similar story versus amazon. are they working together to gin up the consumer or is it a fierce battle? >> that is really good question. what happened over last couple years, original brick-and-mortar guys realized they had to have a much stronger go to market strategy, you know, for the holiday. that they couldn't ignore online. different companies have ignored it to different levels. the ones who have not embraced it, look at electronics. they got hit hardest. no sales tax. big ticket mattered. manufacture bounced back with different pricing on different tvs, to. they have been fighting back pretty high. best buy is another one matching prices. we'll see how that goes. feels those guys seen the worst of it and are figuring out a strategy to confront it. lori: david, we're all set

to watch our retailers for the holiday season and fourth quarter. thanks again. >> always a pleasure. melissa: marilyn monroe put harry winston on the map with this song in 1953 ♪ these rocks don't lose their shape, diamonds are a girl's best friend ♪. melissa: the company is looking to shed what is probably best known for, its watch and jewelry business. oh, no. lori: say ain't so. reuters telling us harry winston wants to concentrate on the mining business instead. the stocks look like investors in harry winston like the idea. the stock is up 93%. some potential buyers luxury group, lvmh. melissa: that makes sense. lori: the parent of louis vuitton and ppr. harry winston, is it 5th avenue? >> sounds like from the terms of the deal they're just sort of selling that part of the business but probably still be called, harry winston, name on the store. if you couldn't stand outside that window and

drool, i mean, new yorkers that's what we do. we were born -- i know i would. lori: what else is there in life? melissa: i don't know. lori: who was the star of last night's presidential debate, president obama, governor romney or the moderator candy crowley? the interruption has everybody talking including lou dobbs. he joins us next. melissa: a new first for the postal service. will it be the last straw to get congress to act? we're going to take a look. lori: let's take a look at interest rates today. another sharp selloff in the treasury markets today, interesting considering stocks are flat. 10-year yield moving up to 1.79% and the 30-year is up to 2.98%. there is good news out of europe today. so they're flocking out of u.s. government debt. back with more after this. 4g lte is the fastest.

so, which supeast 4g lte service would yochoose, based on this chart ? don't rush into it, i'm not looking for the fastest answer. obviously verizon. okay, i have a different chart.

going that way, does that make a difference ? look at verizon. it's so much more than the other ones. so what if we just changed the format altogether ? isn't that the exact same thing ? it's pretty clear. still sticking with verizon. verizon. more 4g lte coverage than all other networks combined. >> i'm cheryl casone with your fox business brief. stocks continue to swing between gains and losses in afternoon trading despite a solid report on the u.s. housing market. that news seems to be overshadowed by disappointing results from ibm and intel. meanwhile shares of cymer are surging on news of a buyout. asml holding, the world's biggest chip equipment maker is buying company for roughly 2 1/2 billion dollars in cash and stock. they say it will speed up the development of the next chip manufacturing technology. another failed green energy company that received federal money, eclectic

battery maker, a123 systems, has filed for chepter 11 bankruptcy. they were awarded $378 million in both government grants and michigan tax credits. one issue besides delayed factory construction and defective batteries, americans aren't buying electric cars. that's the latest from fox business, giving you the power to prosper

lori: well the presidential candidates came out swinging at the town hall-style debate last night as president obama and governor romney detailed their job creation plans and took swings at each other's policies on health care, energy, taxes and repairing the economy. who came out tops? lou dobbs is here with his take. melissa: can't wait to hear your take. >> i thought it was just a splendid civil affair that showed a control of passion, a emotion on the part of both these men and exemplary to the entire country. i got to say i loved that debate. i don't want to hear all the pricey, oh, they were too

vocal. they got too agitated. they were too aggressive. i don't think we want a president doing a great big impression of jimmy carter. neither of those men did. those two men acted the way i think they should, frustrated with one another. they're in the tightest presidential race in recent memory. it was great to watch them go after each other. they made mistakes. that's what happens in any contest. they, they, you know, turned against their base in one instance. they went after their base to bring them back. they tried to go after independents and women and people say, oh, well, they just pushed away women voters because they were so aggressive. you know what? tough. you know those are guys doing their thing. that is who they are. and i love the fact that they were revealed. it was wonderful. melissa: i thought parts of it were frustrating though because i felt they were not

able to finish the argument. >> when you think about the arguments they're rather simple arguments. let's go down the line. we have $16 trillion debt. we have an idiot congress and suspect white house agreed to this ridiculous sequestration that will result in dramatic, draconian cuts, automatic cuts to the federal budget. what bumped dell of idiots would ever agree to such a thing? that is what we're contending with. melissa: that should have been the question. i would have loved that qqestion. >> gee, found out another undecided uncommitted voter somewhere out there in long island to put in front of a camera who couldn't read a question. by the way, the for mat it will never be used again. melissa: i thought the format was awful. >> it was stupid, the whole format. it was a pretense. it was a sham. the questions were screened by cnn. it was horrible. lori: speaking of candy, a lot of criticism, i believe warranted today, she skewed toward obama. that whole ordeal with

libya. >> you know, that skew word sound kind of subtle and nuanced. there was nothing very subtle about the president was right when he is dead wrong. the president of the united states egged her on in that moment, if you paid attention. melissa: that was uncomfortable moment. >> he pushed her to misrepresent the reality that he had already misrepresented. in fact in some way he was intim mating the benghazi was a terrorist attack the day after. it is you utterly a falsehood. people need to understand what that man was doing in that moment. it was to me, shameless. utterly shameless. lori: begs the question what is the proper role of a debate moderator to be. so far nobody has come out with flying colors. melissa: lou could do it. lou could get out there to control them. >> make no pretense, i'm objective but not neutral in this thing. i want new lip and new direction in the country --

leadership. when i'm television i'm supposed to be cool and reserved. i'm not. i have to be honest with you, this debate laid it out for everybody. if the voting public is dumb enough to make a bad decision here, it will not be because they lacked information. it is all on them, because it is laying out there for everybody to see. lori: that's a good way to look at it for sure. thank you, sir. >> great to be with you. lori: check out lou with melissa and me every day at this time. lou is always on@7:00 p.m. eastern and you have illinois senate candidate tonight. >> she is quite a woman. army major a lawyer. a physician. melissa: really? >> she does immense charity work. the woman has time for her marriage as well as, you know, still does a lot of the lord's work. she is busy, busy person. melissa: amazing. it is quarter to. as we do every 15 minutes let's check on the markets. nicole petallides on the

floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole, you're looking at major movers. >> looking at two names on the move, dean foods and also apollo. let's start off with dean foods. dean foods, a unit of theirs looking to raise $320 million for an ipo. white wave, these names don't sound familiar, it was horizon organic milk. if they move forward with ipo they will raise cash and pay off debt owed to dean foods. dean foods up 12.3%. dean foods is big one and. they own land o' lakes butter. apollo, we're watching lower student enrollment. they have been under pressure. with these numbers seen from apollo coming under pressure with down arrows today, down 20%. melissa: nicole, thanks so much. the u.s. post office hit its borrowing limit of $15 billion for the treasury last month. lou is still here. he is making faces at me. he knows how i feel about this.

it is the first time in the agency's history the post office now has to rely on the revenue it takes in from selling stamps. >> oh, no. melissa: oh, no! shipping and other services to cover its huge operational costs. since the end of june the postal service added another 2.4 billion to its debt. that is $22 million in debt every day. postmaster general patrick donahoe has called on congress to pass legislation to figures the agency's finances. the postal service needs more power to cut costs and flexibility to end saturday delivery. that is not their biggest problem. >> it isn't. you could solve it with one decision. deliver mail once a week. be done with it. melissa: i don't think that would get it. too much legacy costs. the whole thing, retirement. private equity buyout. workout guy. turn whole thing around. shave it down. it will never happen. i'm with you. lori: back to, well that is

political, the post office, that's for sure. the presidential race is hot in everyone's mind. a couple weeks away candidates all tied up in the polls but what if the tie actually happens on election day? we could end up with and you can unlikely duo as president and vp you want to hear this. melissa: cramped quarters. more grown adults moving back home. uh-oh. look at some of today's winners and losers as we head out to break. we'll be right back. 0t[h7

lori: rich edson joins us with more. how does this one work out? >> voters have two major choice, obama-biden or romney-ryan. thanks to the u.s. constitution and very tight polling this could get a little awkward. assuming several swing states are entirely up for grabs, there are a handful of reasonable and fairly possible combinations among them that would deliver president obama 269 electoral votes, and governor romney 269. and that could lead to the newly-elected u.s. congress selecting the next president and vice president. the house selects the president. the senate picks the vice president. if republicans keep theblican pd democratic vp. one constitutional expert says that process could involve heavy negotiations, possibly delaying the inauguration of the next president, and in that case, we get another unexpect the

solution. >> worst-case scenario, the speaker of the house of representatives could be acting president for example and, if they didn't want to do it, it would then be the president pro-tem of the senate would do it. >> this entire scenario is unlikely. rothstein says this election holds the best chance he has ever seen of it happening and if business uncertainty high now, imagine dropping this constitutional fight off the fiscal cliff. back to you. lori: great way to put it, brilliant, rich. what is likelihood? you're going into all possibilities here, if we had a romney-biden ticket --. melissa: it is very possible. he went through the numbers. lori: could they be inaugurated together? would each agree to that? melissa: that would be quite a party. >> you would have to. maybe not, you would have to be i guess part of the same ceremony. but imagine, you get one press release from the white house and another press release from the naval

observatory where biden is. it would be unbelievable. melissa: it would be unbelievable. rich edson, thanks so much. lori: great story, rich. melissa: american express and medical device-maker stryker the report earnings after the bell. here with a preview is in today's trade is sandra smith. >> the dow and now the nasdaq in negative territory. the dow, if you look at an intraday basis bouncing off the near lows of the session. a lot of it, thanks to the fact that bank of america is in the red right now. it is one of the big laggards in the dow. did beat expectations but still reported a large drop in quarterly profits. so that stock in the red. meanwhile we are waiting on american express to report after the bell and that stock as it quickly moves is in the green. taking a look at the stock year-to-date, it has been a good performer going from about, american express, if we put up year-to-date chart, i'm having to hand it back to you guys. it has been a pretty good performer from the dow. gone from 50 bucks to 60

bucks a share. it is expected after the bell to report profits of 6%. you remember the bluebird card for wal-mart? everybody will be listening to the conference call what that means for the holidays. a little bit of optimism but investors playing it cautious ahead of earnings after the bell tonight. back to you guys. melissa: sandra, thanks so much. be sure to tune in after the bell at 4:00 p.m. eastern to get all the announcements on american express and ebay results. lori: is your home feeling more crowded these days? you're not alone. one-third of homeowners expect their grown children or aging parents to vent lay move in with them. according to a survey by one of the nation's homebuilders, pulte homes surveyed more than 1000 homeowners and found one in seven already have an adult child or elderly parent living under their roof. sandwich generation. have the kids to watch out for and your folks. melissa: oh, my goodness. coming up tonight on "money", former assistant secretary

of the treshphillip swagel. he will talk about the housing market whether it is making a comeback. real compelling data. we're hear earnings reports from bank of america and hiring more people to make mortgages. seems like a stealthy comeback. we'll talk about it 5:00 p.m. eastern. lori: coming up have we become a nation of takers? the author of a new book on entitlements said, well, yes. he joins tracy byrnes and ashley webster next hour. markets now, stay with us. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him twongs -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll wk his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and me from the great northwest. he'll start inveing early, he'll find some goopeople to help guide him,

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tracy: welcome back. i'm tracy byrnes. ashley: welcome back to you, tracy. i'm ashley webster. all right, taxes jobs health care, so much more sparking a testy presidential debate over the future of america but whose performance will draw more voters on the day

it counts? that is the big question. fox news contributors monica crowley and ellis henican are here to talk about it. tracy: they're so great together. plus the number of americans taking federal entitlement money exploded in the last few decades. an author has just written a book about it, called, a nation of takers. he joins us next. ashley: the title says it all, right? nike cutting ties with lance armstrong saying he misled the company over a decade. could it tarnish the brand already hurt by tiger woods and michael vick? tracy: i'm buying enough of them to support the company. time for stocks as we do every 15 minutes. we head down to nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. hey, nicole. >> tracy, ashley, we're seeing the dowdown 30 points while the nasdaq turned into the red as well. s&p holding onto a gain of almost three points right now. we've seen the tech stocks really pressuring the dow jones does trees. ibm is weighing almost 100

negative down points from ibm alone. we're seeing both these names with down arrows after coming out with their quarterly numbers. look how they're faring at this time. one is actually hitting a 52-week low. ibm their revenue fell. we talk about tech spending which has been dwindling with a tough economy. intel talked about profits slipping and outlook and fewer, the pc demand that we've seen that has also diminished. and so we are seeing some of these tech names coming under pressure. the big picture though of the economy and earnings has been decent here. we got good housing start numbers. some bank stocks came out with quarterly numbers look good, the vix, the fear index is to the downside today. back to you. tracy: we'll take it i guess. ashley, i was on a plane. ipads everywhere. ashley: is that right? tracy: everywhere. no one had a laptop. ashley: may have an ipad mini. tracy: no one is buying laptops. ashley: that's true. oil prices, well those

prices are falling today after the u.s. department of energy said inventories rose more than expected last week. that is putting downward pressure on oil. jeff flock joining us from the pits of the cme with the very latest, jeff. >> ashley, that is the only thing i see down today. most of the stuff is up. as i walk over here, you talked about the housing number. i walk over to the lumber pit. a lot of action in that pit today. right over here, dutch. about 3% up in lumber. i have a guy who thinks the housing number is bs. scott shellady. >> it was about as bs as the bls with labor numbers. >> you don't believe the government numbers? >> at the end of the day we could see revisions. those revisions might happen after november. i'm putting it out there, that is the best number since july of 2008. isn't that funny? >> permits are up too. so they rigged both permits and starts? >> well, here is what we have to take into consideration. the consensus of the beat was so big, you couldn't

even imagine, best number was 800,000. we came in way above that. here is what we've got. great up in members coming in one month before the election. you tell me what you think. >> those guys in the lumber pithy they're real. look at them writing orders up right now. that sup 3% today. also today, by the way, cot enup today, corn is up, you think everything is art officially up? >> it is artificially up because the central bank pumping the system. you don't think things get cued in somebody's favor. >> republicans do that too? >> i think everybody does that, sure. >> this is the first we're hearing of it. >> no. it has been debated since the jobs number came out last week. up for wild debate. this number is so outrageously big you have to start thinking some point in time when is the revision. i bet it comes after the election. >> i can not believe scott shellady does not trust his government.

can you believe that? ashley: politically motivated numbers, what? jeff flock, very. >> so surprised. he a big obama supporter you know. he is a huge obama supporter. i can't understand this. this makes no sense to me. ashley: thank you, gentlemen. tracy: need to get scott back on the tractor. need more shots like that. got to talk more about housing numbers. new home construction rose 15% last month. this is fastest pace in more than four years. permit applications for future building hit a four-year high. we have to talk about this. we're joined by one of the country's top mortgage lenders. rodney anderson, director of supreme lending. rodney, we're talking about single family homes. for a while we saw a lot of multifamily being built. now we're down to single family. >> scott and the naysayers need to get on the sidelines. there is housing locomotive taking off and need to get

on the train. people need to walk into the builder models. watch how many contracts they're signing. housing values are definitely going up. this is good news for buyers because they want to make money when they buy a home. they don't want to lose money. good news for the sellers because they're going to make more money. it is good news for refinancers as values go up, more people get thrown into the refinance market. therefore we have three wins for a healthy housing market. tracy: okay. but, we still have problems in the jumbo loan space, don't we? >> we do. the jumbo loan space, the upper end, banks are still restricting that lending. but what's happening though, as people are selling their homes, they're, most sellers are moving up. so the jumbo market, there is more demand. we do need to come up with the solution on how to get people in these high-end loans, more credit, accessible to credit. but that is the only flaw that's hurting this housing market right now. tracy: i always said,

especially if you're sitting on cash and you can get out there and you build a home, god the builder would throw in the granite, viking stove, you name it. you can get a whole christmas tree's worth of add-on if you had the cash these days. >> you're right. when you go buy these new homes you want to be careful upgrading too much. don't upgrade over the neighborhood values and what you're seeing there. but you're right. but one of the things i will tell you, builders are starting to increase their prices. this is another good sign. they're also starting to lessen their incentives. all these report two good parts. look at these homebuilder stocks today. look at d.r. horton, hovnanian, homebuilder index fund, these things are on fire. some of them, i looked at hovnanian up 10% in one day. that is on top of 50% over the last 90 days. tracy: why do you think this is? do you honestly believe this is all because of our good old uncle ben and quantitative easing? >> it is. and a lot of people are

starting to realize that we may be coming to the end of low interest rates down the road. and they turn in their old house. want to go buy some new houses and all that. they realize we're starting to move through this baseball game really, really fast and we're already in the bottom of, or the bottom of the fifth inning. we come from the bottom of the second to the bottom of the fifth in just about 90 to 120 days. i can't wait until next year. i can't wait until the spring home buying season. you watch, 2013 is going to be the year of the housing bull. tracy: i hope you're right, god, you got spunk, that is for sure, rodney. you have to come back in 2013 and we'll talk about it. rodney anderson, thank you. >> thank you. ashley: a lot of creditors, sticking with the baseball theme, bulking on mortgage applications. that is still an issue. tracy: a lot of people like myself that can't refinance. ashley: there you go. i do like his enthusiasm. coming up oil drilling was one of the most tense moments of the presidential debate. coming up next liz macdonald

will have the hard facts what really happened to drilling permits on federal land. tracy: economy, taxes libya, also highlighted critical differences between the candidates. we got two powerhouses. fox news contributors, monica crowley and ellis henican are here to break it all down, a little boxing match of their own probably and see what will impact the white house. first as we do every day at this time of day, look how oil is trading as we head out to break, down 12 cents. $91.97 a barrel. we'll be right back

ashley: time for emac's bottom line. the controversy over drilling for oil got heated in the presidential debate last night. it is an issue both businesses an consumers are watching very closely and indeed our liz macdonald is here with emac's bottom line. got very heated. >> yeah, that's right. we've been going you there the numbers from the government itself. take a look what we found in terms of the obama administration actually canceling leases in different parts of the country to do drilling. you will see canceled lease sales in the western gulf of mention co, and atlantic coast, delayed exploration off of alaska. with drew 77 oil and gas leases in utah. with drew 60 oil and gas

leases in montana since 2009. however it still got very heated last night between governor romney and the president. here they are arguing over the very tense moment. >> when the president took office the price of gasoline here in nassau county was about a buck 86 a gallon. now it is four bucks a gallon. and production on government lands is down. >> no it isn't. >> product on government lands is down 14%. >> governor? >> governor romney is correct, oil drilling is down on federal land 14%. you're going to see here, permits have been slashed 42% since 2007. down 33%, since 2009. the president under the administration, shut drilling in half of the alaska petroleum reserve. but the president's response is key the look, it is use it or lose it policy. if you don't use it we'll yank it. the oil business is coming back on fox business, how does the president define ha? it could take up 10 years to develop a oil well. one out of 100 will basically have oil in it.

there are a lot of dry holes. ashley: he said basically they weren't doing anything and letting land sit there and deciding sometime in the future to start drilling. that may not be the case. >> look we have to do seismic surveys, geologic surveys. how do you define inactive? at what point do you yank a permit to develop oil and gas on federal land? this will be ongoing debate. the administration has been backing off on issuing permits on federal land, liz macdonald thank you. >> delighted. >> will have to come out during that debate. almost came to fisticuffs. exxonmobil is buying canadian oil and gas company sell tick exploration for 2 1/2 billion dollars. celtic. they will give vast tracks of liquid rich province of british columbia i can't along with the holdings in province of alberta. objection on and other companies are buying

properties in north america as they struggle to boost output. last month exxon agreed to acquire danbury resources bakken shale property for $1.6 billion. exxon shares, believe it or not higher on the news hitting a fifth high. $93.15, up about 77 cents right now on the news. ashley: yeah. tracy: we were talking about how it is harder to get out of the ground the canadian oil. ashley: the shale oil. takes more effort to get the product. tracy: if they can't get it here where else with they going to go? ashley: that's a good point. right on the money where every 15 minutes we go down to the floor of the new york stock exchange where nicole petallides brings us up to speed. the dow still drifting lower, nicole. >> that's true. we are seeing the dow down about 25 points right now. the vix, fear index is to the downside. the dollar still lower. but we're seeing commodities with an up arrow. we should note majority of dow components have been in the green. we're seeing drug stocks and bank stocks, retail stocks, oil services, transports, all with up arrows today. the exception here really is

tech where we're seeing ibm and intel with down arrows and ibm is worth about 91 negative dow points, yeah, it is 91 negative dow points. let's take a look at a name you're already taking a look at and that is apollo group. that is a big loser in the s&p 500. it is down nearly 20%. when we take a look at apollo group. this is the big decliner of the day. they gave outlook for 2013, that was weak. you talked about student enrollment coming down as well. lower student enrollment. they're shutting down 25 campuses, cutting 800 jobs. the largest foreprofit college here in the united states of america under significant pressure. down $5.42. that is a loss of nearly 20%. back to you. ashley: nicole, thanks. we'll be back in 15 minutes. tracy: it is hard to believe or maybe we're grateful that there is only 20 days until the presidential election. how did last night's contentious debate set up

both candidates for their final stretch to d-day? fox news monica crowley and ellis henican are here to duke it out. ashley: they will be bringing in the fisticuffs. see how the dollar is doing and foreign currencies with the euro up on the back of moody's not downgrading spanish debt, at least not now. u.k. pound up 1.61. we'll be right back. ♪

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>> at 20 minutes evident past the hour i'm rick folbaum with your fox news minute. the u.s. officials confirming a cia operative is one of two americans killed in a bombing in kandahar, afghanistan. the attack happened saturday. also dead, 24 yearly army specialist britney gordon. nato saying the bomb woras a member of afghan intelligence agency. afghan officials are denying that. russian president vladmir putin is taking heat for providing supplies to the government at war with its own citizens in syria. putin saying today, only the u.n. security council can restrict the sale of russian arms abroad. his comments appear to be in response to criticism he is getting now. where's the most expensive zip code in the world? well according to "forbes", it is a neighborhood on the

upper east side of manhattan. zip code 10065, edging ought alpine, new jersey to grab the top spot. get this, the median asking price for a home in this part of manhattan is over $6 million. those are your news headlines on the fox business network. now back to ashley and tracy. what do you think of that? tracy: rick folbaum do you live up there on that high side of town? >> no, ma'am. tracy: see you soon. i don't know. ash, you're up there too, aren't you? ashley: no, no. one day perhaps. not quite yet. thank you, tracy of the get to what everyone is talking about today, presidential debate. gop hopeful mitt romney going head-to-head in the second debate with the president here at hofstra university. yes the gloves came off with candidates attacking each other with job creation, health care, taxes. just take a listen. >> governor romney hayes says he has a five-point plan? governor romney doesn't have a five-point plan.

he has a one point plan. that plan is to make sure folks at the top play by a different set of rules. >> going if you elect president obama you know what you're going to get, you will get a repeat of last four years. we can't afford four more years like the last four years. ashley: there is the question. who came out on top? obviously depends who you ask. who better to answer that than fox news contributors monica crowley and ellis henican. thanks for being here. all right, monica, did governor romney do enough to persuade those undecided voters last night? >> he had tremendous momentum going into last night. we saw a huge shift going into the polls after the first presidential debate where he was very tough, very assertive, very strong in his policy positions. it resonated with a lot of undecideds and a lot of other americans. he did have momentum going into last night. what happened you had two alpha males circling each other last night where you didn't have that in the first debate. they may have debated to a draw but i think what happened is because governor romney was so strong again last night, that it will

actually seal his momentum going forward. ashley: el lis, have at it. i look said the bar was pretty low for the president coming in. you said okay, but he really lept over it. >> put it like this, ashley, if monica is conceding a draw would we call that in the south where i grew up was a first class thumping. this guy romped last night, right? he made his points strongly. he took advantage of several embarrassing romney stomach else about. and boy, that close at the end where romney, for some reason walked into the 47% thing and obama came in and just, just, nailed him, i'm telling you. i'm very happy. >> hear is the problem, the president just issued lie after lie, which is what he does. very difficult to then -- >> like what? ashley: what in particular? >> talking about his economic record. talking about being interested in deficit reduction. he has been president now for four years. he went on the air and did this in the first debate too, stalking about a great in recuse introducing corporate tax rate. this man has been president four years.

first two years he had big democratic majorities could have done all this. immigration reform. all these things he claims he wants to do. one lie after another because he had the opportunity and he has --. ashley: "new york times" actually today said, look, has president obama really explained why the next four years are going to be better than the last four years that we've had? "the times" article says, not so far. >> listen, neither of these guys, truth of the matter has delivered us very, very clear specific plans what they're going to do. you understand, the partisans, monica will think her guy did great and frankly i'm inclined to think obama did well but there are actual facts we can look at right. look who showed up quicklyly spin room. took half an hour for romney to come out explain why it wasn't quite as bad as everyone thought. seriously, let's be honest here. give denver to romney. and give hofstra to obama. >> i disagree with that. ashley points out, the bar was so low for obama because

he slept-walk through the first performance. whatever perception occurred last night there was some sort of obama bounce in his performance, we have yet to see any poll numbers on this whether it is an actual bounce, it was because he was so bad the first time. romney is consistent. he has been strong in each of these debate outings. he is going to be strong again monday night. voters want consistency and strength. ashley: 15 seconds. >> i'm going to look up in my binder of women to figure out how it is this debate came out. it was a series of stomach gels -- stumbles. my guys were nervous this morning. they're very, very happy. >> they shouldn't get too happy. ashley: we have the next debate next monday. love to have you guys come back. thank you very much. tracy, what do you i? tracy: you need the secret service for those two i think. coming up, how much are you going to spend on your coworkers this holiday? i'm spending a lot on ashley so they stop sending him

overseas. the answer is not much. you're not alone. gerri willis is on that story next. ah, don't be cheap. first let's look at some of today's winners and losers as we head out to break. done foods, almost 13%. someone is buying sausage. we'll be right back. ♪

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ashley: the dust has settled over the presidential debate. a check on the market as we do every 15 minutes. nicole petallides on the floor of the stock exchange. nicole: we were looking at the

s&p 500 at 1460 over that levelland many new names on the s&p 500 hitting new 52 week highs. what about a nation we have seen economic news coming in and earnings news? do you find it to be good news and sustainable? >> it is good news but i don't think it is sustainable. we are reaching real-time i basically. the market has had too strong a run last two days and the economic data you have to keep in mind if you are going on housing numbers we just ended the christmas season would be like buying circuit city because they had good sales. most professionals knew this was coming. nicole: you are calling at seasonal for that matter. when you look at these levels of 1460, the dow f-14,165 would be the high for the dow the s&p 500, when you see the banks moving along and helping the s&p what the using of these levels? what levels are you watching?

>> 1465 is the ceiling for the time being. to win at down we touch 1420 on the s&p so i will buy protection if nothing else or by the vix. nicole: protect your self at higher levels. back to you. ashley: thank you. tracy: and a look at whether it is really high or really low. ashley: or in the middle. dennis: the retail federation has a new report what americans plan to sell to co-workers and pats -- i know the answer to that one. gerri willis as a look at the numbers. gerri: we keep the economy going. we all rely on the two of us end this year for the holiday we will spend $10 more than last year, $749.51. the word for the season is frugal. look at how we are going to

spend that money. most of us go for family. $421. when you break it down less money for friends or co-workers or others, pets. somebody has a very big pet. ashley: i have two dogs who are going to do well. [talking over each other] tracy: my kids getting -- [talking over each other] gerri: can we talk about america? tracy: employees are going to get a shaft this year? we are not buying for co-workers? [talking over each other] >> shoppers spend $75, 23 on co-workers, 28 on others. even at the top of your list? isn't it kids? tracy: it is but other people

have to be nice -- otherwise i will have packed lines down my face and bigger hair than i normally have. you have to be nice. [talking over each other] gerri: big gifts. [talking over each other] ashley: is going to be wind. [talking over each other] tracy: there's a little fatigued in the holding on to your money, people are over it. we charge that money. gerri: recent retail sales numbers were positive but most had to do with the price of gas going up. there was a lot of that and the iphone. i don't know how much more gas the consumer has but a lot will go on the credit card. gerri: the willis report tonight at 6:00, 9:00 eastern time. right here on the fox network. [talking over each other] ashley: don't make fun of my

dogs. i will bring photos next time. ashley: bad news for wine lovers. experts saves this year could be the worst wine harvest in half a century thanks to a combination of drought, cold and a deal in europe. e.u. farmers union says the harvest will fall to almost 20% compared to last year and italy's cropped up 7% but experts say there is an up side. they say the quality of the law wine that is produced will be as good as expected and more concentrated. there's always the issue of supply and demand. your favorite bottle, not as much to go around. tracy: on the flip side, 2012 is a great year in the united states. may not be having a good year but we are. ashley: get the expert right

there. tracy: printing is called oil closing up earth $0.03, $92.12 a barrel. lance armstrong losing one of his biggest and oldest supporters, nike. dennis kneale on that story next. ashley: as we do every day at this time let's look at the ten and 30 year treasuries, ten year it up, the yield up 1.8%, up eight basis points and 30 year treasury zeroing in at 3.9%. we will be right back. follow the wings.

lori: i am lori rothman with your fox business brief. the swing between gains and losses despite a solid report on the housing market. that is overshadowed by disappointing results from ibm and intel. the dow is down two points. investors are eating up shares of beam foods after the food and beverage company's initial public offering with the spinoff of its light weight of foods unit offering roughly twenty million shares at fourteen dollars to $16 each. american airlines is planning to baja either market number of the highest number of flight attendants in a point. bringing in 1500 flight attendants next year. a.m. are will start in the hiring process next month. that is the latest from the fox

business network giving you the power to prosper.

ashley: you can file this under what are they thinking? best by jumping into the tablet world with its insignia flex. the name doesn't inspire -- apple controlling the tablet market with amazon right behind. is this the best move for best buy? robert gray joins us with more. robert: i wonder how they will flex their marketing muscle and shelf space? could be quite a fight in best by selling some many products. the question is if they build it will buy it? remains to be seen. the tablet market is indeed growing. if you look at global tablet sales twenty-five million sold in the second quarter according to idc up 1/3 from the first

quarter up two thirds from the prior year so if you look at those numbers you can see robust sales but the competition is fierce. the global tablet market share, apple, high pad, 60% of that, samsung comes in just below 10%. amazon and so on down to the miniscule market share and prices coming down, would be targeting the lower end market, looking at $239 for an entry-level price the lower-priceds doesn't equal more revenue. best buy stock ran up a decade ago as flat panels came to the market and look what happened, sales collapsed over the past seven years. best buy's stock has done the same. we have a chart that shows them in tandem. not a pretty picture. stock down near a decade lows of prices came down. best buy, you see the stock and

there on the block as well. it is a very crowded field. the list doesn't just include apple but microsoft and dell and bonds and noble and amazon.com with smaller formats out there, leapfrog we had an even toys r us making their own tablet these days not to mention google and samsung, so you have a heated battle. idc sums it nicely in a report that says there's a risk. people have too many options from which to choose and they may fall the market leader apple or just sit this one out. ashley: thank you. we bring out our own tablet sometimes. tracy: former champion lance armstrong has lost two major sponsors. so sad. >> the most famous cyclist in racing history taking a final fall from grace. nike terminating its contract

with lance armstrong, a tour de france champion and cancer warrior in user of performance enhancing drugs. nike telling the public, quote, doing to the evidence that lance armstrong participated and misled nike for more than a decade it is with great sadness we have terminated our contract with him. radio shack doing the saying the thing. anheuser-busch to fall and armstrong hoping his foundation can survive this scandal. tasting in review from nike which stood by tiger woods even after his cheating came to light. 90 ended a deal with michael vick after he pleaded dogfighting charges and spent 21 months in prison and nike re-signed vick west year. the difference this time is those guys repented and lance armstrong never has. he steadfastly denied the charges for years dubbing the investigation a witch hunt back in august and his sponsors stayed with him but this month a

new report came out, hundred pages of details depicting armstrong as the ringleader and featuring testimony from 11 teammates, it may not be over because america loves that come back. america also hates an unrepentant wire. armstrong may have to fess up fully before pecan ride again. ashley: anheuser-busch not relate -- renewing the relationship at the end of this year but says it will continue to support -- >> $300 million for the foundation for cancer and radio shack rated $16 million and still trying to do that but coming up at 4:00 we will talk to some sports agents out there, and kind of tough. ashley: the evidence and the story doesn't go away. [talking over each other] tracy: live strong is an amazing

organization. ashley: coming up on quarter till the hour. time for stocks. let's go to nicole petallides on the floor of the stock exchange. nicole: we want to look at home builders on a day when we have gone the home building numbers and building permits and such and take a look here at the stock at the same time a u.s. housing starts jumped 15%. that is a huge jump in september to a four year high. building permits arrived yesterday. you remember we took a look at home builders confidence, vice in six years and looking now at home builder stock some of which are hitting multi-year highs and many of which are up over 100% in the year 2012. and 300%, 52 weeks. this group has been picking up fire. it is up nearly 10%. pulte up 6%. this group is serious when they

move dramatically like this and these names, many of them are over 100% this year year to date. tracy: a new book says relying on entitlements has become an epidemic in this country. it is called a nation of takers and its author joins us next. ashley: let's look at today's winners and losers. the dow desperately trying to get back to the water mark. we will see how that goes but there are winners and losers saying the dow is drifting, 6% today. we will be right back.

ashley: bank of america and ebay releasing earnings. here's the latest, sandra smith with today's trade. sandra: bank of america was off pleasant surprise. they did report a profit, a small profit and a big drop from recent profits but the company is being praised by analysts across-the-board for the strength of its balance sheet and calling it extraordinary. wells fargo calling them mixed results saying the trading performance of bank of america fell below its peers and stocks trading down but we need to look at one year charge to see where the company has gone for the past year. we are talking about a stock that was $4.92 in the past year

and just now around $9.40 a share. most analysts say this is it. the average rating hold rating with $9.51 on the share. they did have an unexpected profit, most analysts flopping out at these levels so take that into consideration if you own it or you are looking into buying it and on ebay tonight. this will be a telling sign of the holidays about consumer spending, people going online, what they are buying, reporting a profit, revenue growth and talk about a stock that has been on fire. shares of 58% year to date, not one year but year to date, big move so far this year earnings at $0.54 a share on revenue at $3.41 billion expected and this will be a very telling sign for the holidays and overall people are expecting -- ashley: the huge online holiday season. gas prices are up and people

will love the convenience. sandra: stores are announcing their going to match online prices so they are trying to get even more competitive to keep people from shopping in the store and buying it on line. that will be interesting twist. tracy: frugal is the new black or continual black. it is easy to price compare when you are on line. tracy: absolutely and they will take advantage. american express reported "after the bell" as well. ebay will be a good one in spending. ashley: good stuff. stay tuned to "after the bell" 4:00 eastern for complete coverage of earnings from ebay and american express. ashley: tracy: our next guest is out with a new book that shows surprising and alarming trends about the work force and entitlement spending. the author of a nation of takers:america's entitlement epidemic is also an j.d. e i a political economist. he joins us now. in order for us to be a nation

of takers someone has to be giving us something to take. so there has not necessarily been a change in the takers but a change in the givers. >> absolutely. you see it on both sides. we are spending $2 trillion a year on entitlements and it has to come from somewhere. it is coming from taxes right now, and bottling which is like a tax on the unborn. tracy: this is a congressional problem or governmental problem more than it is a human problem. it is human nature. if you offer me something i will take it but if there's nothing there for me to take on will go out and make my own way. so you have a government willing to tax the unborn as use a. that is the root of the problem as you say. >> it is a huge moral problem. the huge moral and social problem.

we can kind of afforded for a while because we are so rich. it is terribly corrupting to our society and to our way of life. tracy: in 1961, every $3 went to entitlements. in 2010, two of every $3 goes to entitlements. could we get to the point where it is 3 and 3? >> we have already made the federal government entitlement machine. i don't think even franklin delano roosevelt would have imagined that was ever going to happen. the trajectory is straight up. right now there are $3 of entitlements for every dollar of defense spending, entitlements are starting to crowd out defense. you see that in the sequestration debate. tracy: i like your point about taxing the unborn. we have been doing it for for use with medicare and social security. how do we unravel that? how do we get out of that mess?

>> i don't have a 12 subprogram for this in my book but i know the first step is recognizing a problem and this book tries to help people recognize the problems so we will start to talk about it honestly i hope. then maybe we can get to the fight that leads to a consensus. tracy: one thing that is controversial in your book is the flight of the out of work man, not one, man. how come? >> if you look at the numbers on this, the proportion of men in the work force either working or looking for work has gone down steadily during the period when the entitlement phase has been exploding. in arithmetic terms you can account for a fair amount of this flight from work in terms of increased disability rolls. we have had an explosion of disability pay over the past generation. there are now more people on disability than in the entire

manufacturing sector. tracy: that is a fraud issue and fodder for another day. the american enterprise institute, thank you for sharing your advice. >> thank you for inviting me. ashley: long way to come from. they can't afford problems. [talking over each other] ashley: cable television continues to evolve and so do the providers offering a laundry list of services and those controversial d v rs, network battles and costs and the computers. cox communication president at astor will be talking to liz claman about his company and how it is moving ahead. count down to the closing bell coming up next. [ male announcer ] the markets keep moving.

make sure the news keeps coming with thinkorswim by td ameritrade. use the news links breaking stories with possible breakout stocks, options with potential opportunity, futures and forex with in-depth analysis. . l things trading. thinkorswim by td ameritrade. it doesn't just deliver news. it's making news. trade commission free for 60 days, plus get up to $600 when you open an account. ♪ ♪ liz: good afternoon, everybody. it is the last hour of trading. as the countdown to the "closing

bell." we are talking about housing continuing to build itself up. housing starts and building permits both have four year highs. housing has jumped 50% in september and, you know what? building permits look pretty good. closely watched gauge of housing activity homebuilders and housing reacting to the positive data. checking out some of the double-digit percentages showing today. tech stocks, quite the hangover today. disappointed earning reports. the biggest liars on the doubt. shaving off nearly 100 points of what would've been a better day for the dow jones