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tv   MONEY With Melissa Francis  FOX Business  December 19, 2012 12:00am-1:00am EST

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spending. the goals are never realized. and the suect is never done. food for thought. only one thing worse than we making a resolution resolution, politicians making irresolution. ice group was the worst that can happen? if they screw up we lose our shirts. tomorrow will ross why he is worried about these talks in washington. and creative ways to hike taxes but no clear ways to cut spending. cut him out. resolution melissa: i'm melissa francis and here's what's "money" tonight. instagram outrage. the popular photo sharing site says they're going to sell your pictures without paying you or even telling
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you. use, are already jumping ship. we'll tell you how this affects you and your money. plus will this be the first republican controlled house ever to raise taxes? business mogul steve forbes willoin me in a fox business exclusive to break it all down. the dire warning for you and all of your savings today. hackers are planning to clean out your bank account. the former deputy director of the national security agency is here with all the details so yo can hang on your sh. even whethey say it's not, it is always about money. melissa: all right. first let's take a look at the day's market headlines. other day of gins on wa street. stocks soared for the second day in a row. the dow closed up 115 points and all that illusion that washington is getting its act together but progress on the fiscal cliff isn't
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driving everything higher. gold hit its lowest level in since late august that is confidence there. investors flee from the precus metal as a safe haven appeal fades. gold is hovering $1670 an ounce. shares of blackberry maker research in motion slipping after being hit with a downgrade by toronto based national bank. rim shares closing down almost 1 1/2% today. all right, you will not like this one of the popular photo sharing site instagram, now claims the right to sell user's photos without payment or notification. and get this. unless users delete their account before january 16th there is no way to opt out. instagram can sell your kids. they become an ad. so your image can be sold for a profit for instagram but not for you. the move already caused an outcry mopping users and here to break it all down is today's money power panel. attorney joey jackson. we have peter shenkman,
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marketing and social media exrt and market guru, scott martin. wow, i couldn't believe this story when i heard it. joey, is this even legal? >> not at all. fear not. look, there are three issues here. one is contract. the second is privity of coract and the last issue is commercial misappropriation. very briefly a contract is generally, melissa a by-product of an agreement, correct? and when you have something like this which is unly coercive and people saying look, the company is essentially saying do what we want you to do or don't use our product. the reality courts treat that contract of ad these shun which is unenforceable. privity of contract. melissa, a contract between two parties. what happens if you and i get our pictures snapped. we don't have anything to do with instagram. the person who owns instagram or a user snaps it. they use our picture for commercial profit. we didn't consent to that. third, for commercials purposes if someone uses our
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likeness for benefit, pay us or don't use it. melissa: you're getting ready to sue is bottom line? >> i'm ready. i'm ready. melissa: you're outside the courtroom. scott, let me ask you. this can't be good for facebook. facebook is the owner of instagram. maybe they were trying to am advertise the cost of this acquisition by selling everyone's photos. what do yo think. >> trying to get money back, melia. there was a deal twitter offered half of that amount. listen, facebook has been really series of missteps here. you're right. this is questionable play. other thing. facebook is already moving this way, melissa. look at this last earnings report. talking about mobile advertising. trying to please advertisers spending money on the
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platform. this is good way for them to do it. melissa: i guess, unless you alienate absolutely everyone that uses your site. peter, let me ask yo, instagram put out a message, by the way they tweeted it, whh isn't exactly endorsement for facebook since twitter is competitor. they tweeted at instagram. we heard you the updates to our privacy policy and terms of service are raising a lot of questions. that is nice way of saying everyone is freaking out of the we'll have morore to share very soon. seems as if perhaps they are thinking this policy. good idea. >> start at the beginning, when i sat down ias very happy. now i need a drink. number one, instagram is not doing anying of the sort. if you read the terms of seice, they're not saying hey, wre selling your photos to i-ock agency. we're taking photos you have we might have sponsors promote them. you know what that is guys? that is what facebook has been doing for a year. they haven't lost any one. melissa: no one realizes just goi on. you may have told the whole
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entire wor what is going on. >> everyone freaked out a year ago when facebook said same thing. i'mgetting off of facebook. you know how many got off facebook out of 850 million? i think about four. people freak out when anything in social media happens. this is not end of the world. you're not a customer, you're someone using a free-. melissa: i'm not a accident her. joey, go get him. this can't be right, come on!. >> three things will happen. number one i thin from a business perspective they will realizeeople are outraged. when people are outraged it will affect the bottom line. they will get rid of this there. number two, could be legislative response. either you correct it, or the ledge you're will step in and do it for you. as a practical matter if you don't want lawsuits to incur that expense and ha everybody filing preliminary injunctions saying stop the policy, right, they will rethink it. they're huddled up with the attorneys to find a way to
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get out of this, backtracking. >> scott, idea of anyone using photos of my family. this is the fear when you put photos on-line you afraid somebody will use them for something he is. i don't post photos in a lot of places just for this reason. don't you think this will scarpeople away from instagram no matter what they say to fix it now? >> i don't know. i do the same thing, i don't post photos for that reason too. look at it two ways. i'm at the beach with my wife and takes a picture and puts it on instagram. do you think me in my speed dough will debt --. melissa: i haven't seen you in a speedo. may explain a lot of things. may not. >> most of the americans including myself, melissa, aren't cute enough or pretty enough to be in an ad. so most people don't have to worry about it. is this "american idol" for ads? you can posted a bunch of photos to instagram and maybe a company might find you. i'm not doing anymore insta grams until they pay me.
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melissa: you're a honey boo-boo in the making. peter, you're laughing. >> this is so funny. same thing happened on facebook a year ago. no one freaked out. as far as legislation goes, the legislature has hard time spelling wo internet forget about instagram. melissa: that's true. >> secondly, this is instagram has a terms of service that says hey, we have the right, you're hosting photos on our site. we're giving service for free. if you want to use it agree to this. will they sell the photos outright? no. melissa: i don't know. >> you know who is freaking out most of the hip sisters that take pictures food and millions and millions of cats. that's about it. melissa: joey, last word. you seem to be almost outnumbered at this point. is there any chance this isn't illegal? >> listen, we attorneys are constantly outnumbered but we fig and we win, sometimes. they will take a picture of you. everyone wants your picture. jury is still out.
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melissa: we'll leave it there. you guys are fantastic, thanks so much for coming on. peter, come back. this is the first time on the show. we'll bring you back. >> great, tnks. melissa: here is the "money" question of the day, in light of all the news will you use instagram? most will say no or if you don't use instagram now you say this is the reason not to start? a lot of active people on twitter toy. we want to hear more. like us on facebook at facebook.com/melissafrancisfox. but don't post any pictures if you're art. follow me on twitter at melissaafrancis. the debate continues in washington over the fiscal cliff. the white house immediately rejecting house speaker john boehner plan b proposal earlier saying it shifts the tax burden to the middle class. republicans include a deal of tax hikes it will be the first time in history a gop-controlled house passed tax icreases. could republicans make history for l the wrong reasons here? joining me in fox business
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exclusive, steve forbes, chairman and editor of fox media. how will you possibly the top that panel. were you sweating there because they were funny? >> they were amusing. black comedy from washington. melissa: what did you think of what you saw today? >> what you see is the speaker is tryingo surrender and white house won't accept it. they keep raising the ante a year and a half ago. summer of 2011, debt ceiling crisis. boehner made a huge offer his caucus would have rejected it and had a hard fight and white house slapped him away. melissa: a lot of people are saying speaker boehner is negotiating but who he really speaking for? he may not have enough support to dr home whatever deal he is making. we could see that with this plan b out there. does he have support of his own party in the house to raise taxes? >> i think he talked to house leaders after the election, said, hey, look what the results were. even if he feels part of the
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caucus, democrats if they go along with this will supply votes to win. as you see the white house still wants more and more and more and they're not giving him a fig leaf to go back to his caucus in reforming of entitlements and things like that. melissa: yeah. you definitely get a sense all they're talking about at this point is raising taxes. they keep raising taxes number who has to move more. president's plan a, he is willing to only raise taaes on people that more than 400,000 a year. all of it generates to run the government for three, four, five days, depending which number you look at. >> at best it is a nickel on the dollar doesn't get to real problems. which is weak dollar, binge spending, mammoth regulations coming from obamacare. the real things in the world. this is diversion. but a destructive one. destructive one. >> we're not hearing about people talking about real spending cuts, real i an it's going to feed the beast rather than starving the beast at this point.
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is there any hope to turn around the conversation because i don't feel like there is? >> the republicans can turn it around. they could pass a bill saying everything on the table put it off for six months we'll not do it between now and christmas. they could start making the point europe and japan has been doing this a couple of years now, massively raising taxes. japan is now in official recession. southern europe is contracting. france and germany about to go into recession. what can't you guys learn? hier taxes don't work. melissa: yeah. but seems lying the public at large has not bought that argument. tt romney tried to make that argument. a lot of people tried to make the argument. it hasn't worked. >> you emphasize what is the best way to get the econom moving again. means to end. instead of fighting on democrat's ground, establish your own ground. higher taxes does not mean growth. greater spending does not mean growth. maoth regulations taking away control from patients does not lead to growth. fight on your own turf
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instead of democrats. melissa: you're a master of negotiation. you know so much about this. how would you reset the negotiations? >> toss out a few grenades. passing the house entitlement reforms can't take any nefits from existing beneficiaries. love to see the senate reject that one. how about another bill passing saying can not take money from medicare to finance obamacare. democrats will choke on it. exactly what they're doing. go on offense on those kind of things. how aboutut social security with their worthless ious. having a bill saying convert ious into marketle bonds so if you get debt ceiling crisis you can make social security payments. >> bret baier did incredible math on the show yesterday breaking it down simply every day in this couny we take in $5 billion in revenue d spend 11 billion. how can we keep going at that rate? that is an incredible gap what we're taking in and what we're spending. >> this is subject republicans have to learn about.
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the federal reserve printing money. the federal reserve making possible for deficit without tears. melissa: i like that phrase. >> doesn't have to pay interest. imagine that. you go to thh atm of give you as much money you want, no interest don't have to pay it back, hey, that is pretty good thing. what it is doing and republicans should emphasize this and taking capital and credit away from small and medium-sized businesses and feeding the beast in washington. melissa: how do you i will loum nate that point. i always try to make that point. it is hard to get people to realize say this is crowding out small and medium-sized businesses. >> just say, why aren small and medium-sized businesses especially fourth year of supposed recovery, not making invests adding jobs the way they should? because the government is eating all the money the hammer it. saying it once isn't going to do it. if everyone is saying it maybe it will get through. melissa: we've been havg fun with the money meter on scale of one to money what is likelihood to get a deal done before christmas or the
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deadline i should say? >> i'm wonder if democrats want a deal? they feel so sure of themselves right now they're quite willing to go into the new year, look at all bad things happening. republicans still defending rich friends. willing to go uu to half a million and they still walked away, blah, blah. they define the terms. republicans will b o defense yet again. melia: zer, we're not going to get a deal here? you think they cave? >> i think republicans are trying to cave. and the democrats won't let them. melissa: interesting. are you posting any photos on instagram or facebook? are you going to stay away from that after that discussion? >> if i have one with you i will post it. melissa: thank you very much. steve forbes. we'll talk to a mayor that actually won an award for cost cuttingnd revenue raisin issues. she has advice for the government to make a fiscal cliff deal. you want to stay tuned for this incredible story. cyber thieves are going
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after your money. you better make sure our money is not wipe out @7
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melissa: so if you thought the sigher attacks earlier this fall were scary wait until you hear this. mcafee labs has a new report saying a major bank hat atck is coming in the coming months and this time they're going for your money. it is called project blitzkrieg. get this, in early pilot program they have already stole $5 million from u.s. bank accounts. here to talk about how to protectour hard-earned cash. we have colonel layton, security analyst and former deputy director with the national security agency. colonel, welcome back to the show. i should say colonel cedric layton. >> my pleasure, melissa. great to be with you. melissa: break this down for me. what exactly is going on? >> what is going on, melissa. there is a guy named --. melissa: i'm glad you had to say that, not me. >> he is, basically means thief in law. in russian. so he is literally a
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godfather-like figure within the russian hacker community. he is ve brazen. posts a lot of stuff on youtube that talks about exactly what he will do. he is interested in going after people's money and he is targing particularly affluent private banking customers, rich people all over the world but particularly in the united states. and during this last attack, that he was involved in, this basic test run for operation blitzkrieg, what he ended up dng he ended up going into approximately 300 different accounts in various banks, the top of which was bank of america, followed by jpmoan chase, and then wells fargo. melissa: wow. >> so there are a lot of different things that he is doing. he hasn't targets those big three banks. he targeted all kinds of brokerage firms. melissa: i've got a lot of questions right away. first of all if he is on youtube talking about what he is going to do why isn't he able to be stopped? how was he able to steal $5
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million already? >> he is basically saying i'm in russia and i can't be touched that is how he is looking at this. he is saying beyond the western law enforcement agencies and russian law enforcement agencies can be bought by me and all the people in his organizatio melissa: doesn't make sense when we saw a lot of same banks attacked by cyber hackers. they were trying to crash the website of the banks and slow you down and be convene anti-. now someone is trying to steal money and said hey that is good idea, let's steal some money, right? >> right. they are trying to steal your credentials. one way to do this, this is not the exact way they do this. one way to do it, friend you on facebook, and steal yur credential from your facebook page, friend you and then prove you with a false website that looks like your ba's website. so what will happen then, you will dutifully type in
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user i.d. and password and think you're getting into your bank's website. when that happens, they have captured your user i.d., your password and possibly other identification features that you use melissa: is this the main way they're doing this? first of all i can't believe it is coming all back to facebook again. this is the second story in the past 22 minutes where because i'm a member of facebook something terrible is happening to me. ps that their main outlet of getting on board? >> not necessarily. it is one way they could do this. it was something that was used in a hack attack against the a palace back in thspring of this year. there are other ways they cado this. all kind of social engineering ways. bacally they want to find out what your bank is. if you're an affluent investor i would definitely safeguard that ki of inrmation. so then they can put two and two together if they mirror the website they can possibly get your data. melissa: real quick, how do i protect myself? >> basically you need to check your bank balances on
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daily basis. there are other ways to do this. there are technical ways you can mirror your p system. work best for pcs, not apple computers. where you have a mirror type system basically a linux-based system that turns your computer into linux bas system. but that is a little bit cumbersome to do. so the best way to do this, first of all take a look at youu bank balances on a daily basis. if there are any anomalie, even small anomalies. what these guys are doing, taking $10 here, $50 here. do those kinds of things. making it work in such a way they can accumulate a large sum of money. my personal estimate they could steal as much as 50 to $100 million by just, by ones and twos from very rich people who might not knots it is missing. melissa: if i'm a jpmorgan private client i'm not tting on facebk all day probably. i hear what you're saying. we'll all be careful. colonel, thanks for coming on. >> my pleasure, melissa.
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thanks for having me. melissa: coming up on "money", iran flips the bird at internation community and says it won't stop enrichg high grade uranium. a middle east expert is here with details. turning america's glut of natural gas into a deluge of diesel. one company thinks they might have all the answers tour domestic energy woes. do you have too much money or too much natural gas? ♪ .
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melissa: we've got eaking news on instagram. here iadam shapiro with the latest. adam. >> their ceo is actually saying users incorrectly interpted instagram's revised terms of service which was released yesterday to mean user photos would be sold to others without compensation. this is quote from t ceo. this is not true and it is our mistake that this
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language is confusing. he went on to say, to be clear, it is not our intention to sell your photos. we're working updated language in back to you, melissa. >> that is a lot of backpedaling. adam shapiro, thanks so much. turning to the middle east and iran. a top iranian nuclear energy official says iran will knot stop high grade uranium enrichment despite threats from other countries. this as iranian president ahmadinejad said western sanctions could cause at most, quick tap on the brakes for their nuclear program. what does it mean for the climate in the middle east and price ofil? with me is michael o'hanloo from the brookings institution. thanks for coming on the show. they say these sanctions aren't causing them that much pain . what do you think? >> hi, melissa. i think sanctions cng them a lot of pain. it doesn't mean they will achieve their goal. iran could simply decide
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nuclear capability is worth the pain. or they could try to persuade us they feel that way. and hopefully, get out of the sanctions because the world loses heart. or they may be assuming you know in a year or two we'll have a bomb. at that point people won't bother worrying about it any longer unless they attacked us militarily. either wayby that time sanctions should be lted so we have to gethrough the tough period. i don't really know if the iranian regime is so hard-lined i could easily believe they would accept a weak economy as a price for getting a nuclear weapon. melissa: yeah, absolutely. the international energy agency estimates their exports of oil have been cut in half, you know, from about 2.3 to 2.5 million barrels down to 1.3 and, i wonder, you know, why did they think that they have an accurate count of what's being exported? i mean they could be doing all kinds of things under the table. do we have any idea how much oil they're really selling, do you think? >> well, that's a good question.
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we had some experience watching iraq get around sanctions about 12 years ago and it really did increase quite a bit. iraq managed to smuggle a lot of oil out through its northern territories through syria, et cetera. i wouldn't be surprised if iran is trying to do the same thing. of course most of the traffic along the persian gulf we can watch pretty carefully. we have a lot of rennaissance capability there. they could still get some out in small boats. theyould get some out to the north or through afghanistan. but of course the areas to their north and east are not very prosperous or not very good trade routes for a lot of oil. so my guess you'r right to have that concern but it is probably in the realm of, at most a couple hundred thousand brels a day, not going to compensate for the loss from the sanctions. melissa: what about this idea that their uranium enrichment for medical research purposes or energy use? i mean they always make that argument. is there any possibility that'she case in your opinion? >> no. because they're enriching much more than they would
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need. they of course never declared their enrichment sites until they were discovered by some kind of dissident group or s some other way in which their rule breaking and their vie is last -- violations of hair obligation to the world community got out. in other words, they could have beee up front if this was about medical needs. obviously the the amounts of uranium they're increasing, secrecy they're using, this reveals quite clearly th have nuclear weapons intent. they have had nuclear weapons design programs in the past too. they don't want to admit. they're looking to give countries like china and russ a way out of enfoing theanctions. right now the world is prettynited against ira if tngs chge down the road they don't want to be on record saying they have a bomb program. they would rather give this excuse to countries that may want it oppose us on further imposition of sanctions. melissa: michael, thanks for coming on the show. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> more breaking news on
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knight cam tall. adam shapiro with the latest on that. adam? hey, adam. melissa: adam turning the channel on us. we'll go back to him when we have the news. turning natural gas to liquid gold? a brand new plan to turn our surplus of natural gas into clean-burning diesel. details on that breakthrough ming u next. an urban success story. irving, texas, makes it rain while other cities are going broke the mayor is here to share what they are doing right. she also has some advice for the federal government. clearly they need it. i can't wait for this. "piles of money" and good sense coming up.
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♪ . melissa: a now for multibillion-dollar bet on natural gas, the south african company is putting lot of money where their mouth , spending up to $14 billion to build the very first gas to liquids plant ever in the u.s. company execs believe nat-gas will be the dominant fuel source in the next 50 years. while oil becomes scarcer, more expensive. to break it down the publisher of energy magazine. rick, great to see you again. thanks for coming back to the show.
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>> thank you very much. melissa: what do you make of this? we heard a lot of about liquifying natural gas and even using that for transportation so what make this is difrent? >> well the difference is, this is a low-sulfur fuel. it is a lot cleaner. so it is, the product, once it is online will be used by other producers that have to export their product because the sulfur content is so high so we can use it in our own country which is wonderful. melissa: when it is used for natural gas, when it is used for transportation, you take the natural gas and turn it into diesel and stays in liquified form, am i to understand that correctly? >> that's correct. that's correct. melissa: why is there an advantage to that? because it burns cleaner? is it cleaner, mooe expensive, cheaper? >> well it's a lot cheaper because diesel burns and the diesel engines don't burn, their burn rate is lot less than gasoline. and we're just awash in natural gas rightow. so it's a great transition for our large fleets to
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transition to the gas to liquid fuel and internationally it is an export. so it is a win-win. lots of jobs lots of money for the u.s. a lot of jobs for the u.s. so it is a good thing for us. melissa: we hate exporting energy though. in this country we're totally biased against that. isn't that going to be a huge hurdle? >> well we're doing it right now. we're exporting almost the majority of our diesel right now because of the high sulfur content. so if we can use it here, the price is going to go down because as you know supply and demand. when you have a lot more supply and you have the demand we have right now, the price will go down just like natural gas prices are today. melissa: how cost effective is it right now? what i the price comparison have to be for this to make sense? >> well, the prices now are, look in the future they will have to, they will have to go up a ttle bit but this plant is based on a need
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that the world needs as well. so we've got the relations of the united states which require cleaner, burning fuels. that is pure and simple. melissa: yeah. >> but the regulations we have now we can not use our own diesel fuel. so we have to go to this. so this is necessary evil and a great investment for sasol, they're smart. melissa: in louisia would create a lot of jobs which are definitely needed. thanks for coming on the show. >> well, thank y. i would like a copy of your book. i hear it is red hot. melissa: diary of a stage moer's daughter. thanks for bringing that up. we'll send you one. i wish i had one here. let's go to breaking news on knight capital. charrie gasparino with the latest. charlie yove been advancing this story all day. give us the latest. >> who did i predict earlier? melissa: earlier today on markets now at 1:00 p.m. you said getco.
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>> they wer updating their bid. this thing is just about done tat getco is winner of bidding war for knight capital. invirtue holdings knight rejected tha bid. how did they do it? they increased the price. it was somewhat after bidding war. they wanted a $4 price. he almost got that. increased the bid to $3 billion. that is 3.70, $3.75 range. he almost got that. in the end that was too much for the board to turn down. virtu came with all cash bid. i heard they were willing to upt to 3:30, 3.25. getco uppee stock and cash and went out there a increased that in the final throes. we should point out getco
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has considerable force behind it. they have a board seat. that was one of the bailout partne that bailed out knight earlier in the year ring that errant trade. also jeffreys which is their investment banker on this, jeffries as well was isn the board. they're one of the bailout partners. so that's whe we are right now. you know, i don't thk we'll get announcement. i don't think tonight. i ink they will seal it u and i think this thing will be done in the morning. obviously before the paper is signed it's not a done deal. melissa: no, absolute it's not. >> i say near, near, near, near, can i say near again? melissa: why not. >> done deal. it's de. melissa: this is a fascinating story. you've been following it all along because knight capital blew up famously with the fat finger trade. >> right. melissa: t reason why we follow it all the time because it ia market-maker where almost every trade thatoes on -- >> every retail trade. melissa: touch this is company. >> average investors. melissa: this is why we care to bring it home. >> if you're an average
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investor buying a stock through one of your discount brokers knight capital is playing a role. it is matching that buy and sell. you care who buys them and if they're in good financial shape. getco is backed up by general atlantic partners. fairly strong firm. will be interesting to see where the stock trades tomorrow. would be interested where it is trading right now. melissa: charlie gasparino. thanks for brinng that to us. you've been at front of the story since the beginning. we appreciate it. >> all right. melissa: up next we talk to the mayor of irving, texas. she is here to give the federal government mu-needed advice how to get the nation's economy back on track. i can't wait to hear that. at the end of the day it is all about money in .so as you cas customer satisfaction is at 97%. mmmm tasty. and cut! very good. people are alwayasking me how we make these geico adverts.
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so we're taking you behind the scenes. this coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. it's not real. geico's customer satisfaction is quite real though. this computer-animated coffee tastes dreadful. geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 % or more on car insurance. someone get me a latte will ya, please?
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melissa: it is rare these days to hear after city being financially stable and responsible let alone winning award for it but the city of irving, texas, did just that. they won the malcolm baldridge award highlighting excellence.
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mayor of irving tes said her city can be the model for others but teac the federal government a thing or two. mayor bh van duyne. thanks for being here. we're excited about this. first of all, congratulations. let me not neglect th. >> i appreciate that. melissa: give me top three best things you did to win this award? one of tem is you decreased your workforce by 10%. how did you do that? >> yes. well, when people would quit or people would retire, instead of immediately filling their positions what wedid we realigned our staff. what we found we could decrease our workforce by 10% and yet our customer service increased. we're actuallyble to do more with less. melissa: i love that word you just used, customer service. you say that your taxpayers are your customers. i don't think i've ever heard a politician say that. where did you get that from? why do you believe in that? >> you know, i look at it, government is, it is competitive. we have to beompetitive. cities are competitive with
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onanother. states are competitive. regions are competitive. if you stop looking as your constituents as simply taxpayers and look at them as customers. say are we providing them with what we want? are we providing safe quality of life issues for us as residents, for us as businesses they are likely to move there and be pleased and give you good feedback. melissa: absolutely. >> that is one of the things we definitely pushed for. melissa: couple things you did, had three separate pools, put them together into one big large aquatic center. >> right. lissa: cut down on staff and people liked it better. you attacked fixed costs in health care and energy cost. that is oblem a lot of communities have. how did you do that. >> right. what we did we realized revenues were decreasing. property taxes were going down in the area and sales taxes were decreasing. you can' increase revenue wiout increasing taxes and that is not very popular. we decided to attack our fixed costs which include health care. we did something miraculous.
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we actually involved our personnel. we actually, incentivized them by staying in shape, by staying fit. they can take a test. if they pass it, depending where they are on the level, they can getup to $250 a month to go toward their health care costs. >> that's freight. >> what we found that saved us $1.5 million annually. bid out our energy c. like sending out our energy contract to ke sure it was competitive and got bids on it. that saved us $18 million. melissa: that's amazing. i don't want to rush should but i don't want to run out of time without giving the federal government some advice because they really need it. what would you tell them? >> run with more best business practices. look at the government and the services that you're providing. are they services that your customerare asking for that they need to have to be competitive? and don't have any sacred cows. when we look at how we do business in irving, it is results orieed. it is not about opinions. it is about results.
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we agree what our goals are and objective goals. they meet the criteria and are we providing good customer service. if we're doing that effectively and efficiently we're doing theob. melissa: is there something different about texans and way they look at government and life do you think? >> we don't like to have government involvein our lives really. except where we absolutely postively, need it. and texans are very independent. we look when we're spending money are you doing it because you have to do it or you want to do it. if you're using my money, you better do it becauseou want to do it. >> mayor van duyne, hope you come back to the show to give us moren progress. i think will have to have you back to give the federal government more advice on the future. >> we have lots of advice. we have lotsed advice we could share. melissa: thanks so much. nasa spends nearly half a billion dollars to crash these two perfectly good spacecraft into the moon. does that make sense? because it's your tax dollars hard at work.
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spare change is next. can you ever have too much money? ♪ .
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speaker2: all right, w a pair of nasa spacecraft were deliberately crashed into the moon yesterday beheaded to so listen to this, the mission cost $487 million. >> i guess the outstanding question is does it cost more to bring them back or try and do something. in the cross site they named it, that is very cool. >> i realize you were never seven-year-old or eight-year-old boys. speaker1: i sure wasn. >> this was their vers. it is cool, it is great. they are even allowed to have a
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little bit of fun. speaker1: i don't knoa compelling argument you mae there. >> i think we're missing a key part of our anatomy to understand this. i can't get my head around this one. a spare change update. member the girl who positioned hasbro to make gender-neutral easy bake oven. she succeeded. the packaging for the new oven four boys and girls. are you excited about this? >> i am not surprised, what i am surprised about was it took this long. the feminist revolution was in the mid-1970s, here we are, now we have all these celebrity chef. most of whom are men.
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very cool to grow up and be a chef, it is fantastic. melissa: that is right, adam. >> you're going to have a bunch of seven-year-olds imitating the tv shows. they're going to be speaking japanese. melissa: i like it. all right, next up ,-com,-com ma who is ready for a brand-new airline? southwest airlines will be charging you for not showing up. that is right, the airline will be charging customers to miss their flight and don't cancel the ticket ahead of time. a change from existing policy. to me this is insult to inju. if you missed the flight, herere is the

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