gone away because of lifelock. >> announcer: while no one can stop all identity theft, if criminals do steal your information, lifelock will help fix it, with our $1 million service guarantee. dot wait until you become the next victim. you have so much to protect and nothing to lose when you call lifelock now to get two full months of identity theft protection risk free. that's right, 60 days risk-free. use promo code: gethelp. if you're not completely satisfied, notify lifelock and you won't pay a cent. order now and also get this shredder to keep your documents out of the wrong hands-- a $29 dollar value, free. get protected now. call the number on your screen or go to lifelock.com to try lifelock protection risk free for a full 60 days. use promo code: gethelp. plus get this document shredder free-- but only if you act right now. call the number on your screen now!

tracy: good afternoon. i am tracy byrnes. ashley: and i am ashley webster. congress off this week. tracy: talk about sticker shock at the pump. gas prices climbing 432 straight days. i have cried every 32 of those days. ashley: immigration outrage. working on a bipartisan answer. they are getting riled up.

so is lou dobbs. he will be weighing in. tracy: if you have a job, you have felt the tax hike. ashley: presidents day. good afternoon to you. presidents day is what matters sales and auto sales. the u.s. holiday resulted in low trading volume. the market reacting. risks to the euro zone's recovery. speaking of europe, by the way, is the u.s. going the way of greece? check out the front cover of the latest addition. "we follow president obama's

plan, the u.s. will be in worse shape than greece is today." it will take 25 years, maybe sooner. the federal debt is the problem. we have to make serious spending cuts now. we could be like greece. interesting. and frightening. tracy: nobody is cutting anything any time soon. what do they drink in greece? ashley: -- tracy: okay. get that out. revealing illegal immigrants would be allowed to come and become legal permanent residents. marco rubio had this to say.

>> it would be dead on arrival in congress, leaving us with unsecured orders and a broken legal immigration system for years to come. no surprise. lou dobbs is here and has something to say about this. lou: i am not riled up, by the way, at all. this is entirely to be expected. the bipartisan plan, which they almost have complete. they have not been paying attention for the past four and a half years. this is a partisan issue. the republicans clamoring as best they are darling little hearts can do to catch up. they are not doing so. i am not using it as a majority. the only way in which they can

possibly keep up with the democrats in gaining the votes of hispanic americans, sensibly, at least, is to give away more than the democrats. the republicans, however, run a huge risk. that is that they will all spend so much of their base that they cannot possibly make up for that within 11 billion group of illegal immigrants or 40 million hispanic americans in this country. ashley: what do the republicans do? they are caught literally between a rock and a hard place. >> that is true if you do not know who you are, what you stand for and what you are doing. carl rove was challenged for his intrusion into the republican

party. right now, there is no energy in the republican party. the establishment, itself, is inundated. they have plenty of money, but they have no support. no support is a strong phrase, but very little. energizing a relationship between a republican party, which i agreed with mitt romney on only one thing that he said that that is that it is the natural home of hispanic americans.

putting up 25 bottles of water, per se. if you have skeletons in your closet, make them dance. he was taking this faux pas of the moment. i think he is there. interestingly, there is another hispanic american, freshman senator from texas. conservative, as is rubio. he is making a strong impact. two of the generational stars are both hispanic americans, both are making quite a name for themselves.

ashley: where does this immigration go? >> it will go where it does. if i can be that deep and profound. the truth is, the content right now is not set in terms of the national interest. how many people do we want in this country? how many people do we want to bring into this country through and amnesty program? do they really mean 11 million or do they mean 55 million? a lot of americans have been unskilled and uneducated. this many people in one, if you will, one big national swallow into our demography, people are not talking honestly.

without resolving, by the way, what we will do with a broken legal immigration system. tracy: thank you, thank you. tonight at 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. is there. discussing the confidential and expensive sensitivity training paid by u.s. taxpayers. "pilgrims were illegal immigrants." lou: do you have to see it to believe the nonsense that he pulls off? he has a natural home in the federal government. [ laughter ] tracy: thank you, lou. ashley: we have a business alert for you. boeing is pushing it temporary fix. it is trying to get this dreamliner back into the air.

they will try to sell a plan that includes the heavy duty titanium or steel box around the battery cells. they could get to work on a redesign of the lithium ion battery system which is expected to take nine months to put into place. we will see. the sequestration deadline less than two weeks away now. if nothing is done, we could be facing $1.2 trillion. also, a loss of 900,000 defense related jobs. it is the unintended consequence of the so cluster that really has my next guest concerned.

tom, thank you. obviously, those headline numbers, well, you know, disturbing. what are the unintended consequences that worry you been back thanks, ashley, for having me on today. it will be 11 days until we see the unintended consequences. there are a million workers and they pay $90 billion a payroll and those workers, as well as, the companies that they work for, pay $38 billion of taxes. keeping in mind that there is an average wage that is probably twice the national average. they have high leverage in the

economy. there is going to be an unintended consequence, unfortunately, if there is not a deal made in 11 days. ashley: would you agree that defense spending needs to be reformed? it may be the wrong way to do it, but it seems to be the only way. >> the suddenness. in the past, abbott there -- in the past, there was a planned slowdown of an amount of what we are facing here. we have already taken a 12% cut for defense contractors and they are looking at another seven-12% again. ashley: how much does this compromise national security? >> well, clearly, one of the ways that will be cut in and unplanned fashion is to stop paying for discretionary things like language interpreters and servicers, as well as,

maintenance and operations. that means we will not be able to deploy our forces overseas. whether it be for military purposes or expeditionary purposes for humanitarian aid. ashley: tom, quickly, they are supposed to give 60 day notices. if these cuts go into effect in 11 days, that will not happen. what is the outcome of that? >> it is unclear. you are talking about the issue of the notices. they have anywhere from 60-90 days. clearly, we are past the point of no return. ashley: there could be signs involved. thank you so much for joining us on this presidents' day. appreciate it. >> thank you.

ashley: got to get that sorted out soon. gas prices climbing 432 straight days. we will tell you what is behind the $0.43 price jump in the last month. ashley: plus hugo chavez surprising his country and returning home. more about his health care and what he is tweeting to his followers. that is coming up next. ♪ at a dry cleaner, we replaced people with a machine. what? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally.

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tracy: we have a news alert for you. hugo chavez is back in venezuela. he had not been seen or heard from following the cancer operation in december. reports of fireworks being set off following his return. he won reelection in october, but was unable to attend his swearing-in ceremony. they later ruled that he could remain president and be sworn in later. he is currently in a military

hospital. he remains attached to christ, and trusting in my nurses and doctors. onwards to victory forever. we will live and conquer forever. ashley: very inspiring. tracy: honestly, this is the crazy train in full speed. [ laughter ] tracy: i mean, come on now. [ laughter ] ashley: anyway. let's talk about gas prices. they are continuing to climb. sandra smith has the latest in today's trade. reporter: here are the dreaded details. $3.73 right now a gallon. we were paying $3.30 just 30 days ago. that is a very quick climb at the pump. keep in mind, we typically see seasonal rises in gasoline

because a lot of the refineries shut down for maintenance in the spring. oil prices in the yellow. not off that much this year. right now they are up about 4%. up 14% so far this year. this is much bigger than just a high oil price problem. where do we go from here? we are at $3.73 today. i have been talking with mr. schork. he says we will not see a top at the pump, as consumers are concerned, until we see it hit $3.80. we are all seeing smaller paychecks. we are all paying higher taxes.

we are still paying a lot to heat our homes. it is cold outside. ashley: it is unusual for it to be this high at this time of year. tracy: big trifecta. let's try to make some money with charles pena. he is taking us shopping. charles: we share our weekend shopping things. went to the mall in the stores are pretty crowded. michael kors. i cannot believe it. it is amazing. the apple store had a pretty good crowd. they had a tensile store. here is the store that really blew my mind, true religion. my son wanted a pair of jeans. i said okay. i thought they would cause me a little less than $100. over $200.

i was very shocked at how crowded the store was. he tried on four or five pairs of pants. he never tries any on. i am not sure what is going on. something has changed. remember late last year, true religion consider putting themselves up for sale. i think what it is, current management. this stock may be oversold here. they have one by on it. last year they were nothing but downgrades. earlier this year, insiders starting to nibble at the stock. extraordinarily conservative, in my opinion. they also upped their dividend. they opted to the fourth quarter of last year. showing signs of confidence. true religion, my son took me and he got me. i said from now on, the rest of my year, my man, nothing over

$45. tracy: are you still thinking it is a by target pressure marks. charles: they announced to hire some advisors. it jumped 25%. again, my gut tells me these are the guys caught you know what, it is one thing to be a creative person. the stock looks like it is going to start taking off. whether or not they will sell higher, we will see. tracy: great to see you. charles: you better appreciate it. he really got me on that one. tracy: it is not like you to cave. charles payne. we will see you next hour. payroll tax hike hitting. our next guest says the impact could be much worse than we all thought. ashley: plus, stocks hovering near multiyear highs. is it time to play defense? we will tell you how ebay is getting in on the silver and

gold action. that is all coming up. ♪

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ashley: some breaking news for you. burger king's twitter site just hacked. shibani joshi joins us with new details. shibani: you never know what will happen in social media. now, we are talking about twitter and a possible hack in one big-name companies website. it is for burger king. the site was up and running as of yesterday. you could really tell something went awry about an hour ago. yesterday it tweeted things like how many bytes does it take you to eat a burger king chicken nugget? then, about an hour ago, things took a slightly different turn with one tweet coming in "we got sold to mcdonald's. even the companies description being changed from burger king

usa official twitter account, we just got sold to mcdonald's because the water flopped." also, they have not gone back to me. all news is good news when it comes to burger king. in fact, about an hour ago the company's website had 88,000 followers. now it is up to 107,000 followers. they do not comment on other websites that are out there. we do not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons. it appears to be down. that happened a few moments ago, as well. lots of stuff happening. we are open for business and we are covering it all. a lot of people covering this. there you go. there you have it. it is down. we will continue to monitor this

story. hacking, cyber crimes, all this stuff. a huge role in what is happening with social media. ashley: thank you very much, shibani. tracy: i am telling you, it is getting ugly. [ laughter ] tracy: if you have any money left to go by those burgers, congratulations. if you have a job right now, you have most certainly felt the payroll tax hike. the latest reading shows sales edging of just a tiny fraction in january. basically in line with estimates. our next guest sees a more drastic impact. the payroll tax hike has had an immediate and negative affect on spending. dan hesse is the ceo of merchant forecast. if you do not get paid weekly,

you did not really feel it before these retail sales numbers were taken. >> we have not seen a lot of the damage yet. january, we saw a little bit of a hit. every week it has gotten more and more concerning. tracy: if you do not have the money, you have to cut back on spending. it is pretty obvious. >> if you take out all the things that are not discretionary, they they can be as much as 30%. tracy: you brought up the delay in tax refunds. >> this is a big deal. the 20 some billion dollars that has been delayed, only 1 billion of it came out of january. 18.5-$19 billion in february, results we have not seen it in the capital market.

we believe february will really show the impact of that. the money comes later, but we do not think you get it all back. tracy: to these retailers have to adjust prices going forward now? how do they adjust for the difference? >> every single week since the end of january, we have seen increased promotional levels. it is a form of mild panic right now. as the numbers get worse, we will see more and more promotions. tracy: any of these stores situated to handle this or will this just be across the board? >> i think the higher and is in better shape. the luxury customers do not seem to be her. the gap and nordstrom seem to be faring through it quite well. walmart and the dollar stores, the bigger the impact.

tracy: the administration did not want to hurt the middle class and the lower income people. that is who is getting hurt the most. >> it is the exact opposite of what they intended. tracy: do you think it will make up for the difference? >> i do not think so. not entirely. the shorter selling window apple price in the spring. the calendar is not at an advantage for the retailers. yes, the money will come, but we do not think it will come at a point where there is full tracy: not going to be good for retailers then. dan, thank you very much. >> thank you. tracy: not very encouraging. ashley: no, it is not. neither is this. sky-high tuition costs and student loan debt. behind the push for universities to be held accountable. we'll tell but the college scoreboard straight ahead.

. ...

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risk alert, protecting you before you become a victim. >> identity theft was a huge, huge problem for me and it's gone away because of lifelock. >> announcer: while no one can stop all identity theft, if criminals do steal your information, lifelock will help fix it, with our $1 million service guarantee. don't wait until you become the next victim. you have so much to protect and nothing to lose when you call lifelock now to get two full months of identity theft protection risk free. that's right, 60 days risk-free. use promo code: gethelp. if you're not completely satisfied, notify lifelock and you won't pay a cent. order now and also get this shredder to keep your documents out of the wrong hands-- a $29 dollar value, free. get protected now. call the number on your screen or go to lifelock.com to try lifelock protection risk free for a full 60 days. use promo code: gethelp. plus get this document shredder free-- but only if you act right now. call the number on your screen

now! >> weill cnbc is on tape, we're open for business. tracy: president obama in the state of the union speech stressing importance of college criteria for college comparisons. >> my administration will release a new college score board that parents and students based on a simple criteria. where you can get the most bang for your educational buck. tracy: hmmm. a newbie partisan legislation is expected to be reintroduce this week, college graduates average salaries accessible to the public. the president and ceo of association of private sector colleges and universities and former con man from wisconsin, steve gunderson is here with more pn how soon to get the most out of their degree. steve, i'm glad you're with us, sir, but really, is this what we want to know? or is it a bigger issue

about free money from the government coming to universities, knowingly and therefore they keep jacking the prices? >> well it is both of the above. first of all we ought to push every step we can to give students and families every bit of information they can to make the decision about where to go to college, when to go to college, what major to pursue, et cetera. at the same time let's realize that the total expenditure at the federal level last year for title 4 federal student financial aid grants and loans was about $165 billion. so it is real money. we're talking about return on investment conversations for both the government and the student. tracy: but, representative, doesn't it depend on on the child as well? i could be like a go-getter kid coming out of a community college and many about the next ceo of some major corporation. i could also be a slacker rich kid who was sent to harvard on their parents dime and ends up doing nothing? >> well i think that's why you have a bit of a controversy within the

higher education community because right now those post-secondary programs that have a career or okay payingal focus are producing better incomes than some of the liberal arts degrees. tracy: right. >> which, causes some people in higher education to be very uncomfortable. the reality is, we're going to have to look at this in a way that respects incredible costs for students and their families, the reality of a jobless recovery and the reality of government spending more money than they probably have in resources. something is going to come. what all of us need to do is figure out what work best for everybody, especially the student. tracy: also about, as you point out, what we're teaching our kids too, right? i mean, i loved my classic mythology class but i damn well know that would get me nowhere. therefore i could not major in it. that's what it is about too, isn't it? >> there is no question that in 2013 we're not only talking about education for the sake of education, we're talking about about education with a career

focus so that there are skills a student can take into the work place. without them they're not going to get hired. tracy: are we talking about that at all? i sometimes feel like this is, it is misguided conversations sometimes? >> well i think it has not been a focus in the past because in recent years we talked about learning for the sake of learning. you can look at the environment, the collision of those different environmental issues i brought about earlier. the jobless economic recovery. student debt, government resource, et cetera, without saying, how do we put the money where we get the most bang for the bucks a the president says. tracy: right. >> that is clearly on career education, giving students, whether they be out of high school or be adults coming back to school, the opportunity to get those skills that will allow them to improve their job. tracy: right. >> there is quick statistic i love to tell people. if you have an associate degree versus a high school diploma, you are going to earn between 425,000 and a

half million dollars more in life-time earnings. education works. but education with a career or occupational focus works really well. tracy: yeah, exactly. steve gunderson, thanks for being with us, representative. >> thank you. tracy: maybe colleges don't need a sushi bar, right? ashley: maybe not. tracy: i don't know. that's what you're paying for. ashley: saluting america's presidents by buying a new set of wheels? today is a critical day believe it or not for automakers as the industry hopes to get sales back to the prerecession levels. we'll look how things are shaping up. tracy: taxpayers are kicking in hundreds of millions of dollars to fund stadiums but is it worth it? rich edson in florida are with the debate is coming to a big head. we'll be right back. ♪

not. >> good afternoon, i'm sandra smith with your fox business brief. nike says it has no plans for olympic athlete oscar pistorius in future ad campaigns after the south african sports star was charged with murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend. a nike internet ad showing pistorius has already been pulled. hong kong disneyland turned a profit for the first time since it opened in 2005.

revenue climbed 18% from a year earlier to 550 million. starbucks is planning to more than double its staffing in the asia-pacific region to more than 40,000 over the next five years. the coffee giant is opening stores in vietnam this month. they plan to have more than 1500 cafes in china by 2015. that is the latest from the fox business network, giving you the power to prosper much. [ engine revving ] ♪ [ male announcer ] every car we build must make adrenaline pump and pulses quicken. ♪ to help you not just to stay alive... but feel alive. the new c-class iso exception. it's a mercedes-benz throu and through. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services.

tracy: breaking news. colleagues at the "wall street journal" reporting officemax and office depot are in talks o merge. sources say the talks are fluid and could still fall apart. shares of both are up really nicely in the past year. and of course you definitely want to catch those names in tomorrow's open. man, officemax up almost 87% over the last year. ashley: that's impressive no doubt. tracy: selling a lot of post-its. ashley: it is. get your motor running. it is the final day of presidents weekend and

automakers count on good weather for big customer turnout. over 12% february sales come from this weekend, compared with 9.6% on average third weekend of a month. so it is important. are there deals to be had and who has got them? jessica caldwell, senior analyst with edmunds.com. jessica, as always, thank you. some dealerships are saying this will be the best president's day sales event in a number of years. how important is this weekend to the automakers? >> it is the first big holiday weekend of the year people think about car shopping. we had a month and a few weeks to the end of the year. people felt like they didn't get good end of the year deals. they felt like it was the first opportunity to get in the market and get a car. ashley: how good are rebates, financing bank loans, pointing in the right direction for really good deals out there? >> right now is a great time. credit is cheap. that affects interest rates. if you're buying a car, there are low interest rates

to take advantage of. lease something also affected by the credit market. that runs on interest. there are a lot of low lease payments out there. if you look across the industry you can get a deal for any type of car to look at even hybrids which were hard to get a deal on for a long time. ashley: i found it interesting, according to edmunds.come nissan is offering biggest discounts than any brands the last two februaris? is that the case this year? >> looks like it. nissan has different fiscal year-end close, being a japanese company. their year-end is different than other automakers year-end. they tend to go out with big deals. depends on product cycle. something older you won't get a good deal. or like nissan altima who came out at end of the year probably not is a good deal. ashley: are there any insentives. >> we're looking at ford, gm.

seeing on older trucks gm will come out later this year. and also chrysler who really shunned leasing a few years ago, when everything, the financial meltdown happened, they're getting into in a big way. if you weren't able to finance a chrysler, dodge or jeep in the past, now you can. ashley: talking of leasing. i was looking at some deals. the hyundai sonata, zero down, 245 a month. what is more popular, leasing or buying? you're buying new, 20% value drop the moment you drive of the lot. >> yeah. right now leasing's, it is a little under a quarter of the market. the majority of people finance or paying in cash. not too much cash buyers. people take advantage of low interest rate loans out there. they're choosing to finance. if you're getting 0% or 1.9%. that is pretty good deal. ashley: what does it say about the psyche of the consumer right now? economy is not not exactly on fire. the jobless rate is pretty

high but seems consumers are coming back to the auto market? >> the auto market persevered despite what other economic news is out there. people need a lot of cars. people, someone buying a new car is almost six years. think about someone trading a car six years old, the technology in cars are different. the safety is lot better than it used to be. right now the new market looks really attractive for people that have been holding back. ashley: good point. jessica caldwell from edmunds.com. thank you. >> thank you. tracy: do you have a car? ashley: i don't. i haven't had one six years which still feels strange. you live in the city. i lived in london or, no, having a car is liability. i miss driving. i rent cars once in a while. tracy: i think it is time you get one. ashley: yeah, i think so. tracy: local governments and taxpayers help to foot the bill to fund new stadiums for private sports franchises around the

country. with the price tag reaching hundreds of millions of dollars, is it money well-spent? rich edson live from the phillies spring training facility in clearwater, florida. hey, rich. >> the phyllis were kind enough to let us stand on the warning track for the story -- fillies. this is the first full week of major league baseball spring training. you have half a dozen teams here on the west coast of the tampa bay region. the tampa bay race are on search for a new stadium. their stayed kbrum, tropicana field, is widely regarded as worth venue in all of sports. the element is government taxpayer financing. there is major role about the role of taxpayers. >> we have definitely seen many communities have promises not kept in terms of amount of construction costs on these stadiums. really deals once things have kind of started to roll along after the teams have

moved into them, seems in loo the public played more than they ever expected to and taxes are lasting longer than they expected. >> there is a return if it is done right. that's where the three parties coming together is what really matters and how you look at that venture. it has to be something that works for government as well as for the team. >> one of the major points of leverage that teams tend to use is they threaten to leave after their leases are done. the problem for the tampa bay rays in this they have a lease keeping them in that building in saint pooets through 2027. dplrx st. petersburg. proponents say it could revitalize a neighborhood. opponents say the returns are never what are promised. back to you. tracy: rich edson. ashley: 14 years. tracy: holy heck. thanks, rich. ashley: weather looks beautiful down there. that's for sure. down but not out, perhaps. gold prices hitting a fresh 2013 low. is now the time to get? we'll tell you about a

company making it easy to invest in precious metals. that's next.

ashley: stocks hovering near multiyear highs. meantime gold prices are down big. gold dropping more than 10% since hitting highs in october after major investors pulled out. but our next guest, michael haines says now is a good time to buy on the dip and his company can help you invest. michael thank you so much for being here. we're not talking about etfs, buying shares in gold mines. we're talking about -- >> this is the real thing right here. and our friends on ebay, the bullion center on ebay is bringing it to people all over the world and especially people here in

the united states. because according to research that we have, over a% of the american public would, thinks gold and silver is a good investment but they don't exactly know where to go to get it. so our friends at ebay, atmx bullion center on ebay, you can go to a $60 billion public company and buy your physical gold and silver. ashley: can i through the paypal account. >> through your paypal account. ashley: yeah? >> that is exactly how they do it. we even opened it up not just with one ounce american coins like you see here, the one ounce gold, we have it down to starter kit where you get this five-gram bar. you can't quite get up to the one ounce coin you can get a five gram bar, that coin being one ounce is worth about 1600, 1700 dal. the five gram is worth about $280. you can find these there at ebay.com/apmex on ebay. ashley: when you buy

physical gold you buy at retail prices and sell at wholesale. there can be quite a big difference. that could be a shock for those that like to physically have gold. >> actually it is interesting. the spread on physical precious metals is only 4%, between four and 8% depending what it is. ashley: is that right. >> it is a very tight market. that is one reason why we put together a special deal between ebay and apmx center on ebay you can buy and sell on tight spreads for the product delivered to your door. ashley: are you concerned we're starting to see it head back in the opposite direction? >> we don't work with day traders. ashley: yeah. >> customers like many viewers you have here, are more interested in holding this for the long term. ashley: yeah. >> so they see this as multidecade hold. they're not, people you talk to them all the time right here, you just pointed out that the u.s. debt-to-gdp ratio is ridiculous. we're not getting out of that anytime soon. the american people, they are very smart.

they realize we in the united states and throughout the world, there is very serious economic crisis. we have never been here before. we need something that will carry us through that. this is part of that allocation. ashley: so when you buy these don't forget insurance and very secure vault. >> we can help everyone put these aside for themselves at the apmex bullion center on ebay. ashley: michael haines. thank you for being here. >> pleasure being here. ashley: 100,000 coins on the set here. tracy: i'm such a parent, i'm thinking college. if he looks away. ashley: that will get them through a year probably on that. michael thank you so much. >> coming up health care costs spiking. dr. manny alvarez will weigh in a cost that alzheimer's costs alone are headed for a trillion dollars. new questions about the state of china's economy. china expert gordon chang says it is much weaker than beijing wants you to believe. keep it here on fox

business. ashley and i are going nowhere. and we're open for business today. before copd...

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ashley: good afternoon, everybody, i'm ashley webster. tracy: i'm tracy byrnes. new concerns about the american consumer coming from all places, the white house. a top presidential advisor warns spending could remain modest. we'll get reading from leading economist phillip swagel from aei next. ashley: europe is on edge, bracing for the results of italy's critical election. the winner right now is anybody's guess. so how will it impact the debt crisis across europe? global finance expert and spotlight ideas managing partner steven pope is our special guest from london straight ahead. tracy: gas prices surging nearly 50 cents a gallon last month. is the national average headed to $4 a gallon? we're looking for answers. i know i certainly am, coming up. ashley: first, breaking news for you on a reported merger

in office retail. "the wall street journal" reporting that officemax and office depot are in talks to join forces. sources say the talks are fluid. shares are up nicely in the past year. you want to watch those names at your market option. you were noting officemax up 87% over the last year. office depot up 41%. big movers in the stock, talking about getting together. keep and eye on that. get ready for the most overlooked tax whopper. it is in president obama's health care law. it bigger than the new mandate tax. bigger than the new medical device tax but it is a brand new $100 billion plus tax. emac is here with the emac's bottom line. sound like another tax hidden away. no one seems to talk about or know about. >> isn't it interesting taxes pom pop you up all over the place because

congress didn't read it. i read the section of the bill. holy cow. this is a tax guess what, passed on to consumers and businesses. look at the cost. $101.7 billion over ten years, according to the joint committee on taxation. what does it average out for american families $7200 over ten years. 720 bucks a year. remember president obama said the health insurance won't change and you will save 2500 bucks on health insurance. uh-uh. here's the deal. the fight said, if these taxes go up, medical device manufacturers will pay a tax, won't pass it along. guess what? the cbo and joint committee on taxation, this tax health insurers will have to pay on premiums they sell, the health insurance industry will assessed health reform tax, the two government groups, consumers will have to pay it. businesses will have to pay it. they will pass the tax along

to families and businesses. these are the states that will get hit hardest, consumers and businesses in these states will be hit hardest by this new health insurance sales tax on health insurance. so, california, new york, topping the list. also pennsylvania and florida to go the list there. so what is striking about this is, the joint committee on taxation and the cbo saying that you, american family, you american, business, will have to pay this tax because insurance industry will pass it along to those groups. it is a big deal. ashley: every time they say it won't be passed on to the consumer, that is the first sign it will. >> yes, ashley. quickly the committee says the premiums will be 2 1/2% higher than they would have been without this tax. you may not see the tax directly. you will see premium costs go up. premium costs for businesses go up. they're saying possibly lower wages and profits, small businesses and businesses across the country. ashley: emac, thank you so much. >> we're giving truth what

is going on with health reform. tracy: you always do. ashley: not always pretty. thank you, emac. tracy: today white house economist alan krueger calls the upcoming budget cuts a step in the wrong direction. noting that many consumers are still recovering from the lingering impacts from the financials crisis. e-mails from wal-mart executives released friday. they seem to confirm these fears. e-mails reportedly from the account of vp of finance and logistics, jerry murray. he called february sales a total disaster, the worst he has seen to start a month in his seven years with the company. hmmm. here to discuss the fragile state of the u.s. consumer, aie economist phillip swagel. phillip, thank you for being with us. look, does this wal-mart commentary bother you? do you think it basically purports a trend over the entire country? >> sure. i mean the wal-mart e-mail is a warning sign. wal-mart is the canary in the coal mine, when consumers took a hit from higher payroll tax, people

that spend money at wal-mart pull back. we see higher gas prices as well will hit consumers. there is a one-two. i think it will be terri the job market is improving and but definitely a danger. tracy: a lot of people put reliance on the luxury end. we were talking earlier luxury sales are still doing okay. can we rely on the luxury consumer to pick up the slack? >> you know, i know the high end is doing better. i don't think there is enough there to really drive the economy. we need broad-based consumption. we need broad-based spending by business, equipment and software. that's really waiting for a resolution to the uncertainty here in washington. tracy: let's talk about the uncertainty. here we are again, the sequester coming up, probably going to kick in. we get all the spending cuts. that is less money, isn't it? >> it is. irony of the white house statement that you read is that the president hasn't put forward a realistic proposal. tracy: yes. >> we don't want the budget cuts. we don't want spending cuts.

we have to have something else to address the fiscal danger. the white house is standing silent on that. tracy: one of the things we heard out of the white house is the increase in the minimum wage. but you're saying at the end of the day it will hurt the low-skilled workers, isn't it? >> yeah. most people on the minimum wage are not the primary bread-earners. >> right. >> the higher minimum wage will help teenagers. it will price out low-skilled workers out of the job market. health care taxes is another impediment to job creation is more money out of people's pockets. tracy: i find it interesting to say, if you think of help, increase earned income tax credit. i think it should be abolished all together. why do we want to give out handouts. >> the eic, earned income tax credit encourages work. it says people with low skills and low wages, you get in the workforce and work and we'll make it more worthwhile. it encourages right things. it only gets paid if you do

work. hopefully we get people in the labor market get them up the ladder of skills. tracy: but encourages them to stop working at a certain point, right? once they earn a level they no longer qualify for it. >> there is phaseout. withdrawal of a benefit is kind of like a tack. that is danger. the most important thing is getting people to work and feting people back into the labor force. that is why i prefer the itc. tracy: we'll debate that. people want to work but they have to want to work too. ashley: that is true. you can respect fullly disagree. tracy: and we did. ashley: coming up, burger king hacked on twitter. new details on this breaking story next. tracy: gas priges are surging this month despite low demand this february. what is causing the spike and how high will gas prices go. what's next? keep it here on fox business. we're open for business. tracy and ashley are still

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tracy: gas prices up nearly 13% in the past month. trust me, i know. that is an increase in 43 cents a gallon. prices are showing no sign of slowing down. sandra smith is here with the latest in today's trade. hey, sandy. >> hey, traysy. the bad news we really haven't entered into the seasonal maintenance season for the major refineries that turn all oil into gasoline. when that happens we tend to see prices rise further. the national average today, $3.73 according to aaa. that is up 13% from a month ago. up 43 cents from 30 days ago. we're seeing a huge price across the board. i put together a chart to show you guys. a little different than last hour. we looked difference of oil

and gasoline how we're tracking each other. this is the stock market versus oil prices. oil is in the blue, stock market is in orange. i've been talking to trey can nip pa down on the trading floor. he has been bullish on oil prices. as long as stock market goes higher, oil prices would go higher. that tells the story, year-to-date. they have been following one another. oil prices in blue still has some catching up to where the stock market is today, guys. one other note to look at commodity prices. they are trading today. oil is slightly down. the electronic markets are trading, not the pit session. rbob gasoline. look at the chart. this is the wholesale gasoline prices up 14% so far this year. so oil prices are pushing prices higher. lack of refining capacity, schork report says, it is all these things combined are pushing prices higher. i have only bad news i guess, ashley and tracy, prices are expected to go higher. steve expects $3.80 as a

national average. it is almost inevitable based on what he is seeing so far in the markets. so make your plans. tracy: doesn't this make the case for the pipeline, sandra? >> yeah. tracy: can't get the stuff out, right? >> the only problem with that, tracy, you still have to refine oil into gasoline. right now the country is lacking that refining capacity. so it would be great to get that in here. it is less oil we have to get from overseas. however we need the big oil giants, exxon, chevron, we need them to boost refining capacity, possibly in the midwest region would be a good place to start looking. >> sandra smith, good stuff. thank you. ashley: an update on the breaking news we told you about earlier. burger king's twitter site has been hacked. shibani joshi, joining us with the very latest on the story. shibani? >> yes the situation continues to be very, very fluid. the last time i was on i let you guys know that the site had been taken down. now we officially have a statement from burger king about the alleged hack of its twitter site. in fact, they go on to say, it has come to our attention

that the twitter account of burger king brand has been hacked they are acknowledging this finally. we're working directly with administrators to shut down the account until we're able to re-establish our legitimate site and ought thentic postings. we apologize to our followers who have been receiving erroneous tweets about other members of our industry and additional inappropriate topics. as i mentioned the web suite was suspended about an hour ago. a lot of things have happened since then. first over the course of about an hour before that, that is the amount of time that the account was hacked, there were very inappropriate comments put out. even the logo taken over of the burger king account putting a mcdonald's logo instead. saying we got sold to mcdonald's the whopper flopped. it was clearly a hacked attempt. it took a very long time for burger king to respond. its competitor, mcdonald's, who was sort of the face person, not through its own

doing because of this hack attack, coming out and issuing its own statement on the twitter page, on its twitter page saying we empathize with our burger king counterparts. rest assured we had nothing to do with the hack. there is lots of speculation what will happen next, who possibly was involved. some of the tweets that this alleged hacker included on the burger king site included links to anonymous and other twitter hacking groups. they were throwing them out there in random tweets. so we don't have any reason to believe these are entirely legitimate. rest assured that this story will continue to develop. we're following the details and we'll bring you more as we have it. ashley: thank you very much, shibani. so hard to track the hackers down. that is becoming with, becoming a bigger and bigger problem. thank you. time to make money with charles payne. he is talking this hour about beauty supply store ultra. will this be a beauty for or

a beast for your portfolio. >> it has been a beast. late thursday afternoon, the ceo chuck rubin announced he was resigning. that came on the heels of the cfo who resigned in october. ashley: that is not a good sign. >> not a good ultra. >> captain of the costa concordia says where are you. i'm on land. >> michael's craft stores is two times the size of ulta. maybe he see as bigger opportunity. credit suisse downgraded the stock on friday. this has been a juggernaut of a stock. you know the story. tracy: but you like the stock. >> i love the stock. i hadn't been in it. we took profits. i'm excited because there might be an opportunity to get in here. maybe this guy, they said, listen, you want to be our ceo. you're twice the size. grow the business and he leaped at the opportunity. the stores themselves are

remarkable. you know, tracy. you go into these stores. tracy: i've seen them. >> they're gigantic. 10,000 square feet. salaries is just a thousand square feet. i wouldn't necessarily say jump in tomorrow. this is something to put on your watch list. this is not down on fundamental news. because of all this bad news they did release the fourth quarter numbers, preliminary numbers. revenues were up 30%. same-store sales up 8%. the kind of things that make this a winning stock. i will be watch very closely for them to maybe do something in the next couple days. looking key support, 84, $85 a share. ashley: interesting two executives say, see you later. >> we'll see. ceo, i wouldn't say better, but starting with a store twice the size of ulta. ashley: charles payne. thank you so much. tracy: so president obama says, growing the middle class will grow the economy but "the willis report" host, gerri willis says he got it backwards. he is here next. ashley: ecb president mario

draghi dismissing fears of a currency war. he is amused by draghi's comments. he will tell us why. look how the dollar was moving. other places are open. euro, there is no currency war. droing even further. the pound also sinking, getting cheaper all the time to go to london at 1.5460 we'll be right back. all stations come over to mission a for a final go.

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ashley: well the euro dipping against the dollar after ecb president mario draghi said the currency's exchange rate is important for growth and inflation and adding to that, that there are still risks to the region's economic recovery however. so what is next for the eurozone? let's bring in steven pope, managing partner of spotlight ideas. thanks a lot for joining us. look, we haven't seen the dire headlines we got so used to out of europe the last couple months but i would, hazard a guess that greece is still broke, italy and spain's economy is in the dumps. france is stuck in the hollande tunnel. bottom line are things any better than they were three or four months ago? >> marginally better but i believe we're dealing with massive doses of complacency. that's why we've seen a big

contraction in the spread that spain and italy have over germany. i think you're seeing other developed parts of the world need growth. they do have a currency running at a strong level it is an impediment to that. i think where mr. draghi says he is not trying to manipulate the exchange rate but worried about the growth and terrorists he is using word as a weapon in so-called, do we call it currency war or currency worry where madam lagarde would have us believe? we'll see. ashley: that is interesting. we didn't get a whole lot out of the g20. japan got a slap on the wrist. they will do what they're going to do. sterling is starting to fall as well. is it a race to debase around the world? >> at the current time i think there is a big issue about going in through forex limbo getting as low as possible. the u.k. we have had difficult time with growth

not as we like. if you go across to the broader eurozone the situation is there more of a concern not the least because we have a very uncertain situation next weekend with the italian election. we're in a blackout period. we're not quite sheer. maybe cavalierry or mr. berlusconi will be back. a lot of issues in the eurozone. ashley: that is interesting. perlous scone any the pole before the blackout had him 5% of the leading parties. berlusconi promised to undo everything that mario monthty to put in place and the outcome could be disasterous, could it not? >> absolutely. he is on a anti-monte rhetoric and anti-euro. saying germany is behind all of italy's troubles. if he were elected he would live up to pledges of tax cuts and reforms and rebates to various vested parties. so that's probably the last thing we need. but what will probably happen we'll indup with a

very weak left-of-center coalition and probably within three months there might well be another election which could be berlusconi's main chance of getting back in. ashley: last week we got a look at the data for the national gdps in eurozone and regional and the bottom line it was ugly reading. do you see any signs of growth for the year ahead, steven, in the eurozone? >> i see signs of growth in terms of those good corporations that operate on a global basis. they may well decide they want to outsource to cheaper parts to improve the efficiency of their supply chain and value chain operations. but overall the economic growth prospects in this part of the world are very tepid at the current time. seems to be a downturn in germany which has been the motor of any growth the eurozone had. with spain embroiled in political intrigue as well, i think the outlook is very dire at the current time. what is needed not ecb

sitting there piously saying we're worried about this, that and the other. allow a redraft of the rebate. let them start targeting inflation but managing unemployment, targets within the whole region as well. otherwise we're just going to drift on further and further with bad packaging. as i said we're dealing in a land of complacency and we're sleep walking towards another potential disaster. ashley: on those happy notes, steven pope with spotlight ideas from westminster tonight. thank you so much. >> thank you. always my pleasure, ashley. ashley: he is good. obviously very concerned because nothing really changed in europe. it is still the same as it always has been. yes, we have the backstop of the ecb but there are a lot of he had headwinds lurking out there that could come back into the headlines. any way. tracy: president obama says we have to grow the middle class to grow the economy. he is asking congress to support his plan to invest a whopping billion dollars in

15 manufacturing hubs across the country. but our very when gerri willis says a plan to manufacture a recovery ain't going to work. she joins us now. >> i don't know how many times you guys heard about economic development plans pitched by city councils, governors, congressman. they just don't work because government can't lead this. now, just to make things clear, what the president wants is a billion dollars to start 15 manufacturing, high-tech manufacturing hubs, presumably in former rust belt cities that have a lot of problems. there is a reason he says manufacturing is ticking up. and there is a tiny up tick in the manufacturing and the reason is because we have lower energy costs because of fracking. that's what's driving it. now, if we had a smart economic development plan for the country, we would jump off that, use that as labor to grow our economy more generally. instead we ask a lot of big questions about fracking and we threaten regulation. tracy: so what happens?

because he is going to probably get the money at the end of the day? >> here is what will happen. it is already in the works, okay? tracy: okay no so jack reed, rhode island already has his hand out of the he said we were the originators of the industrial revolution in this country in our state. we'll take that money. silicon valley, do they need our help? >> no. >> they want some of this money. it will be a big pork project for members of congress, other representatives. ashley: sure. >> to get here and get a piece of action to take money. at the end of the day this is not how they grow to the economy of the just to go to places that are depressed to where economy is bad, that is the wrong way from the get-go to get started. ashley: what is wrong with the private sector generating jobs? that is the bottom line. the government doesn't need to be white elephants that crop up in the country. >> in your blog you say the right to work states are profiting. >> that is another strategy working in our country but we're low to redouble or double down on it because it

doesn't match the president's rhetoric of unions have to be everywhere. we'll talk about this we'll talk about congress slowing our economy tonight. so you will see lots of attitude tonight on "the willis report". tracy: good stuff. don't miss it. "the willis report" 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. eastern on fox business because we're working today. ashley: indeed. gerri, thank you so much. coming up will a new treasury secretary bring any change to u.s. policy on china's currency manipulation? talking which china expert gordon chang breaks it down ahead. tracy: alzheimer's costs are projected to surge in the coming years. how will it impact our health care system already under strain? fox news's dr. manny alvarez has more on the mental dollars -- medical dollars, next great, everybody made it.

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>> new reports that alzheimer's cases in the u.s. triple by 2050, totally raising alarm about our ability to pay for the medical costs from this debilitating disease projected to reach 1.1 trillion dollars. are we paying enough attention todd -- to the growing epidemic? dr. manny alvarez joining us now. it seems like you hear it more and more, why? >> because we're an aging population. that's the key. a lot of the chronic med conditions whether it's heart disease, but alzheimer's, parkinsons, people live longer, typically into their 70s, 80 #s, and sometimes 90 #s, and statistically as the population ages, you'll see that increase. by 20 # --

2050, the cost today will skyrocket to $1 trillion. this -- the other aspect is for chronic medical conditions, like, say, like diabetes or, let's say heart disease, out of pocket expenses for a typical family is $2,000, and this out of pocket expense is not -- it's not reimbursable by the insurance companies. when you look at families with alzheimer's patients, it's $8,000 a year. a lot of expenses. that's why i got a little excited this morning when i read that the president is trying to put a very big national project in sort of mapping out the human brain, you know, like the genome project was a few years ago. i think that's very important. >> right now, there's no cure for this. >> no cure. we have poor diagnosis in, you know, sort of screening pairkts. we don't know, really, what the risk factors are completely.

we know things like diabetes and chronic heart disease put people at risks. genetics are important, but we don't have good screening tools, and, certainly, we don't have strong medications for treatment. the research and development in the medications now in the wagon are expensive. when they do come out, they will not be 100% efficacious and they will be expensive. >> do you think it's odd, though, that in this day and age, we have nothing to offer al himmer patients. >> no, no, but, listen, i think mapping the human brain, which is the next frontier, to me, the next frontier is understanding the human brain from the neurobiology to the genetics to artificial intelligence which adds simplification. that whole plan in combination with the federal government and private industry, hopefully, in two or three years from now may break many of the things right

now that we just don't know how to deal with. i'm excited. this is -- this -- you know, i'm not for spending more dollars on the federal level, but i think that mapping the human brain is the next frontier, and i think something needs to be done along those lines. >> everybody knows somebody with alzheimer's, the worst thing to watch. >> yes. >> thank you so much, writing about this on the site? >> absolutely. >> check it out. thank you. a shocking new labor fight putting one california farm against a union that claims just showedded up. we have exclusive details next. ashley: china claims their economy is ruering back, but gordon chang says look at the numbers. he says they reveal the opposite is true, and he is here next. ♪ this is $100,000.

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♪ cheryl: i'm cheryl casone with the fox business brief. office max and office dee bow this talks to merge according to the "wall street journal". it's expected to be stock for stock. the exact terms could not be learned. an announcement could be as early as this week as they fight increased competition from rivals staples and amazon.com. burger king's twitter account was hacked, rebranded as mcdonald's.

the twitter account has been suspended as of now. in a statement, burger king apologizes to the followers, and told, quote, we don't comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons, end quote. a study says switching the tv channel from violent shows to educational ones can improve a preschooler's behavior. a researcher at the research institute says it's not about turning off the television, but changing the channel. don't change this channel because the fox business network --

>> treasury secretary nominee jack lew says he'll continue to push china to stop manipulating its currency in the next hearing, but my next gust doesn't think the obama administration will do anything to stop, and will not take it seriously until we do. gordon chang, thank you for being here, getting to currency manipulation in a minute, but china said their economy grew

7.8% last year and is very optimistic for this year, but you, clearly, are not convinced. why? >> not convinced because the reliable indicator of activity is electricity. last year, electricity output increased by 4.5%. because gdp growth is historically 85% of the electricity, that's 3.8%. when you look at manufacturing surveys, price indexes, corporate results, other indicators, it shows the china economy in low single digits. >> you believe the state is propping it up, continuing to pump money into it, artificially inflated? >> yeah, it's state investment. china has as many ghost cities and high speed raillines to nowhere that it needs. the problem is this is taking china away further from its only sustainable growth model, one based on consumption, creating enormous amounts of debt. china has a massive debt problem. you know, as they say, every

province in china is a greece. they don't need more debt. >> the question is, they constantly said they wanted to change the economy into a demand -- domestic-demand, not be reliant on exports. have they made headway in that sense? >> not really. you know, since 2008-2009, the role of consumption to gdp has fallen. it's now 35%. that's the lowest rate in the world. you know, the communism party, because of the corruption concerns, has this anticonsumption campaign about not going to restaurants, not drinking liquor, all the rest of it. that hurt consumption over the last two to three weeks. this really shows that when the chips are down, you know, the party believes in state investment. it doesn't believe in consumption. >> so, with the domestic demand not really there, it's important for the government to keep the currency down because the exports become that much more important, but this has been going on for a long, long time. have, you know, when is it time for the u.s. to really challenge

china on this? >> well, it certainly was five to ten years ago. >> yeah. >> but it is certainly now. it's good that jack lew says he's goinged too something about it. you got to remember that timothy geithner, now treasury secretary, in his confirmation hearings, talked about china's currency, and he did nothing. president obama as a candidate in 2007 talk about this. he did nothing in the first term. >> what can they do? the chinese say, that's great, and they carry on doing what they are doing. >> last year, china's trade surplus against the united states was 136.3% of the overall trade surplus giving us leverage. that number is based on china's official export numbers. it's probably a lot higher because china fiddles with export numbers. so, you know, right now, we have enormous amounts of leverage, but only if we care to use it. the problem is this administration believes we can't do anything so it's not doing anything. if you have that mind set, you won't do anything effective.

>> all right, leaving it on that strong message. thank you so much for being here. >> thank you, ashley. >> now we have a fox business exclusive on a union fight for you. down on the farm, the nation's largest grower of peaches, plums, and nectarines locked in a strange dispute with the united farm workers. amid charges and countercharges of unfair labor practices in a brand new lawsuit the farm filed friday against the union suing it for libel. dennis kneale has the exclusive story joining us now. >> hey, tracy, the family owned farm that started in 1938 in fresno, california. in 1990, the united farm workers, at the time, run by caesar chavez, won to represent workers, but they were absent for 20 years, the grower says, and the union admits as much until last fall when the union

said they plan to bargaining on workers' behalf. where were you the last 20 years, the farm asked? the union refused to answer, but said they fought off the farm for 20 years, and they rejected. they admitted it was not true, and on friday, they sued the ufw for libel. key points, first, 95% of the workers were not at the company when the union vote took place in 1990. some of them were toddlers at the time. second, the workers did just fine for 20 years without a union. they are earn $10-$15 an hour, learn english in a local college, and they provide college loans for workers and scholarships for their children, and, third, they had 1300 workers when the workers won the election back in 1990 with just 536 yes votes. it has over 5,000 full timers today, and almost 12,000 at peak harvest. united farm workers, by

contrast, has withered on the vine with 27,000 members in 2000, and, today, fewer than 5,000 members. getting in the door would union or triple membership, and the ufw could get dues of 3% of each paycheck docking new members who never voted for representation. that's the way it is to do business in california, tracy. tracy: yeah, right? happy, good times. dennis, thank you very much. >> thanks. ashley: business travel on the cheap. how companies are asking employees to save money on the road. tracy: that's next. yeah, imagine. rising commodity prices hurting one american farm that serves customers around the globe. jeff block has a preview. hey, jeff. >> tracy, ashley, i'm taking you inside something you'll see on no other business channel, just here on the fox business network. i'm inside a breeder barn where they breed pheasants. it's a huge business, and we're

at the largest pheasant farm in america. back live, look at the birds, 60,000 of them here. up close and personal when we return. stay tuned. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] it was designed to escape the ordinary. it feels like it can escape gravity. ♪ the 2013 c-class coupe. ♪ starting at $37,800. ♪ ah. 4g, huh? verizon 4g lte. 700 megahertz spectrum, end-to-end, pure lte build. the most consistent speeds indoors or out. and, obviously, astonishing throughput. obviously... you know how fast our home wifi is? yeah. this is basically just asast. oh.

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tracy: breaking news for you now. the coast guard said the cause of the engine room fire on cruise ship triumph was a leak in a fuel oil return line. i don't know if that's going to make people feel better. ashley: at least they know what caused it, but my goodness. tracy: the ship had issues before it left. ashley: now we have the lawsuits. higher feed cost, and now fez cants feel the pinch. we are live in the pheasant

capital in jamesville, wisconsin, jeff? >> mcfarland pheasants, the largest pheasant farm in, realm, we think in the world, but we know in the u.s. and in north america, and you're looking inside a breeder barn right now. i got sarah pope with me, maybe as our camera walks up, the controls there, you see they are not big fans of cameras, but you got a huge operation here, but the stuff that they eat, just like everybody else that raises livestock today pay for for it. >> grain prices affecting the business. >> maybe we put up the charts for things like live cattle and lean hogs. obviously, the prices there are depressed because a lot of people sold off herds. you have not had to do that, though, your business continues to expand. >> correct. smaller producers are going out of business. they can't handle rising grain prices. >> you hedged better.

they use the cme like a lot of people use the cme. i tell you, these are both -- girls and boys, they are ring necks, the ones you see a little, you know, collar around, those are the boys; right? >> correct. they are the pretty ones. there's 3,000 hen fez cants in the barn. >> interesting, come with me because if you look under here, and i don't want to step on one, but this is where they lay their eggs. take a look. that, and you can feel that now. it's warm. that's just been laid. that's what they do, lay them all over. whole foods actually buys from you guys now because they love this free range, you know, raising of animals. it's not like the chickens, you know, in a conninedded space. this is all a friendly space to the pheasants, and i'll tell you, they must be happy because there you go, the fruits of their labor. ashley: look at that. scrak --

scrambled or over easy. fascinating, interesting, thank you. tracy: poor pheasants. in another bright sign for the economy, corporate travel spending's expected to return to prerecession levels this year; however, many company ask their employees to travel on the cheap. how is this impacting morale and travel industry at large? bringing in the president of the corporate travel executives, saw san, thank you -- suzanne, thank you for being with us. it's good, i guess, that we're getting our people back out there again; right? at one point, we thought everything would be by video conference. we are seeing travel come back; right? >> absolutely. focus right predicts we'll be at a hundred billion in u.s. travel spend by the end of this year, pretty much prerecession rates, but we travel differently. corporations figured out lessons learned in twerch -- 2007 and 2008 that those rules

do not need to be rolled back to 2006 levels. they can get more out of the travel spend by managing the policy a little better. tracy: right. we're talking about, like, easy on the rental car here, no more first class. some are not reimbursing for checked bags. that's kind of big, isn't it? >> that's right, so benchmark survey from mid last year found that the number of reimbursed first checked bags went down year over year; however, that's deceptive because most frequent travelers are on the loyal program with airlines where they do, in fact, get a number of one or two bags that are checked as part of the ticket, but i think in the grand scheme of things, the frequent travelers held accountable for some things that in the past they would not have, and wouldn't have expected to have to carry on their bags when they could have checked it before. we found the same in wifi actually. wifi could be a given for a business traveler on an airline, but, n., 50% of companies

reimburse for that on the plane. tracy: wow. i believe the room service bill is watched as well these days; right? are certain industries little skimpier than others, thougg? >> i think that's the case. corporate culture has everything to do with it so within a tech space, we find that the company policy is much more stringent. we find as well that in the investment banks, maybe the high end consulting firms, that there's still more jen rose sigh in -- generous in the travel policy. they expect corporate travelers to use miles to upgrade for that transatlantic or transpacific flight if they can rather than simply booking a business class ticket to begin with. tracy: how does that affect morale, it was big to travel and get a glass of champaigne on the plane. >> i thought about what positives there are in sitting in the back of the plane, but bigger sense of equality that c

level executives feel unified with the workers sitting in the back together, but there's another side benefit which i chuckle about, an i'm not sure if only women think of it, but the men as well. when you're in the book, especially on a domestic flight, and you tend to control your alcohol and food level intake better than when you are up front and constantly being serve d. that's a plus. tracy: i travel with the children all the time, and i'm always in the last row. there's nothing good about it, i tell you. president of corporate travel executives, thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. tracy: nothing pleasant for that. >> i'd drink more in economy for obvious reasons. tracy: have to go to the bathroom like me. ashley: retailers cuts prices this president's day. a deal for you, ddr managing the shopping corporations for the biggest retailers like walmart, target, sears, and best bye.

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