a massive bloodletting in jobs that got flung all over the map, it was a mitt an and -- hit and miss. you can't do that prior. what do you say? >> you are right. you can look at keystone, a project that department of state concluded was environmentally safe yet we're style without a project, and department of energy conclude we can safely export natural gas, this is not even about a trade off between the economy and the environment. we can do these projects, prevents these projects will stop a lot of jobs from being created, it is not going to make a development in global emissions. it making no sense to me and the

economy. neil: malia. >> i just quickly top say, i understand how we like to take things and combine themm but, i do not think that the only reason why keystone project is not happening is because, barack obama asked his agency this question, to get back to original topic, what i think is really important for us to look forward and you know neil, i don't think that anyone would disagree with you that jobs are important, the problem with laser beam focus you have a society and a lot of things that need to be focused on, laser beaming becomes narrowing, i don't think that is how we' our president or anyone in congress to just have like this one bullet silver bullet solution on what will save the u.s., that is not only thing that u.s. needs right now, we not only have a jobs problem. neil: i think it should be your

highest priority. >> it is important for us to look -- >> okay, i understand. >> i don't know why we're again saving the world. neil: i'm not again saving the whales and birds, i'm i want jobs, that is it, good night. >> hello i'm gerri willis tonight on "the willis report." shock waves in the market, cyprus looks to move two sees money in the bank accounts they can pay their debt. could that happen here? and people who cannot pay and penalizing those who do pay. an actual plan being drawn up, and a new business boom with a royal twist, the rush to get kate middleton. "the willis report" is on the case.

gerri: we will have all that and more coming up later in the show, but a fox business alert, federal prosecutors in california planning criminal charges against he was the top official for california public employees retirement system for 6 years, for 2002 to 2008 he with a former replacement agent are accused of conspiracy to defraud the u.s engaging in a fall scheme against the u.s., both were indicted by a grand jury today, we'll have fox business' very own liz mack donald on -- mcdonald on to explain it, in the meantime stocks taking a hit on crise us in cyprus, the dow down 62 points, s&p and nazda alson negative torii huntery,s re-- in negative territory. residents of cyprus rushing to

pull money out of the banks and atms at as nation's governments weighs a new bank account tax. there would be a 3% tax for deposits under $100 thousand euros, and a 10% tax and 15% tax for amounts larger than 500,000 euros, country central bank declaring a holiday until thursday, when they vote on the plan, this is sparking investor fears at home, joining me now lance roberts, host of street talk live, and xena. partner and cfa, welcome all, great to have you here, lance, i'll start with you, i have to assume some wealthy individuals are having questions about safety of their money, have you

gotten any calls, are you expecting any? >> i'm not expecting any but i would not be surprised to see people talk more about this in next few days it is very late tonight anyway it looks like they will preserve the under $100 thousand mark and go after larger deposits, but the question, here in u.s., could it happen here? probably not. but the question is, ha hasn't t already happenith standpoint feds suppressing interest rates, that is the rate less than inflation, negative interest rate it has already happened here. gerri: let's go to xena for a second, a lot of people out there think this would never happen on our shores, i over in thought one of the nation's biggest banks would go belly up, and washington mutual fun mutua-

mutual did. continental illinoisn 1984, 7th biggest bank in the country belly up, it is happen here, what do you tell your clients? >> we have not got than many questions either, sive russ is an in-- cyprus is an interesting situation, if anybody tried that here there would be a mess of lawyers right away, and cyprus, what is going on is the e.u. government is fed up with bailing out some of the countries, cypru is known as a tax shelter for a lot of non-eu countries as well. gerri: face it a lot of russian criminals put their moneys in those banks that is why regulators were happy to impose at first a 30% tax, they thought none of the russian oligarchs would be able to complain about it steve, if people have questions out there, one

question is, where else can i put my money? biggest banks in the country. may or may not be at risk, there maor may not be questions, but what other options do i have, someone with serious money and saving for a lifetime. >> the banks of paying least amount of interest. there is no question that the banks the return on your investment in banks is very low, but, i do want to state that the return of your investment in u.s. banks is still highest almost that it has been, u.s. barges are safe as they have been in 50 years, i don't think there is a question there the place to be right now is in stocks. not just because stock market is rising but because earnings yield, the aim you get a dollar's worth of earnings for a dollar investment is very high. relative to what you are getting in savings accounts, that is where your money should go.

stocks are the place to be. gerri: all right, lance, do you agree with that? you know you said major banks are still a financial train wreck, what do i do about that? >> go to -- regional barges and smaller regional banks are better financial shape than a lot of major 5, major banks are still living on 80 billion a month in subsidies, back to issue of earnings yield, you do not receive a earnings yield on shocks, if stocks decline by 30%, you lose 30% of your money that is not a place safe for savings. >> where would you put your money, let's say you are the person who is concerned about banking system, and global banking system, what would you do? >> well you have be really smart about it what steve said is true, you need return of principle you need to find

corporate bonds with a track strong balance sheet, u.s. treasury still pay better than money market banks and still safest bet on the planet right now in terms of that there is no flight from bonds to stocks any time soon, we live in an inflationary environment, bonds return your principal. gerri: all right, thank you, you know what is interesting, i think tiny country, about a million people live there. cyprus, causing these ripples these concerns, tiny gdp . and yet one bank observer said this, if spanish and italian bank deposit irwake up tomorrow, and say they could tax my deposits too the potential for an international run on the banks is a high-risk.

when people say things like that, this is someone who is an expert at banking. who actually does spend a fair bit of time studying these institutions, what should people be thinking about? maybe another option for investing ? >> behides savings, here in u.s. where you are not getting anything, we're -- like we get the question all of the time, it just, a good portfolio has a diverse set of assets whether it is commodities, real estate real , stock, international, and emerging or bonds it is properly allocated and risk managing of that portfolio, the buy and hole is not necessarily great for investors when investor see market swings sometimes their behavior is suboptimal, they might buy too high or sell too low. gerri:hat one product do i buy now? >> i would go to afternoon add -- would go to an advisor and

question him. gerri: the more diversified the better. thank you so much, i appreciate your putting up with me, thank you for the time, we have to think about those issues, maybe you think they can't happen but we sure have seen some things in last few years that have shocked me, and i followed this industry for a long time, thank you so much appreciate it. >> thank you. gerri: now we want to know what you think, your question, do you -- do you trust your bank? log on to gerriwillis.com, and vote on right-hand side of the screen. gerri: as i told you at top of the show, federal prosecutors in california planning to file criminal charges against former calper ceo fred. fox business' biz mcdonnal is joining me now. >> a big ramification, a big ripple effect it was watched in investment world, what happened

is they have been charged and indictmented with getting kickbacks for working with apoll apollo global management. and former deputy mayor of los angeles also an investment officer at calpers has also been indicted in thisscriminal case, conspiracy to to create false documents. where they were making money, this is the issue, you have been covering this took california taxpayer fund, and guarantee and pack calpers, it is the biggest pension fund in the country, the question is when will re regator step in, we see cases like this pop up in hawaii, florida, and

we saw them go after illinois for shortchanging. the fact that this is a criminal case is a big deal, pension funds are maybe 50% funded, government regulator tend to not investigate the types of fraud because of political under tow they could get caught under, the fact that we have a criminal indictment in this case, makes me wonder if there will be more cases broughtgainst public pension funds for similar fraud. gerri: i would like to see this kind of behavior stopped. we talkingbout money of public sector employees, retirement funds, we don't need to waste money giving the work to people who are political connectioned. >> the issue is took taxpayer, not only help fund the pension plans but they guarantee them, so if these funds go under, they

could be at risk of a taxpayer bailout, that is why government needs to step in, you would think that prosecutor would think this is a great vein to sort of tap into to see if there is more criminal activity in public pension field. gerri: unbelieve able, liz thank you. appreciate it. all right we're just getting started, we have more to come, homeowners could say good-bye to nortage interest deduction if the obama administration gets its way, u.s. tax pair, planning to raise awareness for food stamps in another country. we get to the bottom of the outrage, coming up next. stay with us. gotcha !

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gerri: fannie and freddie may be getting a new boss, democratic congressman from north carolina is reportedly under considering to lead housing finance agency, congressman, advocate for more access to mortgage and loans for low income consumers and black consumers is raising eyebrows, it as his colleagues in washington put popular mortgage interest deduct, here if weigh in dan hedinger from w "wall street journal." i am blown away by the mel watts story. this time, is that what drove us into the financial crisis in first place? >> it is. not to put too 5 find a point, t appointing a member of house of representative to be chief regulator of fannie mae and

freddie mac is basically insane, for starter congressman watt took campaign contribute prug contribution from fannie and freddie, secondly, let's understand, that agency, federal housing finance agency is only 5 years old. it was created in the wake of the problem with fannie and freddie, and its job is to preserve and conserve its asset, the taxpayer money, put it on a sound footing. gerri: its job is not to determine who should get mortgages but that it continues and is sound. >> current head is edward dimarco, which has put him at laggerheads with house democrats, who in january of 2012 asked president obama to

replace ed dimarco. gerri: i have to talk about this idea of getting rid of mortgage deduction, right now it is being discussed for people with very bis mortgages or second homes, a lot of wealthy people who they say are okay with that, i look at the confluence of the story, mel watt on one hand saying we have to get more loans to people who may not be able to afford them. that is what we learned in the financial crisis. and let's take the deduct away from people who make the mortgage does that make sense to you? >> it does not, it is typical of convoluted way that washington thinks about issue, the issue is tax reform, if you do tox reform and lower rates mortgage interest deduct has to be on the table. i've been fascinated by proposal back that simon bowles commission said if we eliminated

all of these deducts you could get tax rate to 8, 13 and 23%, much more simplified tax system, if you add them back it is hard to know where to stop. gerri: problem with that thinking is that house market has been in a funk sohiel kabir long, if you -- been in a funk for so long. >> this is like agriculture in france supposed to be part of the way of life, does that mean we have to subsidize housing. gerri: there are all kinds of thin we subsidize, breaks for being married and having children, we do make moral choices all of the time with our tax code. >> that is why the tax code is a mess, if we simplify it, give people money back off the top. gerri: flat tax, i think our

viewers agr, i would love to see the housing market gets bailed out to me what is what drives middle class money, makes people whole in their retirement. dan, i have leave it there. thank you for coming on, and disagreeing with me. up next hypocrisy of our federal government, wait until you hear how the feds are wasting your taxpayer dollars, and former new mexico governor bill richardson will join me with an exclusive interview, stay with us. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna bour brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online.

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gerri: if the sequester has done one thing, and just one thing, it is expose the hypocrisy in government. we were warned of chaos at nation's airport, security would be compromised, safety would take a backseat, and janet napolitano took to the airwaves and said she did not want to cause panic, but that is what it was panic, i hypocrisy. thin the harping on about think about cuts on tas, and agency pushed through uniforms. that were made in mexico. now this, president obama agriculture secretary tom vilsack said there would be

millions of dollars in economic losses is serious public health cuts because budget cuts would force the department offing fina agriculture to stop meat inspections, in other words when -- e.coli and salmonella your food could kill you, until this, they are forging ahead with a partnership with mexican government with food stamps, letting the world's poor know how generous our benefits are and how to get them, top republican senator jeff sessions tried to get funding for that program cut, democrats shot him down, according to a letter from secretary vilsack to sessions in last 10 year the partnership has included 100 meetings between u.s. and mexico an consulat

staff, 29 health care events, and 31 round table discussions, conferences and forums in 2013 cies, money for that but mo money f food inspections for americans, and plenty of money for free food for people from other countries, that awareness program seems to be working urecord 50 million people here are on food stamps. usda spending money on another program. the cook is safing program for college student. >> welcome to come itafe challenge, teams must read and follow packaged cooking instructs and know your microwave wattage. gerri: unbelievable, you are paying for that ad. program teaching college kids how to use a microwave, i'm sure they have never done that, they have to use it to kill germs that escaped meat inspectors. >> on another topic, banking, is

free checking a thing of the past? a new stunning report. >> and up next are business leaders the new diplomat, bill richardson with his take, there is right there. mowing your lawn isn't always easy. but maybe the problem isn't your lawn. introducing the all-wheel-drive mower from husqvarna. we engineered its unique drive system and dual transmission to handle hills& thick grass& and tough terrain& without losing traction or power the all-wheel-drive mower from husqvarna. challenge the impossible. visit us online to enter the challenge the impossible promotion

gerri: can american business leader succeed in change the world in places our political leaders can't? that is question that many are asking for former new mexico governor bill richardson visited north korea, is this the new american diplomacy, bill rrchardson is joining me now. thank you for joining me. let's talk about your trip, do

you think this is a harbinger of a different kind of diplomacy, do more en leaders want to talk more to the ceos than the state department. >> not more to the ceos, but i think one of our big positive export is our technology, so ceo like eric smith of google and gates of microsoft that are known worl worldwide, they tooks google stuff out, i was just another politician, they could care less about me. but i think talking about the advantages of the internet as eric did, even though there are sanctions, i think it is a big plus with north korean government looking at us, and people and students. gerri: should business executives being talking to countries that we have real problem work like north korea, like iran, these countries that

are very -- verboten . >> state didn' department gets nervous, i think with eric and north korea it was very valuable, in north korea there is no internet, the government controls it look at arab spring what happened, facebook, and twitter, and made all of these people want to get the -- >> you could not do that in north korea, people cannot afford food much less a laptop or anything else, we so far from that day, it seems that you know when state department heard about your trip, they said, it was really a cross purpose for them, it did not advance the ball. >> well, we disagreed, nobody is talking to north korea, y want to say to north korea, is what you are missing out on, north korea is the internet, is your

people communicating, is technology, is education. and i think that is what eric said to them, he was not there to try to bring going to told north korea, he was there as a privates have, i invited hill, and i think we made cases to the noh koreans, don't do any more launches, don't launch any more nuclear detonations, we didn't have much success there, but talking to your enemies is not necessarily a concession, you want them to get a bettern 'ting of you. gerri: a better conversation, dennis rodman, they like celebrities, but does it do anything that is worth while at the end of the day. you said yourselves, you didn't get anywhere of hold back development of your nuclear bomb, could it do more harm than

good. >> hundreds of north koreas listened to eric talk about the internet, we penetrate tad country, that population, that we never did. it was eric, google, you know i was just another politician. gerri: i do want to talk to you about china before you go. how do we engage with them? do we need a charm ofoxiv offeny american ceos, we've had huge interact between corporate america and china. how do we have the right kind of engagement with them. >> china i is a strategic competitor of ours, we need china to lean on north korea for them to stop detonating nuclear weapons, china doesn't want to

do it but they help a little bit. we have a lot of important trade relations, commercial with china. we have to get along with them. gerri: to me, it seems, their ownership of our debt gives them leverage that we otherwise would no want them to have. >> that is right, that not healthy, but at the same time, we want them in northeast asia to be constructive and positive, not fighting the japanese over islands and south korea. we want them to lean on north korea, north korea spend money on their people. they are the poorest nation on earth, not on their nuclear weapons, a major power like klein can do that? we'll see, thank you governor appreciate your being here, coming up, what angry consumers are doing to protest h&r block's cost lcostly blender, and new

information on credit unions next.

gerri: if you are looking for a free checking account these days, chances are, you are probably not going to find it at your local bank, percentage of offering free, no strings attached has dropped, down 26%, will the trend continue, should you consider a credit union

instead. mcbride is joining me now with details, you have a lot of great numbers here. so you do the mag, it looks like credit unions offer the better deal. >> they used to run neck-and-neck, but banks, and the availability of free chec checking has dropped. and credit union its has dropped just a hair, more than 70% of largest credit unions still offer a stand aloneree checking. gerri: you can get around the bank fees if you have a big enough balance. >> if you have a big enough balance or sometimes, simple as signing up for direct deposit. we have seen stand alone free checking account decline, wee3 have seen is more than 90% of the accounts can get the fee waived. >> the thing that blows me away,

less than 5% of credit unions have fees for debit card transactions, wow. that is a big difference. >> it is comparable at banks, the point is that a lot of fear a couple years ago that debit card fee would catch onumbers bear out the fact it has not. gerri: you said 30% do not change to use other banks atms, that is credit unions. >> it is top of that, credit unions they are small but they belong to larger atm networks they can open thousands of atms their members can use free of change. gerri: people think they don't have any atms they do, net, net you found that credit unions have big advantages over banks, so if you are frustrated with yo bank, it might be a good move. >> you have to include the credit unions in your comparison shopping. gerri: do you believe that, do

they have -- the thing that i worry about, because i bank on-line. on my ipad all of the time, i don't want to have to go into a branch, do the credit unions have same on-line presence as the big banks. >> they are getting there, on-line yes, mobile banks that is the adoption picking up, they are not the first but they do pick it up. for people who value those convenients you can still fd it. gerri: craig love having you on. >> thank you gerri. gerri: a software glitch heard, round the world this week, a filing error involving h&r block, getting refunds weeks.

customer alleging that company has not returned any fees, joining me now, wealth health managi director, rich, what do you make of this, i was blown away. >> this is a huge error, the problem, do you things last minute with changes in tax law occur very late, and systems that needed to be upgrade, and irs trying to upgrade their forms they delayed filings, you will see a problem in any business with system upgrades, the question now, is it h&r block system they pay to use or irs sim -- system, the big problem is the education credit. gerri: should they be simple forms. >> they should be bthey have revised form, there are new questions, in past if you did not answer a question, it was taken as a no, but with the new system it needs to be filled

out, really just systems not speaking the same language, you know we get this in all businesses first time do you stuff? all right, okay, system are bad. here is where the h&r block ceo, i want to make it clear, this is absalutely not the fault of your tax professional, we're working every avenue we can to get yourr refund to you as fast as possible, so why not refun the fee, at the end of the day if i refile, do it all over again, should i be paying for this, if i am an h&r block client, should i get a refund. >> i think they will make good on it they might share the cost or file additional form in proper way without additional cost to the taxpayer, yes. gerri: all right, we'll continue to follow that story, that is for sure, i am amazed. i hope that a and -- h&r block

might come on the show, to a different topic, tax tips for retirees, a new things that retirees need to be thinking out. so, tell us what you think should be there their agenda. >> first oanyone's agenda that looking to retire, you really have to plan, you know i'm a planner, the discipline that you know alleviates, some mistakes made when you don't do planning in advance, we're here about 401(k), start contributing at 20 or 25 years, foreople getting toward retirement at least 3 to 5 years look at planning, make shaassumption about your expenss and taxes, model is out, you may have to work longer save more, contribute higher dollar amount to your retirement plan, you can't wait until the last

minute. gerri: one thingn your list i thought of the interesting, don't automaticallyayoff your mortgage, it seems that every retiree wants to paid off that is not a monthly bill you want to pay, you say don't. why? >> well you know, ita blind over matter. -- mind over matter, a lot of people would like to know they are living in the house debt free, but when you go to retirement, you take a lump sum to pay down tour mortgage that is that much less in your investment portfolio to live on in future, if you have a mortgage rate of 4%, after tax it might cost you 3%, portfolio with a return of 5% you made that spread, that 2 to 3%, you are or all -- your overall net worth is better, youment a higher net worth. gerri: always an emotional decision i think for retirees.

sometimes you are too conservative. rich thank you for coming on. >> thank you, gerri. gerri: well, we're not done yet to the day in business history, this business day in 1931 the first electric razor went on sale, insoape invented by jacko. company told 3,000 electric razors in first year, the schick model s came out in 1935, and two years later, 1.5 million electric razors were sold. >> still to come in show, latest plastic surgery obsession sweeps northeast, inspired by one of kate middleton's hottest features, the scoop on when body part women are spending big bucks to replicate when we come

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gerri: kate middleton creating a fashion craze, this time it's her nose. new york plastic surgeons are seeing a boom of young women in their offices requesting the duchess' royal nose, with more, dr. mark siegel. you told me in break you are not a fan of this you have to clear people all of the time for it. tell me about it.

>> i'm the middle man, they say i'm having a surgery, someone is charging me a lot of money, and you have to sign and clear, i say, why are you having this? i have young women that say they want lipo suction, they are set up, i say why. you don't have any excess fat. you know, you are fine. gerri: you fight the good fight, you fight back. what leads this trend, why do people do this, in particular this example, a famous beautiful important, people want to copy that why? >> that is the tip-off, they don't want to be themselves they want to be someone else, they are stargazing, t celebrity, i want be to like them, 150,000 nose jobs to look like kate middleton's nose, number one on -ist, breast augmentation over 250,000 or lipo, those are number ones, people have to be, i'm not a psychiatrist people want to be more happy with

themselves. gerri: let me ask you, you would say, here is a picture of kate's nose, this is what i want, but it does not take into correction what does it look like on your face. >> that is my real message, be careful what you wish for on other end there are risks of anesthesia and people get vomiting and high blood pressure or an allergy, you may not get results you want, you could have an infection or scarring or trouble breathining through the nose, i don't mind doing them for medical reasons, hey, doc, i conbreathe, rhino blasty is in order. >> more and more fellows are doing it too? >> they are getting rid of man boobs or working on the turkey neck, whatever it is, the women say, it is not to please men,

they are doing it to please themselves. gerri: it my image, how i look is how i file, what do you say? >> i say, exercise, eat right and sleep right, you will feel better, we every do this image issue. i am not 100% against it, but it is way over utilized. gerri: there are more plastic surge reopro seedures, 14 -- surgery procedures, they go up and up every year, maybe we're spending too much time as a society on this, in you think about money that goes into that, you can use your money for what you want, but, could it be better used? >> let's cure the obicety problem. -- let's walk and exercise, by the time have you this cosmetic surgery, we are not anticipating side effects, i do not believe in cosmetic surgery period, but in a do a lot of reconstructive

work, they are well trained, i'm not putting the kibosh on them, i am just saying be careful what you wish for. gerri: you play not need cade middleton's nose. >> thank you we'll be right back with my 2-cents more and the answer to my question of the day, do you trust your bank? at od, whatever business you're in, that's the business we're in. with premium service like one of the best on-time delivery records and a low claims ratio, we do whatever it takes to make your business our business. od. helping the world keep promises.

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