with smoking, you will not stop one person from buying a pack of cigarettes because there is a sign. >> i think the idea is to prevent people from buying it as an impulse. you walk in and you see it and you want to buy it, but people who have been smoking for a while are already addicted to nicotine and they will seek it out no matter what. trying to get kids not to start. in terms of impulse buys, hide the snickers. melissa: that is what he will do next. you can only get carrots at the checkout. here is an interesting one, a

british mattress manufacturer is selling this bed for $175,000. the companies say it is a royal bed. it is important to get a good nights sleep every night. that has specially woven silk. i don't know, that sounds pretty fabulous. now i want it. >> i am with you on this. i cannot afford to buy it. you cannot fly it or anything. melissa: it is like niagara falls and vibrates. melissa: i would like to buy it. speaker you'd want to work from the bed and have dinner and other things.

melissa: all right, i don't know what else i can say without getting troubles i might just end of the show. we will see you back here tomorrow, i hope. "the willis report" is coming up next. gerri: hello, everybody, i am gerri willis. tonight on "the willis report." in a health warning about a compounding drug company. the fda still try to get a handle on this latest contamination. also, the new housing bubble forming. big investors on a buying spree. what does it mean for you? and big changes coming to the way you shop for airline tickets. making it impossible to compare prices. we are taking off next on "the willis report."

gerri: all that and more coming up later in the show, but first, our top story, tainted drugs. painkillers, cardiac magazine, antibiotics, you name it. all recalled by the food and drug administration. the medication you're taking yog right now could be dangerous. the fda says drugs produced by compounding pharmacy in new jersey may be contaminated with mold. after health care providers in etiquette head floating particles identified as a fungus in five bags of magnesium sulfate intravenous solution. it is in practically everything, as i mentioned. antibiotics, and ascetic, painkillers, labor inducing drugs, all of which distributed regional hospitals and several states. the fda says they're working with officials in new jersey and

connecticut to determine the scope of the contamination at this time and this comes months after noon when compounding center distributed thousands of steroid injections which ultimately ended up killing 50 people. joining me now with the details, a cardiologist and director of the new york cardiac diagnostic center. here we go again. it is less than five months later, another case brewing, people could be hurt, why can't we fix this? >> you are dealing with federal versus state regulators, in the last several years hospitals have increased almost 40% of them coming from these smaller less regulated companies. gerri: a lot of people are asking me how do i know if i have one of these drugs, where would i get them? >> it may be a hospital using

intravenous solutions, anything into the vein could be dangerous and they get them from the middleman and they get them from a compounding so it is very difficult and a big problem, this is the tip of the iceberg. gerri: can i call my doctor and find out if they are using these medicines? >> the scary part is they probably will not know where they're coming from. gerri: that is scary. i want you to see what the ceo had to say. this is confounding to me. pharmacists shouldn't kne need o adhere to the same standards because they are so small. they have answered primarily to state boards rather than the fda. should they meet statt standards? >> these are medications, formless going intravenously, they can kill you have not done properly. these should be as related as

major pharmaceutical companies, there is no doubt about it and strictly a profit motive driving comments like that. gerri: don't you think the regulators there some kind of responsibility here? there are regulators here, does not like the government isn't assigned to monitor this. >> in 2007 the cdc found these smaller companies have less stringent regulations and lower quality control. there is no doubt this is a major problem that has to be addressed. gerri: you are right in the middle of this. >> i try not to take medications from the smaller pharmaceutical companies, or try to find out where they are coming from and i refuse medication for my compounding company and wait until we can get it from a major company. pity they should be required to get involved and take a load off of some of these companies with less stringent requirements. gerri: i used to be more

popular, now they are less popular, growing yet again. now we have 17 state laws making their way through state legislatures to answer to this question, but that can take a long time. what do you recommend consumers to do right now? >> they have to basically check with their doctors, check whether hospitals and see if they can checkout. start raising the questions now. gerri: thank you for coming on. i appreciate your time, thank you. you are used to hearing the bad news about retirement especially if you invested throughout the financial crisis, but today in a new report from employee benefit research institute shows you've got company. 57% of u.s. workers surveyed reported having less than $25,000 in savings for retirement. that compares to 49% who said the same thing back in 2008. keep in mind we have just been

through one of the most impressive stock rallies in memory. 66% of us are saving for retirement these days. also half of u.s. workers cannot come up with $2000 in a crisis. that means half of us couldn't cope with the short-term job loss or major home repair or even a car repair as that is concerned. we need to get back on track, take control of our lives. it is up to each of us to put together enough retirement money, get the kids through college and still get food on the table every night. here at "the willis report" we intend to help you do just that. an important story, a federal grand jury has indicted the former ceo of california public employees retirement system. on charges of fraud, these are criminal charges, federal prosecutors allege they

conspired to transmit fraudulent documents with a stomach and investment. if it's up to 20 years in prison. here with the details, senior editor of the city journal and of course his book shakedown. welcome back to the show. so, it is a criminal charge these guys face. what exactly were they doing? it is a little difficult to follow in the coverage. >> a former board member who left acting as a go-between and the charge is the ceo of the company doctored some documents so it would seem this guy is doing work and therefore one of the investment firms had to pay the big fee.

you have to understand, this is just a very narrow charge for a controversy blowing up for the last three years. gerri: you say to have a decade of bad management and this is the biggest in the country. >> exactly. there's a whole bunch of stuff going on here that is important. the state attorneys general office has been involved. this tape exchang state exchangn has been involved. gerri: regulators. >> another board member who has since resigned brought before the attorney general and basically pled the fifth amendment 126 times in this administration. the big problem is this board even before this happened they were all kinds of stories of conflict of interest, and this is the biggest pension fund in america, biggest public pension fund in america with $260 billion to invest and there are real questions about the management of the institution going back a decade.

gerri: you mentioned they had a long history of problems at calpers. the public statements, we're happy to work with everybody and we are glad to see what is going on but in the background are they standing in between justice and what should have been and trying to protect these people? >> no, that cut them loose, but what they did was after their own internal investigation they put in what i considered pretty mild reforms like you are not allowed to accept gifts and things like that. governor jerry brown wants to do more. the whole structure of the board is basically dysfunctional and he wants to add more board members with specific financial expertise to this because half of the board members are elected but essentially public emplooees in california and don't have any qualifications for being on the board. they have to make changes

legislatively taken care of. gerri: the people getting hurt here, does not necessarily the pension, it is taxpayers. what is the price tag of this? >> here is the thing, a recent report put calpers in the bottom 5% in the country among investment returns several years. this is not right. this is a state that has enormous unfunded pension liabilities and projected 7.5% annual returns every year, they are going to be one of the worst performers. so there is a history really of mismanagement that really needs to be changed, they need professional management. gerri: the problem is how do you tear apart, how do you break away elected officials and the unions themselves because it seems to me the two of them coming together that create this

unholy alliance that causes this to happen. >> the real problem is so heavily board is elected by members and basically union friendly, all you need is a couple of politicians also union friendly, and you have tipped the scales. this is why jerry brown wants to create new board members who are basically put o on the board for the financial activities. gerri: csa governor moonbeam is going to do something right here. >> they're trying to. but they will never agree to this, this is the problem you will have in california with the legislature. gerri: among many. let's be clear, steve. thank you for coming, always great to have you here. this is an example of what is wrong with this country, and i'm glad you're bringing it. unbelievable. more to come this hour. more to come including are we near the end of the government's role in fannie and freddie? and next, more sequester hiding

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gerri: the disconnect in washington continues. we told you how the tsa pushed through a deal to buy new uniforms while they warned of increased security lines at airports. usda will not be able to monitor the food you eat but instead will forge ahead with a partnership for the mexican government on food stamps. also the release of thousands of illegal immigrants from jail by homeland security posted more than 100 job openings this month alone. and public tours closed at the white house while giving

staffers six-figure salaries. the list of hypocrisy goes on and on and on, but this latest example of sequester could take the cake. the pentagon cutting assistance for american troops. last year according to members of congress, the marines spend $47 million to graduate 57 military members. that money represents a tenth of a percent of the pentagon budget. they offered $4500 annually to soldiers taking courses leading to get diplomas. nearly 57,000 soldiers per to spit in the program and here is the hypocrisy of it all. we are cutting these programs while still spending $13 million on education aid in pakistan. that is where the hatred against the u.s. is at record levels. that is just a fraction of the $370 million we spend on all fouraid.

and to egypt, i and the country not happy with us. this administration is missing a golden opportunity with this sequester. instead of acting like a two-year-old throwing a temper tantrum, instead of laying people off and closing the white house, why not really look at where the money is going, look at the smart ways we can meet spending requirements. we just ask for the ones you spend your money wisely. because it is our money, now we want to know what you think. should we send money to pakistan while cutting military aid to american soldiers? log onto gerriwillis.com and i will share the results at the end of tonight's show. we will be asking are we facing a new housing bubble? and blaming congress for troubles, is it fair? and what is next for the housing behemoth?

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to the finest comforts above. we're not simply saluting history... we're making it. gerri: a housin housing regulatg congress to get their facts together. if the federal government about to get evicted from fannie and freddie?

gerri: breaking news into the fox business network. according to the "wall street journal," freddie mac is suing global bank over alleged manipulation. this is the first government-backed private suit over the housing giant painting 17 banks as defendants in the suit alleges the conduct of the banks caused substantial losses

between 2007 and 2010. freddie mac suing global bank after alleged libor allegations. we will follow this story for you as more develops. and continuing in a theme, freddie mac and fannie mae subject of a heated hearing today and the message, it is time to downsize the government's role in fannie and freddie according to ed demarco, acting regulator of the fha. using his testimony today to urge lawmakers to start overhauling the mortgage giant. with more on this, director of financial regulation studies at the cato institute. this is a surprise, or is it a last-ditch effort to score some dough? >> it is not surprising in that fannie and freddie have both been fairly aggressive trying to recoup money from banks and this is whether they have gotten bad loans passe pass on to them, bas

in derivatives or other transactions, so it is not surprising we are seeing this. this is developing, as we haven't seen the details, we will see if there is any merit to it, but it is appropriate to try to recoup as much as they can for the taxpayer. again, this money will come back to us, which is important. gerri: let's talk about ed demarco for a second here, he testified today and a major regulator of fannie mae and freddie mac. the government is standing behind almost every mortgage made in this country, very many of them. will he have any luck convincing lawmakers to stand behind them? speak for the easy part is he is absolutely right. i think ed demarco is a public servant, trying to protect the taxpayer in a way nobody else in washington really seems to be. where i think there is agreement on both republicans and

democrats, the models failed, there's a debate about how quickly you do that, the real difference of opinion is what comes next. the real discussion is not making more than changing the name on the door and se sent out something that looks like freddie and fannie. gerri: i have seen the reports with raw support suggestions on what to do next and it looks a lot like what we're doing now. to remind people because we remind people of these numbers all the time, fannie mae and freddie mac taxpayers are still owed 88,000,000,024,000,000,000. we're hoping to get it back somehow. the good news of course is fannie mae has announced they would repay 62 billion in funds to the u.s. treasury. how likely is it though that we will see all of this money repaid? >> some of the bad news, some of the money fannie is claiming is

actually coming from a fault places the irs. they have tens of billions of tax losses they should be able to write off and they claim that is paying us back. gerri: that is cheating. >> it absolutely is. the sad thing is, it is allowed under accounting rules as an asset, certainly other banks it is not simply, think it is horrible policy. gerri: this is our money at the end of the day. they should have to repay it, if i owed the government that much money, believe me, i would be forced to repay every single dime. i would be in jail. what is interesting is there are lot of attorney general's calling for him to leave office. take a look at these names.

the list goes on and on. there is a lot of anti-ed demarco effort out there. will they be successful? >> personally i find this kind of offensive. they put together a settlement that got more money for state governments that actually got foreclosed borrowers. many have been at the forefront of trying to stop the housing market from clearing, stop trying legitimate foreclosures and broad moratorium so this hasn't been about helping them leave. they have been on willing to let fannie and freddie refinanced mortgages performing that are fine. the mortgage is the government have worked less. ed demarco doesn't want to pass more losses onto the taxpayers. they want a taxpayer to take a bigger hit, all just in my

opinion political pandering. gerri: that plan also hurts bondholders. it flies in the face of the rule of law, and something the administration has been pushing for a long time. ed demarco is a single person who stood in the way and said no to come you can't do that. coming up later in the show, airlines joining forces on a new pricing model. and a new housing bubble could be forming thanks to private equities scooping up homes around the country. what this means for you and your homes. could you get a better price? next. i'm lorenzo. i work for 47 different companies. welltechnically i work for o. that company, the united states postal service®,

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>> from our fox business studios in new york, here again is gerri willis.

gerri: you've probably seen or heard the stories about the real estate revival being driven by the wall street money. institutional investors scooping up discounted properties so they could flip them for a quick profit or rent them out. but is that really the case? some of the big prices increases our work big investors are spending billions of dollars, but is not the whole story? my next guest says no. one of the most successful real estate investment firms and one of the hottest markets right now in phoenix. welcome back to the show, always good to have you here. you say individual buyers, and old-fashioned kind of buyers, mom and pop are important in this recovery. how important? >> they are very important in its recovery. there are still personal family home buyers in the market then there are investors. core logic to the study and 30% of the buyers in miami were investors in the only appreciated 11%.

north carolina was 21%. vegas was 18% investors-buyers. orlando 18%. on that list, nowhere is arizona. arizona had less investor buyers and appreciated 28%. that says something for the housing market stabilizing. investors are good, and we want them, but they are not the only people buying. gerri: let's talk about that. this is an asset that has taken a beating and wall street loves nothing more than coming in at the bottom and scooping up something for a good price. is that why they are so interested right now? >> oh, absolutely. they're taking advantage of the fact it is rock-bottom and they can get a product they can rent out and create a dividend for their investors. but you have to realize when a black son comes in and buys hundreds of homes in a market they have a plan, they are not going to dump all the houses at

one time on the market and drop the market again. they are going to trickle those out and it will create housing for people who are organically being brought out of their foreclosures were short sale situations. they're coming back to the markee right now and will need homes to buy. gerri: talking about the big investment money in real estate right now, o, of course going to the market completely overbought at the top of the cycle now really struggling. is there a chance there might be another bubble forming here in which prices could come down a step or could come back as the institutional investors decide when maybe they have had enough. >> i think we saw a good run-up in 2012 from the big firms purchasing. now it is the small investors, personal family home buyers and prices are beginning to stabilize. we will not be 28% run-up in

arizona again. we're not going to see the great games. you will see stabilization and that is excellent for the housing market, that is what we want. gerri: let's talk about the impact for homeowners. homeowners have been under water, some positive numbers on that this week, fewer of us under water, but you have to think as the market starts to stabilize this is good news for the people out there who didn't ask for money from the federal government, don't have their hands out, they're just paying their mortgage each month even if they owe more than it is worth. what does this mean to them? >> if it was somebody who wanted to move, they would get that opportunity, but i'm the perfect example for that. and so probably $100,000 under water on my home. i don't plan on going anywhere for a long time. as the market rises, maybe i will have some options but i am not doing anything anytime soon

because i like my house and lot of people who like their house and will stay there through the turn. gerri: and a lot of people who are frankly caught. a different group of people, those who want to invest right now. interest rates still low, they want to make an investment. how do you make that move, what is the first step, the second step, the third step? >> there are people being creative with their investments in real estate, they are buying with their ira dollars. gerri: take your retirement money out? >> i disagree, that is something you can supercharge your ira with. do not flip, i want to make that very clear. buy and hold, that is a smart investment because you're letting the market pick it up. it is time to look into mortgages and the first step they should take is be qualified as a home buyer or an investment

buyer. gerri: we will have to agree to disagree on that, don't think you should use your retirement money for anything other than your retirement, not even your kids college education. always good to have you on the show, appreciate it. when we come back, the hottest new apps. and we will look at a new airline pricing model that may actually do more harm than good for all of you frequent fliers. don't go away. clients are always learning more

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gerri: heads up, frequent fliers. a proposed upgrade to a decade old pricing model supposed to give better packages went looking a flight. our next guest says it will have to fork over even more dough to fly. okay, so you and i have been talking about this, and i'm deeply worried about it because i'm used to be able to price compare whenever i want. i can shop around, find out who i want to fly, even some want me to go outbound one system and back the other. the sounds it would all come crashing to an end with this new system. what are they doing? >> airlines are trying to sort out what three deficiencies they believe in their business model. one is comparison-shopping which they believe can monetize it their consumers love it.

they hate paying middlemen and agents pretty exorbitant fee to sell their tickets, they would rather buy them online. and thirdly, they would like to market to you and make a big sushi menu of services that typically were free historically or perks of the lead travelers and make them into a palatable option for you. so they will get a very detailed profile from you instead of returning 1000 options in flakes they want to return a handful of options based on all this information they have gathered on your portfolio. gerri: what they want to be paid for that they have not typically been paid for? i have seen the fees go up for everything else. >> talking more legroom, aisle and window seats, standing by for another flight, a huge sushi menu of fees.

they don't want you to be able to compare transparently, they want you to go and buy and pay more for it. gerri: they want to have all the information they can about me, maybe i fly new york to san francisco, twice a month, they will look me up with a higher price, isn't that the whole goal? >> they want to knoo what airlines you like, what you like. it will build the secret sauce returning the three options that you are really going to want. the problem is those three options are 40% over what you should really pay, you will not know that at the time and that is the real problem. gerri: will they be showing the same results on the group sites, or how does it work?

>> you're looking at a two-dimensional screen not only presenting very complicated set of plates, but now 100 options with each one, somehow be able to compare delta and american and united and it is almost important to do. they want us to do this on a phone. so it is almost impossible to do. in the end what they really want to do is shop on the airline sites, it cost them less and wants you to buy things that are add-on and premium up selling product. they want to act like amazon where there is a fee plus a sushi menu of other things. very difficult to do this, but they will give it a college try. if they can get this done by 2016, i will eat my tray table. gerri: it will be a miracle. thank you for coming on tonight, it is a fascinating story, cannot imagine it will benefit

me in any way, but we will have to wait and see. >> the devil is in the details. gerri: thank you so much, good to see you. >> thank you. gerri: jack black, it was on this day in 1931 nevada legalized gambling. attending to lift the state of the hard times, the industry transformed las vegas from a railroad watering stop to sin city. the first casino was up and running, and by 1960, others had opened. today there are 256 casinos earning $11 billion last year alone. famous for its casinos, nightclubs and sporting events, nevada legalized gambling marc march 19, 82 years ago. that is a lot of chips, my friend.

and just back from south by southwest, our tech expert gives us a look at the hottest new smartphone apps of the year. stay tuned. ♪ [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace industry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing.

gerri: are you bored of your apps? details in two minutes.

gerri: all right, in case you missed it, all last week thousands of bands, record labels, startups and music fans

converge in austin, texas, the annual south by southwest festival in our next guest says a slew of shiny new apps came out to help you to be on the cutting edge. if you want to be on the cutting edge. joining me now with some of the coolest apps out there. they have this whole tech part which is very popular. what were the trends that came out this year? >> south by southwest interactive, 3d printing, a lot of apps to help you take a monday in parts of your life and make them more interesting which is a lot of what the apps were doing. things like texting and caller id were kind of boring. there's not a lot new under the sun sea have to see what people are already doing. try to make it better. gerri: we have an example of that, the message me app. >> texting is pretty

straightforward. message me, everybody has it installed, you can really add some context. photos, videos, and you can doodle which is kind of fun so if you're texting a photo, you can add. and a lot right now, memes. it is kind of fun no matter where you are. gerri: the hater app. >> it is like why doesn't facebook have dislike? it is all the things you don't like in the world. you can say who you are but better yet you can be anonymous and hate things and share with all your friends. it was one of the more popular apps at the event. this is really cool because you get a phone call and maybe you get the photo, the number, buu

all sorts of contexts. it puts their face, latest e-mail, social interaction you have with them so you get full context of who is calling you. gerri: this would be good for salespeople. >> when they are talking, stays up so they can refer to it. gerri: let's talk about this, hinge. people looking for love in all the wrong places. >> it is only for washington, d.c., right now, this is what happens with the location-based apps. you give it your facebook information, it will go through your friends and you can rate them. based on the orientation, and if you rate people over five, it tries to introduce you. i don't know how well it will work, but trying to use the real

affinity to bring people together for romance. gerri: augment is something i take seriously. speak to what is great about this is what if you're looking at a coach, how would this look in our living room? look at how it would look prior than buying it. it is augmented reality, your phone pointed at your real room comic and kind of move around and see how it looks. the color of the walls, try different rugs. this is the next stage of home decoration. augmented reality will be all over the place. gerri: are there any other apps for adult? >> unity. finding access to all of your files and have this installed on every tablet, desktop, all my gosh, i forgot that file.

you have access to it. streaming direct from that device. that is really cool. and click with me now. i'm going to get on with you and we will book the trip on this site. gerri: love that. it is always great to have you here. thank you so much. a way to go before they start racking up the numbers, downloads, some long-standing free ones. the most downloaded of all time. number five, this was created in 2009 by former yahoo employee, a messaging service allowing you to send not only text puppet images, video and audio clips. number four, words with friends. allowing yo you to play one-on-e with up to 20 friends at a time. number three, find my iphone, i love this. this is a must-have for

everyone. track your phone, it is important. number two, pandora radio. on each music lover to create their own radio station using their favorite songs. and the number one downloaded free app of all time, facebook. transforming social networking giant to the vast majority of facebook is done on smart phones. they came angry birds the most downloaded paid app. no, i don't have it. we will be right back with my two cents more and the question, should we send aid to pakistan while stopping military aid. stay with us. all stations come over to mission a for a final go.

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