energy, it is if we have cheap energy. john: thank you for that unconventional wisdom. that is our show, thank you for watching, we will see you next week.n at princeton should scoop up a man.eton should marry someone from principeton. >> brenda: more about march going out like a lamb. and stocks ending the month roaring. and the largest quarterly gain in history. and the s&p 500 finally hitting an all-time high. what about the economy? while some areas of improving. jobless benefits moving up. new home sales slowing down and a key read on investment plans raising a red flag. so, is wall street signaling a boom or ignoring a coming bust? hi, i'm brenda buttner, this is bulls and bears, let's get to it. the bulls and bears this week, we've got gary b smith, jonas max ferris, john lay field

along with julian epstein. welcome to everybody. okay, john, boom or bust? >> unfortunately, brenda, i believe a bust. and i wish that wasn't the case. there are a few positive things going on in the economy, but with long-term structural unemployment, not cyclical unemployment and anemic growth, what gary b brought up weeks ago, the market is detached what's going on in the united states. it's on a run. i don't think that anybody would argue that the enomy is on an incredible run so an obvious detachment. i don't think that's going to change. >> brenda: julian, sometimes people consider wall street to be a leading indicator, like it's a crystal ball for the economy. do you see the economy starting to boom, too? >> john makes a good point. in some ways, it's a tale of two cities. on unemployment between 150 to 200,000 new jobs a month on a six-month average and gdp, looking at 2.3% growth in the first quarter which is pretty good.

and the stock market, as you pointed out. we're at 14, we were at 7 some years ago, and so, i think all of those things are good. i wouldn't know, however, that the cbo, everybody's oracle says that the sequestration plan will take about 1.5% off economic growth this year. but to john's point. i think the important point is this. the labor market is the most troubling thing. not just because of unemployment, but we've seen wages stay stagnant for 12 years right now. consumer spending is 70% of the economy. so it's not just people who don't have job, it's the middle class and neither party, neither republicans or democrats, really have a credible problem to deal with this labor, wage, wage stagnation, we've seen the last 12 years. >> jonas, wall street makes people, if wall street goes up, people have more money in their 401(k)'s and they start to feel richer long-term, and the housing market seems to be going up. aren't those good indications for the economy? >> there is a wealth effect.

in your 401(k) balance is higher thabefore the last crash. and it's cheaper, because we've eaten up this crisis, we through this. this record breaks out we're not going to have a depression like a lot of people are calling for, the negatives you're talking about are real and that's why we're not at dow, 18, 19,000, if these were gone it's not a wildly overpriced market. it's not tied to unemployment it's tied to earnings and that's a record high, therefore, the stock market, all other things being equal should be a record level. >> toby, it's often said that wall street has predicted six of the last three recoveries, it's not that great of a crystal ball. >> it's not. brenda. but remember, anybody who has watched this show as long as we've been doing it knows that the economy and the stock market are never correlated except, but one moment at ti. right at the top and then right at the bottom. we're not near the top nearly. what has happened though, we've had 506 interest rate

cuts around the world in federal banks. we've had 17 trillion dollars of cash money and john layfield would say, created and put into the system. where else is it going to go? it's not going to employees pockets as julian said, it's gone into corporate conference, higher earnings, a lot of parts of the economy, but the market is telng us that we're not in a recession not ahead. we're not going fast, we're not going slow. earnings are driving this thing and the fed is driving it. >> brenda: gary b, what do you watch to adjust the economy and what's it telling you? >> brenda, i watch three things. one the stock market, if everyone in the u.s. was invested fully in the stock market we had he' be worried now i think only about 50% of the population is invested in the stock market anyway. so, you know, to your point, i don't look at those, i look the at unemployment, i look at housing prices, and i look at household net worth and that's the thing that matters to most people. you look at unemployment,

brenda, you know, that u-6 number that takes io account people that have stopped looking. it's still about 14%, it's down from its peak and that's good, but it's still way up since 2008. you look at housing prices, they've been up lately and that's good, but the inflation adjustment, still well below the peak and a lot of people below what are household net worth and popped up lately. that's inflation adjusted well below its all-time high. what you have is an economy, i think, by those indicators, slightly improving. but kind of right between what toby would say, moving side ways. and i think it could be moving side ways for another five years. >> okay, julian, go ahead. >> i hate to agree with everybody on the show, but i think that everybody is basically right. >> don't. >> i think that toby is making a good point about the housing market. it's gradually improving. and the point that was also made about the-- gary b, the point that was also made about the stock market reflecting earnings, i

think is exactly right. it doesn't necessarily reflect what's going on with the middle class and the stress that the middle class is under. if earnings are doing well and lots of companies are sitting on a lot of cash, but those desserts are not spread out amongst the population generally, then to johnay field's point, there's a structural problem here, how can the economy be doing so well, but so few people participating in the feast-- >> you mean the stock market. >> the stock market. how can the sck market be doing so well-- >> there are issues, but the companies don't just-- hadn't handing money from the fed they are selling stuff to americans, if they were bad off there wouldn't be record profits at all the compaes, they wouldn't sell stuff to people at a profit and wouldn't be buying things. is it a boom times of all times, 1990's. >> no, it's a time that people are buying things and comfortable doing so. >> they're selling them in the global market. >> well, the global market is having trouble, too, but you can have profits by cutting costs and that's what companies have done to bring up their bottom line.

yeah, a lot of companies are-- look what happened in the internet boom in the late 90's, you had the great companies of sisco and amazon and apple, they were able to cut costs and weather some bad times. one of the greatest things during the financial crisis was the bank guaranteed deposits. and when you look at cyprus and the united states, what jonas talks historically the market being undervalued is true and probably should have some type of safety premium put on it and means we will have a further run to the markets, not necessarily for the economy going forward. >> okay, toby, people with money in their 401(k)'s, are they going to be going up? >> well, as you know, people have been scared. remember, we've had two crashes, if you look at the participation rate, you look at futures and inflows and out flows, we haven't had many participated in the deal. the 401(k) is up, they don't trust it. you you see that in spending

patter patterns. i would go back and look at the middle class economy and corporate earnings are somewhat tied and we have wal-mart come out this week and say they have hcut so many people back not stocking their shelves as quickly as they used to. that's going to change, because times are not bad and you're just getting slower and slower development. the other thing, remember, you know, we had 13 trillion dollars to wealth in 2008 it went down to 7 and we're back to even, guys, and we have a long way to go. >> the bottom line, consumers have to spend to get the recovery going. >> well, they do have to spend, brenda and here is the problem and this just came out with a jobs report we saw on friday, and all the jobs that were added, that were all part-time jobs, that's when the jobs-- i think, someone mentioned that companies are cutting back on costs and that's the problem. you can't go out and hope to move into a bigger home and spend more if you say, oh, my gosh, i don't have a full-time job, i have a part-time job.

that's why we're moving side ways, people have work, finding more work, it's just not great work. >> that's right, part-time or low income jobs and we mentioned the international thing, we should stop and point out when there's something good to feel about-- something good to feel about what the government does. when you look the at tarp and financial industry when it was ready to go belly up, ended up making taxpayers money. look at cyprus, and they're having small and large depositors write down their debt. anything that makes investors run away faster it's that. people should feel pretty good about t government. >> brenda: john, i've got to let you take that on quickly. >> what happens in cyprus mainly dictated by the eu and driving at lot of liquidity to the united states. i think that's a -- that the we're a safe haven. >> brenda: thanks, guys, that's got to be the last word. so, just as gas prices are

starting to come down, are american drivers about to get slapped with an extra $1.40 a gallon tax. wait until you hear what the money is going to be used for. neil's gang is fueling up. when teachers cry about school closing, ask really about kids or them? some say the real reason the union protesters are shutting down streets is because cutbacks are costinininininininw

back to bulls and bears, and

for the latest go to foxnews.com. ♪ >> threatening to put their bodies on the line, the chicago teachers union causing havoc this week, protesting the proposed closing of 54 degrees and 61 building. union members outraged. they say that kids are getting hurt. but, john, you say they're looking out for who, themselves? >> yeah, that's exactly what i think they're doing. unions do what unions have always done and that is take care of eir members, if they have a union head tells the teachers that they're going to start having them accountable. and that they're going to have merit-based pay and allow them to be fired if they don't have a union job. that union head won't be around long. that's contrairy to what our kids need. >> brenda: why aren't they protesting this. >> and not to exactly restate

what john said, the purpose of the union is to ensure high pay for their members and that they have a job. that's what the union is there for. the teachers don't care about the kids, they care about having a job. that's what they're there for. look what chicago faces, two things, one, they say they face a billion dollars deficit. what was their solution, i quote, consolidating underuniversitylized schools will allow us to safely move these children to a higher performing, welcoming school near their home with all the investments they need to thrive in the classroom. how can you say that and the billion dollar deficit and then say the teachers are looking out for the kids? no, the teachers are looking out for themselves. >> brenda: toby, this all comes down to money, isn't it? >> it is money, but also demographics, they've had an outflow of people in the areas and citizens who live in the areas, number one. number two, they've had 20 or 30,000 kids leave the public school where they have charter systems and so they're

actually dropping a population of students and exodus of people to better schools and out of the area are why they're closing the schools and they're upside down a llion dollars. it's not about the kids. >> brenda: julian, your take? >> i agree with john layfield on the merit-based system and the unions need reform there. i think that he may want to reconsider the comments that the teachers don't care about the kids. every teacher i've met cares about the kids. it's possible they care about the kids at the same time. and comes frothe economic turn down and the shrinking tax base. it raises the question, whether we want to follow a european model, making the blind kind of budget cuts at the state and federal level rather than the smarter choices about structural reform and health care entitlement spending. these kinds of things are-- to the point, i don't think this is consolidation, you're going to have huge problems as a result of these school

closings. it's not good for the kids or the local economy, it's being foisted on them because the local economies don't have any other choice. >> i've got to get to jonas, go ahead. >> a good point. and this doesn't just go to teaching for the money. they get a situation paid more, whatever the free market wage would be to feget to do the jobs. the union job is to raise wages and when you lower demand for teachers and wages, they've pitched it well making it about the children because people don't want to hear about the compensation plans of teachers and a lot of americans think they're overpaid anyway. my problem with it, if you wanted to raise the pay of teachers who make better programs, incentive pay, whatever it is for the student's benefit. you can make a case for that. just pay them more than the free market wage, doesn't do anything for kids. higher wages can make sense, but the way the unions go about it doesn't make a

difference for our kids. >> brenda: think before you click because fire over social media posts are rising.

>> from being suspended to being fired, the government reports more people are suing for losing their jobs for what they say online. and video hits like on this. a website tipping off workers to risky social media postings. should workers have to worry about what they post? >> they should, as a matter of fact. i don't know how the real

world works. and layton is still on aol, he doesn't have to worry. >> dial-up aol. >> you have to understand that everything say in social media, you tweet, post, you pin, whatever do you is read and gathered by your employer. if you don't know that, you're a knucklehead. if you're having an affair you don't say something on facebook that's going to blow up your marriage. about 30% of jobs getting blown up these days isecause someone said something stupid dumb on there. guess what, a lot of reasons to fire you, maybe not media, but it will happen. >> okay, jonas, you're not so sure? >> this reminds me when people used to say and write stuff in e 50's and black list them and couldn't be in the movies. if you're saying something about your employer or badly on your employers that could hurt their sales, sure. but most people are not at a high enough level in a company that should matter to an employer. not paid enough to he restrict

the behavior and talking about extracurricular activity. again, if it's not hurting sales, i think you're over the line. >> brenda: some of those could. john layfield, what do you think about this? >> comparing this to mccarthyism in the 50's? come on, jonas, the biggest stretch i've heard. if you grab a cocktail and get on your twitter account and start talking about a boss your dumb self needs to be fired immediately. >> what about you-- >> that's the way to do things intexas. gary b, what do you think? >> i agree with what toby and john said. look, the same as if in the old days, you know, you went out and took an ad out in the newspaper and said, you know, my boss stinks, ibm doesn't pay me enough. et cetera, et cetera. now, you know, maybe jonas thinks well, that doesn't matter. look, all of tse negative things matter and people say, oh, maybe ibm is a crummy company and we shouldn't buy

the computers and-- >> i would say not relating to the company. behaving badly online and look at the women and-- >> and i went out last night and i got drunk. you're allowed to say that online. the whole point, jonas is talking about the company. >> brenda: the company. and julian, weigh in here. >> jonass usual makes the right distinction here, things that employers should worry about. >> brenda: he's not the-- >> there are things like the use of company equipment, the publication of things that are very sensitive to the company, and privacy issues, those things companies should have very clear moves about and then there's other things silly things you post on social media websites that are much less so it in the company's interests, but-- >> give me an example of one things that wouldn't hurt. i want to hear. >> what somebody was doing at a war one night. >> that's not about the company. >> that's right. it should not matter to the

company, but that-- and that's the distinction that jonas was making, and the important point here though for employees. >> brenda: quickly. >> is that discretion should be better part of valor. if you do something that your employer doesn't care about, when your 're 20, whwhen you're 30, that stuff lives forever and it can hurt you, whether it's right or not. it could hurt you. >> brenda: okay, okay, hold on, guys, all right. if my brother-- think about that when you post that story about me. thanks guys and thanks for julian for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> brenda: how is this for a fee, taxpayers paying almost a million dollars to study snail sex. the name that could haveeeee

>> predictions, toby, you're up. >> hershey is going to get to a record. i think it's up 20%. >> bull or bear. >> i'm a bear. google glasses hitting the street and going to make glasses cool for our four-eyes, there's no bigger player than-- >> you're always cool. john, bull or bear. >> jonas is cool, but i'm a bear. >> brenda: carry b, a prediction. >> everyone is hating on bank of america. >> toby pull or bear. >> i'm a bea