♪ gerri: hello, everyone, i am gerri willis. tonight on "the willis report" it. gerri: consumers brace for another spike in ulity bills. >> it has been pretty rough ut here. gerri: new charges over hospitals inflating medical bills. and retirement accounts take a beating as stocks nosedive. if the market correction everyone has been talking about finally here? we are watching out for you tonight on "the willis report." ♪ double mocha ♪

♪ gerri: we are going over to t chief oil analyst, welcome to you, it is great to have you here. everyone is facing these high home energy costs. when you look at these costs, i am hearing something like 90% can do how can it be when the whole country is getting a bigger bill? >> the problem is that you can't move it from where most of it is

in texas. gerri: showing viewers what is going on with these winter heating costs. natural gas is up 13% year-over-year. electricity is 2%. heating oil is 1%. these are the costs as you see them of whathe average householwill face in paying thei bill. what are people doing out there? >> this is one of the more expensive lately. as he said the electricity is not a quite as high. but whatis happening is utility is facing heavy demand because of the cold that we are seeing so it is really putting a constrained on all of our

heating sources right now. gerri: so many people have gotten actual gas. there's tracking going on. and now in the northeast where supply constraints because of these pipelines exist, what gives? >> we are producing this and the only problem is getting it to market right now. and they have these interruptible contracts, the building of schools, to get a lower cost they have these with utilities. they asked them to switch over to hating oil as well. as we sometimes have to worry about the harbor freezing. gerri: talk come over to you,

the last time you were on the show apparently it was actually a utility thing? >> yes, i think i was broadcasting from charleston south carolina at the time and some of the south east areas have not seen spikes that low. when i got down into the teens, one of the utility plans grows. so there were interesting things in the area. >> and that can affect the broader economy. do you see that? and what can consumers do to reduce their costs? >> a couple of things that they can do is obviously turned on the thermostat. last time i was here we talked about heating oil and now is not the time to do it. but in may and june when he and heating oil was at the cheapest.

and so if i am using this i am paying 130 or whatever does and so i know it is coming every time. @% taught, what are you telling people about how to reduce their bills? this is killing people. this is not like something that you may dece not to spend at the end of the da >> exactly. it brings u a great point. one of te things i have been sharing with people is that oftentimes if you go on a budget plan with utilities, it is based on past usage. so get on a budget plan right away and that will smooth out the cash flow. it won't necessarily provide savings to you, but it will smooth out the cash flow. every degree counts. if you don't touch her thermostat and you set your thermostat at 68, you will find that every degree saves about 3%

under energy bill. gerri: 3% under energy bill for every degree do you dialback? >> every 1 degree saves about 3% under energy bill through this spike. right now with the commodities over the next couple of months we will see big demand. gerri: where's where is this going? how mu worse can get this get. >> it can always gt worse. >> we could hope that talks to one he still doesn't see his shadow and spring will be right around the cornr. but better plans need to be laid. like i said before is that we have a supply but it's a matter of moving it around. gerri: todd, do you have an outlook? do you see february. >> it could.

i'm not a weather forecaster. but it seems that natural gas is always the long-term winner. we do have an abundant supply. so for the long-term i think that natural gas is still going to be the winner. half he homes are heated with natural gas. but it's just the short-term supply that is really creating the problem. and soyes, we might have double lls for a month or two. gerri: that doesn't sound good. thank you for coming on tonight. you guys are great. we appreciate what you have to say. coming up in about a half hour i will be joined by the host of today's homeowners. danny will have advice on keeping your home safe from these extreme winter temperatures. some were on the freezeout going on we have done this with an economist from the university of maryland. peter, welcome to the show these

are the folks at really that really getting squeezed, the middle class. >> we just heard how the pipelines are not big enough. because of all the restrictions that mr. obama put in place. those folks northern new england who reliably vote democrat should not complain. they can lay their high energy bills -- they want to complain about it, but send an e-mail to the white house. because there are lots of inexpensive energy is being produced in america that can't get around. gerri: supply constrnts, plenty of products but not getting to the right place.

there's a there is a huge problem with jobs. one interesting fact is that 7.9 million jobs, that is what itwould take to get unemployment back and we are just not doing the job here. tell us about your analysis of what is wrong with the jobs market. >> we have been giving out paladins like extended unemployment benefits. whether we should be producing mo domestic oil and gas. we have to fix the trade deficit with china. we have to do things with regard to regulation. things need to be done on wall street. the dodd-frank is turning out to be a bust. jamie dimon seems to be settling on a billion-dollar issue every day. and goldman sachs has found new ways to trade and gamble. the small banks around the country, the regional banks that make the loans that create the jobs, kennedy business?

i have spoken to regulators in washington. well, they ar tired of hearing the bankers whine. i'm tired of hearing the obama administration complain about somee else. we really have to do something about health care. obamacare is driving up the price. gerri: we will talk more about that sometimes they stagnate and go down and that is not the way it should be at all in america. what will it take to lift incomes? you made the interesting point about unemployment benefits. these programs were not built to take people on six month or year and now we cannot solve this problem of unemployment and across the nation, three quarters of folks think that we are in a recession.

>> to them that we are. the average guy that has a job his income has fallen. he doesn't have enough money to meet his belt. it doesn't take into consideration higher taxes. but i will tell you what won't fix it is making unemployment visits permanent and forever. enterprise zones, either the president wants to resurrect something from the administration, he wants to create opportunities. all that does is create jobs for community activists. it is time that we hold u what is holding up the economy. they may create jobs for fewer bureaucrats in washington. but it keeps regular folks in wa from getting work. gerri: a lot of them are on food

stamps. turning this around, people need to be able to get good jobs. they give a coming on the show tonight. we appreciate your time. gerri: we want to know what you think. here's her question. is the middle class. too big of a burden? but on the right-hand side of the screen and we will share the results at the end of tonight's show. and it was a disastrous day on wall street. in one author says that it's not a matter of if your identity is stolen but when if you wear a denture,

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gerri: from retailers to banks to the government. it is becoming more and more clear that these entities are truggling to keep your personal data safe from cyberhackers. what can we do to protect ourselves? joining me now is a digital security company and author of

the book, the privacy in the age of big data. there it is right there. thank you for coming on the show tonight. i understand that you say that you haven't been hacked, just wait. >> it is one of those things where unfortunately for all of us there is an unprecedented amount of data being collected and that data will be hacked this includes your personal information that will be on the underground economy and it will be sold in be used. gerri: people don't realize that there is a whole underground economy out there. people out there trying to get any piece of your data at any cost. at the end of the day we are the ones who wilpay the price.

>> i think data collection. sometimes it's the things you don't think about. people realize what you over share on facebook, what you might post online, they understand that and they know that they can control that. but they don't realize, for example, at target, they asked the scientist behind the scenes what can we do know that to know that our customers are pregnant before they actually tell usso that we can send them value-added services. and they found out a young woman was pregnant before her family did and sent coupons to her house to try to help her. >> we have told that "the willis report" before. it's truly astonishing.

it includes everything about your medical history and the drugs you take in the information about you and that would be tragic to get into the marketplace. were these bad guys paying up for now? what is most valuable information piece about this? >> they absolutely love your bank account information. they want that personal information and they love your e-mail addresses. and that way f there is an e-mail address it may not be tied to the target hack or other eaches that we are experiencing. it's the one that is good

advice. to create a new e-mail address and that way they get whatever information they have. they can say i reallyneed to change my passcode and here's my e-mail address. and they get in and they change the password. >> you're exactly right. gerri: risa, thank you for coming on the show. that's great information we appreciate your time. >> at you for having me. gerri: that is great stuff. later in the show a whistleblower shedding light on the hospital chain that is being accused of this situation. when will this end

gerri: fears over u.s. policy

♪ gerri: welcome back to the show. a few minutes ago we were talking about a spike in energy prices because of the freezing cold weather. one of my followers just tweeted me some insight for funds. here is what he said. if you give natural-gas prices are going up now you have not seen the worst yet if they do awaywith coal. the price sky high. this, though more on coal is a war is people in poverty because of higher electric bills. people are thinking about it. everyone has a higher bill. let's talk about the markets. stocks are going into a domino

effect. u.s. markets diving deep into read today over worries of a global slodown. that was after ntervention currencies hit new lows of years of the fallout from the tories are taking away the punch bowl. are we about to see another asian contagion? here to weigh in, the cio. welcome back to the show. good to see you. >> thanks. gerri: how worried about the sell-off are you? >> well, it is hard to know. stock prices right now in the u.s. are very expensive. we are starting from a high level of valuation. then again, it would not be unusual for the market to give investors spooked and then keep moving. this rally that brought us your over the last two years, we have ne up to the% to. a lot of mentum behind it. gerri: let's take a deep dive into what happened toda. in the la couple of days foreign currency markets are a mess. and me folks are saying this

is worrisome about the federal reserve and the poor receive policies. what do you see with foreign currencies right now? what could cause this sort of contagion like we saw back in the 90's? >> by foreign currencies of the you're referri to the emerging-maet currencies, and that is a story that is months old now. last year the emerging markets still very, very poorly. the developed world markets did very well. places like brazil or down double digits. on top of that amount the currencies were down as well as the stock market. what we are seeing right now is kind of like probably a selling climax. these markets are somewhat illiquid, hard to -- you know, hard to get out. big pools of moneyinvested. and a lot of the investors who sort of chase yield and chase returns to the people who are heavily invested in etf or the hedge fund are now dumping those

shares. that is having a bit of a domino effect, as you say. but our sense, probably closer to the end than the meaning. gerri: that's it here. i hahave to tell you, a lot of h folks on my show and you have heard some of these people say this, they are expecting a 10% correction. could this be the beginning? >> it could be. juneau's. the question is what do you on personally? we look at the u.s. stock market it is priced to yield about 4 percent over the next decade, but individual areas of the stock market we think are priced to actually deliver a higher yield than that. so we go where the value is. this could be a catalyst for correction. a healthy correction because of where we have gone so quckly. gerri: here is what i a concerned about. earnings just not looking that's terrific right now.

lots of concerns about whether u.s. companies are making the kind of money they needed to push the stock market higher. i like it when stock market moves are based upon fundamentals. that is none of this quarter is shaping up. >> well, the u.s. stock market last year was up 30%. certainly for this the market to continue earnings have to come onstream. i share your concern. a ery skeptical as to whether or not we can continue to it have p-e multiple extensions because th is what this bull market is ben about for the past year-and-a-half. gerri: thank you for coming on the show. good to see it. every weekend. >> thanks. gerri: it's time for a look at the stories you're clicking on tonight on foxbusiness.com. as a just mentioned, sears has returned to the stockmarket. investors worrying about currencies and emerging markets and the lack of growth in china sending stocks plunging. the dow dropped more than 300

points in its worst days since june. 318. the president of the european central bank is taking a more opimistic view as the world economic forum says he hopes the eurozone economic recovery will pick up steam over the coming months. j.p. morgan ceo is doubling his pay despite the fact his bank incurred as $6 billion trading loss in 2012. his compensation will total $20 million. the bank's board says his handling of the legal issues facing j.p. morgan was among he factors that considered then pending in the big bonus. and shares bucked the trend is soaring in the market debut. the on-line service helping people find family care. nearly $91 million pricing its offering of shares at $17 each. just 43% to more than $24 a share. those are some of the house storesright now on foxbusiness.com. when we come back we'll answer the qustion, how do you do

that, th ways to keep your homesafe during these extreme temperatures. one of the reasons for rising as the costs may be because doctors ar being pressured to inflate your bill. corporate managers. we'll tell you all about it. ♪

♪ >> from the fox business studios in new york city, it's "the willis report". with gerri willis. ♪ gerri: it is an issue we talk about all the time on "the willis report." sky high medal bills. the cost of a single procedure can vary by hundreds of thousands of dollars depending upon which was believed to. well, one was a blower is filing suit against the hospital chain saying it skin for years to inflate patient bills. joining me now with the very latest colors senior fellow at the manhattan institute. it's great to have you here. a total of eight whistle-blower

lawsuits. the department of justice is getting involved, and all of this against the company called health manages the seeds that appears to be scheming against the very patients they said there was served. what's going on? >> basically what they did was admitted people to the emergency room read things thatdid not to -- did not need to be handled in the emergency room. gerri: we have a couple of examples. committing a child with a fever of 987. having someone stay overnight for escape underneath. this is outrageous behavior. you know, threatening, penalizing doctors ago paid by their rules, don't try to inflate the price. this the tip of the iceberg? >> it is an incredibly despread practice, not just in terms of defrauding medicare and medicaid. in general what hospitals to is take advantage of the complexity and the capacity of our health care system in the way pay for health care to inflate

prices, root people into more expensive services than they need and to order a lot of services that people don't need. gerri: it's ridiculous. we found so many examples. recently we had a young man on the show who told his story about having to pay $50,000 for a procedure. listen to this. >> they told me that it was appendicitis. they amitted me committed there test commended ct scans. i was out there for the next day a few months later i get a bill in december. it's $55,000. m 20. i work retail. i'll have that kind of money. gerri: he was on his parents' insurance delegates a bill for 55,000. he was on the hoofor something like $12,000. if you look at the average for that procedure, the usual cost of an appendectomy is way lower, maybe hundreds of dollars, maybe a couple of grand.

certainly not what he paid. >> i encourage everyone to read steven brill's article from a year ago. time magazine called at the bitter pill. he goes to all the things that hospitals to to take advantage of poor, uninsured people in charge them obscene amounts for things that cost pennies and the dollar. the most important public policy problem in heaare that no one talks about except you is how hospitals charge more than they need to for a lot of these services. gerri: we talked a lot about it on the show. even to the state i do not understand why they charge as much as they do. here is what this corporate slap on the rest of that wanted to read. investors seem to think the investigations and allegations of srious fraud are simply a cost of doing business. where i the morality in this industry? >> the only long-term solution is to put consumers in charge of their own heath dollars. the reason love this stuff those bills directly. don't pay

we don't even shop our own health coverage directly. as a result all we do is, did i get treated when i need to be? you don't look at the bill. gerri: i don't know if that goes far enough. people don't want to compare prices. they don't know how. they just get there arms around that. >> far removed from a free-market. gerri: they feel like they have no power in the system. the doctor says you need is and you have to pay that, that's what they'll do. >> it's a huge problem. a long and complex story that we have to address. gerr a huge part of the economy. take you for coming on. friday. every weekend. what to bring you a follow-up to a ore with broad yesterday about a controversial new study involving fish oil supplements. the study showed these extra boosts of all mega three fatty acidprevented your brain from shrinking as you get older and may even stave off to mention which is get news for a lot of americans as they are among the most popular supplements

generating more than a billion dollars in sales last year. but as with most supplements, there are unregulated which means you may t get what y pang for. according to a new survey said six of the 30 top-selling officials supplements have 30 percent less of mega-3 levels than advertised, less than advertised. some of these products pass the test with flying collrs. those companies are nordic natural access labs in nature made. all of these getting high marks for quality and value. again according to lab door. if y want to see the full rackings log on. you can see the results. and we come back, the mug shot goes of viral. there it is. a class-action lawsuit is filed turn to shut down website that most people buckshots. is that legal? and next, is the extreme cold continues to grip the entire nation, we will have some advice and how to keep your home safe.

♪

♪ gerri: are you bundling up this winter? our next guest says these record cold temperatures are having an even worse effect in your house. what steps can be taken to prevent damage of the road? let's bring in the most of today's home owners. welcome back to the show. great to have you. you look warm where you are. is that true? >> it's about 20 degrees. much warmer than some of my northern france. gerri: we are at 17 right now i can see from the weather window. a couple of degrees below you. talk to me about what you do to keep your house warm. a lot of people are struggling with heating bills. going sky-high. what should people do?

>> definitely you want to protect your home from getting damage because these extreme temperatures can definitely rican back o those pipes. if he made it ts far, make sure you don't let your guard down. keep water running. also turn on a little bit of hot water in addition to that. also near outside faucets, go ahead and cover those. most likely by nowany areas have already sold out of the insulating covers. wrap it with a tall, a t-shirt, just about anything to be able keep that from being a problem. also, using light bulbs as a source of heat. it. gerri: wait, a light bulb as a source of heat to make have never heard of that. >> that would be in areas where you have maybe a concentration of a lot of water lines committee where your water heater is located that is not a heated area. use a bare light bulb. you can have a position to in a light fixture or lamp which will provide just enough heat in

the immediate area to keep those pipes from bursting. gerri: one of the big problems i find is that i cannot keep the driveway and the walkways free of snow and ice. it seems like i am out there shoveling, my husband isut, someone is doing something. trying to throw salt. what is the best thing to do? >> of tell you to my good friend of mine and lived in chicgo is a live tells me that using and ice repellent and putting it which is a liquid and pullg it ia pump up garden sprayer when you know it' going to freeze spray that over any of the steps, sidewalks, driveways. it will really help prevent that eyes from forming of them. makes it easier to clean up in the morning. gerri: i never even seen that product. and as repellent that is liquid. >> yes, and it's a lot safer for the environment to a particular result can really harm a lot of the planes the have around the house. it is a lot better to have the as repellent to preven the

problem before it happens. so using brand new fresh kitty litter is a way to spread out. gerri: and don't overdo it. there's another topic we wanted to get to. at that this was so interesting. you have some real details on how long home appliances last. of give you the text. i think this is coming. people wonder about this. if you have an older home we probably have a lot of appliances. centralized heat. how long does that last? >> iran 15 years. some people will say i have one much oler. well, good for you. you need to start thinking about the budget of when that unit is a run 15 years old. gerri: everyone is worried abot their furnace. >> that glass around the same, about 15 years as well.

the other thing it thinking about, those systems are operaing a lot less efficiently than the systems toay. even though it will be a sizable investment to change when they have reached the life expectancy you will save money every month, ignificant money and your energy bill by operating it much less. gerri: drugstore openers, ten to 15 years, a dishwasher nine caboclos' washington. the key for coming on the show. great to see you. gerri: always good to see you. and while he'snot suffering too badly in pensacola, temperatures to drop into the 30's. he said he was in the '20s. that's nothing compared to this city of watertown, new york, right in the canadian border. it was the coldest city in the unitedtates today at minus 37 degrees. and that is not including the wind chill. well this winter is shattering records, the weather channel to put together a list of the major cities with the call this average winter temperatures.

analyst estimates top five to beat number five, omaha, neb. the suffering too badly. monday. number four, milwaukee, wisconsin. everest temperatures around 25 degrees which is where it was today. tuesday the high was-2. number three, madison wisconsin, on average subzero cold. temperatures right around 22 degrees. ohio monday-6. number two, anchorage, alaska. residents have been seeing record highs. a number one coldest major city in america is minneapolis minnesota. i've been there. the average temperature is around 19 deges, but that is a heat wave compared to the high of-11 other cold cities, chicago and others in upstate new york like rochester and buffalo bill

on and on. still to come to my "2 cents more," in our legal panel did set out. stay with us. ♪

gerri: up next, people suing to get there mug shots removed from website spirit is their privacy

♪ gerri: should websites be able to profit from people's much of its? that is the question at the center of a case right now against website selectmen shot stuff,. this is the latest addition to that website. let's get this. justin beiiber, and he is smiling. regular folks to wind up on this website say it can wreck their lives, especially if they have up in panic guilty of anything. with us now to discuss the case,

o regular legal eagles. a 21st. profiting from our misery. >> a very tepid. my heart is not really in it. i think it's horrible. this is public information. therere is a first amendment rit for anyone to put that information out there if they want to. that is why we have the first amendment. legally they probably can. gerri: what do you think? do you agree? county you defend these people? this set up these websites so they can leach money and the people who have these pictures. isn't that the whole business small? >> that is the model, and i think it is extortion for the following reason. the first amendment corrects -- protect speech but commercial speech is the lowest level of what is protected. there's a balancing is between the protected speech and i would harm the public debate in this case the harm to people is so great. gerri: you don't get a job.

>> right, of the job of bank loans, poor credit rating. >> out is that legal extortion threat they're not demanding payment. so how is that really extortion? >> they are demanding payment for removing it. and also what they're saying is they know that you will be heard by it, so they have that hanging over your head. >> it is out there. that is still not extortion to me from a legal standpoint. >> i think what you're saying is they ellis aps and we will put it on. what they do say is pay as a we will take off. gerri: we will use this excuse does show some celebrity much of it because we can and we don't feel badly about this, i guess. there you go right there. there is no gibson. here is what they say. all are presumed innocent until proven guilty. does that absolves tem? >> legally, yes. it does. that's what i'm saying. gerri: you don't even like

defending the woman do you? >> is killing me. lee lee they can do this. it's public records to a first amendment. >> but let's look at thee employment context. there are laws the city you can discriminate against someone because they have been arrested and convicted if what they are convicted or arrested for is not related to the job that they do. so someone can now be asked about that. gerri: but they do it anyway. >> no the employer, even though they can ask for it, they go on and they just go in the internet and see it. that, to me is in direct contravention of what those laws are about. >> but bring that down to facebook or your living in a college application. the facebook order twitter. you can do that. >> bu that person is putting in on themselves. how many gifts have not done just because they have a six-pack in the hand of facebook. this is somebody else dredging

something up continues to the use of what a weigt. next thing you know you don't get a job. >> know is going to say that. we dressed up that day from 11 years ago which would never be allowed in the courtroom. you get a conviction arrest that many years back. gerri: you can present it in a court of law, but it can be used to deny you a job switch which is terrible. that is the interview. i think that there should be a lot of lock down on this. legislation, -- gerri: hee is an easy solution. the states say shot. that is fine. but you cannot take money from people to bri down. money coming in, no money going out. >> you can't take money to bring that pictures done and it would go away in a heartbeat. >> that is the way they're but something even worse if, in one situation i read today when the story came up, someone paid them money and they still didn't take it down because the date to demonstrate

shot but not the prfile. gerri: that is great. >> i am trying. >> we will disagree next week. don't worry. gerri: glad to hear it. thank you so mch. every weekend. we will be righ back with my "2 cents more" and the answer to our question of the day. is the middle-class bearing too large a burden? stay with us. ♪ tte or au lait?

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>> earlier in the hour i spoke with the economist of the middle-class squeeze. d.c. we bear too big averted? here is what your posting on facebook. >> of middle-class fights to stay alive without jobs. >> and always falls of the middle class.

89 percent said yes and 11 percent said no of the battle class squeeze. please log god for our online questioned every weekday. , a friend says it is darkest before the lights go completely out for i am not that way. eyeglasses is half full path that is with most americans optimistic an upbeat one reason we can't believe we can get ahead because it is our optimism yes utility bills are going higher and tartars would dash hackers are targeting our data and jittery will last forever but it will change for the good to get the economy going again. even after everything we have been through america is still the most productive country on the planet with 5% of the population and winter will end some day soon.

that is it for word tonight to. thank you for joining us. have a great day. neil: this just in. stks are not the only thing getting cold. did you check outside? that is cold. by the way, providing another headwinds from markets anytime soon moving out. welcome, everyone, i am neil cavuto. single digits and not much anyone can do in the more than half the country that is experiencing it and will keep experiencing it through next week. the biggest cold snap for so many and so long that it even has so