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tv   The Willis Report  FOX Business  February 14, 2014 5:00pm-6:01pm EST

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i trade like me. that's why i'm with scottrade. announcer: ranked highest in instor satisfaction with self-directed services by j.d. power and associates. gerri: hello, everybody, i'm gerri willis. right now on "the willis report", it is the obama care olympics. forget the gold, silver and bronze level coverage, there is a push for a new plan, copper. our users guide to love and money. we're taking drama out of divorce. flag on the play. our legal team takes on unusual cheerleader lawsuit. we're watching out for you tonight on the "willis report." gerri: just how private is your priority information? the government cracking down on brokers raking in billions of
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dollars by mining your personal data from information you give at the checkout line, you knew that. but guess what? now they're looking at your facebook posts and status updates. that's right. so who is buying all this info? john ulzheimer, credit expert at credit sesame.com. he joins me with details. always great to have you on the show. particularly on a friday, valentine's day. thanks for coming in. >> my pleasure. gerri: this is so interesting to me because this has the ring i heard it all before. didn't this happen during the subprime crisis? what they're doing is compiling information on those of us who have the least that then lenders, subprime lenders, credit card issuers, can go after some of these people. what do you make of it? >> yeah, we should probably stop calling private information private because it is really not private. it is actually very valuable. it is for sale. it is completely available. it is being aggregated by companies and sold to lenders that want to make offers
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tailor-made for consumers with financial problems. for example, those with tax liens, judgments against them or even bankruptcies and offer products and service that is would resonate to someone in that kind of financial stress. gerri: jon, we always knew that, right? there is certain amount, it makes sense to look t those go to the county courthouse. >> that's right. gerri: find out who owes uncle sam money on their taxes. so those are the folks who don't get loans. now it is way beyond that, way down the road. looking at my facebook posts. looking at my social media profile to figure out if i'm somebody to lend to? look, my friends can't how is somebody working for one of these companies supposed to do that? >> your point is very well-taken. the challenge we have we try to put ourselves in the position of the company that is actually using and mining the data. they're not using common sense methods. they're using highly sophisticated analytic process to see is our frequency posting
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is predictive of something. is how many friends we have predictive of something? that is telling a story whether we're good prospects and targets, absolutely. gerri: really? if i thought credit reports out there were highly accurate i might be obliged to agree with you. i know they are not. these are same folks, same 4,000 data brokers looking over your shoulder, reading facebook posts whatever else you're doing on line. let me tell folks what they are putting together. look at lists sold to lender. underbanked prime prospects. information broken down by race. ka-ching. let it ride. compulsive online gam brothers. listen to this. this sticks in my craw. speedy dinero. these are hispanics in need of fast cash receptive to subprime offers. i said earlier, you know it is interesting, because sound like the mortgage meltdown all over again. finding people who can't really
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afford the loans and marketing loans right to them. is that what's happening? >> absolutely. this is the next generation of highly-targeted marketing. instead of just using television ads at certain times of the day or certain placements on the radio during drive time. now we're looking at, hey, can we get this information and make it even mortar getted to consumers? for example your one about the hispanic speedy cash is great. the challenge we have. this is all voluntary. we don't have to respond to any of them. taking out a loan is completely up to us. we're not forced into doing it. make sure you're doing due diligence making offers and -- gerri: hello, mr. banker, if you offer somebody a loan you should know whether they can repay or not. that is the problem i have with that kind of marketing. they're essentially marketing to people who can't afford their products. that is what is so disturbing. clearly individuals have responsibility on their own, i
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do agree with that but it goes both ways my friend. to one of our favorite topics. suze orman. suze is out there right now and she wants congress to make some changes out there. why don't you tell us about it. >> yeah. she has gone to change.org and asking people to vote for her petition to basically force the credit reporting agencies to accept prepaid debit card information from the prepaid debit card issuers. and this is problematic for a variety of reasons notwithstanding the fact suze orman is pushing an selling a prepaid debit card of their own and they're called credit reports for a reason. they're supposed to house credit obligations. prepaid debt card is not credit obligation. it is stored value card that has your own cash. gerri: i thought with the industry on this they don't want to grade or score you how you spend your money. they want to grade or score you how you pay it back which makes a ton more sense to me.
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suze says, no, no. should be turned on its head. the whole world should be changed. my question to you, jon, does she want to change things because she thinks it is better for america or wants to sell more of her prepaid debit cards? >> that is very good question and who knows what lurks inside of her mind. herhere is the good news, it ain't happening. if you look at consumer feedback over her post it is largely negative. stay out of my wallet. i'm sick and tired of my information being shared. those are types of comments we're hearing. credit reporting industry has no interest in the government telling it what it can accept and can't accept. trouble trying to force information on to a credit report it doesn't solve the problem. credit score systems will not consider information that is not predictive of future credit risk. if a prepaid credit card is nothing more than me using cash which does not tell a story about my credit usage. gerri: let me, i will ask the question in a way that is easy
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to understand. if i go to starbucks, does it mean i'm a worse credit risk, i don't know? what does it tell you? literally nothing, right? >> it tells me you like coffee. gerri: now before you go -- >> that is what it tells me. >> i want to tell people fees on suze orman's preapproved credit card. purchase fee, three bucks. monthly account, goes on and on. withdrawal fees at atm. 2 buck as transition. balance inquiry, dollar transaction. you get the point here. there is lot of money to be made. i think she would like to make some more. john, thanks for coming on my show. >> happy valentine's to you and stay away from prepaid debit cards. gerri: thank you, sir. more details for the bottom line concerning the massive merger of the two biggest and frankly most hated cable companies in the united states of america. we've got two of the best here to debate. john berg meyer, senior staff attorney for public knowledge, and james freeman assistant he had orfor
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"the wall street journal" editorial page. these two go head-to-head on this topic. gentlemen, start with you, you do not like this merger. why not? >> well, i don't like it i think when you have a company like a post-merger comcast such gatekeeper power over the cable industry and broadband industry it would have effect that is ripple all throughout the country even in areas not covered by either comcast or time warner. gerri: i know you object on the basis of this company will be too big, but to my issue. i think prices are going to go up. what do you say? >> well you know already most people don't have a lost choice in terms of their cable provider. and that is not going to change. the competitive situation certainly isn't going to be better n fact yesterday, in a press call, comcast admitted that this merger would not lower prices for consumers. in fact it wouldn't even slow their increase. gerri: all right. james to you, you have a different view on this. what do you think of the merger? >> i think it is fine. i think markets work pretty well and consumers benefit most when
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washington allows vigorous competition and that is what you have here. i don't really see this great power. the cable guys are competing with satellite on the video end. they're competing with phone companies doing broadband and video. they're competing with wireless. the biggest issue in the cable industry over the last decade has been people cutting the chord, saying they don't need wire in their house. they're going wireless. gerri: gerri, the world changed, competition has changed. lots of other players who could get in the middle of this and change the world entirely. i want to read something from your "wall street journal" editorial though. heads up here, john, listen to, any giant fund-raising deal is bonanza for groups like public knowledge which considers toking antitrust violation by definition. what do you say? >> that is not true. it is not bigness. it is market power. it is how big you are relative to anyone else. you wield so much more power
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than the nearest competitor. bringing up cable tv. look at broadband market where if you just count cable and fiber enabled broadband, really high speed broadband, not slower dsl after merger comcast would have 30 million broadband customers and their next nearest rival would have under 10 million. that is, doesn't look like competition to me. that looks like a rout. >> if these guys have so much power i don't know why we don't see that in their profit margins. gerri: explain. >> explain, their profit margins are roughly similar to what you see with the telecom companies they compete against. roughly similar to the satellite companies they compete against on video programs. not as good as frankly the content companies like yours that travel over the pipes, over the cable pipes. in other words if someone has great monopoly power they should be able theoretically to extract big profits by gouging customers. these guys don't show those profits. gerri: okay. let me show you monthly cable
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bill last 10 years, nearly tripled up, 166%. it will go to 200 bucks a month. seems like they're doing okay to me? >> but they are. a lot of that money is passing through to cable channels. of course espn, most famously get as huge amount of money per sub desire. point is americans want this. they like watching this stuff. gerri: john what do you say. >> if comcast is so strapped for cash amazing to be one of the top lobbying spenders in washington, d.c. to try to influence the political outcome of their favor. i agree high content costs are big driver of cable bills. to the extent that comcast is able, to use its leverage to somehow maybe get a better deal from disney or viacom, number one, i doubt they will pass that along to their customers. number two the content companies will make it up by charging more to other smaller cable providers left in the market. gerri: i have to take you to something i think you both should respond to here.
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look at pay tv customer satisfaction index. these two companies are at the bottom of the list. americans think, oh, my goodness, these two people are getting married? i don't like either of them. i dope want to go that wedding. >> they are two consenting adults here. the point is, very possible if consumers don't like them, if they use other options on line, netflix has the most talked about it. v show with "house of cards". gerri: >> that's right. >> these guys could be out of business in 10 years. this business of bundling a bunch of channels selling them as a package it could be going away. this is the opposite of entrenched market with huge power. >> john? >> that's why this deal is all about broadband. i'm not sure how you watch netflix unless you have a big broadband internet pipe to watch netflix. gerri: they're slowing it down now, john. >> how about at&t, wireless competitors there is not monopoly hold on this. gerrii but isn't there, the way
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cable works at a very low level, town by town. >> right. gerri: jurisdiction by jurisdiction. zip code by zip code you essentially sign adlong term contract with one of these companies and their pipes you are using and everybody uses them. they are sort of entrenched in term of that contract. let john, go. he hasn't had a chance. john? >> i like my water company but i don't have a competitive choice for water companies. in a lot of way your broadband and cable tv is similar. you have different providers throughout the country but they don't compete each other head-to-head. gerri: in the same market, exactly. >> it is nothing like the water company. you have at&t. you've got verizon. you have wireless competitors. another market signal if this merger is making comcast the all powerful cable company, why is their stock lower than the moment it was announceed? gerri: that is great question. unfortunately we'll have to leave it there. james and john. great job, interesting conversation. i feel smarter already. thank you. >> thank you.
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>> thanks. gerri: a lot more still to come this hour, including advice on getting your family on board with your upcoming big move. next yet, more changes coming to obama care as some democrats desperate to save their careers are proposing a new plan that is even lower than bronze. is it really an option? we'll talk about it.
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gerri: consumers are not clamoring for the gold, silver and bronze obamacare plans as white house and democrat hoped for. now two democraaic senators facing a close re-election race are pushing for copper plans to dig them out of this mess. will it work? joining me, paul howard, senior fellow at the manhattan institute. welcome back. always good to have you here. copper plans, i thought that what the president wanted out of obamacare is that you had to have the full menu of all services, all health care services, all the time. that is not what this is? >> well the message we're hearing now from people it is not flexible enough. when you look at fine print, over seven million people are eligible for the marketplaces went to them but only 3.2 million actually bought a plan. a lot of people are seeing prices and plans and walking
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away. gerri: walking away. now we kicked people off plans that we had before would be more likk the copper plan they're talking about. i can't keep up. help me understand. >> right now the bronze plans are expensive. with subsidies they're a good deal. if you don't get the generous subsidies you're facing 300, $400 a month in some cities. this is more affordable plan, especially healthy, don't get subsidies. let's make it flexible and have people find plans they have before. gerri: that would be more like catastrophic, right? >> right now. catastrophic plans on exchanges, only 1% are buying them but they're not eligible for subsidies which makes them very unattractive. gerri: let's look at two guys proposing this. senator mark begich in alaska and mark warner in virginia. they have ds behind their names. what is going on, paul? >> it is election year and two people supported law. had rocky rollout. still controversial. gerri: can't keep your doctor.
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can't keep your plan. can't keep virtually anything you liked about health care before. >> how can you bend the law without breaking it? the president extended employee mandate twice. they say looks at changes in the law to be more flexible. gerri: what is the impact on bottom line if they actually do this. >> if you're an irsurer this is driving you crazy. you price a plan, figure out the risk pool will be and put it out there. if they rejigger it this way, on other hand more attractive bet people in the pool but on the% other hand people pull their hair out because they don't know what the plan will sell. gerri: everybody is confused. the white house says we're thinking about it? really? do you think they will do this. >> i'm supportive. anything that gives us more flexibility, gives us more affordable insurance coverage is a good thing. gerri: meantime we've completely ripped up the whole other way of doing business which provided exactly this kind of coverage.
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>> you know, maybe, two steps forward one step back? at some point the administration -- gerri: one step forward, two steps back, half a mile back. few miles back. >> at some point the administration got to concede, small employers are not buying plans, individuals are not buying plans they need more options. gerri: interesting to see if it goes through what the president does. paul, thanks for coming in. have a great weekend. >> you too. gerri: later in the show we wrap up valentine's day week with our final installment of our users guide to love and money. next we answer the question, how do you do that? we have advice convincing your significant other to relocate, to follow your dreams. ♪ so i can reach ally bank 24/7, but there are no branches? 24/7. i'm sorry, i'm just really reluctant to try new things. really? what's wrong with trying new things? look! mommy's new vacuum (cat screech)
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you feel that in your muscles? i do... drink water. it's a long story. well, not having branches let's us ge you great rates and service. i'd ke that. a new way to bank. a better way tsave. ally bank. your mey needs an ally.
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gerri: job opportunity opens up but it is across the country. idea to your spouse in 60up the seconds.
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gerri: in this tough economy you can be challenging to find a job and even hardtory turn one down but what if, what if that job you hear about is across the country and how do you bring it up, not only idea to your significant other but sell them on the idea? with more on this, ann copeland, founder of the interchange institute. welcome to the show. i don't know anybody who has been married for any period of time who hasn't had this conversation, should we move? particularly in this economy, a lot of people can do very well for themselves by relocating but not easy to talk about. how do you even bring this up? >> well, the first thing, when do you bring it up? you know i think the most important thing that people can keep in mind is involve both spouse, having a discussion
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about whether to take a new job and to relocate that involves them very early in the decision. sometimes even employers involved the spouse in deciding whether this is a good move for this family. if people don't buy in from the beginning there is trouble down the road. gerri: absolutely right and the last person i want to talk to is the employer, let me tell you. i want to make the decision on my own. i think i would be insulted and my husband came home, meet my potential new employer, he will talk you into moving to the other coast. is there preparation you can do though? seriously, if you're going to have the conversation, what kind of preparation do you need to do? >> i think first thing to do is listen to what your families concerns would be because there are some really, real logistical concerns that maybe the spouse is in charge of. what will it mean or her or his job? for the childrens education? for elder care? for family involvement. the question is, a lot of those
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obstacles are fixable. you can address them. and maybe there is something that the employer can do and that the family can decide to do to address each of these. maybe if the child is in school, getting special services, maybe, we can find out. if there are similar special services in another, in the new location. gerri: that's a great point. that's a great point and i think people wonder about, then how do you come to this conclusion? i mean you sound like you're driving to the move but i'm driving to, how do you make the right decision. so how do you do that? >> that's right. and that's so important. if it doesn't work for the family at this time, it is not in anyone's interest to take it and so, so if everybody can be involved in the beginning, can be involved, what are the good things? most of these locations work out really well and they can be
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life-changing and wonderful experience for families, but let's take seriously what, what it means for the spouse and the family. and so listening for those concerns from the beginning and, i think if the two spouses are in partnership, think valentine's day. let's work on this together. ironically one of the things that tend to happen in families is, you know, i think all relocations are partly good and partly bad. there is some of each for most families in most situations. >> right. >> if one person takes on the role of loving it 100%, well, that means the other person has to hate it 100%. if everybody -- gerri: got to find common ground. >> yes. gerri: absolutely right. got to find the common ground and have a real conversation about the move, what it means, would it work. anne, thanks for cooing on tonight. >> you're welcome. >> i think it's a fascinating
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tooic. we had it many times in our household. hard to know the right way. thank you very much for your help. >> you're welcome. >> and are you tired of credit cards? you know credit cards, the fees, interest rate, the worry about having your identity stolen. do you want to live without plastic but don't know how? we want to you take our cash challenge. if you want to dump your credit cards and find a way to live on cash only we want to hear from you. let me know your stories, friends, families, anybody you know, we want to talk to them. we want to talk to you. you want to go cash-only let us know. coming up who is to blame for the bad economy, mother nature or washington. we have advice how to survive your divorce with your wallet intact. ♪
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gerri: it is valentine's day. you're thinking roses, romance, but you know what? it brings up thoughts of divorce too. according to a new study by -- which matches consumers with lawyers. the number of of people out there seeking information about divorce on its website goes up increases hikes more than 40% from new year's day to valentine's day. it's the time of year people think about it. stacy snyder, a former divorce, she's the author of "he had coming." with the dos and don'ts of divorce. i have this theory, i could be totally wrong, people are too quick to call it quits. >> i think your theory is dead on. people don't realize the same problems they have in the marriage are going to come with them to the next relationship. and instead of spending time trying to work through the issues, unless we are talking
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about substance abuse or criminality. people don't spend enough time on loving the one they're with. >> i love that sentiment. we have a tweet from rick who said people divorce too quickly. look at the divorce rate compared to 20 years ago. too many multiple marriages. people keep making the same mistake over and over again. what was the most common reason for divorce when you were a divorce attorney? >> money problems and fights over how to raise the children. and just -- but the money problems really take control of a marriage and there is no one who comes out on the winning end of that. there's anxiety, there's always stress. i have to tell clients know what you have if youudon't have the fear that the other spouse is excerting the power over the relationship through the money. and a lot of -- especially the women don't know what the marital assets are. when they get time to come to divorce, they don't know what is going on and they're in -- gerri: frustrated.
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even so don't you find some folks later regret the divorce? >> i think the only one regrets getting divorced is elizabeth taylor. >> divorce brings out the worse in people. if you are already upset and go through the divorce process. the monster rears the head during it. i don't think anyone liking each other -- probably the only one who has a divorce court. >> you hear about it but it's a rarity. >> it doesn't happen. divorce is designed to bring out the animal in the person. gerri: it is. that reason alone, i think, you know, people -- if you're going to do this, if you made this decision and you're going to go down the road, you need to understand that the cost of divorce are very, very high. it's not just what you pay an attorney, it's not just the fees for filing the divorce. going forward supporting two households now with the same income. talk to us about that. >> that's the most devastating part of divorce on the financial end.
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you have either one income or two incomes supporting expenses, utilities, cars, insurances, and -hen all of a sudden, that is divided down the middle. it's not always a fair distribution. one gets the kids. they have to worry about that support. the pressure is enormous to support two different life style on the same income you were together. it's no a formula for success. gerri: you mentioned before women don't really know the marital assets. i've read when you go to court you have to have locked down what you spend. you need to know the assets so you can ask for a fair share. >> information is the best way to have success in a divorce. you have to know what is in the financial account. you have to know what you own as a couple. if you don't know the marital assets you are spending a lot of must be to dig through what exists there. it's wasted money you could be
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using to send the kids to college. it gets that expensive. your lawyer has to do so much discovery work to figure out what the other spouse is hiding or keeps in accounts you don't know about. it's throwing dollars down the drain. gerri: we read there's going to be even more divorces because the economy is better and people like now i can afford that divorce. do you think it is right? >> i think it cuts a both way paps lot of people don't get divorced because they can't afford to get divorced. like we talked about they can't afford to run two households on the same income they had. the other side when the economy is bad and the chips are down and people have employment stresses, and income stresses, that also increases divorces. so i think there will be another study coming out. they do every year. gerri: i have to tell you if you win the lottery, don't you file divorce papers? i got the money! now we go the separate ways. >> and they fight over the share of the lottery prize. who funded the ticket. gerri: i told my husband he could have a divorce one way.
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>> what that? gerri: toes up! you're going out toes up. i like that. [laughter] thank you for coming on. great job. appreciate your coming in at the last-minute. we want to know what you think. here is our question. are couples too quick to divorce? log on to jerry -- gerriwillis.com. while we're asking about divorce. it is valentine's day. we wanted to highlight the famous couplings that have gone the distance and given love a good name. the list is tonight's top five. david bowie and aman. they have been married for 21 years. the super model was on our show. kevin bay con and kiera. number three tom hanks and rita wilson. one of the cutest couples in hollywood. celebrating their siiver anniversary. he said i'm standing here
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because the woman i share my life with has taught me an demonstrate every day what love is. and number duo, jamie lee curtis. they will celebrate 30 years of marriage they met after curtis a magazine in 1984 and called his agent to set up a meeting. and number one is oz city and sharon osbourne. are you kidding me? they've been married for 31 years. that's awesome. they met while sharon's father was managing ozzie's band. our legal panel weigh in on the fight between nfl and cheerleaders. the latest winter storm has moved out. the east coast is strug thing to return. they blame the wild weather for the bad numbers. we'll have details coming up.
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schools closed again today in the northeast with parts of pennsylvania digging out from under nearly two feet of snow. there's even more than that in upstate new york with around 440,000 homes and businesses mostly in south carolina and georgia. still without power. the treacherous weather has been blamed for nearly two dozen deaths and the most flight cancellations in 25 years. airlines have canceled more than 75 domestic flights with 14,000 this week. it's more than 5% of all flights scheduled in february. women, we have two weeks to go. is mother nature hurting economic growth. some economists are saying that when it comes to the financial slump the country has been facing recently. here with more gary, president of capital management. i'm pleased to have you on the show. i have a feeling you have the say questions i do about the excuses about why the numbers aren't as goose they should be. is it the weather, my friend?
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>> a little bit it's going to take a little bit off the ged f. i've been saying for three years. the economy has a good quarter and not so good quarter and the real probably of the economy will never be unlocked because of the policies out of d.c. gerri: gdp forecast was mentioned by three tenths a percent. that's down. take a look at the economic numbers. industrial production down. retail sales down, weak jobs report, the list goes on and on, and i think people want to believe the fact that it has been the successive number of storms. they have been really bad, but it's a great place to hide if you're a ceo and you're reporting earnings. >> well, ceos are famous especially the company that are not doing well, they are famous for using any event to say it effected our business and that's why the numbers are down. now look, to be fair you have a lot of airlines that had a lot of cancellations, retail gets affected, especially when it is
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in populated areas. but overall, you can basically tell what the story is. i have to tell you the airline stocks are at new highs here. restale stocks are way down. >> what did you think is behind the slump. it's partly weather yes. what is going on? you don't like washington policy are we in a situation where people decided i'm on the the sideline until we have some other kind of government here? >> i just think it's just an economy that really can never really get going. we've had a good quarter, a not so good quarter. i think the employment numbers are coming out. our basically are fake. all these people even leaving the work force. you add them in 10 or 11% unemployment. not 6.6. and i think, you know, they keep changing the playing field on the rules on obamacare, things like that. mandates, nobody knows where they're going to be. i really believe it puts head winds in the minds of business leaders and pool who do all the hiring throughout. not to mention consumers that
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want to spend more. >> we're looking at those bad economic numbers right now giving people a sense of what has been reported. where to next? we got gdp down. can we pull our heads up. is there any way we see the improvement in the balance of the year. i know, what normally happens everybody gets excited about the first six months and the expectations fall off. what is going to happen next? >> well, i suspect once we got out of the bad weather things the numbers will get a little bit better. but i think we're going have moderate growth. if we keep growing employment by 150,000, that is piker numbers. it is never going to get us anywhere. with the numbers we're seeing with welfare and poverty and food stamps, those numbers are obscene. until these people can be lifted up or do something to lift themselves up, i think the economy remains, as i've been saying for three years, okay, good quarter.
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not so good. nothing really getting going like the past. gerri: doesn't supply enough jobs. >> typed tepid is the worth. >> happy valentine's day i, my friend. >> you too, dear. >> my two cents more. our legal panel weigh in on another fight in the nfl. this time the cheerleaders. they say they're not being paid enough. stay with us. ♪
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nfl cheerleader filed suit saying they make illegal wages. does she have a claim? we'll battle out with the legal team next.
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♪ a cincinnati bengals cheerleader filed a lawsuit claiming she's underpaid. she cites a laundry list of strict rules each must abide by in order to keep the low-paying gig. does the lawsuit have legs? joining me now a partner a law firm, and attorney paul. welcome to you both. great to have you here. i'm going start with bill. this whole story is so funny. but you say there's a tragedy in. you say the women are underpaid. >> ashe claims she's working 300 hours a week. okay. and anything she does -- okay. a month i'm sorry. >> [laughter] gerri: i was confuse there had. >> e.g. anything she does has something to the employer. when you take the wage specifically the fact they pay her a one shot deal per game of $90 she makes $2.85 an hour.
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>> she's not making minimum wage. >> tragedy is a little strong word here. at the end of the day there's the allegations in a lawsuit. that's the bottom lining. when it comes down to is she an independent contractor. the law look at the economic realty test. they determine a cup of things. whether they are important business. all due respect to the service they render it's about football. it's about football. frankly, the beer vender is probably more important to the game than the cheerleader. gerri: you brought two good point. the test whether or not she's a employ is whether or not her employment is controlled by the employee. they tell her where to go, report, practice, the public relations. >> more than that, my friend. they team her what she's supposed to look like. hose or underwear what her boobies are supposed to look like. it's so over the top. >> the job-related requirements
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here. you deal with cheerleaders. they have to look like them. i don't think it's going to be controlling. it's based upon the fact. the court look at to the talty of render and make a determination. how much does it add? it's a part-time gig. they're not working all year. let's see where it ends up at the end of the day. >> what did you think about the what they wear and told. >> i think when you said over the top. there's no pun intended. the truth is they drill down on the specifics. okay, it's one thing, you know, be a cheerleader. they're getting to don't wear a bra, this, underwear. i think it may be crossing that line to where basically not only controlling them, you know, but putting them a position where they are sort of harass by not following them. >> are they being harassed? >> no. those are job-related functions. they can choose exactly -- [laughter] >> they are. some jobs require uniform and different kinds. they require you to look a certain way. at the end of the day cheerleaders have to look cheerleaders. it's not part of the lawsuit. at the end day you make a lot of
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money the plaintiffs' lawyer. not there is anything wrong with it. we're talking about $1500 is really what it adds up to if you bring up to the minimum wage. [inaudible conversations] >> if she's working 300 hours a month and you do the math. >> it's not even that -- there's no overtime. >> and also $2.85 is a ridiculous amount of money. people in the entertainment industry dancers, you know, people trying to make it. they'll work for anything. they want to work. they shouldn't be taken advantage of. that's what is happening here. >> let the facts fall where they may. there is no overtime claim and claim in the lawsuit regarding how they need to look or otherwise. it's about minimum wage. one employee seeking to make a class out of it. >> if i was the lawyer it would be about overtime. and also the oakland raiders had a similar. gerri: that's right. >> and same thing. and other teams are paying their cheerleaders proper.
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>> you know the origin of the case. it's the rick's cabaret case. gerri: we don't have time for that. i want to read the statement here. it long has been a program run by former cheerleaders and broad support in the community and member of the squad. it appears to be a copy cat lawsuit that mimics the one filed last month in california. they will address the litigation in due course. >> a copy cat lawsuit. if that was illegal and this is just as illegal here. gerri: my heart goes out to the cheerleaders. what can i say? >> me too. a little strong. >> it does too. he's not admitting it. gerri: great debate appreciate your time. we'll be back with our two cents more. are couples too quick to divorce?
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earlier this hour as part of the users guide to love and money. we asked are couples too quick to get divorced. 83% said yes. be sure to log on for the online question every weekday. here are some of your e-mails. the first from julie in north carolina about the irs. it's clear she says that not only the irs totally corrupt but incompetent. can we abolish the irs. on executive orders i think they should be terminated when the president leaves office. it should be up up to the new president to decide when which he will extend and let expire. i was surprised to see how many orders have been issued by prior president. it amounts to growing
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dictatorship and not just president obama's doing. interesting. here is andre from texas. the odd of the keystone pipeline being approved are slim and none. slim is on a fast but out of town. that's funny. finally, valentine's day. it's a nice day but not really a real holiday. a pleasant thought. i try to spend too much -- i try not that spend too much time worrying about what i call greeting card holidays. secretary's day and that kind of thing. i think love and money are two things worth thinking about as i did all week. let face it, thh best of intentions when it comes to money can come if the household isn't on board. we talked a tough topic. divorce. one many families are too familiar with. i think our society added to throw it away if it doesn't work contribute to the high number of divorces. it it is broke don't fix it.
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to be frank it's enough of an effort for my families. that's it for the show. have a great weekend. we'll see you next week. ♪ neil: it's friday. do you know where the republican congressman is? they seem to be -- on the debt ceiling. now on hitting the roof. they're focused on winning later this year they given up the fight to reign in spending at all this year. a $1 trillion farm bill that over the top. to start the week off. then a billion dollar climate measure pushed by the president that piles on the way to end the week. republicans are afraid to say boo, wine, or complain. they

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