gerri: hello, everybody. i'm gerri willis, right now on "the willis report". market's fall is uncertainty and in ukraine rises but should you be selling? also why are we paying for our credit scores? the push is on to make them truly free. when is it okay to hold your thumb while driving? a judge decides and we examine the case. we're watching out for you on "the willis report." gerri: we begin tonight with the escalating crisis in the ukraine and the impact it's having here at home.

stocks in your 401(k) were hammered today. the dow falling triple digits. oil jumped more than $2 a barrel to its highest level in five months. home heating oil prices also surged. investors are looking for a safe haven pushed gold to a four-month high. bond prices also rose. president obama short time ago demanded russia's president putin stand down. there is no sign of that. so where do we go from here? with us fox news contributor kt mcfarland. welcome back to the show. always great to have you here. now you got my attentioo as an american. you selloff the market 250 points in the middle of the day. worst day in a month. it rebounded at the end but we're still negative. where is this going and how long is this criesly likely to last? >> i think it is not over. russia now controls crimea and that's important to them because it is a military base. also where a lot of russian goods ship from russia to crimea through the black sea to the med. i think it continues though because the russians aren't

finished. there is very little pushback what they have done other than a little finger wagging on the part of the administration. what they're looking for in my estimation is eastern ukraine. gerri: why? >> that's where they have historically had heavy industry. where all the oil and natural gas pipelines go through eastern ukraine. where in the cold war days a lot of aircraft manufacturing industry was located in the ukraine. gerri: this is economic story as well as political story? you. >> bet. gerri: the president this afternoon sitting down talking about what he would like to see happen. here's the president. >> if in fact they continue on the current trajectory that they're on, that we are examining whole series of steps, economic, diplomatic that will isolate russia and we'll have a negative impact on russia's economy and its status in the

world. gerri: how convincing to that in the world and what do you think the president would do? >> he has done things like threaten to cancel the g8 summit or kick russia out of the g8. i don't think they care. putin is not terribly scared by that. what president obama could do to get putin's attention, build the keystone pipeline. build the missile shield we canceled in the scheck republic, put that back on. increase american military spending why is that important? >> the missile shield -- gerri: missile shield but also keystone pipeline? >> because putin played the long game from beginning. 15 years ago he wrote his desser istation, he said the way to reclaim the great soviet empire around greater russia using our oil and natural gas. to oust our natural gas exports to europe for political leverage and use our oil exports to get profits to build up our society and build up the new russian empire. he has followed that plan for 15 years. i don't think he anticipated he

would have quite such a weak opponent in the white house to do it but that is where he is. gerri: today, charlie gasparino, our very own charlie said there are big conversations about maybe doing something much more dramatic. seizing assets of russians and have american banks get involved. how likely is that. >> president obama policy heretofore, red lines, he larry carries them out. that is a pretty gutsy move, what will be the next step? what do chinese do? what do iranians do? seems doesn't make a lot of sense or is it very likely. a much better plan would be to say we'll keystone pipeline, we'll frack, and drive the price of oil down, russia if the price of oil goes down below 80 or $90 a barrel, they are bankrupt. they can't do anything of these stuff. don't have military and subsidies to people and have a little political unrest.

gerri: a lot of people completely lost sight of that economic resistance, health programs, you name it. do we have much -- >> real problem ukraine has they need $30 billion bailout and we're not going to step up for that. european union isn't. and imf won't unless is some major restructuring of corruption and good government. who is willing to step up for that? the russians. gerri: we have a long way to go. >> this story is not over yet by a long shot. gerri: i think we'll have a long time stalk talking about this. i hope you will be available to chat bit. >> pleasure. gerri: we'll have lot more on what the crisis in in the ukraine means for markets and your portfolio on our financial panel coming up. meantime from international intrigue to intrigue in washington there is big battle brewing between a prominent mutual fund manager in florida and the federal bought. it centers around fannie mae and

freddie mac, now that both companies bail out their government back and should they pay out shareholders and not send profits to treasury department? with us money manager bruce berkowitz, founder of fair home capital management. welcome to the show. terrific to have you here. tell us what you want fannie mae and freddie mac to do? >> i want them to respect their owners. i mean they have a very tough deal with the government in 2008 and everything, it worked. everything is perfect. then in 2012 your, the basically shareholders assets were taken from them. gerri: but, bruce, why should this money go to you and investors rather than to taxpayers? >> well, i think it should go to both. i'm a shareholder and a taxpayer and i have 170,000 clients, retirees, 401(k)s. we own the company. that is normally what an

investor is and fannie mae and freddie mac are no different than coca-cola or disney. so the question is why shouldn't all of their profits go to taxpayers? shareholders are taxpayers. >> absolutely different situation. we bailed out those two companies. >> no. gerri: as taxpayers, we bailed out fannie mae and freddie mac. shouldn't we be the first to reap the rewards? >> well, and, same case with aig, bank of america. of course the taxpayer should reap the rewards and taxpayers will make more money from fannie mae and freddie mac than from aig, than from bank of america and from goldman sachs. the taxpayers have been paid back and now they will get a big profit. after that happens, it is time for the shareholders, their chance to recover what's been lost. that's is the way it works in america. gerri: well you know in truth, fannie mae and freddie mac stock is up and up dramatically. if you head the stock anytime at

all you're doing pretty well. and what is interesting about the whole story that the government kind of changed the rules last year. originally they required some of the monies to go to the federal government. now it is all profits have to go to the federal government. do you think there's any chance at all, bruce, that at some point in the future public interests, the federal of fannie mae and freddie mac and they will actually become two privately-held companies albeit traded publicly? >> well you know, they are privately held, publicly-traded companies today. they trade, market values, approaching $60 billion. that exists today. they're not a government agency. >> but they're run by the government. they give their money, the money they make suppose to the federal government. don't you think -- >> that is my point. gerri: don't you think the federal government plays a big role what is going on here? what do you think should happen?

how should the companies be run and should the government's involvement gotten rid of? >> it is time for politicians to leave and let the professionals run both of these companies. >> got a long way to go. will you keep investing in them? is that your plan? you have a pretty handsome stake as it is right now. >> well i have a lot of faith in america and i think we're boeing to get it right. there was a mistake. something happened in 2012. the sun was shining. these companies were making a lost money. everything was going well then somebody somewhere decided to change the deal right at the end. so, that is the argument. it is no more than a taking. you know, i would like you to watch out for my 401(k) holders in my mutual fun and not their assets taken against the fifth amendment. and it is broken, sort of every deal i know of. so you know, in america you don't take a person's assets. in america you don't break

deals. people come to our country for that reason. >> amen. amen to that bruce, thanks for coming on the show to that. appreciate your time. >> thank you. gerri: and now we want to know what you think. here's our question onight. who should profit from fannie mae and freddie mac's turn around? shareholders or taxpayers? log on to gerriwillis.com and vote on the right-hand side of the screen. i will share the results at the end of tonight's show. we have more in tonight's show. feds are pushing credit card companies i think is a good idea. could washington have something right for a change? >> was the fed asleep at the wheel in the gm recall? new information just ahead. you will want to hear that

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center for auto safety. clarence, thank you for joining me tonight. you have big questions about regulators, nhtsa, national highway traffic safety administration. that they haven't done what they could have to prevent these deaths. where did they go wrong? >> they went wrong in 2005 when they did two very in depth crash investigations into these models and found out that the ignition was turning itself off because of the heavy key or going over a jarring road. and yet the government did nothing with the crash investigations. they let fm continue to make and sell the vehicles while the public rode at the risk of being in a crash where the airbag didn't work. gerri: now, they knew about the problem ahead of time. they didn't do a full-blown investigation. asleep at thenk that is? wheel? >> definitely. i mean it was one branch of the government looking at these advanced airbags that were put

in 2005 models to save lives and they didn't turn over that information to the office right next door to them, the defect investigators, to get a recall. so they knew there was a defect. they just didn't do anything about it. gerri: here is what we're looking at right now. gm is recalling 1.4 million cars. take a look at this. chevy cobalts, saturns, it is chevy, i can't read that word. oh, i'm trying to read a full screen we don't have tonight but we're describing all of the makes and models that this company had including the pontiac solstice, the saturn sky that were recalled. the numbers doubled recently and let me read the comment from alan beatty, who is the gm north america president. he says the process employed to examine this phenomenon was not as robust as it should been. we will take unflinching look what happened and apply lessons learned here to improve going forward.

is that cold come forth though for the families of those 13 people who were killed? >> absolutely not. and there probably are more than 13 people who have been killed because of this defect. gerri: wow. >> it is one of the biggest failures of the recall system in this country ever. >> what should happen from here? what should gm do? what should the government do? should mary barra have some kind of roll in this? >> when you have the first public apology by a general motors officer since the apology to ralph nader, absolutely. the thing is we're putting more and more complex electronics in into cars. we're going to self-driving car and at the heart of this defect are the electronics that trigger or don't trigger the airbag and a airbag should never fail. mary barra should step up to the plate and make the entire investigation public and nhtsa should investigate its own process to see why it missed the

ball too. gerri: it announced an investigation i believe last week s that just covering its tracks? >> well, all too many of these investigations turn out to be a whitewash but if they make every single document, every single interview public, that's the way to go. and at the same time, we want to know what went on in these meetings with the nhtsa regulators, with the gm officials. why didn't those meetings result in a recall? >> clarence, i want to ask you this question because we hear this a lot from people who read a lot about this case. the problem comes when you have a key chain and you have something heavy attached to it, like a lot of people do, who carry a lot of keys, they have an elaborate key chain fob and that is what pulls down the key and that is what creates the problem. is it the fault of people with these key chains there have been problems with these cars in your view? >> no. think about this. general motors is also telling the consumers to even take off

that remote fob that we give you to go with the key. so this is a absolutely frail key ignition switch. it works, the key switch works fine in silver laud dough, it -- silverado it ought to work as well. gerri: a frail ignition switch. clarence, thanks for coming on tonight. come back anytime. >> thank you. gerri: well later in the show, should it be legal to use your phone as a gps device while driving or just the act of heading your phone a dangerous idea? we answer the question how do you do that? how do decide if you should end your contract and get that new phone? stay with us. [ male announcer ] did you know

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gerri: warning over those flue early cell phone upgrade plans. what it may end up really costing to you get that new phone faster.

details next.

gerri: for those of you who are always looking to have the latest and greatest sell phones and can't wait out two-year standard carrier program there are new upgrades programs that offer you a new phone in year or 12 months but will this end up costing you more? here with the answer is "wall street journal" reporter joanna stern. great having you here. sound like heavy ren, right? always have the newest phone. what are the downside? >> it does. sound like a mobile dream come true. if people want to buy the new phone that ellen was taking a selfie with, galaxy note 3, you have to wait until end of two year contract. with these plans they don't have to wait two years and letting you upgrade sick months to a year. all carriers have these.

logistics is pretty complicated. pay one phone, $200 when you first get it. you're not really paying $200. gerri: the phone cost as whole lot more than that. >> i think a lot of people are not sure of. take the iphone, $600. you're paying off that cost of phone over two years with lots of different fees and lots of different little things on your bill as many people don't really look at but they're in there. gerrii listen. we looked at these. we seen the silly little things and adds up quickly. >> it does. what you're doing with the new plans, paying full price of that phone over two years. carriers say, we will let you pay every month towards the cost of that phone, $27. plus the fees of your wireless fees and all the other types ever things they add on. so it does sound good because you can upgrade at a year or earlyer. >> i have to tell you i saw this, what is the catch? there has to be some catch. i will not get away a fantastic new phone without some downside. >> the catch is you pay more. when i crunched numbers what you pay with your subsidized phone

you pay 300 to 400 depending on carrier. you pay that much more if you went with one of early upgrade plans. gerri: one of the points you make in the article i thought was interesting, when you're in one of the plans you can't sell phone you're getting rid of. >> you're really locked in. this is really tied down to the carrier. one you're in the cycle of paying off the phone. and so when you go and trade it in at a year you're basically starting all over again. you will pay towards the next phone and another year you get a new phone. so they then take that phone back. so you basically pay half of the phone, i mean they don't break the phone in half. they can't give you half the phone. they take the full phone and resell it give you a new phone. and paying more money. gerri: you make a good point. what you're saying you're locked into the carrier. sound like a way for carriers to build brand consciousness and affinity for their services. >> yeah. they're playing into the idea we all want the latest phones. we see the commercials all the time. my god that will take better pictures.

my instagrams will look better. they're playing into that. really fact the phones are really getting that much better at two-year marks. >> you know, let's show some of these costs. early bird confusion. iphone 5s cost over two years, depend who you go with. look at at&t, two year plan is 2400 bucks and upgrade is $200. you see this across the board. it looks like t-mobile is low cost provider here. and their upgrade is the same price. they're a real standout in this competition. gerri: >> they really are. t-mobile is doing interesting across the board. whether you go with the upgrade program or not, giving better offer for monthly fees and paying close cost of the phone pretty much up front or over cost of two years. >> great job that was really complicated calculation. >> it is very complicated. they make it complicated so people won't get into the weed on these things. gerri: thumbs up, thumbs down? >> i wouldn't do it. buy the phone outright full cost and go with two-year plan.

gerri: great information. >> thank you for having me. >> wow. that was really complicated by worth it. ellen degeneres using your samsung phone taking a self-if i at last night's oscars setting twitter on fire. from the front row during the academy awards telecast setting a new twitter record. you saw this right? over two million retweets. from those to took over who is car bold, the club, those lucky winners are filled with deep pockets. in tonight's top five the wealthiest winners. number five, sean connery. 83-year-old took best supporting a tore oscar in 198way back when for untouchables. he is worth a quarter of a billion dollars. number four, barbra streisand, funny girl star is worth 300 million bucks. 74-year-old is only woman in the top five. that is tragedy. number three, robert de niro, two-time winner for the 1981 "raging bull" and godfather part

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>> from our fox business studios in new york, herr is gerri willis. gerri: the top u.s. consumer watchdog is calling for a move

that will shake up the consumer financial protection bureau. the concern about people's access to accurate credit information has led them to urge banks to give free copies of credit scores. not reports that scores, to consumers. here to win is the president of capital management her in line, welcome to the show. what do you make of this? they're arguing that people need access to their credit scores. >> certainly. you have your credit report and your fica scored. you might get to climb because you're tran-fives for as little so did have access to information so the individual most entire picture. less than 20% file a credit report every year. a they get really concerned about the object of credit and they just don't know what it is and they don't want to have to pay to get extra credit. gerri: if you know what you are

going to pay for a long, it's pretty simple. there's a lot of calculations out there that can help you figure it out. what about this industry to pick this up. >> it's not that much. if you have a credit report, their 75% of reports out there that have errors on them and so they should have access to information to something that is dictating so much in our lives. gerri: reports of lots of errors in them and the government has made it a wash.

so when you get access to the the fica report asuld get well. >> those individual lenders were with access program and give the consumer that credit report. but not a lot of this works out. you are saying that what am i supposed to do to get my credit score two and a lot of people want to get a credit card, but if they are not eligible for that, they want to get their score as well. he won if you're out there buying a house, you're getting a loan for your kids for school, whatever you want to borrow money for coming you need your support. you need to make sure that it is a fantastic score and you get the lowest rate that you can.

>> to see ftd has found that we have a lack of government oversight. but individuals purchasing home without that information, learning about what kind of mortgages -- if they would've had one more bit of information to empower them and know what their score is, it might've made a little bit better decision in their eyes. gerri: that's a good point. here is what the director says. gerri: it is likely to yield positive returns that are worth the effort. i guess we have a long way to go. but it's up to you, everyone gets a free credit score? >> just. gerri: thank you for coming and it's always good to see you. a programming note for you. monday, march 10, another user's guide to taxes as the april 15 deadline fast approaches. we will have great advice for you. if you have a tax question or comment or concern, send us an e-mail at gerri willis.com or

send a a 10 to 152nd video to our facebook page. or you can even tweet us at gerri willis at fbn. we will answer the questions that we are the latest winter storm sweeping the country is wrapping up, but winter is not over yet. below average temperatures for the upper midwest and east for the rest of march. the federal government was shut down today. after a blizzard hit washington the the. 4 inches of snow fell there. it looks like more than that. more than 5000 lights canceled nationwide. artist at airport was washington reagan national airport. his work much better on the road. dangerous driving and may in many parts of the country, including a 12 hour traffic jam. we are outside dallas here. that is dallas, believe it or not. and folks learning their way around a traffic mess like that. a california appellate court said that reading maps on a cell

phone while driving is not against the law. stephen spriggs conviction was overturned because he was using his map feature on his iphone while traveling. the judge ended up appealing and this time the court agreed with him. here to weigh in on the latest ruling and what it means for the rest of us is legal analyst lis wiehl. what you make of this? so i was a little bit surprised by this. >> if you look at the statute itself, he wasn't listening or talking. he really thought this. for 165-dollar ticket. the drafter of the statute said that he is right. it may not be safe for him to drive this way, but it's not illegal the way the statute is

written. and a flood of people saying that i want that reverse. and maybe we're they are in california, maybe it will work out better. >> language is so clear. when you have the person they drafted the statute, saying that that was my intensity has it right, you have intent, you have history, you have the language of the debts you. the thing to do is if california wants to get around this and say that this application is illegal, and it probably is dangerous. gerri: i was shocked by this. the legalities aside, if you're looking down at the map, you are still engaging with something that is out in front of your. >> it is kind of a slippery slope area i'm sure you've never done it, but they're putting on their mass there, and i've never

done it as well. even eating or switching the radio in all of that. yelling at the kids in the back. gerri: i believe the state highway patrol says that i can come after you for reading a magazine, being distracted. disciplining the kids in back. these things actually are illegal. >> you can really say that i wasn't distracted or did you really do that, or someone taking pictures the whole time and you have master on one side of your eyes and not the other, it will be hard to prove. gerri: it's enough just to drive. >> absolutely. i like to get from one point to another with no accident. gerri: thank you for coming on tonight. it's great to see you. thank you so much. still to come, why more americans are lining up for federal student aid without intention of getting a degree. and the crisis in ukraine continues to escalate. what individual investors here in the united states needs now. we are covering your assets in

a.

♪ see what's new at projectluna.com

gerri: tonight, an investor's guide to the ukraine. early we broke on the turmoil going on overseas and how does this impact your bottom line in the u.s. two we are covering your assets tonight with a chief investment strategy. scott martin, chief strategist for martin advisers and president of his private access company. trade like a stock market wizard. i wish i could do that today. i'm not sure that i can. i'm going to start with you. a lot of people are concerned about the markets today. it fell 250 points. rally back a little bit. would he make of this? >> well, it is a natural reaction. of course stocks are going to sell off at the beginning of a crisis like this. if you didn't do something in

response to this, he is probably going to do so now. and who has been hit the hardest? the russian stock market was down 1.10%. >> we are not going to be drawing any red line. and the currencies have been smoked. the stock market has one of its wars based on many years and that's going to destroy this. so what happens after this? of you are saying that i've seen a lot of these movies before in egypt is one that comes to mind a couple of years back on the market sells off and you have to

kindo lot of proverbial blood on the street. gerri: that is exactly what warren buffett said today. he said if we get into a major war, the value of money that goes down. the stock market is going to advance over time. we will be a lot better off holding productive assets over the last 50 years. do you agree? >> interestingly, the volume wasn't even high. it was relatively low volume. so for how bad this was, it doesn't mean that the market can't selloffs more over the next few days. but after two days or a few weeks, this will be history. gerri: this is something like the experience of what happened in the european markets. in our markets does -- i'm

worried about one of those nagging worries in the back of your head that keep the stock market from doing what we like to see a deal. which is god. what do you say? >> i think the difference in this, it is that we can get our hands around exactly the murky lap pool problems with the russians continue to move forward here and just as we have done, the radiance and the north koreans. i don't think that's going to happen. scott my both pointed this out. they are already suffering with their own markets and currency already. and so we have certain responses that we can take care. >> all of them are difficult. some of them will have no impact

whatsoever. the way to respond to a crisis is important here in my other concern is the impact on other emerging market. other offshore market and investors with areas that might get impacted. europe relies on the ukraine for energy and food. they are an important producer of both of these things. are you concerned about the ripple effects? >> yes, it really starts with collateral damage there. some of the countries are in the cloak of crisis, the more that their stock prices are following. i think you pointed out a great point. emerging rockets both on the stock side and the on-site have been lacking for months. the silver lining is kind of

like, the u.s. again becomes the strongest guy or gal, however you want to do, at the beach. things are stable here. the economy is growing. steve and i had someone say it charlie gasparino said that if i was an individual of his upmarket, with full on money money out. so i think that the market is in particular a bull market and it will not end until the conditions star in this. the economy is not too hot, it's not too slow. then we have the fed easing as

well. gerri: it's great to have these conversations tonight. thank you so much for coming on. we appreciate all of you being here. thank you. and still to come, my "two cents more" and why more americans are heading back to school for quick patch instead of a degree. we have the details coming up next. predicting the future is a pretty difficult thing to do. but,anufacturing in the united states means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented.

no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly csed them out. the technology is actually creating new job siemens designed and built the right tools and resources gethe job done. gerri: coming up, while furthering one's education, it's not necessarily the reason that more americans are taking out student loans. details are coming out.

>> american students areemore than $1 trillion in debt. student loans are being misused is a growing concern. here with us is the author of paying for college without going broke. it's also good to have you here. this is an interesting story

about students getting the system and they have taken out loans resume away to go to school. but some of that money ends up in their pocket. >> they're allowed to do that under the existing him. they look at the total cost of going to school, including allowances for out-of-pocket running including room and board of your living at home, transportation and iffthe school is paid up, and the access you can have that you borrow back. gerri: so college sends you a check for the remainder whatever is the overage for tuition and then you get the rest of the money for living expenses and books. people are using that money for all kinds of things. is there no accounting that they have to do to tell the federal government but they are actually using it to promote their education? >> school sucked the allowances for what they allow for those out-of-pocket expenses.

gerri: so there's no credit check to get the money. no kind of standard. >> for stafford loan, no there is not. and so what is to stop anyone from gaining the system and then trying to take advantage of it this is in taxpayer dollars are we bankroller and we guarantee it. >> at least partially taxpayer dollars the fall and the government is making good on him. and another reason why students do that they are taking more than six credits a semester. their payments are suspended on those loans. we will take a look at those

that hit alone feeling, 60% in 2008. some were more people are walking up to that feeling. more people in trouble. what do you make of that? that is a function of the interest rate. so some people are being savvy. if you have credit card debt, that 12 or 13%. using the money to pay off the credit card debt and get a lower interest rate. gerri: so they are using the college money pay off their credit cards? >> some parents might do that with a plus loan. because the day camara 6.41%. and they're paying credit cards like mastercard, 12%, it is a no-brainer the one i don't think that's what taxpayers have in mind the parents are spending the money or little johnny. ford

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gerri: earlier i talked to bruce berkowitz who scolded fannie mae and freddie mac for not protecting the rights of shareholders. it should be sold to private investors and the taxpayers repaid. and the shareholders can then be reported herriot we asked a question on gerriwillis.com. 4% said shareholders, 96.6% for taxpayers. log on gerriwillis.com for online question every weekday. and finally tonight, we have talked a lot about the rest of the world tonight. the ukraine and russia, and i want to bring it back to the

good usa. we talked about the consumer financial protection bureau to get free protection scores. this is one initiative that makes all the sense in the world. they trade in your financial personal data all the time. they should make the score available to you once a year as a matter of course for free. few businesses have as much power over your financial life and operating secretly. giving consumers their score. it will actually improve it by educating consumers about scores and creating demand for those scores. that is my "two cents more". in a programming note for you starting on monday. it on march 10, we will be kicking off another users guide contact us at april 5 teen, deadline fast approaches. our team of experts will be here

to answer your questions. if you have a common or concern, e-mail me at gerriwillis.com. that is it for the "the willis report." have a great night and we will you write here tomorrow. >> welcome, everyone, i am neil cavuto. forget about punishing vladimir putin. let him punish himself or the latest ukraine leader seems to be his own undoing. let's see if you can climb out of this hole. here's what happened today. russia turned bearish on its health. that would be like the dow jones crashing 1600 points in a single day. and the russian ruble crash against the dollar today. without the united states or europe or anyone doing