the s&p. one recently how europe is doing. david: if they go down will they drag us with them? >> i think there could be signs of contagion. that eventually metastasizes to u.s. david: thank you very much, mark. liz: "willis report" is next. see you tomorrow gerri: hellie, everyone, i'm gerri willis. more boasting from the obama care architect about lying to the american people. in the third released video from jonathan gruber, that is the mit intellectual, he brags about how democrats snuck the cadillac tax into obamacare. listen to this. >> we just taxed insurance companies. they pass on higher prices. that offsets tax break we get. end up being same thing. very clever basic exploitation of lack of economic understanding of the american voter. gerri: here we go again. joining us now, doug holtz-eakin, president of the american action forum. doug, i need your reaction to this. you know jonathan gruber.

you are somebody who worked with him before. >> yeah you know how deeply involved he was in the obamacare legislation. has this guy always taking swings at the intellect of american people? >> no, this is a new aspect of john's personality. i haven't seen this before. he was deeply involved in the massachusetts health care reform and it was that expertise that the white house and administration sought out. and he had a consulting contract that came through hhs. he worked extensively with the administration and, quite frankly, gerri, that was his first brush with controversy. i testified with john in front of the senate health committee and he never revealed to anyone he was being paid by administration of the time. he was always portrayed as outside expert giving arm's length analysis and it just wasn't true. gerri: shocking frankly. here you have academic on the payroll. puts himself out there as expert. in fact he is paid spokesman. like running an advertisement. if we did that we would be in big trouble but we don't do it. here is the administration, hiring somebody to say nice

things about obamacare, the architect and they have him on the payroll at the same time. it seems like a conflict of interest to me? >> it is a flat-out conflict of interest. you know, whatever the legalities might be i don't know but you should not be testifying as an outside expert when you're being paid by the administration at the same time. he is a defacto administration official. that is how he should have been advertised. gerri: as much fun as he made of the intellect of american people i have to question his. this to me just seems not bright, not the sharpest tool in the shed would do this. but, having said that, now, i want to talk about nancy pelosi. she has made some interesting comments today. she talked about how she doesn't know jonathan gruber. he wasn't involved in writing obamacare. listen to nancy pelosi talk about jonathan gruber. >> i don't know who he is. he didn't help write our bill. i don't know if you have seen jonathan gruber, mit's analysis

of the, what the comparison is to the status quo versus what will happen in our bill. >> so, just to make sure you understand what is going on here, the first comment was from this week. the second comment was from 2009. oh, yes she does know jonathan gruber, clearly, how is it possible this woman, this is an outright lie. this is on par you can keep your doctor and your prices are not going to go up. >> this is really going to hurt the administration. it is going to hurt nancy pelosi because the one thing that americans focus on when they hear about the affordable care act is, they lied to me to get it through. in the polling we looked at and focus groups i heard of, that is what people remember. they heard if you like your plan you get to keep it. it wasn't true. now we have another round of, you know, mit professor bragging about the deceiving the american people and the speaker of the house at the time passed saying we don't even know who this guy

is even though citing him every day to support the bill. gerri: ridiculous and shows mendacity going on here, outright lying. people say, well, american the american people should get educated about this we tried, we tried to understand it was going on. it was impenetrable. it was impossible to understand. >> remember you had to read it to know what was in it, gerri, remember? gerri: i remember pelosi's comments well. i have to get you though it is round two, ding, ding, ding, obamacare, year two, this weekend saturday, you can buy obamacare coverage if you want. how is that going to go? and you know, the administration itself is kind of dialing back its expectations how many people are going to sign up? >> sure. they have very much tried to you know, low ball the enrollments, make sure that everything looks like a success. they can't have a fiasco like last year. we'll see. obviously the site is better. it should be perfect. i don't understand after you spend a billion dollars why you can't get it done in two years.

but people are still going to be confused. they're going to be difficulties telling them exactly what their subsidies are going to be. they might want to change and shop for a new plan and have to go through a lengthy reenrollment process. we'll see how successful they are. gerri: this all happens against the backdrop of an economy that is punk. it is not growing as much as it should and you wrote a really interesting report for the chamber of commerce foundation, explaining, describing, really how the slow growth hurts americans. give us a little nugget from that. i thought the analysis was spot on. >> it is devastating. during the postwar, up to 2007, incomes per person doubled basically every 32 years. that meant the standard of living doubled in someone's working career. could imagine buying a motor boat or vacation or sending a kid to college, whatever it might be they dreamed of it was attainable in their working

life. since then we've grown average .7%. that means income will double in 99 years. the american dream is so far in the future they can't even see it. hope gets diminish and lives are diminished. we need to do better. gerri: entitlement programs like obamacare don't help because they're very expensive. doug, great to see. >> you thank you, gerri. gerri: another hot button issue, keystone pipeline, first time in six years legislation green lighting a the project is heating up both in the house and senate. republican congressman leonard lance of new jersey is a member of house energy and commerce committee. we're catching up with him before he heads to the floor to vote. congressman, thank you so much for being on the show tonight. great to have you here. what is your expectation for what will happen to this bill? >> thank you for having me, gerri. i think it is going to pass and i think it will pass with bipartisan support. we vote on the rule in about half hour. we will vote on the substance of the bill tomorrow.

i predict overwhelming, bipartisan support on the floor of the house tomorrow. gerri: we've got two competing bills, right? mary landrieu's bill in the senate, bill cassidy's bill in the house. they are presumably the no exact same bill. how will this get resolved? the president now signaling that he will veto that legislation. >> i think that the senate is taking action and i think there will be a final vote in the senate next week, given the fact that senator landrieu is in very tough re-election race. as you know that election is in early december. congressman and medical doctor cassidy sits next to me on the house energy and commerce committee. his bill will pass in a bipartisan fashion tomorrow. gerri: so if you, do you think he will manage to get a bill between the two houses, house and senate, to the president's desk? i mean -- i have watched for this for a long time. we're all holding our breaths. >> i believe that will happen

and i hope that the president decides to sign the legislation. there is some indication that he may not sign it. but, his own state department has said that there is no significant environmental degradation. this creates american jobs and of course we want to be as energy independent as possible. our great ally, canada, wants us to move forward in this regard. and overwhelming majority of the american people favor this. no action by the president these last six years has meant that, it is not moved forward. it is time to put a bill on the president's desk. gerri: buts, congressman, i want you to respond to what white house spokesman josh earnest had to say. he doesn't seem as upbeat as you are. listen to this. >> we have indicated that the president's senior advisors at white house recommend he veto legislation like that. i haven't reviewed specific details discusses overnight our time in the congress but i think it is fair to say that our, that

our dim view of these kind of proposals has not changed. >> dim view of these kind of proposals. that's condemning. what happens if the president vetoes this legislation? what happens to the project? what happens to frankly, what the president and americans view of the president? >> well, i think he need new advisors. i think he needs new advisors for some reasons. the american people spoke last week and they spoke and in a clear and resounding way. if he were to veto it in lame-duck session, new congress controlled both husbands by republicans will undoubtedly put the bill on his desk again. i want to make sure we move forward. i hope the president will have advisors who has recognized importance of this critical piece of legislation. >> if you could, just remind our viewers the economic impact of

this pipeline. what will it do? >> it will create jobs as the pipeline is being built and it will create permanent jobs. we should become more energy independent, number one. and number two, as matter of national security we should support our great ally canada. if canada is not able to be involved in this, canada will look in another direction to other countries for all sorts of reasons. this is good legislation and the state department says it is environmentally sound. gerri: does indeed. 42,000 jobs. $3 billion contribution to the gdp. congressman, thanks for coming on. great to see. >> you thank you very much, gerri. gerri: we want to know what you think. here is our question tonight. will president obama finally cave on the keystone pipeline? log on to gerriwillis.com. vote on the right-hand side of the screen. i will share results at end of tonight's show. because there is no keystone pipeline oil has to be shipped around the country by freight train. that means there is now a shortage of railcars to move

another vital energy source, coal. a third of our electricity, a third, comes from coal. and shortage could drive up utility bills for everybody. jeff flock reports now from one of those coal-fired electricity stations just outside of chicago. jeff. >> and, gerri, 2/3 of the coal moves by rail. as you point out, there is a choke now on that rail traffic. this is a coal yard just outside of chicago. this is the nrg plant and these stockpiles of coal at these plants around the country have been shrinking. take a look at the numbers. for the last two straight years there has been less and less coal in stockpile but these plants. last winter it got tremendously cold and they used a lot of coal. well, now it is competing for those rail shipments. take a look. grain, petroleum and coal, three big users of the rail, and this year, grain shipments are up 15%. that is because we had a booming grain harvest. petroleum shipments, oil from

the shale frack fields in montana and north dakota up 13%. coal, pretty much shows shipments are flat this year in terms of an increase. and they don't have enough coal out there. i don't mean to pile on, don't mean to pretend to know anything about the environmental impacts of the keystone pipeline but i do know that the pipeline would run, if we take a look at the map, right along some of those choked rail lines. a lot of people that support the pipeline say that would take the pressure off this competition for rail traffic that just doesn't seem to be able to meet demand right now. big harvest, big oil production. need for coal. there is just not enough rail out there. it is a tough situation, gerri. gerri: very tough situation impacting people all over the country. people who produce coal. people who manufacture and produce other power, it is, going to be a tough winter if we're not careful. thanks so much for that report.

we appreciate your time. >> thanks, gerri. >> still a lot more to come this hour including your voice. your voice is important to us. that's why during the show we want to you facebook me or beat me @gerriwillisfbn or send me an email, go to gerriwillis.com. at the bottom of the hour i will read your tweets and your emails. plus we all know your car is spying on you but where does the information go? auto-makers banding together to give customers peace of mind. details coming up. ♪ (receptionist) gunderman group. gunderman group is growing. getting in a groove. growth is gratifying. goal is to grow. gotta get greater growth. i just talked to ups.

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gerri: as your vehicles become more and more connected concerns over driver privacy led automakers to pledge to follow a set of common principles to protect your personal information. but is it as good as it seems? we have the information for electronic law council for private information or epic as it is called. good to have you here. this is interesting. it's a big pledge. 17, no, 19 automakers, virtually everybody signing on to this and saying things like, you know

we'll not hand over your information to authorities without a court order. we're not going to sell it to insurance companies, sets, et cetera. is this kind of thing you want to see at your privacy foundation? >> so while stated commitment to privacy is a good first step, unfortunately the pledge fails to meaningfully protect drivers. there is no meaningful form of oversight. no meaningful accountability. unfortunately the pledge keep as status quo of the wholesale collection of sensitive driver information. that's why we need federal baseline protections for this information. gerri: what we're talking about here, really is metadata, right? you and i driving around in our cars every day drive around in ton of information that can be sold. insurance companies. could be sold into divorce attorneys, pizza maker down the street and wants to know passing by the shop. it's a treasure trove for a

variety of folks out there. tell us, how is this changed? how is it different? is it so transformational that the powers that be will be so entrenched that no way we could bring information to ourselves. >> you bring up a good point. we're in environment of wholesale information collection. not just met that data. where you are, where you've been, where you're going, direct information like your name, your address. even credit card information if you are subscribing to a certain service. auto manufacturers are even interested in biometric information. gerri: oh, lord. >> congress is actually -- gerri: biometric? >> biometric information. gerri: tell me, how does that help them? >> ford for a while has been in the research stages of collecting a driver heart rate and collecting drivers saks exactly that type of information. if we're talking about that

information absolutely why it needs to be protected. in fact in today, response to the pledge, senator markey announced that he would be releasing results from an investigation over the privacy and security standards of auto manufacturers. and he will call for clear-cut rules, not voluntary commitments to safeguard this information. gerri: that is your real objection, right? this is a pledge. my guess the automakers are doing it because they don't want a law to be passed. they're hoping to take, you know, if they put this forward, then there won't be a law. a couple of things they're using to sell to us. i mean, for example. maybe you could get road condition alerts. maybe services to unlock your car which exist already today. car-to-car communication. there are some things out there, i guess, some treats, some candy, that drivers would like to have. do we want to throw everything out with the bath water here? >> absolutely not. >> drivers are interested in having technology but they want

their information to be protected. they want to know when they sign up for these services, that information doesn't go to law enforcement or for general marketing purposes or, that it won't be subject to other consumers gathering this information. they want to know that the information is secure. they want to know it won't be used for secondary purposes and they want to know at their choosing they can delete this information. gerri: well, i got to tell you, i can barry drive with my -- barely drive with my husband the car nonetheless shouting advertising at me. it i will be interesting what happens to this one. thank you for coming on the show tonight. >> thank you for having me. gerri: more troubles for the airbag maker takata continues. they are under investigation for defective airbags linked to five deaths. federal grand jury has subpoenaed takata's u.s. unit to produce documents on defects. those airbags are found to shoot out shrapnel after deploying in a crash. in addition to the grand jury

the senate is likely to hold a hearing next week with testimony from takata executives n a meeting with financial analysts, takata says it is not adding production lines to make replacements but making constant improvements to the chemical compound use in its inflators, that is what caused trouble. since 2008, 17 million cars equipped with takata airbags have been recalled with 11 million in the u.s. all five deaths were in honda vehicles. a driver in malaysia died in airbag linked accident. it is recalling 170,000 fit subcompacts. coming up, day four of our users guide to holiday shopping with a look at the best tech gifts under 200 bucks. next college costs continue to skyrocket. could there be relief in sight? results of a new college board report coming up after the break. stay with us. go ahead and put your bag right here.

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gerri: higher costs for higher learning. loan board says borrowing is down, but tuition costs. we have campus reform.org. kayla, welcome back to the show. why are these prices still going up? >> well, you know, that is a good question. there is variety of different ways you can look at this. but i think no matter how you see it is hurting college students. gerri: yeah. >> seeing inflation in the country is 1.7%. but we're seeing an increase in tuition costs and associated student fees increasing at rate of 2.9% to 3.7%.

so no matter how you look at it, students are on the wrong side of this equation. gerri: let's go over some of these numbers. looking at full screen. average tuition and fees over $9,000. up 3% from last year. look at full out-of-state students. if you're going to a school out-of-state, your prices are up 3.3%. private colleges, also up 3.3%. i mean, i got to tell you, 3.7, 3.7. okay. a private four-year colleges. these numbers are going up. they're bowing higher. students are graduating with $30,000 in college debt on average. $5,000 in credit card debt this is unsustainable. what needs to happen? >> well, it is a bubble. it is going to honestly what needs to happen, you said earlier in the intro, you need to reevaluate their priorities when it comes to higher education. decreased borrowing as you said is down.

borrowing is decreasing. they also need to make wise choices as to stay in their financial lane and figuring out what they can or can not afford with the increased costs in higher education. ultimately -- gerri: i think some of that is happening. i really do. i think people are getting smart. didn't take long. you mentioned loan borrowing is down. people are realizing you can't aafford to pay back huge loans. there is crackdown on for-profit colleges. keeping people out of expensive for-profit colleges. people are commuting. people are finding solutions to this bubble in college prices. i got to tell you, first college president to come out and say i'm cutting prices and trying to get more people in the door will be rewarded with a lot of applications in my view. >> exactly. and noticing the trend, leadership institute campus reform like you said we're hearing from students all across the country, they're starting to live at home. take away the little bit of that university experience because

they can't afford it. costs are too high. but there was some striking statistics that we found. over 80%. 83% of graduates in 2014, graduated with out a job lined up. gerri: wow. >> if they pay high costs to go to college they need to have some career training. they need some sort of incentive by the university to insure they will be able to graduate and pay that debt off so they don't then turn to the government and expect loan forgiveness. gerri: to your point, 24% of millenials say they think their loan will ultimately be forgiven. are they right? >> well, i go back and forth on this one. i think that 24%, postively is a very low number of students that think their loans should just be forgiven. that is not a huge percentage of students. however when imtraveling country, talking with student on campus, everyone of students thinks that the government does have a role in forgiving student loan debt. and that is a big concern because that goes to a mentality. mentality that is not going to

be overturned. that they think, the right to an established institution of education, not just in education, but one through a university or college, is a right. and therefore the government should provide it debt-free. >> i got to tell you, caleb. i think president agrees with them. he is the one extending this debt ad infinitum. 24%, a quarter of millenials think they will get free ride. that is big number. then i'm a taxpayer, so maybe that is why -- >> it's a big number. it is. that's true. gerri: caleb, thank you for coming on. good to see you. >> thank you. gerri: coming up advice on tapping home equity. next our user's guide to holiday shopping. we have help finding exist for tech geeks in your life without breaking the bank. take a look at those hotties. we'll be right back. ♪ nches? 24/7 it's just i'm a little reluctant to try new things.

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♪ ♪ gerri: well, are user's guide to holiday shopping continues, and all this week we've been talking about how to survive the holiday shopping season without breaking the bank or going crazy. now, if you are in the market for a high-tech gift without the high price, consumer reports has put together a list of the best electronic gifts to give this christmas, each under $200. joining me now is the associate electronics editor terry sullivan. welcome. >> hi, how you doing? gerri: i think i'm probably not the only one out there, my husband is a total geek. >> uh-huh. gerri: loves technology. >> right. gerri: i'm a neophyte, so i'm always trying to buy for him. how do you do that? >> you want to look at the price point, that's important, then you also want to look at the features that he most loves, for instance, if he likes connected devices, there's so many connected devices like smartphones, tablets, you know,

tablets like this samsung here. that allows you to use it as a remote control for, well, this one's actually the amazon, but the tablets allow you to use it as a remote control for your tv. or maybe quality is what really matters to them. so that's the other thing, you look at ratings, quality, for sound or -- gerri: all right. we're going to talk about some of these categories, and i should say in your december issue, you blow all of this out, every category. start with the tv. the one we have on set is a samsung. this is a nice tv for a kid in college. it's, like, $200 here. you can't go wrong. the picture quality is great, and i think all of them should have "the willis report" on them, that's just my view. [laughter] >> really we're looking at it from the angle, and that's one of the things that a tv like this, even the angle of view, if you're having a crowd or college kids crowded around, you know, you want to have a good angle of view and good quality.

gerri: that's true. we have some ear buds here, and these are from bose. tell me about these. >> they go in the ear, but they also have noise-canceling qualities to them. so what they have is there's a technology that allows you to block out all the noise, and they're comfortable, and so you can block out your kids' sound -- [laughter] and i can listen to my own men at work music and not worry about it. gerri: $130. that's a nice little gift. >> yep. gerri: now, i love these things because you get music on your ipad, your iphone, you want to hear it throughout your office, this is the sonos play i, it's $200. there's a lot of entrants in this category. how do you-and-a-half gate it? -- navigate it? >> some of them allow you to connect wirelessly or via blue tooth, and that can be a really important thing. for some of them like these, you might not have the ability to connect via wireless but, again,

the sound, the base, quality is another big factor as well. gerri: i've been waiting anxiously to talk about this. this is a samsung gear fit. this is $150. this is a combination of a product that's going to tell you what's going on with you physically, track your fitness, but also get your e-mail on it. >> right. no, it's really great. gerri: i'm going to try it on. >> one of the few downsides of this, though, is in bright light, even here -- gerri: hard to see. >> it's a little hard to see. but that's one of the few downsides. it's really a very versatile watch and, you know, for the dick tracy in you. gerri: well, but you've got to have a samsung phone to make it all work at the end of the day. now, this is an amazon kindle, this is a brand spanking new kindle fire hdx, it's just great. easy to read. because when you're reading books on one of these little ipads, it's really important how it looks because i think we're all going blind with these things. [laughter] >> sure. gerri: what do you make of

these? >> well, i love -- one of the things i like about the amazon is the ability to get the health features. i hi it's more versatile -- i think it's more versatile and more like a tablet than, say, just the cund l reader. so -- kindle reader. so these are more versatile. they allow you to do many more things, a lot more interactivity. but, again, the readability of books is what really makes it pop for us. gerri: so what i hear you saying is you don't have to spend a bundle to make this happen. >> no, you don't have to spend a bundle, marley for the holidays -- particularly for the holidays there's a lot of variety. gerri: so good to have you on the show. a nice tour, and thank you. if you could just send all the tvs out like this, we'll be -- >> you bet. gerri: thanks. great to see you. thanks to best buy for providing the tv and home depot for providing these beautiful christmas decorations. and coming up, we wrap up our user's guide when i'm joined by a rep from toys r us.

very exciting. and when we come back, a look at some charities guilting you into giving at your pharmacy or grocery store as part of our daylong series of the business of family wealth. and next we answer the question how do you do that. as home prices rise up maybe just a little bit, many are tapping into home equity, but what's the right way to go about it? first, here's your consumer gauge with the numbers that mean the most to you. take a look at those, pretty darn attractive. i like the stock market number. still under $3 a gallon for gas. ♪ ♪ how much money do you have in your pocket right now? i have $40, $21. could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement? i don't think so. well if you start putting that towards your retirement every week and let it grow over time, for twenty to thirty years, that retirement challenge

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power's back on. quick thinking traffic lights and self correcting power grids make the world predictable. thrillingly predictable. gerri: consumers are about to get more protections with prebade debit cards. the consumer financial protection bureau wants the card companies to better protect you against fraudulent charges and give you free monthly billing statements.

a decade ago consumers were loading less than a billion dollars a year onto cards, you it's nearly 100 billion. and not all cards are created equal. according to consumer reports, the american express target card is the worst because it lacks fdic insurance. it ranked the bluebird card the best. there are too many fees and just another way banks can charge you for access to your own money, and the government should step in and get rid of some of the excess fees on these cards to make them a good deal for consumers. and on to another consumer topic, health prices are back on the rise, and mortgage rates dipping to their lowest level in a year. so homeowners might be asking themselves if now is the time to tap into their home equity to pay off an unexpected bill or even to buy a new home. is this the right move for you, and how do you do it? we're asking the senior vice president for auction.com which recently teamed up with google to offer realtime housing data.

rick, welcome to the show, great to have you here. i want to start with this idea of when do you tap your equity. i thought that was something everybody got in trouble with in the mid 2000s. people are doing it again, why? >> it did get out of control in the early part of the first decade. we're looking at $80 billion in home equity being tapped at a quarter, and now we're looking at eight billion. so we have to put the numbers in context. people typically use it to pay down higher interest rate debt, home modifications, home improvements especially if they're going to sell the house. and to your earlier segment, sometimes they're using it to pay for college instead of taking out student loans, so there are legitimate reasons for tapping into your equity. gerri: but then i have to pay it back, obviously. what do people need to know? what's the right way to do it? >> well, the right answer for a lot of people really is don't do it. it's a trap. this is particularly true if you're not a disciplined spender. if you use a home equity loan or

take out a second mortgage and use it to pay down your credit card debt, unfortunately a lot of those people wind up running the credit card debt right back up, and now they're in twice as much trouble because they've leveraged equity, and they're back in debt with higher interest rates. so, you know, there are different tools. there's home equity loans, home equity lines of credit, there's refinancing mortgages, taking cash out. all of them have different criteria, and they vary a little bit in terms of the types of interest rates you get, the tax advantages you might have in certain circumstances. probably makes sense to talk to your lender and talk to a football adviser -- financial adviser to get a little bit of detail if you haven't done something like this before. gerri: what's shocking to me, they rewrote the mortgage rules, and now people can barely get that first mortgage. is it harder to get one of these re-fies as well? >> yeah, it is. we're seeing very little in the way of 100% refinance loans or

home equity lines of credit. they'll give you up to 125% of the value of your property. a lot of the excesses that got people into trouble in the first place aren't there anymore. it does make sense for somebody to take a look at a refinance maybe not with cashout, but if it will help them get a lower interest rate than what they currently have. one of the catches that people have to watch for is you don't want to get a re-fi, get cash out if it means you're going to go up from your current interest rate, and a lot of people are looking at historically low interest rates on what they have. the other thing to watch out for is if you get a home equity line of credit. you have to keep in mind the lender can cancel it at any time, can reduce the amount available at any time, and very often they come with variable interest rates so you could wind up paying more in the future than what you're paying right now. gerri: 4.01% rate right now. low, low, low. i know people say they've been lower, and that's certainly true, but you and i both know

they've been far higher. you're doing a deal with google to offer realtime housing market data. this is something that's really missing in the equation of housing research and something that could really help homeowners. will it be available to consumers? >> absolutely. we're doing something we call our real estate now cast, and it's built on some theories that were put together by google's chief economist. basically, it lets us take a look at google search trends data. it's anonymous data, it's publicly-available trend information. we layer that on top of our realtime auction results and on what we're getting in terms of publicly-available housing data, and what we're able to do is predict what's going on in the housing market probably three to four weeks before the traditional reports come out. gerri: wow. >> it'll be available on our web site and on our blog. gerri: so we go to your web site. give us the url, please? >> www.auction.com. click on the blog. the next one's scheduled to come

out november 24th, and we'll make sure that we get some information out on specific urls people can go find the information. gerri: i like the idea of seeing around the corner. rick, thank you for coming on. >> my pleasure. gerri: and still to come, my two cents more. and fox business has spent the day highlighting the business of family wealth. next, we look at how you can decide the best way to give to charity this holiday season, making sure your donations go to the right places. ♪ ♪ (receptionist) gunderman group.

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♪ ♪ gerri: well, if you're a shopper, you know what i'm talking about. there you are, you walk up to a store cashier to pay for your items, and you're asked to

donate money to a charity. and that's how they get you. companies raise more than $358 million for charities in 2012 by asking for donations at the register. but why do the companies do this, and how can you make sure your donation is going where you want it? charity navigator ceo ken berger joins me now with his tips. great to have you back on the show. i want to show the companies that are doing this, because these aren't fly by night companies, this is mcdonald's, walmart, ebay, take a look at this list. why are these companies doing this? >> they know that 90% of the research shows people will come back and come back for often to those companies that are affiliated with a charity. and so it's a very good marketing for them as well as, hopefully, doing some good. gerri: wow. so this is a little like, you know, giving out free extra pickles or something, it's along those lines. you're just trying to get people back in the door, and this is one of those things that people do. it makes me feel guilty, it's a

public place and the question is will you give money to starving children? you can't say no. >> in front of all these people on the line behind you, so are you going to be generous or not? and i think guilt-based charity has been effective for many, many generations. it's not the best way to give but, unfortunately, it's a strategy that sells. gerri: you don't like it. why? >> number one, a crap shoot. you don't know what you're going to get. you don't know if it's a good charity or bad charity, it may not be the cause you're most passionate about, so there's a lot of risk involved. you're depending upon this corporation to select an effective charity that may not even necessarily be something that -- gerri: is that good. >> yeah. gerri: all right. i want to show something google's doing right now. they're asking people to help fight ebola on their web site. you don't know where the money is going. all it says is help fight ebola. for every dollar you give, google will give two. that sounds nice, but who am i giving the money to?

>> uh-huh. many of these cases you don't know which charity it's going to, you don't know -- gerri: it can be an icon, donation request, coin collection, a round up, so, you know, your bill is for $2.50, wouldn't you like to give another 50 cents to charity, rounded up. they get you a lot of different ways. i think what your point is, it just makes so much sense. you want to give to people who do good things and use their money wisely. let's take a look at what you say are some of the best charities in the country. >> sure, great. well, i think we had provided you a list -- gerri: midwest food bank. >> right. so that is a food bank that is providing millions of people -- i think 550 million people a month -- with needed food, poor people in the midwest area. there's a number of states. and then you have the billings food bank. they are also doing the same sort of thing, very focused in montana. they're very effective. the vast majority of the money goes to the right place. you know, they're having great

results. some of those additional groups, the books for africa -- gerri: step up for students and heart to heart international. >> all great. gerri: you've checked these people out, and you've looked for the critical things that good charities need to be doing. tell us what that checklist is. >> there's three basic things. number one, they're financially well managed, and the majority of the money is going to the program and not to lining somebody's pocket. the second is they have good, strong governance, and the board is in charge, not some ceo doing whatever they want. thaw really are independent and ethical -- they really are independent and ethical. and, third, they have strong evidence of results like we mentioned here. they're meeting their mission in a measurable way. those three things are the golden components, the three pillars of finding the best charities. gerri: so charitynavigater.org. ken berger, great stuff, great information. >> my pleasure, as always. gerri: and next -- fox business' daylong look at the business of

family wealth continues next hour on "making money with charles payne." he's giving you an investing 101 lesson called the new ways of giving, more modern ways to give. here's what some of you are tweeting me about our poll question, will obama finally cave on the keystone pipeline? wayne wright says, yes. if he doesn't, the dems will take another pounding in 2016. another says, no, he appears willing to go to the mat on this one. and here's rick: there will have to be a trade off for him to sign the bill, no something for nothing. and on facebook aaron posts: nope, he will fight this until he is out of office. and if you're not already doing so, please follow me on facebook. gerri willis fbn, facebook.com/foxbusiness. we'll be right back.

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so ally bank really has no hidden fethat's right. accounts? it's just that i'm worried about you know "hidden things..." ok, why's that? no hidden fees, from the bank where no branches equals great rates. gerri: lawmakers today voting on legislation forcing approval of the keystone pipeline. will president obama finally cave?

we asked the question on gerriwillis.com. 38% of you said yes, 62 said no. and finally, the attitudes behind the country's unpopular health care legislation is, well, it's pretty much condescension. they're patronizing. new sound today we played at the top of the show is more of the same from ivy leaguer jonathan gruber. he says again, obamacare exploited the lack of understanding of the american voter. it's a cheap shot by an academic who was on the government payroll. the attitude is part and parcel of the administration and democratic leadership. they think they know better than what we should do than we do. they think they should pick our health care. they think they should choose what kind of car we drive, what kind of energy we use, what we watch, what we eat. i don't think they know a damn about any of it. i think the american people are smarter than anybody inside washington's beltway. and that's my two cents more. coming up tomorrow, we wrap up our user's guide when i'm joined by a rep from toys are us

with an up-close look at the toys of 2014. that's it for tonight's willis report. have a good night. ♪ ♪ charles: i'm charles payne, and you're watching "making money." president obama remains defiant, he declares war against the go to p and the results of the midterm election. de facto amnesty for up to five million illegal immigrants and detailing the keystone pipeline even if it's passed by the still-democratic senate. rich, big news in the last hour. fill us in with the latest. >> reporter: afternoon, charles. the white house is vowing to issue an executive order on immigration, republicans pledge to fight president obama's efforts only a week and a half after the midterm elections. democrats and republicans are at it again. >> we're going to fight the president tooth and nail if he continues down this path. this is the wrong way to govern.