advice from a 24-year-old and a more mature grandmother's perspective. >> did you see me wins. >> clayton: the after the show show fox and friends.com. we'll see you tomorrow morning. >> alisyn: have a great weekend. >> who knew, 9.1% unemployment, america and everyone doing just fine. >> it's very clear that private sector jobs are just fine, it's the public sector jobs we've lost huge numbers and that's what this is about. >> after all, they got d.c. going, the nation's capital is now the capital of wealth in america, the average compensation there, 126 grand. for out of work americans outside the beltway, that's

the problem. hi, everyone, i'm brenda buttner, this is bulls and bears, let's get right to it. the bulls and bears this week, tobin smith, jonas max ferris, todd schaumburger, from the black bay group along with accent asset management, scott martin and susan ott, a former senior advisor at the treasury department. welcome, everybody. scott, the private sector is fine and we need more government jobs? >> brenda, nor case of hey, guys, the government knows best. the government says we create the best jobs, not the private sector. all right, yeah, right, toby. you know, the recovery began in 2009 and the private sector, lost over a million jobs. the government's created about 100,000, yet, unemployment at 9.1%. gdp is struggling at just over 1%. we're doing great. >> okay. susan. well, unemployment has fallen in about half of the states. >> you know, i don't agree with senator reid's

characterization that the private sector is fine, but i think the point he tried to make you look at the past year the private sector an adding jobs albeit anemically, they're added jobs and the public sector lost 300,000 over the past year and these are not the big sitting on the public dole jobs. firefighters, police officers, first responders and teachers and this is sort of a defensive play for the economy to say we can't afford losing the jobs at this level. it's going to impact society and our safety. >> toby, isn't there a reason for that? >> sure there is. most team the teachers education is paid for by property taxes in the regions and they were way overvalued and coming back to a normal value and the tax revenues are a lot less. we had too many employees that were lived on that dole and we have to adjust to the new reality and what he's saying, also, he wants to hire specifically jobs that are union jobs and of course, the union jobs donate to the party. this is not crony capitalism

at its worse. >> now, today, susan says that they're basically looking at lawyers, and in washington. but in fact, a lot ofle federal jobs pay a lot more than the private sector. >> you've got that right. look, you talk about $126,000, look at the other jobs in the federal government right now. and you simply look at a cook, they make $65,000 a year and 47% more than the private sector and broadcast technician, makes more than double. 85 grand. >> don't tell our guys that. >> it's 41,000 a year and look, the inflation is there, with just these jobs alone. now, we're not saying get rid of the government jobs, but there clearly has to be a step back on some of the salaries. >>, but the folks in these, that are being targeted in this bill. the teachers, the firefighters, median income is $47,000 a year, and okay, this is know the big headline number. >> not with benefits, not with benefits. >> and we've got a lot of

friends without benefits and i will say that there's a reason there's federal workers make a lot more money than people, yeah, okay, the health care plans and pensions are a little more lucrative. >> a little? >> the federal government. there's not a lot of people. it's lower now than in the '80's under reagan and usually college degrees, in the 40's and 50's and the private sector has a lot of lower age jobs that are never going to make as much money as federal workers because of these two factors alone. >> which country are you living in right now? are you kidding me? the red tape, the bureaucracy that's there. these people are working nine to five, you work in the private sector working 14 hours a day and all the smokers in the federal government and that's an extra two weeks of vacation. >> you're talking about a very, very small amount of people and not wanting the budgets are screwed up because of the spending that goes on. this wage force is very small. >> jonas-- >> wait, jonas, we went, we

added 200,000 federal jobs from '09 and happens to be a fact. the real issue, it's not just this job, this person with the job in the capitol. there are three other jobs dependent on them in the outside. i live in the beltway area, the contractors, subcontractors, and sub-subcontractors, that's not reasonable and it's a private job. >> do you deny that the unemployment rate would be below 9% if government workers weren't cut every month as fast-- >> we're talking about the economy and at some point in time the economy gets stopped because they can't support all of the spending and that's the issue. >> tobin, there's going to be more government firing, state, local, federal. >> as there should be. >> in this administration than prior in the past hundred years. >> we can't afford them. >> the problem is the private sector is flat, you can't criticize, this is the first-- in the 2000's, government workers jumped, private sector workers declined and whole decades and that's luckily,

federal workers-- >> they're flat now. >> jonas. >> what, how do you explain that in the last ten years, the government workers climbed and private sector workers declined other than the economy doesn't need the private sector workers? >> yeah, but jonas, their pay went up over that period of time. private sector work pay went down. that's the problem. they shrunk as the pay went up. how does that make any sense. >> jonas, when you take, let's say, 1.7 million jobs direct. there's another 4 million indirect jobs that are all coming from the same source. we don't have the income to be able to do that. if we were to taxes on everybody, we wouldn't have the income. and we have to get in the private sector and that's one of the reasons why we have an unstable economy. people are not-- are sure that our unsustainability is unsustainable. >> want to jump in. >> well said. >> i don't know how, when you have a world where businesses and every survey you read say

we have a skilled staff and don't have the high enough education of people, we lose teachers, we lost education jobs last month and the idea that we're going to short change our kids and somehow maintain our economic dominance in the future. >> how many of those 26,000 were administrators? in many of the states we have one administrator for every three teachers. in the countries that are kicking our butt they have one administrator for every 20 teachers, so you-- >> and china is kicking our butt and telling me that our federal government growing as fast as theirs is. >> china manufactures a small amount of stuff and little value added, i'm talking about other countries. >> do you think theres a he a major country that employs less of percentage of population in federal government jobs than america? >> is this a yes or no question? >> you said that countries are kicking our butt and they don't do this, but we have less federal workers than most of the giant countries. >> here is something you guys aren't talking about right now, it's the amount of money that this u.s. government has to borrow, just to pay these, pay these salaries for the

federal workers. right now borrows 40 cents on the dollar to pay inflated salary costs, jonas and that actually is only 20% just three years ago and it keeps going up because of salaries. >> how is that the fault of the stable labor force we've had in the federal government for 20 years now? >> let's look at that-- >> the federal employment hasn't gone up. but you just raised more than-- >> god bless you, but here is one issue. private jobs actually create wealth and public companies suck money out of the economy are low efficient. >> those are true points. >> we are talking about getting the economy back and getting jobs and prosperity comes from private sector jobs and does not come from transferring money from the efficient part of wealth. >> you should be happier because they're cutting government jobs and you guys act like they're adding the savings-- >> what we're debating why we should do 40 billion to hire people we can't afford that are all union workers anyway,

that's the usual. we need-- >> toby you think that we don't need the teachers and firefighters and first responders? i mean, it shocks me we had the anniversary of 9/11 you think we should have fewer police-- >> we're not talking about the teachers and firefighters. >> and that's got to be the last word, guys. okay? here we go. iphone toting protests being an i accused of selective outrage. neil's take on the gang of the occupy wall streeters at the bottom of the our. first, the same occupiers taking on wal-mart and say it's hurting the 99%, but wal-mart says they're all about helping the 99%. who is right? we report, you decide. or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's notust good for business. it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know

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end. iraq war and the action in libya, show u.s. leadership to the world and now he says the challenge is rebuilding the weak u.s. economy with the same energy our troops gave overseas. >> as a nation we need to build is our own. we need to tackle this challenge with the same urgency and unity that our troops brought to their place. >> meanwhile, north carolina senator richard bird delivering the g.o.p. response calling on the obama administration to drop its 447 billion dollar jobs bill and the embrace the g.o.p. plan instead the tax repeal code law. and invest in renewable energy sources. i'm jamie colby, i'll send you back now to bulls and bears, keep it here on the fox news channel, the most powerful name in news. ♪ . >> brenda: now they're going after the discount giant. some wal-mart workers teaming up with occupy wall street

protesters, bashing the company over wages and for slashing health benefits this week. and america's biggest employer saying those are misguided considering the superstar represents the 99%. toby, is wal-mart helping or hurting the 99%? >> they're helping without a doubt. an average family, wal-mart family gains $2300 in spending power, now, in other words, that adds another 2300 to their pocket book every year. now, in a world where, you know, average incomes are down from 54,000 to 49,000 dollars and inflation is higher, this is absolutely helping and why these guys are misguided. they're going tilting at every windmill they think is it a bad guy and capitalism is back. capitalism brought a lot of people out of poverty and wal-mart is doing a great thing for our economy. >> brenda: susan, are they? >> wal-mart's problem, they're straddling the line. it's true that they serve the

99%, who their customer base is, but they employ and compete against the 99%. one of the biggest problem that wal-mart faces, they are competing against a lot of small businesses and they wind up running a lot of small businesses out of business. and it's the small businesses and their employees who have been the most concerned about wal-mart coming to new york city what this process is about. >> and every study showed when wal-mart came in to a city there were more small businesses than when they came there. >> that's right because when they open up the shopping centers you have multiple retail establishments surrounding wal-mart which creates more jobs for the 99 percenters. they're out there, there is a capitalistic issue out there and that's why the protesters are out there. they don't like the idea that wal-mart is actually making some money. they're not looking at the jobs, they doesn't care about that. they're caring about people making money. >> there was actually a study by hunter collins in connection with the advocate in new york city, net job

losses in the number of areas where wal-mart has come in and i don't think that those numbers-- we could go one study against the next. >> equal time. >> brenda: but saved people an awful lot of money, don't they? >> well, totally does and there is a little bit of impact to small business when wal-mart moves in, what is wrong with a little bit of competition. to get prices down in an area it's good for the consumer. you look at stores in chicago opening up for wal-mart and talking about hundreds if not thousands of jobs, alongside other businesses, that open because wal-mart is there because wal-mart brings people to the area, i think it's great for a econon economy. >> they giveth and taketh away and that's the honest true. the top 1% don't shop at wal-mart you look at the website that has pictures of wal-mart people and they're major drivers of driving to lower prices that can lead to loss of jobs. there are positives and

negatives. i would say net the economy, i'm glad we have wal-mart, it's not all gravy for everybody, they are who they are. >> brenda: toby. right, jonas, the world is not perfect. in the droo i have in wal-mart's case, what they have done historically and repeatedly created tens of thousands of millionaires with their stocks and created literally millions of jobs, yes, in areas, not all areas are benefit, not all small business people, there's no perfect world, but net-net, you cannot put any fact against wal-mart and not say that it's not been a net beneficiary for millions of households who are literally on the margin, you know, able to keep food on the table because there's a wal-mart there. >> and this is a classic american success story, too, sam walton, the way he started this organization. >> and once who are protesting here are employees who just had their health insurance premium skyrocket and they're part-time employees just got health benefits pulled altogether. after a long history of having pretty good labor relations they've kind of started to back slide and that's too bad

for wal-mart and their employees. >> what about the issue for the 99%, they pay lower prices for a lot of things. >> they absolutely do and that's why i said in the beginning, they're kind of straddling the issue, on one hand helping the customers, on the other hand they're hurting employees in a lot of respects and hurting their small businesses. >> and people in line to get a job at wal-mart every time they open up. must be a lot of people. >> and employees are protesting. i don't work at wal-mart, look at who is protesting. anytime they're not protesting and-- >> the wrong types of people, those people would rather not have a job than work at wal-mart, then there's something wrong with them. >> that's got to be the last word, thanks, guys. >> brenda: you feel the pain at the checkout. are the higher prices about to wipe out a recovery? americans are always ready to work hard for a better future. since ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894,

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>> coming up, it's here, inflation, and it's holding both your wallet and our economy captive. plus, how all those rising prices could actually help you

>> woo. stocks finishing the week on a big upswing, helping push the dow into positive territory for the year. that's the good news. here is the bad. inflation, rising much faster than the markets. two new reports showing prices jumping for businesses and consumers. and todd, you say this could derail any chance of an economic recovery right now? >> absolutely, brenda. look, this is anytime you're looking at higher prices for anything, from food to energy, to clothing, that's going to hit the discretionary income budget and hurt revenues as well as a growing economy right now. look at food costs up 10% year over year and that's hitting

americans pocket books. >> susan, you're worried? >> it's creeping up slowly and it's a relatively low level, it's true, food and gas are up. and women's apparel plummeted and wine has plummeted and less eating maybe more drinking and shopping. >> oh, toby, talking your language. >> yeah, i did that five minutes ago and i have a bigger issue here, it's not just as much inflation as a combination of factors, and average family income is down about 5,000 a year and average health care cost is up 8%, thanks to some things that have been passed recently and when you take those two additions or subtractions from your spending power and you have higher prices, it's the combined effect that it's putting a lid of about 1 to 2% of gdp growth on the united states and that's going to be here for a while. >> well, jonas, is this inflation being driven by demand or by commodity prices or what? >> by demand. and that's why these guys are wrong. because, first of all, 10%,

your food is up less 5%. >> i didn't say that. >> and second, now, that's a lot because wages aren't up a lot, but i will say is a symptom of the economy is improving over the last year, until the last few months and that's when most of the gains happened. recently, prices come out and they're headed down and that's a bad thing because it means people aren't consuming as much. you want inflation if it results from people buying one. and crazy magic money which is rare sent incidentally that that happens. we don't have that and that's the 70's stagflation, what you just saw is the best inflation, i call it the best in three years, we haven't had any because the economy is so-- >> and the economic world. >> and tell that to the people in middle america right now. >> are you running for president? >> oh, boys. >> and prices are up, everything is up. >> jonas, people in wal-mart-- >> i've got to get scott in here, what do you think. >> jonas is right and it's

crazy, i actually agree with him. the magic money reminds me of the '60s, not the '70s, jonas, demand is going to affect price and price is going to come down and demand is not there and channel my inner milton freedman, inflation is a monetary phenomenon. >> look, scott, hocus-pocus, you can't tell me you have a sluggish economy right now, worldwide and you're going to have higher prices, and just as people end the-- and have a negative impact. if a gol of milk goes to $10. how many gallons do you think that people will go out and buy. >> you're kidding me, because you've got a supplement. the government will have to supplement food in this country otherwise have the protesters-- >> maybe we should have control-- >> okay, we've got to go. thanks, guys. and thanks to susan as always for joining us. >> nice to be here. >> brenda: coming up those higher prices you're paying are great news for your retirement? it's true. and, finally, a housing sign showing a new boom for the

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>> redixes. >> higher 401(k) contribute bug, 20% by next year. >> brenda: todd bull or bear. >> bear, i'm a bear. >> brenda: scott, your prediction. >> rally earnings, volatility play on s&p 500, 2/3 the volatility. one third the calories. >> brenda: and toby bull or bear. >> neil: utilities, i'm a bear, buy utilities, guys. >> brenda:. >> and what do you like. >> avalon, up. >> scott, do you like it. >> no, price nobody is going to buy another house the rest of their lives. way too expensive. >> and all right. todd? >> unwrap the chocolate right now. looking at hersheys up 10% by valentine's day. >> brenda: oh, woo, watch out. jonas, do you like hersheys.