congress needs to compromise to keep the economy on track ass said by tom baker. >> do you know what the fiscal cliff is? >> actually i don't. >> do you know what the fiscal cliff is? >> i haven't a clue what a fiscal cliff is. >> i haven't heard of that term. >> reporter: you will, and soon. >> enormous changes that are currently scheduled to happen on new years day. >> reporter: absent a deal, there will be automatic tax increases for everyone, massive budget cuts and a huge reduction of the federal budget. >> there will be very large cuts in defense spending. there will be equally large cuts in non-audience spending. what that means of course request is that the government will buy many fewer things. hundreds of billions of dollars less. >> reporter: government will have far less money to spend and businesses will have less money. >> it will be big enough that it will be noticeable and it will be painful. >> reporter: huge layoffs across the board possible, and the economy may stall. >> it's entirely possible that you could see a recession. >> reporter: now that we know. >> i hope

or alameda, consumer editor tom baker, ktvu news. >> also, people took the time to raise money and honor a woman who died 11 years ago. the hayward plunge held the annual turkey swim in honor of karen gordon. it goes to -- she was killed by a drunk driver on her 19th birthday. she was a lifeguard at the pool and she also worked as an intern here at ktvu. here, a father award awarded 1,000-dollar scholarships for that fund. >>> the mars rover that found curiosity also discovered solid evidence that water once flowed in the galliano a crater, and those findings may lead to another discovery of life as well. and we're told that nasa will release all of the details two week from now in san francisco. >>> the sierra resorts opened for business this thanksgiving. plus, warm weather is expected for tomorrow. our mark tamayas will tell us that we can hit up to 70 degrees. and if you're away, you can still watch ktvu newscast on the web, or on your smartphone. >> i'm certainly thankful for my family, my son. >> the beautiful city, the ocean, pretty, pretty darn lucky all of us. >> i just graduate

ktvu consumer editor tom baker is live now in san a rafael. >> reporter: the key to sales success this year is to outdiscount your on-line competitors. richard, founder of the sharper image, was one of the first big on-line retailers. he now does business as richard solo, and says for small internet companies to compete, they have to be different than amazon and ebay. you have to have a unique product. we try to come up with unique products that aren't available everywhere. >> reporter: so whether it's a digital screen tv, camera, toy, or watch, these and other brands have become commodities, things available in many places on-line and off. >> you can check out places here and find what you like, and then shop for it on-line to get a better deal. >> reporter: on-line retailers can often supply them cheaper than brick and mortar stores. >> if i'm just looking at picture on-line, it's definitely name brand. >> however, for a lot of clothes buying, that's still pretty much a hand's on experience. >> so much of the shopping mall is clothing and shoes, and you want to see how they fit. you

. >>> in 55th for an international auto show, consumer editor tom baker got a peek inside today. and now consumers can do much more than just look. >> reporter: there really is something for everyone, more than 600 vehicles from simple commute cars from the super exotics, and the custom-builts. and likely efficient high mileage diesels from a tiny beats to a big expensive audi suv and several in between. now burn clean enough to sell in california. this all-electric toyota rav4 has a tesla drive. for a buck you can go 19 miles. gasoline equivalent? 76 miles per gallon. many other electrics are here. including this, the coda, this year, hands-on driving as never before. and you will get in the vehicle with a product specialist and you'll be able to drive around the believe and get a feel for the car. forty-two vehicles that people are able to get in, and this is the first time we'd done it although this level. >> reporter: is volvo also offerings an option that senses and brakes for pedestrians -- who want to make something different. at nine bucks per an adult. children 12 and yo

you know it's going to go up no down only a silver and gold become scarce but so are these jackets tom baker and so good. ok up with a jacket like this call now supplies are going fast so this crash j.p. morgan by silver did ignite a generation silverball goes viral with marketing war max keiser has become a fringe media start thanks to the web excuse a round in what friends are about four hundred fifty million viewers worldwide that's not fringe maybe that's the media so they talk about your campaign to crash a few more going by silver it's gone viral they say thanks to his effective viral campaigning his youtube clips have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times got a popup in a following who knew preaching silver it seems can make you a mini media star so i want to look at some of the again i take exception with the word mini ok we're talking about four hundred fifty million viewers millions of own rooms and airport lounges around the world you know you are waiting for a flight right now launching this still gives you another and better to do well let's look at some of the viral videos

tom baker is live in lafayette with a look at the rising prices and why politics could disturb the upward trend. >> just like in the situation where you can buy a house at rock bottom prices, you need to act quick because as you can see pretty soon it is late, it is gone. >>> regardless of who wins, housing prices are on the rise. >> i think the day after the election will you see a lot more homes on the market really great. >> according to real estate watchdogs surveys, the price this september were up 3% compared to a year ago even including foreclosures. but take the foreclosures out of the mix and asking prices were up 3.6%. actual rent prices up over five percent from a year ago. >> because asking prices are still rising today, that means we are going to keep the sales prices rise and see sale prices rising for next year. >> as to real sales completed, market tracker released a study, september sales prices were five percent higher than a year ago. core logic says it expect the october prices to be 5-point 7% higher than a year ago. in fact 82% of the housing markets are higher than

i'm consumer editor tom baker.u, channel 2 news. >>> a wind whipped brush fire shut town traffic on a freeway. the fire is in the cajon pass near san bernandino county. the fire was first reported around 11:00 a.m. this morning. the road closure started about an hour later. the pass was reopened around 5:30 tonight. hundreds of firefighters are still fighting back the flames. so far, the fire has burned some 350 acres. right now, it is only about 10% contained. >>> san francisco police are looking for a missing elderly man who disappeared yesterday morning. the 82-year-old was last seen around 9:30 a.m. yesterday morning in the bay view. police say he is hard of hearing. anyone with information about li's are whereabouts is asked to call police. >>> 37-year-old amman melas of oakland was hit by a light rail train after walking into the market street tunnel about 7:30 friday morning. he was hit by an inbound j- church train. the accident shut down muni service for about three hours in all. authorities still don't kn

i'm consumer editor tom baker.u, channel 2 news. >>> a wind whipped brush fire shut town traffic on a freeway. the fire is in the cajon pass near san bernandino county. the fire was first reported around 11:00 a.m. this morning. the road closure started about an hour later. the pass was reopened around 5:30 tonight. hundreds of firefighters are still fighting back the flames. so far, the fire has burned some 350 acres. right now, it is only about 10% contained. >>> san francisco police are looking for a missing elderly man who disappeared yesterday morning. the 82-year-old was last seen around 9:30 a.m. yesterday morning in the bay view. police say he is hard of hearing. anyone with information about li's are whereabouts is asked to call police. >>> 37-year-old amman melas of oakland was hit by a light rail train after walking into the market street tunnel about 7:30 friday morning. he was hit by an inbound j- church train. the accident shut down muni service for about three hours in all. authorities still don't kn

reporting live, tom baker, ktvu. >>> on wall street today, trading was relatively flat.the dow fell .31. the nasdaq fell and the s & p 500-inched up a little less than a point. >> kodak reached a financing deal to take it out of bankruptcy. it would allow them to borrow $793 million and sell its patent fort you'll to for $500 million. it needs bankruptcy approval. they filed for bankruptcy protection in january while struggling to compete with the digital photography industry. >>> this 56 year old grandmother is not someone to be messed with. what she fought off with her bare hands and an axe. >> they come from thousands of miles away and pay a lot to go to college. where they are coming from. and you live way up here. brian, your cousin, he's a little bit older than you, he lives here, in chicago. and your aunt lisa lives here, in baltimore. uncle earnie? waaay out in hawaii. but don't you worry, we will always be together for christmas. [ male announcer ] being together is the best part of the holidays and cheerios is happy to be part of the family. you just ate dallas

the management at hostess, the twinkie people says the baker's union forced the company into liquidation. the union workers blame bad management. tomwinkie? tom: the union has a responsibility tot go and get as much as they can but not kill the golden goose, but the management whether it's general motors or whether it's hostess has a responsibility to not sign contracts and make promises they can't afford. i think it was a badly managed company. stuart: interesting. interesting. next case, black friday, one of wal-mart's biggest days of the year, now wal-mart is facing an employee uprising of sorts. a group that wants to unionize is trying to lead a protest against wal-mart on black friday, big day for retailers, day after thanksgiving. >> i think they had something to do with killing twinkies, i'm so mad at them, i can't believe they are trying to kill thanksgiving at wal-mart too, bad unions, they should have some turkey and get over it. stuart: the company says it is a very very small group of people that would do something on black friday. it's just a whole protest. >> let people shop and let them have their thanksgiving. they

baker. >> rose: and they both understood that. >> if you were putting together the perfect president what qualities would you draw on from previous presidents you've read about? >> i'd start with tom's brain. you'd be go with lincoln, but i'm going to do my hamilton pitch. he wasn't a president but what he did was introduce a school of thinking that says this country is about social mobility. we have one party that's all about freedom. but we don't have a party about social mobility and the market and i do think that is the missing element in american life which we had in the early republican party and i think it's more the bstance. why is the center spweu tent in america. lack of ideas and agenda. i think it's filling out that agenda that's the crucial thing. one of the things that makes my job worthwhile is that one out of seven of our incoming freshmen will be the first in their families to graduate college. not enough of that is happening in our country and to go back to what i think we all could agree on is where we have an economic system that is truly free so that talented people can rise up beyond their family circumstances like many of us did is really to know what makes th