greg mcbride of bankrate.com joins us via skype. hi greg. why so many closings? > > well, just as the early years of the last decade saw too many homes being built, there were also too many bank branches being built. that, coupled with the ongoing trend toward bank consolidation, banks merging together, means that there are a lot of unprofitable branches out there that need to be weeded out. > is there a push toward mobile and online banking behind this? > > i don't think it's a push as much as it's a pull on the part of the consumer. consumers have expressed the preference that the way they want to interact with their bank, particularly for the routine daily transactions, is online and through mobile devices, which again makes the branches all the more unnecessary, particularly for the routine daily transactions. > is that dangerous, especially with the recent hack attacks? > > no. again, i don't think that the hack attacks necessarily pose any particular concern to consumers as long as they are being diligent. after all, this is the way that people are doing th

greg mcbride of bankrate.com, who always has his fingers on the pulse of interest rates, joins us via skype this morning. good morning greg, and let's start with auto loans. what's the latest? > > well angie, they continue to hit record lows, and they are still falling. on the low end, we are seeing rates below 2.5% for both new and used cars at a number of large banks and credit unions as well. > what is your advice for car buyers? do they need to shop around? > > absolutely. shop around, because we do see a tremendous disparity in the marketplace between the low end and the higher end of the range. but then also line up your financing before you go to the dealership. that really lets you have your cake and eat it too, because you can negotiate the price of the car separately, and you are not dependent upon the dealer for financing. > turning now to mortgage rates, there was a record low 3.31% in november. what can home buyers expect? > > mortgage rates are still at very attractive levels. they have run up a little here to start the year, but they pulled back this week, and i think w

joining me now, the president of capital management and greg mcbride, senior financial analyst for bankrate.comeg, starting with you. is this overkill? >> i think it is, gerri. i mean first of all, the apeople -- appeal here to individual investors, it's not high return. you can get to the money when you need it and for every hundred dollars you put in, you get a hundred dollars out when you need it. if you take they way or restrict those appeals, frankly, people have alternatives to put the money elsewhere, in a nonlife savingsing the or short term bond fund where, you know, they can go, oh, by the way, get better returns than what they get in the money funds right now. gerri: greg makes the right point here. if you want to be in cds, have the money tied up, whatever, you could, but people are in money market funds because they want to be able to get out whenever they need that money, and it seems to me at the very point in time they make restrictions getting out, whether it's financial restrictions or closing the temporary gate, that's exactly what you want to get access to it, in an emergenc

joining me right now on set is greg mcbride and greg yip from "the economist" and ryan dietri dietrich. gentlemen, good to see you. thanks for joining us and thanks for joining us tonight. greg, what gives with this market? what's with this market? >> run a long way in a short period of time really without stopping for a breath. saw it with amazon, and i think you'll continue to see it this year. top line revenue growth is an issue. eventually market revenue will run into it. >> by the way, we're running into it right now. amazon reported revenue below estimates. does revenue stock the story of the rally going toward in is amazon a problem tomorrow? >> whether or not that's a catalyst for this market to take a breather or have a correction remains to be seen. a lot of headwinds to face whether it's top line revenue growth or something out of washington. eventually we'll have to deal with spending cuts and the debt ceiling debate. whether or not that's it. for the meantime, the markets run a long time just because they are soaking up all the stimulus from the fed. >> a lot of stimulus f

joining us now, greg mcbride of bank rate.com. ad a big discussion yerl, greg, that maybe they didn't really mean it, that they were sort of worried about the fiscal cliff and they wanted to make sure that they were seen as providing, i guess, a put of some sort and that now that we got through that, that they can -- they don't need to -- they have the pedal to the metal as much as before. is that what happened or did the economy improve? >> i think the fed has the pedal to the metal because of the looming debate and the credit rating downgrade if they don't go far enough on the spending cuts. so we've solved relatively little. and i agree that the uncertainty, be it the fiscal cliff or the debt ceiling is why the fed took aggressive action, not just in december, but back in september. but i don't think they're going to be able to ease off, really, until the second half of the year and that's provided that the economy continues to improve. >> as a deal has evolved and we've had time to think about it, we did avert the immediate seq