visa and mastercards are accepted in all of these stores so there is no reason to have more cards. >> you get the 10% savings when you open the card. >> it is not because they are your pal, it is because they know they will make more than 10% discount on you in the future. because you are going to leave a balance and charge more and get you in trouble. they know they will make more money on you. they give you a 10% carrot to try it out. >> you don't like us to use visa, american express, mastercard. >> you call it fantasy money. >> it is like basically you are taking a loan when you do that. so if you swipe the card for a $50 dinner you are taking a loan for that dinner. i call the debit card reality money because when you swipe that card you are taking the money directly out of your account. if this had been a credit card no money comes out of the account. debit card it comes out of your account. that's reality money and you spend more when you debit, too. so cash is even better but discipline yourself, use a debit card and when you use your deb kit card put it in your check register

. >>> mastercard, however, didn't fair as well. while the credit card company posted a 23% jump in profit, shares plunged 10% due to cutbacks in credit card spending. >>> both the "new york times" and the wall street journal are reporting the industrial gas company air products is making an unsolicited offer of $5 billion in cash for its smaller rival air gas. >>> and finally, heinz is catching up with the times, tearing up the tiny tin foil packets and updated design. it has a cup like base perfect for dipping and squeezing and holds three times as much ketchup. nifty there. >> lebron james is at it again, and a coach axes himself. plus, here's yet another reason why they call him the great eight. your early morning sports headlines are just ahead. >>> and we have a big winter storm to start off the weekend. you're watching "early today." >>> good morning. if you're just waking up, this is "early today." >>> and in sports, with yet another promising season slipping away, the struggling los angeles clippers take drastic measures. h

mastercard pumped up its incentives and rebates in its last quarter and it worked, maybe too well. while earnings were up 23% from last year, the numbers still weren't good enough to meet expectations. operating expenses, though, were up thanks to a 25% jump in marketing. the stock reflected this disappointment, dropping to november lows on eight times average volume. burger king brought home the bacon in its fiscal second quarter with earnings up 13%. lower costs helped out as did its $1 cheeseburger promotion, which helped bring in more customers. burger king stock saw almost three times volume, bucking the down market today, gaining 3%. while burger king saw more customers, a trio of consumer goods companies saw lower stock prices on the heels of their earnings. clorox, sara lee, and kellogg's were all lower. both sara lee and kellogg's pushed up their 2010 guidance even as earnings were mixed between the two. speaking of the consumer, shoppers' appetites in january weren't that impressive overall, but here are a few retail sales stand outs. sales at stores open for at least 12

mentioned bankruptcy reform, a very simple, electronic payment system not controlled by a visa or mastercard. what are the short list of things they need to do? too big to fail. >> guest: that is clearly one. derivatives is another. incentives and systems so you don't have these people are rewarded with short sighted behavior and do something about excess leverage a variety of other ways of risk taking. they have 30 /1 440 /1 leverage. that means the value of the assets close down by 4%, they are by doubt. -- wiped out. our assets went down by 30% and wiped out multiple times. we should not have been surprised. with leverage when they go up you make a lot of money. but from a social point* of view, leverage just chefs risk from one place to another. we cannot allow that too. >> that is a really big thing. within the financial sector the most important things to fix to prevent another crisis bear every member rewind to prevent another crisis but the economy to start growing to make sure we have a financial system also to have a clear vision of what you like your financial system to do do and

disappointing earnings from mastercard making things worse.up last quarter, but not as much as analysts expecting. but macy's one of the few bright spots adding more than 2% on strong sals numbers, and improving outlook. >>> that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." >>> if i'm a rhino, so is ronald reagan. i mean, i'm a less taxing, less spending, more freedom kind of guy. i take a pragmatic, common-sense approach to government. if that's not what people want, they'll let me know. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was charlie crist, fighting out in florida. he's getting hammered by the tea party crowd down in florida. hard right republicans trying to get a candidate purity test. they failed. but would even ronald reagan have passed that test. pat buchanan worked for president reagan. does charlie crist have a point that republicans are submitting themselves to a test that even mr. reagan wouldn't have passed? in regard to amnesty for immigrants into this country, with regard to taxes raised occasionally, with

and easy very simple reforms, payments in the electronic payment system of controlled by visa and mastercard. what would be the one, too, to recall four, five things they need to do that they are not. so too big to fail? >> guest: to big to fail is clearly one. derivatives, doing something about derivatives is another. doing something about incentives systems so that you don't have these people rewarding in ways to have excessive risk-taking and shortsighted behavior. they need to do something about excessive leverage, a whole variety of other ways of risk-taking. they've got 30-1 leverage. what does that mean? is a value of the assets goes down two, three, 45% they are wiped out. what happened to the real-estate assets? they went down by 30%. they were wiped out multiple times. so we should not have been surprised. the thing about leverage is when things are going that you make a lot of money. but from the social point of view of the leverage shifts risk from one place to another. they shifted the returns to the banks and shifted the risk to the taxpayers. we can't allow that. >> host: defe

bankruptcy reforms easy simple reforms, payments, electronic payment system of controlled by a visa and mastercard. what would be you're one, two, three, four, five list of things the need to do that they are not? to begin to fail. >> guest: derivatives, doing something about derivatives is another. doing something about incentive systems so that you don't have these people rewarding and ways to have excessive risk-taking. they need to do something about excess leverage, a variety of other ways of risk-taking. they've got 30-1, 42, one. what does that mean if a value of the assets goes down by two, three, 4% the are wiped out. what happened to the real estate assets? they went down by 30%. they were wiped out multiple times, so we shouldn't have been surprised. the thing about leverage is when things are going up we make a lot of money but from a social point of view all the leverage does is shift risk from one place to another. it shifted the return to the banks and shifted the risk to the taxpayer. we can't allow that. >> host: a specific thing to fix. >> guest: that's a really big thing to fix.

they say the 15% drop since november is a buying opportunity and mastercard is down but at least two firms have come out and said it looks attractive after falling 13% in the past three sessions. it's at a three-month low. mark, back to you. >> thank you very much, matt nesto. erin? >> so mary, these jamie dimon numbers if you look at the options you could get a pay package up to $32 million. >> the way it's been explained to me, erin, is first of all you have restricted stock worth 7.6 million. that's what we told you. if you take a look at his options according to people close to the company what you want to do on the method is basically divide the current stock price by three and then you multiply it by the number of options. again, 563 million, which gives you basically stock options worth 8.5 million so essentially the bonus for mr. dimon this year or excuse me last year, 16.1 million of restricted stock and stock options. >> okay. so they're going on black shoals so in other words the simple options math, the ones granted by the strike prices, they're saying not fair. >> that's

i would tell source it to american express, visa or mastercard because i don't think the federal governmentment it. [applause] and then i wouldn't focus on the person who's an undocumented worker who happens to be here. i would focus on the employers and say to the employers economic penalty for not obeying fall is going to be horrendous but that only works if you have a guest worker program so that the employer has an easy reliable and legal way been able to deal with it so if you raise a good question on taxes on p.m. for an option at the present time i think it's hard to replace the income tax like my friend john linder and kneal boards have a great book on the fair tax and i'm confident we could have a long discussion on that. i think it is very hard to get to for a variety of reasons. i think the interim best step is to have an optional flat tax where you can keep the current complicated code or having one page alternative that is extraordinarily simple. you decide which one is better and you can do either. a number of places now adopt that. [applause] >> good morning. my name is bald

bankruptcy reforms, easy, very simple reforms, electronic payment systems not controlled by visa and mastercardat would be your one, two, three, four, five short side of this to do that they are not? >> guest: derivatives include another, doing something about incentives systems so that you don't have these people rewarded in ways that excess risk-taking, shortsighted behavior. you need to do something about excess leverage, and whole variety of other ways of risk-taking. they have gone to 30 to one, 40 to one leverage. what does that mean? it means that if a value of an asset goes by two, three, 4%, they are wiped out. what happened to our real estate assets? they went down by 30%. they were wiped out multiple times. so we shouldn't have been surprised. the thing about leverage is when things are going up, you make a lot of money. but from a social point of view, all the leverage does is shift risk from one place to another. it shifted the returns to the banks and shifted the risk to the taxpayer. we can't allow that. it's a big thing to fix. so those are within the financial sector, the most

i would out sources to american express, visa or mastercard because i don't think the government canmplement it. [applause] and then i would focus on the person who is an undocumented worker. i would focus on the employers and i would say the employers, the economic penalty for not obeying the law is going to be her in this but that only works if you have a guest worker program said the employer has an easy reliable and legal way of being able to deal with it so i think you raise a good question. on taxes, i am for an option because at the present time it is very hard to replace the income tax and my dear friend john linder and neal bortz of the book out on the fair tax and i'm confident we could have a long discussion on that. i think it is very hard to get to. i think the interim step is to have an optional flat tax we need to keep the current complicated code or you could have a one-page alternative that is extraordinarily simple. you decide which one is better for you. and number of places now have adopted that. [applause] >> good morning. my name is bob and i am running for cong

abovementioned bankruptcy reforms, payments, an electronic payment system not controlled by visa or mastercard what would be the list of things they need that they do not. too big to fail. >> guest: too big to fail, doing something about derivatives, doing something about incented systems so you don't have people reported in ways to have excess risk-taking. you need to do something about ex-as leverage, a whole fri of other ways of risk-taking. they have the odds of 30-1, 40-1 leverage. the value goes down by two, three, 4% they are wiped out. what happened to real estate assets? they wyndham by 30%. they were wiped up multiple times so we shouldn't have been surprised. the thing about leverage is when things are going up, we make a lot of money. but from a social point of view, all the leverage does it shifts risk from one place to another. it shifted the returned to the banks and shifted the risk to the taxpayer. we can't allow that. that is a really big thing that it the effects of those are within the financial sector the most important things to fix to prevent another crisis. but remember

reforms and easy very simple reforms, payments in and looked on payment system of control by visa and mastercardwhat would you're one, two, three, four, five things they need to do that they are not quite so too big to fail. >> guest: too big to fail was clearly one, derivatives are clearly another, something about incentive systems so that you don't have these people of rewarding them in ways to have access risk-taking, shoreside behavior. they need to do something about excess leverage. the whole variety of other ways of risk-taking. they've got 30-1, 40-1 leverage. what does that mean? it means if the value of the assets goes down by two, three, four, 5% they are wiped out. what happened to the real estate assets? they went down by 40%. they were wiped out multiple times. so we shouldn't have been disguised. the thing about leverage is when things are going up you make a lot of money. but from a social point of view of what leverage does is shift risk from one place to another. it shifted the return to the banks and shifted the risk to the taxpayer. we can't allow that -- >> host: specifics.

reforms and easy very simple reforms, payments in and looked on payment system of control by visa and mastercardwhat would you're one, two, three, four, five things they need to do that they are not quite so too big to fail. >> guest: too big to fail was clearly one, derivatives are clearly another, something about incentive systems so that you don't have these people of rewarding them in ways to have access risk-taking, shoreside behavior. they need to do something about excess leverage. the whole variety of other ways of risk-taking. they've got 30-1, 40-1 leverage. what does that mean? it means if the value of the assets goes down by two, three, four, 5% they are wiped out. what happened to the real estate assets? they went down by 40%. they were wiped out multiple times. so we shouldn't have been disguised. the thing about leverage is when things are going up you make a lot of money. but from a social point of view abzy)h pbp,p$s#hdp'dds)p forward. >> guest: one of things i'm trying to raise is incentives matter, not just in that way that they've matter in the past, but if we have the right