Gerri hello, everybody, i am gerri willis. It has been a tumultuous year for the markets. Weak economic growth, and of course the election itself. Some analysts picking games 2013 as much as 14 of the market and others lost as much as 14 . It is not working for me today. I think we should talk about else. Ig i will get to talk about a santa claus rally. Ral is there a santa claus rally . Ra will we have a true santa claus rally . Listen, think itll b it wile tough to get one this year. I think there will be a lot of repositioning in portfolios coming toward the end of the year. A people are getting very nervous about the fiscal cliff. I was on the show a couple of weeks ago whe and i was not a tn concerned because i thought we would get a deal done. Al it is starting to hurt people. Ut a good call by you. Frankly, gerri, that is what will hurt stocks and investors spending or appetite as s well. E gerri i love it when you tell me i am right. It often doesnt last very longy i have got to think when we get some real claritytt on this no matter what whether it is good x or bad for investors and taxpayers there will be a little relief in the market, dont you think . I think so. Clarity, what a lot of people are looking for. Both sides of the aisle wants to get something done, it is just what. Y we talk about the s p 500. When you look at corporate profits and the impact, potential changes in the tax relations will be on those company profits, you have to revalue the market somewhere in here which is a lower price again companies trying to have to pay the government more money. Gerri lets talk about 201 201n what we might expect. Expectations over the place. Citigroup predicted stocks 14 next year, Morgan Stanley 1 . Where do you fall . Im probably up at 4 or 5 . Not expecting that great of a year as far as the end of the year. I think it will be pretty bumpy the beginning of the year while this all gets worked out and people reevaluate the landscape ofds everything. Gerri, i will comment on the numbers you threw out there. This scares me people are so positive. I dont want to spike the eggnog, but the fact there is not one person or one bank that says the market will be down next year frightens me a little bit. Gerri wells fargo says the market will be down 2 . But theyre the only ones to sae it. A lotbo of optimism but we have beenbe in this bull market for a long time it v has been very strong. People start that in the same thing happen over and over again. Is that what you see your fellow strategists make . Sometimes, you chase the returns and end up getting in at the last minute and hit when the market goes down. You made a good comment, it has been a bull market but the average investor hasnt pa participated that much in thesen games so im hoping they are not being left out in the cold as the market tops out. Gerri usually the smallest investors get in the latest in the rally and often miss the it highs. It always happens that way. You say housing will be an important part of growth in 2013. Finally you think it will happen . R believe it or not, gerri, i really like the housing sector. The banks are lending money. The problem is house is only about 5 of gdp after that dissipatedecimated the previous. Gerri always great to talk to you and i will work on scottks martin stock market. I will stay in business one more day. Gerri thanks so much. As the economy sputters along the Housing Market showing real signs of a rebound. Home prices up, sales rising and Mortgage Rates at record lows. Will it last . What should you do to make money off the rebound . Welcome back to the show. Thank you, gerri. Gerri it is always so great to haveleth you. Do you think people are dumping properties in advance of december 31 . They dont have much time left. I think what is more the truth is people. E using it as an excue to say you will get a great deal in mon my house, i will give ito you if you will close by december 31. It doesnt really happen. It is a good little trick that t you have to realize 3 million house selling to a guy with 3 million to spend, he will not that, hetetrick like will negotiate hard like he always does. At gerri i want to talk about one of those issues at the margins of the conversation on the fiscal cliff, do we get rid of the mortgage deduction. Lots of pros and cons. People sang that will cost 15 of housing prices. What do you think the impact will be . . Do not think it will have that effect. T we have bad news in the housingg market is people pause for a absorb it and they move on. What we have going on is so much pushing, upward momentum on the Housing Market that i cant eveg fathom that affecting housing prices. Hardly at all, quite honestly. Gerri do you think firsttime buyers in particular rely on that deduction . Ki the they think about that making the decisions to buy. Waimight discourage people who otherwise might get into the market . Sae for some people it makes them pause a bit. Y remember, theyre being tempted back in by cheap prices, really cheap money and thoserip are gt moment his swings that push people back in. Gerri i think this is a great time to be back in thee market. E in some places have you missed it . If you really want to be a sharpshooter, buy at the low, e yet missed twothirds of the low point of every market in america. Only one third is still depressed, twothirds are going up and some havendnu had record numbers. Gerri if you are looking right now, where would you look . The opportunity if you want to get a steal of a deal in ord descending order it a house in the northeast because anybody with a house on the market hasnt soldou it is really going to discount their house right now. An gerri and sandy is a big issues sandy is a big issue, but a great time to buy right now. Timeshares are still languishing. You can get it on 0. 30 per dollar. T gerri that is greathe advice. What else can you give, what advice they give to people who may be trying to get rid of the house right now, trying to unload a house, maybe they lost a lot of value in the property. It is no fun to have to adjust to the idea youre going to get less money, but what is great is you have another 30 yes increase in buyers out there. One third fewer homes for sale, so less competition and more people who want themth. You also have buyers are believing the best part of the market might be gone, and that really pushes the market gives you a higher bid. Homeowners, the best is yet to come. Rom gerri i hear this from people who are not experts in the Housing Market, but this is what real people think about it. I saw what happened in 2007, 2008, i am never going to buy. Because you never know what is going to happen. You will not end up with a house in the best School District or the prettiest block the prettiest town with the best appreciation. You cannot show it off to the motherinlaw. Wing they will be sitting there six years from now and thinking what was ig thinking, what with the possibly thinking i couldve gotten this house 40 less than i am paying this year. Eyr tell your friends they are not thinking right. Ree gerri i so agree with you. The market goes up, it goes down and went down for long time, it will recover. L and i will sell you a house. Gerri lets sit down, have a cool places i want to look. Thank you very much. Gerri one of the bellwether places for employee benefits. Changing the way it manages 401 k . And if president obama breaks the law with what he calls recess appointments. Taking a look at the new case making its way through federal court. Gerri did president obama brthe gerri did president obama breaks the law . Federal Appeals Court p isela deciding who th the president s appointed to National Labor board when the president was on recess was unlawful. Because Senate Republicans say o the senate was in session. The case brought on by a company after the nlrb ruled that the company must enter into collective Bargaining Agreement on c a labor union. The companies arguing the decision cant be made because the recessca appointments are invalid. Igh here to weigh in, legal analyst and, criminal defense attorney. I want to go to you first. At the end of the day this whole thing is just an argument about was the senate in session or was it not . The president may have skirted the law little bit like sidelining it, but did they cross over the line . No. Does this happen all the time . Li yes. Itss does. T he the skirted the law like im wearing a skirt. Gerri that would be known. Lets take a step back and design for this was to do. The Founding Fathers said look, if you have to make a temporaryr appointment, the Senate Confirm it, we will not drag the senate back in, so mr. President do what you have to do, goes for the convenience of the senateth not to screw the senate which is what the president is doing. We gerri this is a family show. Was a president trying to get around the senate . Do something a senate did not like . He may have skirted, but he did not go over the line. So legally it is proper. You cant argue with that. They killed it, he threw it out the window. Because first of all it is in recession. Theyre supposed to be gone until 2013. They are not gone, theyre still around, which means there is no interrecess. Gerri technically they declared recess, so that meant they are out, whether they were physically there or not it doesnt make a difference, they declared ahe recess, he can make those arguments. Let me move on to Something Else you will disagree with us much. E this is just about politics . Yes. T matter. Sn youre asking a legal question. X gerri im asking a political question now. I think the president is using this as an opening and may revisit this. Not like oh, shoot, didnt realize it. Our taking full advantage. If thatis that what we want frn government leaders . What he can take full advantage of. I agree it is taking advantage. But is that the message we want to send . When do we say lets take off i am with stupid tshirts. This is why we dont get anything done. Gerri how do you think the court will rule in this . The court will look at it, the senate was in recess, completely legal and the court will rule. No question based on the questions thrown at thert attorneys that the court is. Saying come on, wait a second. They were not in recess. That is not what gerri is asking. Rul gerri asks what will the court ultimately rule . They will say no, no, no. Break it down a little bit. He broke the law. The court will say it was illegal . The appointment should go, gone, goodbye. E you are wrong. Ther gerri what does the Supreme Court do . Whoever loses will appeal and the Supreme Court will take it or wont take it. I dont think so. Of hope they do if nothing else it is enough with this stuff. To do i think anybody in congress can agree on is to get a sound bite about the fiscal cliff. Gerri we agree to disagree, am i right . Would definitely agree torand disagree. Gerri thank you for coming on. When we come back, the results of the study showing waste, fraud and abuse in the nations skies. And ibm getting flack from making major changes to the Retirement Program that what cost to employees . Could your employer play fast one on you too . I will dissect it all next. Music body language without saying a word, it can tell you so much. Like someone is having a stroke. Know the sudden signs. Learn f. A. S. T. F face drooping aarm weakness s speech difficulty t time, time to call 911 immediately. The sooner they get to the hospital, the sooner theyll get treatment, and that can make a remarkable difference in their recovery. Learn the body language, the sudden signs, and spot a stroke f. A. S. T. Gerri there is th sto gerri there is a story there is not getting a lot of attention today that you need to hear about, particularly if you care about your retirement. Ibm overhauling its Retirement Program. Instead of contributing to its employees 401 k over time the company will have to contribute a lumpsum payment once a year the move undermines the very idea of retirement savings. The attraction of a 401 k isnes the idea the level of what you pay for investments over time. Prices go up, prices go down, overtime advisors say you average out your risks and your cost. But with ibms new plan, theh advantage largely disappears. This wouldnt be such a big deal, but ibm has consideredle elite in employee benefits. Blazing the trail of innovative policies. In other Big Companies are sure to follow ibms lead. T now look, to be sure, shareholders may like the idea because it could save millions of dollars per year ines compensation expenses but employees close to retirement and desperately trying to makee up for losses from the Great Recession are not going to be so happy. And also one thing we should sat to be fair, good ibm has a 401 k plan and contributing too it. But i want to make sure we jealously guard every advantage the small investor has here. That is why i am talking about it today, and that is why the press release this week which frankly was a stunner. A trade Group Representing mutual funds and other Investment Companies whosell u products we all used to fund our balances. Atio after an examination of research and data, they give the members a thumbs up on the job system forr retirement. Well done they are telling thei. Members. I disagree. Americans struggling in their efforts to put together adequato retirement savings. Total retirement dollars have risen over the nearly 30 years the trade group studied, but you would expect that because manyx households lost the benefit of p companysponsored pensions and forced to start saving on theiro own. O lo we need to look at the cold hard reality. Majority of americans some 75 have less than 30,000 in the retirement accounts back in 2010. Rity the savings accrued by the majority of middleclass seniors wont support their current standard of living. Instead of clapping each other on the back, have to get serious about what eventually will be af retirement catastrophe if we dont do something different. Applauding the move because it saves a penny or two is a big fat mistake. Coming up, another example of waste, fraud and abuse. Government airports, many of which spend the week practically empty, taxpayers footing the bill as usual and exconsumer reports making a list and checking it twice just like somebody else we know. Find out who they think is naughty and nice this year. Gerri wheres the government wasting gerri where is the government wasting your hardearned taxpayer dollars . This time, ghost airports. Taxpayer dollars subsidizing rural airports with little to no traffic. Ew the next guest says these airports meant to bring nemiwjut Economic Activity just end up bringing more debt. Should the government be involved in the first place . Claiming now, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and book shakedown, continuing conspiracy against american taxpayer. Whats going on . Why is the government involved in developing airports . Of course the governmentl go approves and runs the whole system, the federal government and the essentially local governments, counties, cities, they create airports in faa. Nction with the what is happening around the country is like what i call if you build it they will come fallacy. Remember that movie. That was fantasy. People dont seem to understand that, so whatde happens is aroud the country you have dallasfort worth and atlanta, because the regions are growing, they are investing in their airports. Gerri a lot of developments around there. What is happening is in other places around the country they look at this and say theyre spending money in the region is growing. If we spend money on our airports, our region will grow. E no. All these examples. Gerri midamerica st. Louis. An and offload her to st. Louis on the one hand and chicago on the other hand. Governments ban spending 300 million subsidizing 300 airlines to do business there. All of them gave up with abusi business and dont have any flights out of a there. Except occasional charter th flights. This is after 12 years, the county government has invested Something Like 150 million after they built it. It i,s like throwing good money after bad money. Gerri what happened . The florida panhandle. A basically a Big Development company said if we build an airport down here, people will come and this will develop the region. The government, saint joes and local county authority put 300 million into creating an airport, airport opened just as the Florida National housing was hitting. Nothing has happened since then. The company was wasting money on this and other adventures. This airport which basically is doing very little, it is not generating a new economy down there. By that is subsidized by taxpayersv gerri it cost 200 million annually. Hows it doing keeping rural airports alive . The government was going to spend some money, 70 million, it would keep them going for 10 years with subsidies so they could get their own footing e ide Rural Communities in the air transportation system. Only was supposed to last 10 years. 30, 35 years later were spending 200 million. Were still keeping these airports open. Many o these airports have never been able to actually get on their own footing. In one airport, ill give you an example, you have two or three people per flight. The rest of the flight is subsidized to the tune of 3500 per empty seat by th federal government. That is 200 million. Gerri my money and yours, mr. Malanga. We can afford it of course because washington is in such good shape. Gerri that is rulou shape. Gerri that is ridiculous. Im still reeling from this last fact. Thank you so much for coming on, great to see you. Santa isnt the only one with a list. Consumer reports put out their third annual naughty and nice list highlighting company practices. D to which companies are getting coal in their stockings this year . With me now, executive director at consumer reports. Hi, gerri. Gerri always great to see you. D we love your naughty and nice list. I have followed it for a number ofth years. Who is number one . The naughty list not meant tu talk about companies in general, but talk about specific policies of these companies. On the naughty list is highlighting a policy for this year we have to airlines on the naughty list,