Americans are not better off years into a sluggish recovery. Wall street is honing in on the feds massive bondbuying program but Consumers Want to know what rising rates will mine for their wallets and when it will happen. Were gauging the u. S. Economy and getting important advice from greg mcbride, chiefness r financial analyst at bank rate. Com, and senior fox Business Correspondent peter barnes and. Welcome to you all. Great panel to start with. Peter, i will go to you. Everybody is interested in when Interest Rates are going to rise. You looked at the fed minutes from their most recent meeting, and, youve also talked to several fed officials. What are they telling you . Well, the rates are not going up anytime soon. Right now, gerri, most fed officials expect that they will start to raise shortterm Interest Rates starting in the middle of next year. And the fed minutes today, for the last policy meeting in june, showed that once again, that theyre sticking to that forecast but also it is very data dependent. Depending how the economy unfolds they say in the minutes yet again that that will determine the course of Interest Rates down the road. Gerri lance, economists revising their forecast across the board. Theyre getting out ahead of the Federal Reserve. Do you think theyre right and what is your forecast for Interest Rates . I agree with peter, that Interest Rates are likely to remain long lower longer than people expect. Interest rates are Economic Growth and real inflationary pressures and real inflationary pressures come from rising wages and stronger consumption capabilities from consumers. Our economy is 70 driven by consumption. In order to get overall prices wages, production to rise which creates real inflation and allows businesses to charge more for their products and havent alley allows lenders to raise Interest Rates, this simply doesnt exist right now. I think the fed may be hampered a lot longer than they believe. Gerri interesting. Greg to you last year we saw Interest Rates go up full 100 basis points, one percentage point in the space after month. How fast can rates rise . Last years episode is indicator how quickly and volatile that Interest Rates can be and what they can do. That is not to say that will happen again. Particularly for Bond Fund Investors have to be prepared for this. You could get a rude awakening to Interest Rate risk. To borrowers, whether Interest Rates go up or suddenly or gradually,. 2014 is last hurrah to pay down variable rate debt, home equity lines of credit and Adjustable Rate Mortgages while you have a tailwind of low Interest Rates rather than headwind of rising Interest Rates. Gerri absolutely terrific advice. I have to agree with that. Peter, has fed anything to say about potential Interest Rate shock . That is it what we worry about. That rates turn around and suddenly spike. Have they mentioned that . In the minutes they talked about as they try to normalize Interest Rates and get them back to normal levels, historically the short Term Federal Fund rate which is key benchmark rate for mortgages and other types of loans has been about 4 . Were at zero now ox . As the fed tries to get back to normal and, unwind trillions of dollars on its Balance Sheets from all the quantitative easing bond purchases it says that it is worried about how it is going to manage that and it is very concerned about how to communicate its plans with the public so that the Financial Markets and the economy are not shocked. Gerri okay. You know, this makes me think about the economy. Lets move on to the economy right now. I think were sort of at an inflection point. People are arguing it is going great guns and expanding. People are arguing no, it is not. Let me give you a couple of data points here. In terms of people who think it is doing better, we had 288,000 jobs added last month. Unemployment rate dropped to 6. 1 . That is good news. There is also troubling data out there. Parttime workers, 19 of the workforce is not working full time. The Labor Participation rate is punk. Lance, to you, what camp are you in, growing or shrinking . Where are we . Really what i call struggling along here. Were not really growing at accelerating rate. Our growth rate is, right now, since 2000, the turn of the century, the average Economic Growth rate has been 1. 49 . That is the lowest average rate of Economic Growth ever in the history of the United States going back to the 1700s. The reality the economy is struggling along and this is important about Interest Rates too. If you look at what Interest Rates did last year. As soon as Interest Rates spiked, housing dumped, the economy slowed down. Everything begins to grind back because everything is tied to the cost of money. When cost of money goes up, it slows Economic Growth. So the worst thing that can happen to the economy, this is why when you go back in history, whenever there is spike in Interest Rates you always wind up with recession. Gerri thats why were asking that question. That is real issue. Yeah. Gerri i understand what youre saying. In terms of economy, we had the Container Store ceo weigh in today with earnings statements, greg. Right. Gerri we saw sluggish sales of weather and calendar shifts that began last november, continued into the spring. Now we come to realize it is more than the weather and calendar. He says that consumers are in a funk. There is retail funk out there. If things are guesting better, greg, maybe you dont believe that, why are consumers sitting on their hands . A lot of it boils down to the fact that their incomes havent increased. We at bankrate. Com polled consumers. Tell us why youre not spending more each month. Two most common responses . Stagnant income panned worries about the economy. Gerri wow, okay. Peter, i will end with you. A lot of ceos are launching major gimmicks. 7eleven is giving away flee slurpees to celebrate its birthday free. Walmart, change in strategy, they will downsize their stores. Will these gimmicks work . Can you squeeze blood from a stone . Look at the Holiday Season that, Holiday Shopping seasons weve had last few years . It is all about promotion, promotion, promotion, to try to get consumers in the store, to buy something and then hope that they buy other stuff when they go in. The, retailers are adjusting, i think to this new, slow growth reality, that lance was talking about. And i agree with him. This, were looking at 2 growth for the next few years here. And that is what is baked in the feds forecast going forward. Thats right. Were used to, more recent recessions coming out with much stronger Economic Growth and it looks like weve got these structural headwind and people still trying to unwind from awe the debt they took on during the crisis that will keep consumer, hold the the consumer back. Gerri more of the same. Thats what i hear. Thanks for coming on. Greg, peter, lance. Powerful panel. Thank you so much. Thank you. Gerri now we want to know what you think. Heres our question tonight, given the state of the economy are you spending more or less . Log on to gerriwillis. Com and i will share the results at the end of tonights show. Consumer alert for you. Honda and subaru are issuing new recalls due to faulty airbags. The airbags may explode, shooting shrapnel all over the inside of your car. These recalls which are separate from the gm recalls but more recalls are a reason you cant afford to miss our special investigation tomorrow, how safe are we in these cars. One of our guests, head of gm Victims Compensation fund ken feinberg. Will victims take the offer from gm . Well hear from the families and consumer advocate ralph nader. Tune in tomorrow for our special, the gm recall, how safe are we . During the show we want to you facebook me, tweet me, wills will fbn. Later on in the show i will read your comments. Are awe delicious dish for mosquitoes. How to protect you and your family from these really painful pests. 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Take simple steps. There is no way to prevent diseases from tick or mosquito. You need ton proactive in preventing bite. Gerri i want to ask before we get solutions. So mosquitoes like some people and dont bite others . I never get bitten. People in the family hyper bite victims. They get all the bites. In my family i get very few and my wife gets them all. Why is that . One in 10 people have something to offer mosquito that is attractive. Maybe scent. Carbon dioxide. Variety of theories. Not 100 known. There are people if they have trouble with bites were here to talk about survival strategies. Gerri well have survival strategies. Tell me about dangers and downsides. What kind of diseases can you contract. In caribbean theyre in in middle of chicken v virus. 200,000. Gerri chicken gunja. I have seen the word. I didnt know how to pronounce it. Obviously you can get super sick from these guys. Deet, Everyone Wants to use deet. How do you do that correctly. You want to follow label, whether child, adolescent and adult. Concentration of deet, tells you how long. If youre in backyard different situation than hiking. You may be exposed to ticks and mosquitoes. You want to protect yourself and family. West nile, lyme disease are all on the rise including lone star tick which is new in our area. In about 50 of the United States. You get bitten by a tick, within a few days, couple weeks later youre allergic to red meat. That is something troubling. A delayed reaction to red meat. People pay not fifth it out. If you have tick bites or mosquito bites work with your allergist. Gerri i have seen people get so sick from ticks. It is really concerning. What are one, two, three things to do to keep yourselves from getting ticks embedded in your skin. Very important to do tick check where you might be exposed. Light colored clothing. Insect propel ant it really works. Designed to prevent a bite and tick. Lyme disease, mosquito bites, deet and other chemical repellants are same things for both conditions to prevent them. Gerri long sleeves, pants, cover yourself up, especially if hiking. Absolutely. Gerri any other ideas for people out there . You have a product that is brand spanking new. Tell us about that. This is a product, overthecounter. It is available on the internet. I have a lot of patient who is tried it and they really like the results. S pes away itchiness and makes people feel comfortable. If somebody has mosquito allergy, warm soapy water to prevent infection. Topical steroid cream and oral antihistamine and ice compresses work. If you have allergic to bee stings, have an eppy pen and be ready to treat yourselves if you have severe allergy. I used to have those. There is scientist i believe in Great Britain have the idea that they will breed a super mosquito that will kill other mosquitoes. How likely is that. I dont think that is here yet. I deal in real world. Do prevention. If you have a child, follow directions. Speak with pediatricians how to apply insect propellant. These things work well. Oil of lemon, eucalyptus. They tend not to last as long. Do your homework and be proactive to have a safe bitefree summer. Dr. Bassett. Youre a rock star. Thanks for having me. Gerri next time you go to the pharmacy you might be hit with sticker shock. Generic drug prices are soaring. Reasons behind the disturbing trend. Monaco is not just for the rich and famous. Tipps how you can visit this glamorous place. Lets hear from the worldrenowned monaco boys choir. Take it away, boys. Latte or au lait . Sunny or bubbly . Cozy or cool . Meow or woof . Wheels or wheeeels . Everything exactly the way you want it. Until boom, its bedtime. Your mattress isnt bliss its a battleground of thwarted desire. Enter the sleep number bed. Right now, you can save 400 on the allnew c4 mattress set. Hes the softy his sleep number setting is 35. 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Well, you know, for many years generics have saved consumers and health plans and other payers a lot of money and they are still in many cases cheaper than branded drugs. But there has been a remarkable escalation in price over the last number of years and as you said, were seeing prices be 50 , 100 , 1,000 , even 6,000 higher than they were prior to the escalation. Gerri well, ill give you a specific example. There is a common heart medication out there went from 50 bucks to 1,000 bucks. That is just out of a lot of peoples budgets right now. You simply cant buy that. What is the explanation out there . Why is this happening . Well, i think the drug youre take buck is digioxin. I think that is particularly shocking for physicians because it has been around for centuries. It is a plantbased drug. It is always a very inexpensive drug and now were finding that the prices have gone up and people are seeing, 300 outofpocket expenses for a drug that used to be, you know, used to paying a dollar or pennies for. You ask why it is happening. You know its, there is a number of reasons why it is happening. I think one of the most Important Reasons is there has been a lot of consolidation in the generic drug manufacturing industry. So there used to be a lot of Different Companies making these generics. Now we find there are three companies that control about 50 of the market. Gerri 50 . And it isnt clear that there is actually a shortage of any of these drug. Rather it appears that, the companies have thible to raise the prices and they are. Gerri wow. Well, i know, you know, the anecdote in the New York Times story was Something Like a doctor writings on an insurance form, are you kidding me . Because of the big price rise. It impacts people at all levels. I know folks are having a hard time trying to fit this into their budget now. Do you have any suggestions for people . Well i do. I think that, in this day and age where high deductible plans are really the norm, that people are paying more and more money outofpocket, even if theyre insured, every Consumer Needs to be an activist. They need to take control of what is going on. The moment the doctoring suggests righting prescription for you, doctor, do i really need that drug . For example if you have back pain and getting a prescription for a pain medication, ask the doc if there arent some alternatives for that. How about yoga or stretching instead of, you know, having to spend money on a drug. So that is one thing that consumers can do. But not everybody can avoid taking their medications. So the other thing you need to do is be a very wise shopper. So instead of heading to the closest pharmacist, my suggestion is that you head to your computer or head to your cell phone and you shop around and try and find the best price for the drugs. Because, not only have we seen an increase in the price from the manufacturers, but theres, a wide range of pricing at the retail level at the pharmacy level. Gerri ive heard that. Go right ahead. Pretty remarkable. Third thing you can do, sometimes believe it or not, a drug with higher dose, costs less than a drug with a smaller dose. So if your doctor prescribes 150 mill grabs, when you go to the mill grabs, when you get the prescription filled, chat with the pharmacist find out if the 150milligram pill is more expensive than if you get 300milligram pill and cut it in half. You have to be a wear, wise consumer. You have to be activist for yourself. Gerri great words of wisdom. Thank