from las vegas. tucker tonight the show. tucker tonight with tensions escalating over there, new fears about our economy brewing here. layoff announcements growing. consumer sentiment is falling. prices on just about everything keep rising. how much more can the economy take? hi, everyone. i'm brenda butner, and this is bull bulls and bears. these are the bulls and bears. gary b. smith, tracy byrnes, jonas max fairis and john lockner and so you say that what is to worry about is the price hikes? >> yes, we don't have a way to

deal with the systemic shocks, but we are seeing good things with the jobs increase, but on the other side, the lowest labor force in over 36 years, and you can explain away the gdp number in the first quarter and the consumer is 76% of the gdp, but you can't explain it away for june. there was not bad weather in june and you saw 2% of the retail sales increase, and the average person is starting to feel this pinch. wages have not gone up in about 15 years, and in real terms, and you are seeing the prices going up, and you are seeing the ground beef up 16.5%, and oranges up 28%, and you are e ssee ing the cheese up 11%, and gas prices are down the last couple of months, but with all of the tensions in the middle east, i can't see that happening throughout the rest of the summer as the driving season is upon us, and the risk to me is that if this price inflation gets worse, because we have no way to deal with it with low interest rates from the fed. >> and tracy, it is not just the

consume issers feeling it, tracy, but businesses as well. you are seeing the pass on of the price hikes from chip poe poelt -- chipotle and smuckers and kraft. >> yes sh, and from that, all o the tax regulation is being passed on to us, the consumer, and i give some of the companies credit for saying, hey, we are raising the price, and call a spade a spade, and system of some of the companies just filling up the chips with half a bag. so they are trying to fool you by keeping the price the same. i would rather here, hey, we are passing the costs on more, and then let the consumer decide if they want to pay it. >> jessica, how do you see the economy? >> well, i have to agree a lot with what john and tracy were saying, because it is something that we have talked about before is that the middle class is pinched here, and interesting that in terms of the retail

sales in june that actually stores like costco and old navy where prices are cheaper, we are doing much better than the middle of the road stores. we will see it again come, you know, as we have this new back to school selling season for retailers and it is going to be interest ing interesting to esee what the numbers come out with as well, because we have not seen an increase in the wages, and it is squeezing the american consumer, and the american family. and it is not going to be getting any better any time soon. >> and jonas, that is a good point. we haven't seen the wage inflation, and the wages have not been growing at all, and if they don't grow, how can the consumers be optimistic and if they are not optimistic, how do they spend? >> well with n some ways, we are lucky if we did see the wage inflation, because in some ways that would stop is the federal reserve to stop the loose economy and it is not great that the pay is going up, but the pay is not going to go up to adjust for inflation at a higher rate

maybe, and it was a 50-year anomaly and some of the news is not as bad as it sounds. if you see the microsoft is laying off people, well, you know, how about nokia and the tablet is a bum, and so if the emerging markets are getting rich and they can buy more chocolate because they can afford it, it is not a bad economic indicators, but it means that the world is getting riche richer, and that is good. most of the food stuff can be tied to weather and not the federal reserve. if we see the generalized bad news falling apart for in explainable reason, and it is monetary and not weather, then, yeah, a serious problem on your hands, but we are not there yet. >> and gary, do you think that we have a serious problem on our hands? >> well, i don't. i can't believe i'm the optimistic one here. i think that the economy has problems. i think that the employment numbers still stink and the housing is flat.

those are the two big pillars and i think that wages, along with one more, i suppose, have really not gone up as, you know, household median income is flat. but prices is not my concern. lo look. we mentioned like hamburger, and here is what real people do, they don't eat hamburger then, they buy pork or chicken and the chipotle prices are up, great, then they go to taco bell. we are in a nation that is so flexible, and willing to turn on a dime. i mean, you talk about all of the price increases, and i can't think of many, and maybe if you have a electric bill that goes up really nothing much that you can do about that other than maybe not turn on as many lights or maybe the gas bill, you know, you have trouble there, but even gasoline prices, people just drive less. we saw it with the last gas spike. so they are a concern, and the prices are going up and i shop every week at the local safeway

and i see it. but even in our family, we adapt. we don't buy the chips a ahoy, but the store brand. >> and gary b. smith made a good point, but he mentioned unemployment and housing. and housing is flat and the housing starts are flat, and aren't those big, big concerns? >> yes, they r. i never thought about what gary b. said, but if the food prices go up, just quit eating. that is the solution. i am kidding, gary. i took it out of context, i know i did. there is a problem with the lowest labor force participation rate and we have 93 million americans who are not working right now, and you are having the companies laying off, but also a lot of companies moving out of our country, because of our tax code that is so bad right now for corporate taxes. and so you do have a lot of the

systemic structural problems, and when you have structural unemployment right now sh, and only thing that we have that is creating jobs right now is the energy sector. you cannot, and you can lower the rate s s to below zero, and is not going to help if you have structural unemployment which is what we have right now sh, and because of that, you are seeing the housing prices staying down, a on the inflation is staying down and that is why the inflation number is so low and that is because in the united states we put an overweight on the housing as far as inflation and not on food. real people are seeing the real prices going up, and netflix, and amazon prime, and disneyland and food prices are all going up for real people out there. >> and the stress eater who needs the hershey bar, they don't care that the emerging prices are doing well, and that is why the cocoa prices are up. they know that it is costing me more money and biting into the family household income. and so, yeah, maybe the world is doing well, but when you are home at the united states, and everybody pointed out that my wages are not going up, and the

weather, political, who cares, but i know that i have to buy the milk and the eggs that is irreplaceable in my household at least and i have to buy that stuff and all of that stuff is still going up, too. >> and hershey bars. >> and that is a food group. >> from the political group, that is a huge issue that we have not only the back-to-school sales and the midterm elections happening and these should be the topics, because that is what people should be thinking about and they are consumers that are voters and that is what they should be focused on. >> while everyone is focused on this threat over there, are we facing a bigger one here? the new debt warning from the d.c. independent money watchdog that the cavuto gang says should put us all on high alert. and first, after a commercial plane is shot down, it is time for all of the planes it is time for all of the planes toñ@ç@çpçpçpç÷ñoxmhmhyhyhyhy

hi! shopping for a used car on the new carfax.com?

yeah, i don't want one that's had a big wreck. well, our team helps you avoid those cars. yeah, doug to carfax, i got an accident report. heads up on this one! moles? they dig up the facts. naturally. only one site has a free carfax report for every car listed! i like it! start shopping at the new carfax.com! i'm kelly wright. keep it right here for the latest on fox news. families mourning their loves one who were killed when that malaysian passenger jet was shot down over ukraine, and now calls to prevent this from ever happening again by installing anti-missile systems on all commercial airliners. one already exists, and it is called sky shield. and jonas, you say that you should forget the cost and do it now? >> well, i am not saying this this system could stop a russian

military grade at tashgs but it could defer the terrorist shouldff grenade attacks, and if it costs money, then it has to be theoretically mandated and just like putting the doors on the airplanes, the high-cost doors to keep the terrorists out of the cockpit, and system of it borne by the airlines and some by passengers, and the airbags save millions of lives, but now they are in all cars. and you have an uneconomic safety decision that requires a federal mandate or some regulatory mandate. >> and gary b, should the airlines be told that they need these things by the government? >> no, the government should not mandate airbags, i am sorry to say. i believe it should be the customer's choice. if you want a ultra safe car for example and willing to stop, you know, missiles and bullets and

stuff like that like the president rides around in, you should purchase that car. other people are willing to say, you know, the odds of, you know, my car or plane being hit by terrorist missile are so slim, i don't want to pay the extra, you know, for the ticket price. i think it should be up for the airlines and the customer to decide. >> and tracy though, it is hard to watch the pictures of this carnage of this tragedy and think that maybe if there is some way that we could prevent another one, we should. >> well sh, we talk here all ofe time about how much money is wasted on things like turtle farms and saving some salmon fish somewhere else, but this should discussed. you know, the government's pretty much only job is to keep us safe, and if something like this could do it, why not investigate the cost of it and see if it is worth it. the taxpayers would agree if the ticket price had to go up a slight amount, it might be worth it at the end of the day as opposed to whacking me with the cost of a $6 cookie.

>> jessica, what do you think? >> well, i mean, i agree and disagree on definitely on terms of the mandated regulation. that is very -- this is an area that we can all agree that it need s needs to happen. certainly for international flights, that is something that should be considered, and you know, a cost benefit analysis in terms of what is this going to do short term for struggling airlines that we have in the industry currently and what could a phase-in progress sort of be on this at least on the international flights to start with, and then, you know, i would hate to see a time when this is actually concern for people in the domestic flights for me going from tampa to washington or birmingham. i can't imagine that is a situation that we have in the country. heaven forbid. >> but that is assuming that we don't have terrorists here. john, the missile defense. >> which we know that we do. >> and john, do you think that

these make sense? >> yes, i do. look at what happens about 30 years ago when we first started to have people put on the seat belts, and i remember a lot of people in west texas thinking that it is one of the sillest things that i heard of. and i would not think of getting in the front seat of a car without a seat belt and remember the israeli airlines with the extra security on the cockpit door, and air marshals and now that door is secured on the plane. and now if it is a government mandate and i don't have a problem with that, but the government should not pay for it. i fly three to four days a week and i'm the one that there are millions of others that are respon responsible for this security problem going on and it should be passed on to me and other flyers in the form of some type of tax or some type of increase in the ticket prices. >> okay. sorry. thank you, guys. of course our thoughts and prayers are with the familys and the loved ones grieving over the mh17 tragedy. >> coming up, the leader of one central american nation has a

fix for our illegal immigration crisis. send a a boatload of our money to central america to keep their citizens happy there, and some of our citizens here believe i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. because it gives me zero heartburn... annc: prilosec otc the number one doctor recommend frequent heartburn medicine for nine straight years. one pill each morning 24 hours zero heartburn.

i don't have to leave my desk and get up and go to the post office anymore. [ male announcer ] with stamps.com you can print real u.s. postage for all your letters and packages. i have exactly the amount of postage i need, the instant i need it. can you print only stamps? no... first class. priority mail. certified. international. and the mail man picks it up. i don't leave the shop anymore. [ male announcer ] get a 4 week trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again.

president obama calling for $4 billion to process the wave of illegal immigrants fleeing from south america to the u.s.

and now, there is a massive aid program similar to the marshall plan after world war ii, and he says it will make the country they are fleeing safe and make them want to stay and work. gary b? >> well, you stop it before it is a problem, but in practicality it is dumb, because what normally happens is that when we give the money to foreign governments one off two things. it gets stolen. it is fraudulently used or pads the pockets of the government officials, and we are seen it time the and time again in places like europe and places like africa. it sounds great. i am sure it is going to appeal to the liberals out there, but if you want to secure the border, secure the border and think about aid later. >> jessica, what do you think about this? >> well, i think that there are definitely some of the roots of it are in a good place, because they are dealing with a lot of the horrible issues from the

drug cartels, and the increased violence that is going on in the countries, and certainly, with we spend enough money trying to do sort of similar stability o programs in iraq and the middle east that was spent billions of dollar on and this is actually in our own backyard. but i think that currently, you know, the president's plan has $300 million in it that would go to the state department to actually do this sort of work and for our state department to be doing the work there on the ground and trying to convince people that it is not worthwhile to come to this country, and that is a good place to start, and let the world bank and the world organization step in to do what they are supposed to with be doing. >> and president obama and president biden are meeting with the presidents of honduras and guatemala at the white house, and maybe this is going to come up. do you think it makes sense, tracy, to send the money there instead of spending it here on a fence? >> i love that everyone is like, here's an idea, let us take more of your money out of your country from the hardworking

people, and we will go spend it for you. i mean, i feel like this is my kids in the wallet every morning. we will take care of your money for you sh, and no, it does not make sense and it cracks me up that the countries have audacity to present a plan like this to the president. >> and a marshall-type plan? >> well, i'm with gary b. it is horrible in practicality and everybody had said the same thing since president reagan, secure the border and then look elsewhere. and look, some of the poorest towns in america areal a long th border. relocate the bases along our border and rejuvenate those towns and it secures it easily. >> and jonas? >> we don't have to spend more money, because the more thousands of kids sending to our country with the machete-wielding gangs are not only going to increase our costs, but one thing is about

the freeing up trade, and we have trade problem to put the gangs out of business so that their country is safe so that the kids don't have to come here to live. >> all right. thank you tracy and jessica for joining us. cashin' in just over an hour, and what is coming up? >> well, brenda, as the world is on fire, we have a look at how the president is handling the deadly plane crash in the ukraine and the tension s s in middle east. and how the battle of the border, and how the illegal immigrant's rights are above our own rights. and now, volatile times, the name to calm the fears in the markets.

predictions and gary b and what do you say? >> brenda, stressful times call for comfort food and comfort stocks. i like kraft. >> and jonas, bull or bear? >> i agree. >> and i think that qantas is up. i own it. >> and gary b? >> it is dull. i look elsewhere. >> and jonas? >> you won't find the security in the stock market, but you need a long-term bond of 5%. >> and john, bull or bear? >> i think that the stock market

is still the place to be. >> all right. okay. and quickly, let's find out what everybody else thinks? >> down for the rest of the year. >> gary b? >> i'm a bull. >> okay. the cost of freedom "cavuto on business" is up next. of all of the problems over there, are we missing a bigger problem right here? held h hello, everyone. i'm charles mann in for neil cavuto. worse times are coming if washington does not wake up. and charlie gas pa reno and daygan mcdowell will be back next week, but gary, how big is this? >> well, they say that a crisis is coming, but i say it is here. when you have $66 billion in debt, and $65,000 for every taxpayer, this is serious bucks here, and it