. >>> darden restaurants is making a bold election move. >> they haven't committed to this yet. but darden restaurants says new staffing measures are just one of the things that the skp trying to figure out in terms of how it can meet higher costs and avoid penalties under obama care in 2014. as with much of the industry, three-quartz of darden's employees are part-time but under the health care law, if they work more than 30 hours a week they're considered full time triggering benefit requirements or penalties. darden is experimenting with boof boosting part-time hires while limiting their hours. >> the law was written in such a way that it lowers the threshold down to 30. it really applies to many more employees who are actually part-time. that's where the real rubber meets the road. >> he says it is not just a problem for restaurants. it is also for other part-time businesses like retailers. a survey found two-thirds of retailers in fact are looking at limiting hours to avoid penalties under obama care. mercer says because of the individual mandate, employers expect that work

darden restaurants owns red lobster, olive garden and longhorn steakhouse. it has close to 200,000 employees. the company's now planning to drop a number of its full-time employees to part-time status to avoid some of the costs associated with obamacare. lou dobbs is the host of "lou dobbs tonight" and is a syndicated radio host. hello, lou. >> how are you? alisyn: i'm doing wear. well. is this a good idea? >> well, what it is is a test to see what the impact will be because of the, what is perceived to be by business in this country the crushing burden of obamacare. it is one of those consequences that was, obviously, easily foreseen by our congress had they taken time to actually evaluate what they were doing. is it a good idea? it's never a good idea when people need full-time jobs for some people -- and they are at the margin -- part-time jobs work. but we have seen an explosion of five million part-time jobs since this recession began. alisyn: and you say congress would have known this was one of the possible by-products because, frankly, it was telegra

i think this is a break through by sears and darden restaurants. grace marie turner, we love your coverage of the health care business for us, and we do appreciate it. thanks very much, grace marie. are we living in another bubble? i say we are. but it won't end well. that will be my take and it's next. > >> six out of ten people think my kids are going to be worse off than me, why is president obama four years into his term, why is he out front? >> because people haven't been convinced that mitt romney is any better. >> that was scott rasmussen with a blunt response why mitt romney isn't leading in the polls. tune in at 9:20 sharp, eastern. and we will like this, the dow jones industrial average is up nearly 150 points. nearly 13,584. nicole, molson coors are down, why? >> a couple of things happening here. the real headline about the company itself is that they're combining the european businesses over in europe and combining, the u.k., ireland and organizations into a new business in it next year, so, obviously, massaging their plans for the fut

the problem these companies, restaurants like darden which owns olive garden and longhorn steakhouse, they were providing cheap health care coverage to workers. they were doing that the health reform law struck it out. it obliterated it because they were too cheap. they didn't provide enough in the way of benefits. a lot of high turnover in these industries. they are naturally part-time. we may start to look like japan where 25% of the workforce is part-time. the u.s. is running around 13%. that is the bottom line. tracy: it is more ripple effects from this. ashley: we're hearing about it almost every day now. >> these companies by the way, got a waiver from health reform to basically say we'll continue with these minimed plans. mcdonald's saying $420 million in costs from health care reform. tracy: liz macdonald. ashley: thank you, emac. as we do every 15 minutes, we're a little late, let's check in with nicole petallides on the floor of the nyse. nicole. >> the dow is down 112 points. i want to look at casual dining stock. yum! brands. we were talking about they reported their water

i know you like darden and brinker. you say they're best leveraged against higher prices but what price increase can we expect at their chains? how significant? >> these two companies have been pretty consistent with menu pry increases. darden, its less than 2%. brinker about 1% or so. the reason why brinker's been doing so well is they've done a lot of things in the back of the kitchen and are making their kitchens more efficient and labor more efficient enabling them to take less price than what's needed. they've already talked about 2% to 3% food cost inflation but they think as a percent of total sales they can hold that line flat on a year-over-year basis. i think in that kind of environment, that's a good thing. >> erin, your top pick among food groups is kraft food group. why is this a standout? >> we think this is a standout because as part of the consolidated kraft business, they were underinvested. as new management group invests behind product innovation and market support, we think there's going to be signif

darden restaurants, mcdonald's or yum brands. the dividend pays off after the break. ♪ chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. geico, see how much you could save. the potential of yelp unlocked. nyse euronext. unlocking the world's potential. to a currency market for everyone. the potential of fxcm unlocked. nyse euronext. unlocking the world's potential. c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey! >>> just before the break as part of "the dividend" we asked which company's stock is outperforming this year? darden restaurant, mcdona

darden which opens to a dozen restaurants employs 180,000 people. 75% are part-timers. delays at flights are costing the airline some of their most flickered of customers. american jet release september figures that the airline services 7% fewer paying passengers as opposed to year earlier. some flights will be cut to deal with delays and a shortage. some travelers say they cannot looking at they're other carriers. do you know the best fast food chains for about? a top magazine is giving its gold stars to wendy's, and chick-fil-a. gets good grades for accuracy. wendy's gets applause for speed. the lowest scores go to burger king in order of accuracy and speed. >> nasa says it spotted a small, shiny object in the service of the red planet and they're at sure what it is. it was discovered as the rover curiosity collected its first scuba of marcion's services -- surface. they have stopped taking samples until they figure out what is. curiosity is being -- meaning back photos. twitter is having fun. hall curiosity detected a bright object, is it the iphone 6? the troubled w

darden. >> as prices of still going up up up in the bay area. the average of san francisco is four. 73 and brought the bay area. the london r.e.m. that's what i tell people-- >> your approval the became more you can see people filling up this morning not very happy i did not see one smile as they were slipping in their credit cards into the place so they could pay. if you are in sentences, you talked about the average take a look of your screen. $4.73. last week we were paying $4.27 that of 465 and just in that city. $4.67 across the bridge last week it was $4.80. in oakland a jump of 495 compared to seven to school. and in san jose its hostile $4.67. $4.20 last week the governor realizes what's going on he is asking the california air resources board to tell the refineries to start producing the winter blamed if that happens that will bring more supply more gas and to the supply area that means more gas will be available and hopefully that will drive down prices. if not we're looking at approximately $5 a gallon in the next week or so. and that

darden restaurants said they will hire 50,000 new workers as they expand. futures this morning are looking quiet. we finished mixed yesterday. the dow was down. who says being bald is a bad thing? they are seen to be more masculine and having greater leadership potential than those with hair. the researcher has a shaved head. something to think about. at the new york stock exchange, i'm jane king, bloomberg news, for wbal-tv 11 news. >> i will go home and break out the razor. not. >> i cannot wait. >> there is a baby bust going on. >> fewer people are having babies. this is a bad sign of the economy. kmart is doing something interesting for halloween. we'll have that story coming up. >> thank you. are you a picture in me bald -- bald?u a picture in moneybainge >> 5:23. >> a high-speed chase ends with three people dead. [ female announcer ] introducing yoplait greek 100. 100% new. ♪ 100% greek. 100% mmm... ♪ oh wow, that is mmm... ♪ in fact it's so mmm you might not believe it's a hundred calories. well ok then, new yoplait greek 100. it is so good. â™

darden restaurant clarence isaid he is going toes ttbaou fores to come in profitability because of obamacare and this one importantly. i know you want to talk about this. steve wynn, 16,000 employees one of the most successful businessmen in the world. his quote. steve wynn, i'lle dam if lee boll nend j guys like me are job creators. we have don't like having bullseyes on our back. i can't stand the idea of being demagogueed. put down by a president who is ver created any jobs andho doest ev undanw emyks >>: idf b maeeveyn t me this guy -- >> dana: why? >> bob: he started in out the garbage business. >> kimberly: so what? >> greg: somebody has to pick up the garbage. >> bob: they do. they pay for the landfills out here and dump them out her >> dana: use them in mmal thstev, deceitful people i have ever run across. the idea that this guy -- he runs a bunch of casinos. it won't say what i'd like t say because i don't want to get sued. >> kimberly: you seem to like him. >> bob: i don't like him. >>be yik no >>: n'o tne renlbs obama created are the people apologizing for obama not creating jobs.

darden restaurants, the operators of red lobster and olive garden are among them and our next guest says he's thinking about doing the same. joining us now is zane, applebee chairman franchises. >> good morning. stuart: you're thinking of taking people from full-time position toss part-time positions because of obamacare? explain it. >> well, running a business is relatively simple. more money has to come in than goes out. stuart: sure. >> so if you get an unforeseen cost that comes from left field, ie, obamacare, you have to pay for it. stuart: obamacare would force you to pay more for health insurance for your full-time employees? >> i wish i could say that definitively. i don't think anybody knows what obamacare is, but, yes, we're anticipating a cost, as everyone is, and with every ying there's a yang. with additional cost you have to find money to pay for it. >> so, do they want to be made part-time as opposed to current full-time? >> of course not. it's a loss of income for them it's that simple. but the reality is, we could raise prices and our consumers won't want a price increas

chain, testing out new policy of cuts back on full-time jobs to limit financial impact of obama car, darden, restaurants, that own olive garden, and red lobster is no longer offeringfuingful time schedules. they face fines, and their there is an experiment with part-time workers. >> romney and president, in ohio, one of 8 swing states that could decide the election. since this data shows, income continued to drop last year, dropping in most battle ground states, except iowa and wisconsin, florida hardest hit. >> associated press, under fire for taking what critics call a cheap shot against governor romney, posted -- look at this, this image with governor romney bending over in front of a surprised schoolgirl, initial caption did not explain her reaction, but they have updated it, girl was thrilled at romney was posing for a photo in front of her. again, it is just about as well, dumbest stunt by ap since, well, since just about a week ago. it is less than a month in which critics questioned the ap's editorial choices, this one, two weeks ago, ap and reuters with a picture of netanyahu, that

darden restaurant clarence otis said he is going to test cutting back hours for all stores to come in profitability because of obamacare and this one importantly. i know you want to talk about this. steve wynn, 16,000 employees one of the most successful businessmen in the world. his quote. steve wynn, i'll be damned if i want to have him, obama, lecture me about small business and jobs. guys like me are job creators. we have don't like having bullseyes on our back. i can't stand the idea of being demagogueed. put down by a president who is never created any jobs and who doesn't even understand how the economy works. >> bob: the idea of being demagogueed by steve wynn to me this guy -- >> dana: why? >> bob: he started in out the garbage business. >> kimberly: so what? >> greg: somebody has to pick up the garbage. >> bob: they do. landfills out here and dump them out here. >> dana: use them in commercials. >> bob: steve wynn is one of the most devious, deceitful people i have ever run across. the idea that this guy -- he runs a bunch of casinos. it won't say what i'd like to say becaus

liz: we spoke to darden restaurants. one of the top three employers in the country. they own olive garden and red lobster. here is what they are telling fox business about the effect of hiring. they are testing four market's going through part-time workers, i'm not full time workers and considering more part-time jobs, there's no flexibility in it at all. here is the problem and the bottom line. high cost of affordable care hitting the restaurant industry and they have half of their work force already as part time because there is a lot of turnover in the industry. 75% of part-time speaking of the shift so you are not hit with a mandate tax if you don't provide coverage to part-timers. if you are below the 30 hour work week, provide health insurance for those guys but here's the problem. we did have these planned. shea benefits plans and health reform outlawed because they did not provide the benefit level the health reform bill last for. $70 billion worth of benefits. no more to these plans. wait a second, these are great plans so the irony is these part-timers are

darden restaurants which owns chains like olive garden and red lobster employs 180,000 people. well they're now testing a new pilot program cutting many workers down to part time so they can avoid paying health care costs. it begs the question is that really necessary orwhat does it mean for the companies and their employees? joining me for a fox business exclusive. white castle vice president, jamie richardson. the thanks for comi on the program. what do you think? do you think this is a smart business decision? do you think it is a political stunt? >> one of the things we found from the aordable care act for many in the strawn business, there is nothing much affordable so far. we're still waiting for regulations trying to understand the implications will be. seems like people in washington making well-intentioned decisions don't realize we make a dollar in sales we don't get to keep sales. we make important investments in people and food. those are the two biggest invests we make. so when we do that there are big costs and big invests. so as we looked at affordable care act a

>> here's the problem with darden. the stock had a big run. it's got a good yield. then it did nothing after that. it's going down. i think you wait until 50 and then you just buy it. that's the level that people come in and want the stock. let's go to nebraska. with. >> caller: i just want to know on saas. can you double my money in the next year? >> can you you double that? i like cloud. it's a good business. it's a $5 stock. let me do more work on it, if i like it i'll do a full feature on it by the end of the week. that's my promise to you. let's go to lee in california. lee? >> caller: boo-yeah, mr. cramer. thank you for preventing me from making lots of stupid trades and losing lots of money. >> that's what i can do best. good deal. i'll get you to stop doing those mistaken trades. >> caller: yep. i've been looking at rail transport. i've been looking at nfc norfolk southern. if governor romney gets elected, which might benefit better with his policy. >> if you're going to put it that way. then i'm going to give you norfolk southern that i think is trying to b

so while this notion by sears and darden may seem innovative, there's a lot of companies that have tried this defined contribution plan before, and it hasn't been that successful. alisyn: simon, what happened to if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, period. if you like your insurance carrier, you can keep your coverage, period? >> i think what the president was referring to is that under the aca, his health care reform, that there was nothing he was going to do or that they were doing that would prevent, that would push people out of their own health care plans. there's nothing the government was doing and, in fact, the fact that the private market is innovating in this way -- and whether it works or not, we'll find out -- is a sign this was not a government takeover of the health care system as you've heard many people say over the last couple months. i think what we need in this health care, and i think the president has begun this, we need more innovation, more efforts to give people more choice. we've got to control costs, get more people on health insurance, and i just

darden reported yesterday. earnings coming in at $1.35 a share, four cent beat in line with revenues, none of the doom and gloom i've seen in recent quarters. jarden has doubled since getting behind it in 2009. even with these gains, the stock is still cheap, sells for 11 times earnings even though it's incredibly consistent. let's check in with martin franklin, chairman of jarden corp. to find out more about the company's prospects. welcome back to "mad money." >> thank you. >> good to see you, martin. i have spent a lot of time with you talking about how you have taken over aisle space, you're the low-cost producer, i have not talked enough about something that was evident from this conference call. which is brand innovation, product innovation, research and development. that it isn't just because you come in and make different color product you get more space, you're doing different things. and the thing that caught my eye in your barclays back to school, something i'm glad you brought, you decided to take s

darden will try to change the full-time employees to part-time. they're trying it out now. >> you heard a lot of complaint from restaurants, private restaurant owners that have a number of chains. they're the ones that are trying to figure out the mandate and how it affects the bottom line in terms of the money they will be fined for every employee they do not provide insurance for. that is a tough burden for a lot of restaurants that are hurting. they are hurting in the economy to begin with. >> the issue is the hours. darden will see how it flies to move from full-time employees to 30 hours a a week to avoid the loophole and coverage they would haven't to pay or deal with. then the workers having their hours cut, and at the end of the day they may end up having to let some employees go if they can't cut costs associated with it >> some groups suggested that. meanwhile, talk about what is going on in new york. you probably heard michael bloomberg, the mayor, banned sugary drinks that are more than 60-ounces. super-size sodas have been banned. now

alisyn: is there a danger for darden that tn people won't nt tworkoem a ea t rausf mean, it's almost -- i understand where you're coming from. in this economy, alisyn, we're talking about people who want to eat, and i'm talking about the people working part ti. they're not workg prt te cathannde oeirht wnthein they need the work. what we have to do are have public policies that are aimed at driving job creation. this law is not in any way taking account of the thddlho are of those who aren tidas ison t tsth estbtaed about in justifying obamacare and why he wanted to move forward with it were the spiraling health care costs that everyone was facing. every year health care went up. is it possible that big companies like dardenor others wod hhae mom headmean t ckeacaos ihi thawhat is more likely, and we need to keep in context here s that about 70%, about tee-forties of the jobs wed tandanre made up of woache j t being created. because all of the fuss over the 7.8% unemployment number last friday and jack welch having a fit and conspiracy theorists everywhere, part of ishat apngth emy o

>> well, bill, darden restaurants is putting more of its employees on part-time status concerned about costs related to the president's healthcare law. he owns red lobster and others. no decision has been made about expanding it. they have about 180,000 employees working at more than 2,000 restaurants. part-time status would mean working less than 30 hours per week. there might be a way around finest for companies that don't want to offer healthcare for their employees. i've been in contact with the obama campaign on both issues. we'll bring you their statement when we get it. bill: we'll bring you back when we get it. mike emanuel in washington. jamie: congressman ryan were saying the obama campaign is trying to scare americans from voting for governor romney. fair point? karl rove joins us with his thoughts after the break. >> i think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don't come out of your mouth the right way. [laughter] >> but i always say what i mean. and so does romney. >> we want everybody -- bill: 10:30 here in new york if you're joining us on friday m

is the size of a fortune 500 company, doing things, like pepsi and dow reducing water consumption or darden zero waste in the landfill, so they're making money with those products, and they're making money with those attitudes. so that's unleashing more capital, and then the third is, i think there are a lot of philanthropies like ours, after all we were started with mega wealth at the time 183 years ago. >> oil. >> and i think that's true, that there were people, bill gates, in the current era, who really made a lot of money, got some public criticism. >> wisdom didn't give you lung cancer though. is it overstating or is it fair to say that the profit incentive does still come first to allow you to be in a position to become social? >> i think that's what's exciting about this. there are investors who want profit first, social second, there are investors who want social first, but still some profit, and what these new categories of instruments and types of funds allow to you do is really to decide what your appetite is. >> it opens up a lot, you're much more, so many more things are possib

both sears and the big restaurant chain with darden are going to a system where you as an employee get a voucher that you use to shop for your health care. they give you so much money and then you choose among a variety of plans where you want to put your money to work. you know, it used to be that people made the decision of a plan at work and just a minute or two or asking somebody else. now you have to take the paper work home and study to find what fits you and your family. i'm clark howard. for more info on what i think of the right ways to pick your health plan, go to hlntv.com/clark. >> don't forget clark brings you money help as part of a new "evening express." catch it monday through friday 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. eastern. >>> want to toast a far away friend with something to celebrate? there's now an app for that and served up in realtime. rogaine? well, i'll admit it. i was skeptical at first. but after awhile even my girlfriend noticed a difference. [ male announcer ] rogaine is proven to help stop hair loss. and for 85% of guys, it regrew hair. save up to 42% now at rogaine.com.

darden, you have been doing this for a long time at bls. have you ever been contacted by an administration? house separate are the politics? guest: we have never been contacted in a way of them saying, what the unemployment rate to be experts -- to be a particular number. i have had frequent calls with the council of economic advisers, with people in congress asking for explanations. but i think the policy people respect the fark that the statistical agencies -- the fact that these this is a go agencies feed into the decision making by policymakers encourage private individuals and businesses, and they need to not interfere with that. because it does not benefit anyone if the information we are providing is suspect. host: christopher rugaber, i do not know if the word dependent is the right word, but how much you use and trust the bls figures that come out nearly every week on these matters? guest: we trust did pretty much. it is important to talk to economists and other folks to see what they think. but we trust in many ways because is a n