Casey and Merk on the Fed, the tech world & the US economy

Our lead story: Erin talks about the bitter battle between activist-investor, Carl Icahn and the online auction site eBay. Thursday, Icahn amped up his already heated clash with eBay by challenging the online retailer to a duel! Ok, not a 20-paces-pistol type duel, but a live TV debate. Icahn has criticized eBay's director Scott Cook, saying he shouldn't be on the board of the $75 billion company since Cook is also the Founder and Chairman of Intuit, and also Marc Andreessen for profiting off of eBay assets, including the online voice company Skype. Erin brings you the latest on this spat.

Afterward, technology expert Alex Daley talks mobile and cloud computing. He gives you the trade-offs between security and convenience with these services, and explains the impact of these services to the cloud. Daley also argues that Apple's biggest challenge is growth. According to Daley, Apple needs to figure out another line of business or a new product line that can add to growth before they can excite investors again. Finally, Daley weighs in on what the effect the NSA has had on US technologies and cloud based computing.

Coming back from the break, what's the role of the Fed in the recovery? Over the past week our guests have weighed in. Axel Merk of Merk Investments talks about the Federal Reserve and its effect on the recovery, Doug Casey of Casey Research argues that volatility will increase due to central bank money printing, Chis Martenson of PeakProsperity.com discusses Fed taper talk and its effect on stocks, bonds, and commodities, and Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic Policy and Research, argues that part of the recent economic weakness can be attributed to all this terrible weather. And to wrap up the week, Erin and Edward select and respond to the best viewer comments in our segment "In the Margins."

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