my strong belief in the wisdom of free people voting in elections reinforces my strong belief that america's best days are yet to come. right now government security in the war against terror is so vitally important, i hope we never lose track of that. but i do not believe government should steer the economy and i

remain wedded to free market capitalism as the best path to prosperity. let me flip the baton to my great pal, dennis kneale. >> good evening. i'm dennis kneale and i'm selling the hope. let's cut to the real deal. 9/11 eight years later. today, the dow closes at 9605. that's precisely where the dow closed on september 10, 001, the day before the 9/11 attacks altered our world forever. they weren't just an attack on america. they were an attack on capitalism itself. why else would the terrorists take out the twin towers of world trade? today revived that sense of sadness and inconsolable loss that i have felt ever since. yet today also gave me hope. i say hope because look at how far we have come since that

tragic event. i know it's tough out there right now. and how can things be any better when the stock market is trading right where it was eight years ago? when unemployment is nearing 10%. and yet, we are better off, folks. we are going to be okay. better than most people think. because if we were able to recover from 9/11, we can recover from anything. our rebound from 9/is 11 shows the resiliency of capitalism. i have three numbers for you. 9605 is where the dow was trading the day before the 9/11 attacks. second number, 8920. that's how far down the dow um plunged after the first day of trading. and that third number, 8235. that's where the dow was four days later, down 17% from 9/11. and then that was it. two months later, the dow had

returned to where it was the day before the attacks. it later retreated like 18 months later, but that was on the way to dow 14,000 by october 2007. that's what i mean about the resiliency of capitalism and the power of hope. and the surprising thing is, our economy recovered despite the diversion of trillions of dollars away from investment and into the machinery of war and defense and security. in fact, i bet the 9/11 attacks trirged more cost to our economy than the $1.5 trillion in losses the banks wrapped up in bad mortgages in the past two years. a trillion dollar war in afghanistan and iraq, untold billions more for new defense. beefed up homeland security, and something easily worth more than that -- the loss of the sense of our own vulnerability. that's priceless. yet our economy recovered and thrived. just as our economy will recover

from the shock of the collapse that has racked wall street for the past year. we're going to be okay, i promise you. let's get to obulls and bears. a little pullback never hurt anybody. not much anyway. where was that september pullback i kept hearing about. are people underestimating the upside of what i'm calling the great recovery, bob? >> oh, abc lusolutely. the market is too far, too fast. but this market is a freight train. and to get in front of it and to think you're going to stop it, what we are literally seeing is the day goes by and if they can get it down a little bit, they get it down a little bit. but at 2:00, they hit the buy button.

you can't get it down. it's like rocky. >> dan greenhouse house. we just heard it referred to as a freight train. you're a bit bearish. what's it like sitting in front of that freight train? >> there's an acknowledgment that equities are charging haetd? the broader question is why are they charging ahead and whether it's sustainable. there are some economies that have performed just well. >> you have an even number of bulls and bears. that's great. i think we had great news this week. initial claims were down at 550. continues claims were down as well. excellent refinance activity. the ten-year hit 328 today. consumers can still get credit very easily.

refinancing is going well. the misery index is 7.3. in the '80s recession it was 8.. >> lee munson, you're a bull most of the time. so what are you thinking now? are we going to avoid a september correction? a september pullback? >> you know, i think it's irrelevant whether we do or not. long term, we're not trading a thing. i think people have to understand out there, being a bull is recognizing most of the money is in the market right now. we're going to have a statistical recovery. i'm glad you're selling the hope because i think we are recovering. i think you have to understand the money is in. there is a freight train that's happened but you have to pick the right sectors. i'm still bullish on things linebacker staples, the discount retailers. there's nothing bad about buying a walmart and hoping for a

recovery. it's just expect sething your expectations about what exactly is going to skyrocket. >> hae, bob, i always look for something, a big surprise that could send the market up more. and one surprise shaping up is that i think the vast majority of us are underestimating the american consumer. what do you think, bob? >> i think that's true. and some of these corporate profits, you have to realize we're in a trough right now. i think italy the board meeting is going to call people around. can we get these profits as low as possible? because when things are booming again, which eventually they will, you don't want to be riding things down then. you're looking at things dark and groommy as they possibly can be. and i want to add one thing. the market typically trades inverse to where the risk free rate of money is. the risk free rate of money on a

ten-year is only 3.4. it should be. aren't you a little concerned that the high profit margins are a little bit dangerous right now. and changing a picture that the tire market has such high profit margins versus cost cutting? the index may go higher which may not. then it's the individual things that people are going to be spending money on. versus just the general -- you know. >> i'm not saying the profit margins are high. i'm saying the profit nar gins are low. i'm saying just the opposite. i'm saying you're not seeing the real picture. >> record cost cutting right now. >> here's a point -- we're getting too bogged down here. here's a point i want to hear someone make, lee. the fact is i really feel like we're going to head into a feeling of very easy comparisons versus year ago quarters. even without some surge in

command. -- demand. what do you say, lee? >> i worry about that dennis. i worry about this surge in demand and also whether or not it's going to be all about this cost cutting. i think that you have to differentiate -- >> where was the surge in demand coming from? >> dennis, i think one -- >> the spoint that the consumer is underestimated. >> everybody says we're going to save, not spend. it's just not true. and you watch. i will be proven right. we've got to go right now, which is good because it means i got the last word. thank you very much for being with us tonight, gentlemen. >> thanks, dennis. time for tonight's "hero of capitalism." we're going to mix it up a little. it to start with a villain because in some ways they're two sides of the same coin. this man is responsible for houchbs bllballs of dollars in the stock market.

his dirty work would end up forcing the government into one of the biggest bailouts in u.s. history, yet this guy walks away with impunity and several hundred million dollar earned from all that risky speculation. tonight's villain of capitalism is joseph cassano, formally of aig. cassano traded the swaps trading desk at aig. he now looks likely to get indicted as a federal grand jury in brooklyn convenes. but even if cassano doesn't get indicted, i think he's a villain anyway. now, let'slook at tonight's hero of capitalism. drum roll, please. and tonight's hero of capitalism is -- robert benmoche, the new

ceo of aig. many think he's too brash. he said attorney general cuomo doesn't deserve to be in government. cuomo hopes to imitate eliot spitzer and turn a crackdown on wall street into a run for governor. and we know how that turned out for spitzer. and cuomos a guy who fanned a near riot of outrage over aig bonuses then threatened to public the names of the aig execs who got them unless they return the money. benmoche was speaking up for his people. let the aig board fret over how blunt this guy is. i say that's what makes him a hero. any financial hero that can stand up and tell politicians the real truth stud a prized asset indeed, which is why i'm naming as hero of capitalism for the night robert benmoche of aig.

congratulations to him. i'm taking aim now at obamacare. that health care rescue speech that president obama made this week. it was the best and most important pitch of his rookie presidency. but it held a disturbing elem t element, and i call it obama's impossible promise. well, actually two impossible proms but it doesn't make as good headlines. he prommed his health care overall would not add one dime to the federal deficit ever. but the congressional budget office sees up to $1.5 trillion added to the deficit because of obama care. and virtually every time government forecasts health care costs, they're way too low. as for not cutting medicare, guys, that program for the elderly spends over $420 billion a year for 44 million people. now we want to add 46 more million people to the government doll, the uninsured. yet medicare, even before adding all those guys, medicare already

faces a $38 trillion deficit over 75 years. it will spend almost $40 trillion than it will take in from taxes. and you think medicare won't undergo any cuts? it is an impossible promise. it is a ridiculous promise. the only question is whether president obama already knows it. is the president right? is he simply wrong? and if he's wrong, is he mistaken or is he fibbing? who should we start with on these guys? let's start with ben ferguson. is the president simply wrong or is he fibbing? >> no he's wrong and i'll show you why he's wrong. i'll show you the health care bill and i ran out of toner so i'm 100 pages short, dennis. how can a bill that's that big possibly not cost us anything. sd ask any state that has a state-run health care. my state, nine times more than what they budgeted for. ask mitt romney, a conservative.

they said they had no clue how much it was going to cost by the endover theirs. the president is lying and he knows it's not true. >> let's go to julie. at the very least, is he wrong when he says he won't add one dime to the deficit. do you think he's going to end up wrong? >> i'm sure that ben is continuing the republican tradition of calling the president a liar. >> you're diverting into details. >> if you're asking me if this bill is going to cost any additional monies to the budget, the answer is no because president obama has said it will not. he said he will veto if it doesn't. and there are triggers that will kick in. you guys can keep calling him a liar all you want, but why don't you at least see -- >> what would you call -- when

the president ran for office he said he was going to cut the deficit down to $566 billion. we're now saying it's going to be multiple trillions up to -- >> i'm sorry, did he say that he was going to do that in the first six months in his presidency? >> he said at the end of his first term, he would have it cut in half. >> has he left yet? he's not going to leave office for eight years hopefully. >> both of you stop. you're irritating me. >> he won't be shown that he deliberately fibbed. he's an intelligent man over ten years it will add to the deficit $220 billion. i believe that figure is low. you know, julie defending him to this talk of a senate finance committee and so forth shows the problem with obama's speech.

the fact is he doesn't have a plan. at one point he said something like, well, we have to fill in some details and there was laughter on both sides of the aisle. and this has fuelled doubts among the american people as to what exactly with we're getting here. >> go ahead, tanya. >> the american people know far more what we're getting into than the president did before the president took the podium. >> and they don't like it. >> excuse me. by the way, they do like it. even among the president's opponents -- >> no, they don't. >> excuse me me. 1 in 5 opponents changed their minds after hearing the president. but let's get ouft of the weeds as dennis likes to say. if you're really talking about larger benefit issues. i think some of the things we're not paying attention to are the longer-term economic benefits. >> i know a lot more about that than you do. and let me tell you, every time we promise more preventive

medicine, we're going to reduce medical costs, medical costs go up. i want to cut to more basic question, tanya. do you think that obama will be able to full fit these two key promises. i'm not going to add a dime to the deficit and i'm never going to cut medicare. durng he'll be able to live up to those promises? >> you're missing my point. >> you're missing my point, dear. >> my darling, i think it depends on whether or not you can show there will be increased revenues, increased tax base. the commonwealth fund had a study two years ago that demonstrated -- hang on a second. we lose about $250 million a year in lost productivity costs because people are sick. we need to pay attention to those figures. >> that's not going to solve a deficit problem. >> these guys want to talk about details and other studies because they like to throw out words, the if the is a liar, the president is deliberately

fibbing and they like to keep talking about the fact that there are death panels because apparently you guys don't want to deal with the details. >> let me give you a detail. the president of the united states of america, not knowing what it's going to cost and using your own talking point, the senate finance committee hadn't even come up with something want us to pass a bill by august. >> and how would you know what's in the bill? >> august didn't happen. move on. the problem with obama is he had a thematic contradiction. he said there are doubts about this plan. he acknowledges them. but he said we've got to move forward. there's no turning back. when somebody has doubts about something, they want to get into it incrementally and they want to have the ability to turn back. and that's why the speech backfired. >> wow. i wish we had the discussion in the iraq war. give me a break. >> i got to tell you, guys. we've got to wrap now.

the democrats say the conservatives are all so shrill. i got to tell you, i think the dems are sound a little shrill. next week at 8:00, we are looking back at the fall of lehman brothers one year later. watch us monday and tuesday night for a retrospeckive on that long and difficult year and forecast of the future for the markets. still a lot more ahead tonight, though. at 8:30 tonight, watch options actions. this is cnbc first in business worldwide. 

one year ago as the financial woerld teetersed on the brink, one man stepped up and placed a big bet on big business. that man is warren buffet and he told the word, buy america. on monday, we sit down with buffet to get his thoukts one year later. that's monday at 8:00 p.m. eastern only. and at 8:30 eastern tonight,

watch "options actions." we're back in two minutes.

another. >> and now for tonight's "parting shot." it's been eight years since 9/11

and i still miss the twin towers of the world trade center. they were one of the most identifiable manmade struck churns the planet. so giant thumbs up in lower manhattan where more wealth was created than anywhere in the history of the world. my first night in new york many, many years ago i stayed at a hotel in the world trade center. in 1993 on the day of that first terrorist bombing of the world trade center, i was in my across the street. i still remember how the floor buckled beneath me. and on the morning of 9/11, i stood on the roof top of my apartment in brooklyn and i watched those towers burn. and i said well, you bastards, we're still standing, aren't we? a few hours later, the towers collapsed. i urged them to build it again. this was an attack on capitalism. we have to show the terrorist, i

said. we will not wallow in fear. eight years later, lower manhattan still bears little more than the scar left behind. one giant depressing construction canyon. that scar remains and all i know, folks is that i want that hole filled up. i want the world trade center rebuilt. it is time. put gun tourets on the roof time if you have to. bill it as a flying middle finger, if you want. even if they success, and bring another tower down, and they won't, our enemies will not bring us down as a people. as a nation as an economy. it didn't work after 9/11, guys. it won't work now. we will not let our enemies win. we will always rebuild. we will always come back, because we're americans, guys.

that's what we do. have a great afternoon. xxxxxxxxxxxx