welcome to "the wall street journal report." a framework in place, but the devil is in the details. what it means for america's markets and economy. and, is italy next, my exclusive interview with the italian prime minister. then, my conversation with the largest foreign holder of american stocks where this renowned investor is investing princely sums now. plus, one-on-one with karee kareekareem kareem abdul jabar. "wall street journal" begins right now. >> here's a look at what's making news as we head into a

new week on wall street. hopes for a deal in a greek bail out are now fading. a package of tough austerity measures blocked by e.u. finance measures. slashes defense spending. well, the markets yawned at the debt deal on thursday, those the index has hit multi-year highs earlier in the week. including the nasdaq that sizzled this week. we're near the end of earning season now. disney, cisco and coke all beat analysts expectations cht and italian prime minister is winning raves his moves with spending cuts, tax increases and reducing regulation. i spoke with him in an exclusive interview about his focus on growth. >> we needed to have not only spending cuts, but also some higher taxes. but we have done this in a way

that preserves very much laboring them and profit from firms from increased taxation. and we shifted tax burden onto property wealth. then we relied very much on the opening up of the markets through liberalization, through more computation. >> standard and poors have downgraded 34 of the 37 banks. they're saying that italy is vulnerable to external financing risks. can you characterize the banking system in italy? do you agree with this downgrade by s&p? >> it's not a matter of agreeing. these decisions by the rating agencies are largely the mechanical effects of previous decisions. and of objective fates. the high public debt of italy is a well-known fact of life.

what matters more is movement at the margin, namely is a government putting its house in order or not? and the rating agencies themselves are very appreciative of what the italian government is doing. but, by enlarge, italian banks have been less hit by the financial crisis than the banks in many other european countries. >> my thanks to mario monti. my next guest says it may just be the beginning. joining us is liz ann saunder. >> thanks for having me. >> so, of course, here we are over the weekend. we're going to see the on again, off again talks in greece. we're waiting for a resolution. what's your take? >> i don't know. i think, ultimately, at least in the near term, we can avoid disorderly default. i think all parties would like to see that happen. the fact that there still needs to be parliamentary approval and

implementing this. and that's, i think, what we still have to see, whether there's any actual desire on the part, certainly on the people to do this. i do think there's still a lot of uncertainty between now and march 20th when that big bond payment is do. >> let's say -- and this is a big if -- if greece gets off of the main page, the big headlines, do the concerns just move onto portugal? spain? italy? is that the next big issue for europe? >> that's the problem. and we do seem to be fairly myopic because we're already seeing yields in the other nations, portugal being a perfect example. but i think the focus right now is on greece. and that is the risk throughout this whole crisis is that we just move on to the next station. the only good news about all of this is the benefit of a two-year process that we've been in of kicking this can down the road. is a lot of financial institutions, investors, have been able to position for this. this is not coming as a great shock to anybody. >> and, of course, on the other side of the world, the u.s. seems to be doing better. >> yeah.

>> so is the u.s. the best story in town right now, given what's going on in europe? and how do you want to invest seeing what you see in the u.s.? >> i think there was certainly a lot of pessimism about the u.s. economy last fall. not that i shared, but i think what we're realizing now is that the u.s. is the world's largest economy does still have the ability to help out the rest of the world when its growth rate is exceeding the rest of the worlds. and i think we're seeing that. i don't think the u.s. growth will pull europe out of a recession, but it may prevent it from becoming as severe as it otherwise would. and i think the realization is starting to kick in that this momentum and economic news is real. i think frankly, that's what the stock market has been telling us since its low. >> the housing market is one area that we've talked about. and you say we have, in fact, seen a bottom? >> i think broadly. i think we have to start to look at housing at a somewhat local level. that's always been the case in

housing, excludeing the bubble period. i think we're going to see ssee see divergence among regions. there's strong, local economic conditions. and i also think prices tend to be the last thing to turn. so, yes, i think broadly if you look at housing nationally, the worst is probably behind us. but, by that, it's likely to be a net positive contributor to gdp. but that doesn't mean universally we solve the problem! what do you attribute this strength in the market. you look at all of the money moving. the nasdaq is up 12% or so in 2012. what's behind this? >> i think it is a reflection of the economy doing better. i think the fears were so pervasive coming out of the debt ceiling debate, the s&p downgrade, concerns of a double dip, that became so prevalent i think caused the market to maybe discount something quite a bit worse. and now i think the market is coming to the realization that a lot of the weakness we saw in the first half of 2011 were very short term factors that have started to reverse themselves.

and, most importantly, we are see the best growth in manufacturing and even in manufacturing jobs in 30 years. i think the market is coming to the realization that this economy is now producing things again. as opposed to just paper profits. >> that actually sounds very, very positive. so what kind of a year are you expecting for the markets. obviously, a very strong beginning. >> i think if the economy doesn't bring any significant surprises, i think the path of least resistance is still up. and i think the next potential wave that could benefit stocks would be money that comes out of fixed income. most of the money that has been driving the market so far has really just been money from cash or professional investors, kind of, you know, changing asset allocation. the individual investor is not really in yet. pension funds are still underexposed, even hedge funds are still underexpose. i think the next big wave could be a reallocation. >> let's talk retirement. in general, are americans saving enough today? i know we had a negative savings

root for some time, but then it got all the way up to 6%. >> it did. and it's come down. there's some concern that it's come down because it's the only way for consumers to fund their consumption. i'm not so sure about that. we have to put savings in the context of where interest rates are. and it is very difficult to try to maintain a high historical savings rate when you're basically earning nothing on that savings. so i think a lot of that money that would be classically seen as savings has gone to places in an attempt to find even the slightest bit of savings. i think savings in general are better than they were three years ago. if you look at 401 k balances, they're obviously well up from where they were because we've had the equity appreciation and significant bond appreciation. but certainly not across the board. there are plenty of investors, consumers, even retirees who need to do more just to beat inflation. >> all right. great advice as always. thank you so much, liz ann sonders.

up next, saudi arabia's richest citizen will join me on iran oil and where the renowned investor is putting his money now. later on, he was the nba's all-time scoring lead reader and a master of the court. kareem abdul jabar tells me what he's discovered about math and science. take a look. [ male announcer ] to the 5:00 a.m. scholar. the two trains and a bus rider. the "i'll sleep when it's done" academic. for 80 years, we've been inspired by you. and we've been honored to walk with you to help you get where you want to be. ♪ because your moment is now. let nothing stand in your way. learn more at keller.edu.

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he has a net worth of about $21 billion. i spoke with him with the price of oil and the arab spring. >> no doubt that the evolutions that took place in certain arab countries like egypt, libya, tunisia and to a certain extent, yemen, and what's happening now in syria is a big lesson to many arab countries. to really try to have a peaceful revolution rather than having a violent revolution. many rulers began getting the message. >> tell me how you see saudi arabia looking different in this evolution as you say, what? five, ten years later? how long does this evolution take? and how does saudi arabia look different? >> saudi arabia is taking major moves at the social level, economic level and financial level which is really helping the saudi people a lot. >> let me ask you about the

happenings, more news of the day, if you will, your highness, and that is about iran. of course, president barack obama tightening u.s. sanctions on iran, freezing all iranian government assets held or traded in the united states. do you believe this is appropriate? >> i think putting pressure on iran whether through united states or the libyan union and the world in general is very important. iran is a renegade country. it's very important to put pressure on them before we think of any military action. and i believe -- and i will quote my friend president carter, we should engage them and talk to them. i believe a solution is not possible with them. >> let me get your take on the supply of oil in the world today. i know saudi arabia is in a wonderful position. how much does it take to produce oil in your country? >> i think the average cost for a barrel is somewhere between 5 $5-6 a barrel.

>> do you believe that price would be appropriate given the supply today? >> there's an element of fear. right now, we've seen that the world economies are diminishing in growth. yet, the price of oil did not go down. and demand, although it went down, yet the price is still high. i think there's a fear element here because of what may happen with iran and closing the hormuz strait. both the con soumers and the producers are setting that price. >> you've been increasing your money invested in the united states in the last year? >> well, you know, most of our deals are announced like steel, for example. we're always looking for opportunity ins the united states. the united states is down, but not out. we still have trust in the united states. but the united states has to get in order. the republican, democrats, house and congress have to meet together and this solution for the problems of the united states are solvable. >> let's talk about the money you just put into twitter. $300 million you invested in twitter.

what's so attractive about this company to you? >> usually, we don't enter into venture capital entities. but twitter has passed that phase, obviously and they are no more venture capital phase. more than 300 million tweets every day. i believe the potential for twitter is dramatic and big. this company is a force to reckon with. and i believe that the future of twitter is very promising. >> what's the business plan of twitter. you say today you met the ceo and the cfo. do you have confidence that they're going to be able to make money? >> you bet. otherwise, we wouldn't have invested there. >> how is citigroup doing right now? >> i believe citigroup is doing very, very well. have the company go out of the wilderness that it was in. they made more than $11 million last year. and i believe that the best days

of citigroup are yet to come and i believe the full potential of citigroup in the coming years could come back to the previous expectation of around $20 billion profit. >> as an investor, you surely want a dividend back. do you have any sense of when citi will pay a dividend the way that you were enjoying that dividend for so long? >> i believe they went public by saying that citibank will share through dividends. i believe it's very clear that all the banks, including citibank, has submitted their request to the federal reserve. >> my thanks to his royal highness. up next on the wall street journal report, it's not all business when i'm courtside with nba great kareem abdul jabbar. find his inner educator. >> you want the ball to come down through the hoop. go. more people do that, security would be like -- there's no charge for the bag. thanks.

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welcome back with 20 nba seasons, 6 championships and more career points than any other player in basketball today, my next guest was a dominant force at the center of the court. kareem abdul jabbar retired from his lenld dare sports career more than 20 years ago and has reinvented himself as a coach, author and historian. i spoke to the state department's new global ambassador about finding the words to write his second act. >> kareem abdul jabbar.

>> it took me a couple years to deal with the burn out from playing. i had a very intense career and it lasted for so long, 20 years. once i got over the burn out, i figured on what i needed to be doing and i started writing. i always had the ambition to write, but i never had the time to write. i only had the time to read. but the more i read, the more it intrigued me. >> thank you. >> well, i probably would have been a history teacher or something like that if i had had a real job. >> 15 years after his first history book, black profiles and courage became a new york time's best seller. what color is my world? the last history of african american inventors. >> you write about two american kids named ella and herbie who hear there's more to our history than slavery, jazz, sports and civil rights. tell me about the message of this book. >> well, the message of this book has to do with my

experiences when i was in grade school. the only time black americans were mentioned were in conjunction with the issues of slavery and civil rights. and the black experience of america is so much broader than that. >> how are you doing? are you jaden? >> yes, j-a-d-e-n. >> it's very important for me for black kids to read this book. the only time they see black people being successful has to do in two areas, sports and entertainment. >> why did you choose inventor sns. >> these inventors are scientists and mathematicians and engineers. people that young kids in the inner city do not look to as being heroes and achieving extraordinary things. >> finally, something i really care about.

thank you george crum. >> do you know george washington carver? >> did i know george washington carver? no. i'm not that old. >> no kid raises the hand and says i really want to be an engineer. they want to be a superstar basketball player. >> if you talk to young kids, they want to be lebron james and they want to be j.z. >> abdul jabbar rose to national prominence playing under ucla's legendary coast john wooden. >> you were a city kid in catholic school in manhattan. what was your experience like? >> my experience was in learning about the general culture of america. not african american culture. my dad was a jazz musician. so, you know, in my household, duke ellington and lewis armstrong were heroes. but i didn't learn how broad african american achievement was until i took part in a program

in harlem that was designed how to show the kids in harlem to make it a better place. that's when i started to learn about the harlem renaissance. >> on the shoulders of giants, a documentary abdul jabbar released last year tells the story of the harlem rens, the black basketball team that won in 1939. long before championships came with product endorsement deals. >> black americans have never been given credit for the things that they've contributed to american life. it's always seen as something that happened in the shadows and in the corners. i wanted to shine a light on that. >> 7'2", kareem abdul jabbar is still the nba's all-time lead scorer with 38,387 points. and his place in american sports history is ensured with his signature sky hook.

>> okay, for those who don't know wharks is a sky hook? >> sky hook is just a hook shot on the basketball court. i put my own little stamp on it. >> you want the ball to come down through the hoop. up and over, yeah. that's it. perfect. >> so what did you learn in sports that helped you in life? >> oh, jeez, you learn so much teamwork. you learn perseverance. and preparation. one of coach wooden's favorite sayings was failing to prepare is preparing to fail. so much of what he said we used to think these are just corny sayings. >> that's another important influence. you were lucky as a kid with all of these positive influences. >> i was really charmed. i had a charmed life in that sense. >> perfect. perfect. >> my thanks to kareem abdul jabbar. up next on the wall street journal report, a look at the news this upcoming week that

will have an impact on your money. and find us on facebook, a look at wsjr with maria.

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we'll get total real sales from the last month. the latest meeting from the federal reserves open market committee will be released. on thursday, we get the inflation indicators. tracking costs at the wholesale level. and the consumer price index comes out on friday. that will do it for us for today. thank you so much for joining me. my guest next week, leading bioethics scholar, zeke emanuel. each week, keep it right here where wall street meets main street. have a great week, everybody. i'll see you next weekend. uh oh. should we be letting him p-l-a-y with our t-a-b-l-e-t? [ mom ] i think it's fine. it's the new element from at&t so it's w-a-t-e-r proof. cool. what else does it d-o? it's fast. it's 4g lte. what's l-t-e spell? nothing. w-h-y? hey, can we stop spell talking now? ok. a-y.

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