thank you so much for coming. >> i wanted to come to learn what you're doing that's working so that i can find ways of helping share those best practices in my own country where this is also a problem. >> that's all from us tonight. in the arena starts now. good evening, thank you for joining us in the arena. christine romans sitting in tonight. eliot spitzer is on vacation. the time has come, 24 hours from now, president obama will tell america his plan for leaving afghanistan. the troop withdrawal he promised will begin next month, but the number of american soldiers coming home and how quickly they will return is still being negotiated tonight. more on those numbers in a

moment. perhaps the most important consideration is this. what kind of country are we leaving? sometimes a picture tells a story better than we can. these women are learning to read and write in secret. when nick peyton walsh spoke with them in kandahar, they were afraid to show us their faces, since many lied to their husbands to just be there. they are risking their own safety and their families just to read a book. they are scared of the taliban but are more afraid of ignorance. afghanistan is a country of hope and hopelessness. women that risk their lives to learn, fanatics that want to kill them because of it. who will win when we leave? more on this in a moment. first, a look at the stories we are drilling down on tonight. jon huntsman jumped into the race today, a mormon that supports civil unions, ex-obama man that wants the boss' job. a closer look at the man behind the contradictions. and greece on the brink. midnight vote of confidence.

protesters in the streets. e.d. hill asks ben stein if agreed t greece topples, do we go down with it? is the nuclear meltdown more dangerous than ever? >> it is like hanging by fingernails. back to our top stories. president obama's plans for a troop draw down in afghanistan. nick peyton walsh is in kabul covering reaction there. nick, welcome. we're hearing the president plans to draw down 10,000 troops this year, 20,000 next year. does the size and timing of draw down make sense, nick? >> reporter: i think domestically, yes, it does. he is keeping his promises. also it helps the military out to a certain extent, gives them a pretty long time to keep working with those surge troops of 30,000, two-thirds of whom will be here another 18 months or so. that's enough time really for the military frankly to fulfill the agenda they have.

10,000 this year helps explain the narrative to the american public that they are succeeding here, bringing the troops home, getting that transition story told ahead of the november, 2012 re-election. so yeah, it makes sense domestically. i think in terms of afghans here, how they will perceive it, it is very much restructuring the nato preps here, and giving them the simple idea that there's a new fiscal landscape in which they have to come to some common with the insurgency. >> are forces ready to step in. chris lawrence's reporting have been that these are forces not fighting forces by any stretch of the imagination. >> there's many questions about the afghan police. corruption on their part, not well liked in many towns. the afghan national army considered bets, bear in mind a lot of the time these are from the north of the country sent

into the southern areas to fight the taliban there. already a strong ethnic revalerie between the two sides. >> you say it is time for afghanistan and for the people there, for officials and the population, nick, to begin to adjust to a new reality. what about the reaction as we head into the very important speech tomorrow night by the president? what about the reaction from officials in afghanistan? >> absolutely. i mean, speaking directly about the withdrawal until it is mard public by obama, but the public are fearing the loss of foreign troops. while many see the nato contribution as having tried to bring a better life here to afghanistan, i think there are genuine concerns they need to get on with their lives without foreign interference some see here. many refer to american troops as occupied, and want to see them get hold of their own country.

>> thank you so much, nick. what will troop withdrawal mean for american progress? tom foreman is looking into the american situation. tom, who would we expect to be pulled out and from where? >> interesting question. you have to look at the lay of the land as you would with any battle field. this is afghanistan here, pakistan over this way. these are areas where the taliban has exerted the most control, down here in the south, over to the east, we have red, limited control in orange areas, encroaching in yellow. this is the area we really focused. look what happened as the surge troops came in. troop presence came in and really filled it hard, u.s. troops in the most troubled area, italian troops, german troops here, some other major groups. but look what happens when we mix them together. we have a substantial stabilization of parts of the country, compared to how it was before, with all of the troops coming in here, and the taliban largely being pushed down into

areas like this and over here. who do you get out of here? you can take out support troops involved in building bridges, roads, baracks, and all the things to bring in extra troops. you can take outcome bat troops if you take some of the calmer regions. although there is push back from some generals saying no, take them from areas like this, you push them more to the east here where we need to finish the job, and that of course is the catch here, are you finishing the job or leaving it unfinished. is it a reasonable time to start pulling out or is this the time to push all the way through? >> what kind of time line are we talking about overall, and is this really the beginning of the end of american involvement in afghanistan? >> the white house would say yes, it is the beginning of end of involvement. but the numbers suggest not yet. let's take a look at what we have if we have the troop layers. this is from when it began back

here in the early 2000s, you can see it is a low level, peaked a little. the president came in, up at 34,400, with the surge and everything else since then, today it is up at 100,000. if you took 10,000 out by end of the year some people talked about, that's still a relatively minor part of this, even if you took out 30,000 by end of next year, which is what we are talking about, 30,000 by end of next year, you can see you're still roughly twice as many troops as when this president took office. so that's some sense of what we're talking about. talk about reducing, still talking about a lot of troops being there. >> tom foreman, thanks so much. the war on terror is a decade long, trillion dollar struggle just in afghanistan in terms of american lives lost, more than 1600. defense secretary gates acknowledged recently, american people are tired of the war, and that feeling, that wish for wars

to be over has become a major issue in republican politics. jay's off chavitz, conservative coming from utah is an advocate for reducing troop strength. and you believe americans must fight to a conclusion, bret stevens. start with you, bret. favoring quick withdrawal from afghanistan, jon huntsman coming out strongly saying we need to go, get out. michele bachmann told john king she's tired of afghanistan and iraq. why in your view, tell me why they are wrong. >> the grownups left the republican party. the spirit of robert taft, the senator from 60 years ago rides high again. listening to a lot of commentary about our situation in afghanistan, i am reminded of the kind of debate we were having in 2006, 2007 about iraq,

but back then it was the democrats arguing for precipitous withdrawal, saying the war couldn't be won, americans were tired. in two years, the american military turned that war around so we now have a successful outcome in iraq. we ought to be patient and wait for that same outcome to happen in afghanistan. we see signs of it. >> congressman, a decade and a trillion dollars, there are those that say we risk throwing away great progress if we pull back too quickly, too soon for political reasons. >> there's always an argument to stay there forever. there are those of us that believe a good conservative position is to redefine the mission. one of the things, the obama administration hasn't defined what success is. there are those of us that think we should focus on counter terrorism, not confined to the boarders of afghanistan, but we shouldn't be in the business of nation building and that's what we are doing. we are participating in nation building which by all accounts is going to have to go on for

decades. i don't think we should be there with our men and women and i don't want to pay for it. >> i want to clarify the trillion dollars. the pentagon saying the war on terror has topped the trillion dollar mark. that's obviously not just afghanistan, but there's a lot there. you say, congressman, we just can't aforce it, it is something you hear from democrats and republicans quite frankly. democrats for a long time said we can't afford it, what are we doing. now republicans are trying to use new fiscal osterity. but the united states is committed. several administrations have gone ahead with it. >> what we are committed to is counter terrorism, what i am not committed to is nation building. this is the longest war in the history of united states of america. we shouldn't be bashful or ashamed of bringing our troops home and fighting that global war on terror. the other person in the show says isolationism, this isn't

about that, it is about the fact that it is the longest war in the history of the united states, we have to define success and fight the global war on terror, not just in afghanistan. >> the war is going to be a lot longer if we withdraw precipitously, we create or allow a situation of chaos to be created not only in afghanistan but on the other side of the border in pakistan and we will be dealing with those consequences for many years to come, so seems to me when you talk about costs, the greater cost is the course the congressman proposes. people don't appreciate, if i can finish, people don't appreciate the astonishing progress made throughout afghanistan since david petraeus became our commander there last year, and we should be capitalizing on the progress. it is like saying after the union victory at gettysburg, we have done well enough, let's leave it alone because the cost of the war are going to be greater. >> that's ridiculous. the reality is the national intelligence estimate in 2009 said the taliban closed no clear

and present danger to united states of america. leon panetta, cia director at the time said less than 50 al qaeda in the entire country, and that was a couple years ago. you have to look at the totality of the situation. we have to use hunter killer teams, root out the terrorism, but we can't have 100,000 men and women on street corners with rules of engagement that tie their hands, that we go and define counter terrorism and fight and win that war. >> if we allow the taliban to win in afghanistan, not only will we be visiting disaster on afghanistan and pakistan, i should add, but we will be emboldening jihadists that will take it as a victory as they took the victory against the soviet union as reason to go after the united states. i think the course the congressman is proposing is ruinous. >> let's talk about that the president should take public opinion into consideration as he plans for the next step in

afghanistan. look at this cnn poll, gentlemen. almost three quarters americans favor withdrawing some or all u.s. troops. what about the public opinion, bret, with so many people clearly tired of this effort? or is it that leaders are meant to lead and that means sometimes they do things that are contrary to public opinion? >> that's precisely the argument president bush put forward when he defeated that insurgency in iraq. part of the problem we have is a president that doesn't like to talk about afghanistan, doesn't like to talk about the gains we made here, constantly sets unrealistic timelines which embolden enemies, and make our friends both in the region and in nato worry we're going to pull out. so there is a job of leadership which the president isn't fulfilling. i wish we would see republicans in congress pressing the president to lead the country to a successful conclusion which is

in reach instead of joining the pelosi band wagon. >> the president has not defined success. i haven't heard you define success. that's the problem. i believe that success is bringing our troops home. ten years, our troops have been there have been very successful, they rooted out terrorism. are there bad guys in afghanistan? absolutely, we have problems in yemen, arabian peninsula, pakistan, problems across the world we have to deal with, but doesn't mean we put 100,000 troops into each of those countries. >> a reasonably stable afghanistan which can defend itself, doesn't threaten to destabilize countries like pakistan, doesn't threaten us as a haven for groups like al qaeda, which is what happened in the 1990s when we weren't looking, once before we pulled up stakes in the region, felt we had accomplished the mission. >> we have to leave it there. division of opinion but spirited conversation. thank you, gentlemen, for being with us on this important subject. coming up, pro-life pledge

that's a test. >> any feeling of confidence may be shattered by looking at the sea of protesters taking to the streets. and in today's global society, what happens in greece doesn't stay there. i'll ask ben what this means to 401(k)s and pension plans of america. when we come back, a grass rights pro-life movement turning into a prairie fire. stay with us. e, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say.

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jon huntsman kicked off his presidential campaign in the shadow of the statue of liberty like ronald reagan did 30 years ago. some republicans aren't buying it. within hours of the announcement, rick santorum launched an attack add blasting him for failing to sign a pro-life prej. days ago, they announced five republican candidates signed the pledge, with only mitt romney, herman cain and gary johnson refusing. margery joins me from

washington. welcome to the program. >> thank you, great to be with you. >> i want to say romney, cain huntsman are strong pro-life candidates. huntsman campaign responded saying people who rely on pledges usually don't have a record. fortunately, governor huntsman, a lifelong no flip flops proliefr signed anti-abortion legislation into law. that's a signature that makes a difference. he goes on to say he lived his life in this way. he adopted two children, has seven children, lived his life every day following pro-life mantra. isn't that enough for you? >> i think voters are in no mood to hear trust me. they are in a mood of trusting, and then perhaps verifying. being a governor is a very different responsibility than being a president. we can't assume the past is

pro-life. symbolism and rhetoric are great, far more important are pledges to do things that actually act out and give teeth to what you believe in. >> tell me what you are pledging them to do. >> there are four aspects of this. one to appoint judges who will not legislate from the bench but that are strictly adhering to the constitution. the second is to appoint only pro-life cabinet and executive appointments that are relevant to the abortion issue. the next is to answer the taxpayer, demand to de-fund abortion currently being paid for by the taxpayers, and the fourth is a piece of legislation that's been passed by five states so far that's really taking hold, called pain capable pro-life legislation. >> abortions past 21 weeks?

>> yes, when the unborn child feels pain. >> outside states signed on to that. i guess here is my question. attorney general, what you say one of those abortion relevant cabinet level position, don't they have to uphold the law of the land, and if the law of the land is legal abortions, then what except for the late stages, then what would the attorney general position, what would you hope by getting an appointee in there who is pro-life? >> good question because what anybody who is a pro-life president will do is advance pro-life legislation. once that legislation is passed and signed into law, an attorney general who is a team member, job will be to defend that, once it has been enjoined, which almost all will be surely enjoined by pro-life activists, and it is attorney general job to vet judges, and abortion comes as a central subject of

conversation in almost every federal judge and supreme court judge nomination process. so an attorney general is vital in pursuing the pro-life agenda a president would have. >> central conversation in american living rooms when the top thing on the polls is the economy and jobs. do you worry among republican candidates, obviously one of them will be the one you support, but this is taking oxygen out of the debate to show some of the other issues? do you worry it marginalizes this as a wedge issue when so many are focused on jobs and the economy. >> actually, not at all. what this does is put to rest to the extent that it needs to be where each of the republican candidates and any candidate, where they sit in terms of pro-life position. once we know and voters deserve to know what their position is, then it can be weaved into the context of all the other issues america is talking about. when there is problem, atlantis

vagueness or lack of understanding. no one wants to get through the debate, have to go through debates, look on cutting room floor to try to discern where the candidates stand. they want to know up front. >> is there vagueness about jon huntsman, mitt romney, herman cain on abortion? >> we don't know. >> they come out strongly pro-life again and again and again. >> true. but in the case of all three, certainly without saying what they would do as president, which they haven't been yet, we definitely don't know, and certainly in the case of governor romney who we agree with on all points of the pledge except one, we have not gotten commitment from him that he would appoint pro-life attorney general, hhs, and nih executive appointments. so that's key and that's one appointment of disagreement in that situation. >> all right. thank you so much for joining us. you devoted your entire career to pushing this important issue.

we will continue to watch. thank you. >> thanks for having me. when we come back, who is jon huntsman, a mormon, a moderate, a man on a motorcycle. stay with us. and a choice. take advil now... and maybe up to 4 in a day. or, choose aleve and 2 pills for a day free of pain. smart move. ♪ matter which position i am in i wake up feeling good.

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welcome back. christine romans. eliot spitzer is on vacation. another candidate joined the crowded republican field. just who is jon huntsman. he was the ambassador to china and governor of utah. but is he a serious candidate for president of the united states? some don't think so. >> and the newest candidate, former utah governor jon huntsman is running. so we put together a segment for you folks called get to know jon huntsman. take a look.

♪ >> there's actually no reason to get to know jon huntsman. this has been get to know jon huntsman. [ applause ] >> others think he is such a threat to president obama that the white house sent him to china to keep him out of the race. chief political correspondent for the "the new york times" magazine, in upcoming issue has a fascinating profile of the candidate. >> hi, nice to see you. >> starting to get real interesting. he has been in china the last couple years, serving a democratic president. he missed a lot of things that energize his own party like the taerp and birthers. he has been away. does it help or hurt him in the primaries? >> it is getting interesting finally. we waited so long for this to happen. we are pleased. in the piece line now, coming out sunday, i compare him, and i go to pains to say in a kind way

to the unfrozen cave man lawyer from saturday night live where he has been out of the country two years, has not been i think closely able to monitor what's happening in his own party. there are times you watch him and think you're like a republican from another moment. do you understand the fury in the grass roots, do you understand what people are saying about this president. but i think governor huntsman is making a different bet. i don't think it is about being a moderate, it is about being steadfast and constant. the idea that governor pawlenty and romney are seen as fairly moderate governors, particularly romney in massachusetts, roaring to the right wing of the republican party, trying to get approval of activist base of the party, huntsman holding out as someone that's not going to shape shift because the politics are expedient. he thinks there's a market for authenticity in the republican field. >> what's his vision? >> that's an excellent question.

if you get him on, you should ask him. >> i will. >> i heard the speech today and i found myself wondering, i was confused about a couple of things. i notice in new hampshire, there's talk about the tactic, path to the nomination. heard this many times today, on the way overheard it on the radio, what's his path to the nomination. there are a lot of paths to the nomination. first thing you need to think about in terms of a presidential candidate, what's your argument, what do you have to say, where does the country need to go. i think he had less time than the other candidates to think it through because of oddity of his campaign circumstances. i don't think we are hearing what his indictment is of this administration, the direction of the country, what he would do, what he would say that's different from what other people are telling us. i thought it was weird we didn't

hear more on the speech about his record, which is a pretty good record to run on, one full term in utah, kind of buried in the speech and short. >> because that record goes back to the other m word, not talking mormon, talking moderate. does his record reflect he is a moderate. >> i don't think so. you can pick things out of his record, civil unions being the example, support one time for cap and trade. governor pawlenty also supported that and changed his mind. i don't want to make his case for him, if you go back, there are tax cuts, there is a market base, health reform system put in place when he was there. he turned around the state's finances and there is a surplus. he does not seem to be eager to go out there and really introduce himself in terms of his record, which would also have the effect of making his experience serving the obama administration a little less relevant. and that confuses me. i don't have an answer. >> probably the most important economic relationship in the world, united states and china, he was in the middle of it, knows what the administration's strategy and the importance of it, can say it is not working or

say that it is. plus he has a long business history. so he is pro-business. >> he is. on paper all of that is great. i mean, one thing that interested me in talking about china, he compares himself to reagan and his backdrop today was very much like president reagan's was when he announced his successful campaign, and you know, he talks about the optimism of the future. but he also is very clear he thinks this country is in a downward period, that is less prosperous, less opportunity, that the country is in a funk. he talks about that often. that's not reagan that said i see no malaise in the country, no fault with the american people. that's a considerably darker vision of where we are that reflects the realities of the moment. >> does reflect the realities of the moment. don't you think the entire field so far isn't talking about hope and rising above it but blaming

the obama administration or reminding us that it is really terrible. >> all re-election campaigns, it is true when you have the economic moments. you can expect to hear a lot of talk about conditions in the country, and if they weren't talking about how difficult the conditions would be, people would say they were out of touch. but to the extent i think where the optimism comes in, you have to have a clear sense for people, beyond just lofty rhetoric and beyond talk about civility. you have to have a clear sense for people where you're going to go, why it is different, the choice you're asking them to make, and why not everyone may agree with it, but why it is the way forward for the country. i think governor huntsman has a good chance to get there. in 2007, i don't think barack obama had a clear sense of what he was asking the country to do either, we were watching. >> we are waiting to see how do we fix it, what is the plan. >> republican primary voters are waiting to hear the same.

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it is a heart breaking

reality for tens of millions. human slavery. each day the young, poor, powerless suffer shocking cruelty of forced labor and prostitution. they are abducted, sold, beaten, even killed, often right under the noses of polite society. as part of the cnn's freedom project, we report tonight. >> reporter: when you imagine a modern day slave, you may think of someone like juliette. she says she was kidnapped from her home in uganda and forced to join the resistance army. >> i was put into sexual relationship with a man who was about my age. i was also taught to kill. >> reporter: she met me in london, relayed the painful details of life as a slave. >> you are not supposed to cry,

even for your own child. your child is thrown in the bush like rubbish. >> reporter: wherever there's slavery, it doesn't just happen in isolated instances. it is invisible tent cals may touch you in ways you may not even know. according to researchers from harvard university, up to 10% of shrimp is harvest by a modern day slave. like these children in bangladesh, forced to work collecting shrimp, they are often paid than less than one tenth a cent. that's slavery. people tuned in for the commonwealth games in new deli. behind the scenes, children as young as seven help build the infrastructure, working in what many would describe as sub human conditions. when we asked for comment, the chief minister told cnn if the

government had known then about these allegations, it would have act against subcontractors using child labor. >> you see something about two and a half feet tall with two legs, you know that's child labor. when i say child, we literally mean child, four, five, six years old, with hammers and carting around gravel. >> reporter: that's slavery, too. in european red light districts, often in major cities and capitals, you find women being trafficked from countries like mull dove a and nigeria, forced to sell sex on the streets and in brothels. >> i was just a thing. >> reporter: slavery crosses borders, effects every country. destroys millions of lives. becky anderson, cnn, london. >> this sunday at 8:00 p.m., join cnn's freedom project and

demi moore for the premier of nepal's stolen children. the story of thousands of girls sold for sex and the amazing group that rescues them. we'll be right back. my doctor told me calcium is best absorbed in small continuous amounts.

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nuclear course with sea water, releasing radioactive steam into the atmosphere and creating vast liquid pools of toxic waste. the situation remains incredibly dangerous. i spoke with a professor of physics at city university in new york, author of physics of the future. thanks for joining us. do they have control? >> no, it is still a ticking time bomb. realize after the sumatra tsunami, three days after that, there was a huge aftershock. if they have another aftershock and they are not in cold shut down until next year, the accident could start all over again. it is like hanging by your fingernails. yeah, it is stable but you're hanging by your fingernails. >> americans think the crisis is over or some may think it is solved or contained. it is not. what's happening now? >> in the last two weeks, everything we knew about that accident has been turned upside down. we were told three partial melt

downs, don't worry about it. now we know it was 100% core melt in all three reactors. radiation minimal that was released. now we know it was comparable to radiation at chernobyl. and 12 miles, that's it for evacuations. now they find four hot spots outside the evacuation zone, 34,000 school children now have radiation badges when they go to school. >> kinimagine that, kids going school with radiation badges. it has been turned upside down. the utility finally fessed how severe the accident was. >> did they not know how bad it was or they knew and didn't tell or were completely blown away by scope of the disaster. >> i am a physicist. we try to reconstruct the accident in our computers, given the feeble amount of information given to us. we knew it was much more severe than they were saying, because

radiation was coming out left and right. so in other words, they lied to us. they knew how much radiation was coming out, they knew the danger, they knew how much core melting was taking place but tried to put a happy face on it. >> as a reporter within hours of an earthquake and tsunami, not even a day, there were statements from the company and international atomic energy association saying there had been safe shut down of all reactors. we know that simply wasn't true. from the very beginning they were trying to say this was a safe situation. >> within hours of the accident, we know it was like the keystone cops. people that are cluesless, headless, running around crazy not knowing what to do, we cannery construct it minute by minute, hour by hour, and see the chaos that erupted in leadership of the utility. >> what's happening to the people working there now? >> as you know, workers are being sent in and getting a year's dose of radiation in like ten minutes at a time. at chernobyl, 600,000 workers had to be mobilized, each going

in a few minutes, each getting a medal from gorbachev. >> this will be the 100 year clean up. how long to clean it up? >> 50 to 100 years. >> and we haven't started the reaction. >> cold shut down isn't for a year. that's when boiling stops. it is boiling water there at the reactor, releasing radiation into the environment. >> how are they storing and disposing of stuff. >> that's the killer. you have all the vats filling up. they may have to dumb into the ocean again. at that point the chinese, koreans, fishermen get up in arms because there's so much damage every time you put water in, it leaks out again, highly radioactive, and it is filling at the site. >> so what do they do with it? >> right now, just counting the number of gallons as they pile up, trying to bring in more vats, but once they saturate,

they have to dump, then it is another crisis. >> talk about the environment and atmosphere. we were told it would be measurable but minuscule amounts on the u.s. west coast, around the world. is that true? >> it's still minimal around the world. most of the damage is concentrated within 20 miles, 50 miles of the reactor accident site. that's where we have the hot spots, that's where we have 20 times normal amount of radiation in school yards, outside the evacuation zone. but in new york city, you can see it in the milk. you can see it has iodine, 131, spiked a bit in milk in new york city, but it is very small. >> just even hearing that, though, even hearing you can detect it, that there's a catastrophe, worst industrial catastrophe in history, we can see it in milk in new york, that's frightening. >> this could be the granddaddy of all industrial accidents, topping chernobyl at 200 billion, topping gulf oil spill

at 15 billion, topping challenger, columbia disasters in space at 10 billion. this could be the world's record holder for an industrial accident. >> 100 years of cleanup aside, when you look at this much radiation, three exposed cores, this much environmental damage, i mean, that must be staggering for that part of the country. >> it is unimaginable. realize chernobyl was one core radiation. and it is still on-going. here we have 20 cores worth of radiation. three totally melted, one damaged and the resin spent fuel pumps. 20 cores of highly radioactive materials. >> and it is impossible to imagine the long term health effects for the people in that area. >> at chernobyl, even taking conservative estimates, talking perhaps 10,000, leukemia, thyroid cancer cases because of chernobyl, this could be

comparable. >> thank you so much for joining us. appreciate it. certainly a frightening story unfolding there. when we come back, greece on the brink of financial collapse. e.d. hill and ben stein will explain why the entire world is watching. would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. carol. fiber makes me sad. oh common. and how can you talk to me about fiber while you are eating a candy bar? you enjoy that. i am. [ male announcer ] fiber beyond recognition. fiber one.

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important news in europe that will impact the global economy. the grease prime minister survived a vote that will keep

him in power, but keeping greece from defaulting still has to pass. why should we care in america. here to explain, everyone's favorite economics teacher, ben stein. author of this book about protecting your financial life. thanks for being with us. >> honor to be here. >> make it simple. why should we here in america care what happens in greece? >> one, we as municipality and individuals in pension funds own a certain amount of greek debt in money market funds, a small amount, but a little. second, if they default, it is likely or possible other countries with weak financial situations such as portugal, spain, italy might conceivably default. third, somewhere down the road we're going to default if we don't do something about our fiscal situation. the real problem, there's nothing really between them and us except a certain amount of magnitude. we also have spent ourselves into a bad situation, so what

will happen if we don't control ourselves. >> we are looking at the video of protests. it has been made clear to greek citizens by the european union and imf that they have been spending way more than their government takes in. where exactly was that all spent and what lessons should we be learning here in the states from that? >> they were spending on mostly the same things we're spending it on, social welfare programs, maintenance of living standards for not well off people, maintenance of living standards for retired people, and socialized medicine. the difference, they have a small military and we have large expenditures for the military, but they were doing exactly what we're doing, only on a larger scale, and for a longer period of time, and they did not have the ability to print money like the federal reserve can for us. the scary thing is how similar our situations are, not how different they are. >> as our tv monitor says, so goes greece, so goes europe.

and to the extent, that's true. >> that's a little -- >> greece is small, but you look at the impact it would have on germany, the impact, the french banks, there was threat of downgrading them, we have already seen down grades of u.s. system, so this default does seem to have a domino effect, whether just a confidence level instead of basic fundamentals, it does seem to impact everyone. >> it has an impact on everyone. germany is an enormously strong economy. it is not going to hurt germany much. >> let me stop you there, though. the german citizens in my opinion, i look at what's happening there, they seem to be ticked. they have a pretty good social network there. however, they had to take cuts. right now, they are being faced with the choice of taking their money, even though they've had cuts, and paying for the greeks to continue, and that doesn't seem to sit well with them. >> no, it doesn't sit well with them at all, but even so, they are terribly strong economy, they will have to make cuts to themselves just as part of their

own lives, but nothing like cuts that the greeks have to face. but as i say if i may respectfully say this again, france and germany are strong economies, they will survive. our economy will survive. but there's going to be a cost. all of this social spending of money we don't have. we're seeing far away in the land of the acropolis and parthenon the effect it has there, it is not going to be that different here. how long until there's rioting in the united states because of austerity measures. not going to be terribly long unless we do something fairly drastic. >> sometimes i think there's good that can come out of the negative. here in the united states, one of the positive things i have seen crystal savings rates increased, people feel insecure, and we are starting to try to save money. the germans have been doing that, but there seems to be a disconnect that in washington we tell them we don't like the deficit. we want you to get rid of that. but at the same time, there are a lot of people that argue we need that spending so that we

don't default. we have that hint of default, that hint could hurt us. >> we are in a box of our own making, want people to save, want more consumer spend to go lift us out of recession, want to give a safety net to old people, unemployed people, but to do so it means running up the deficit even more. we are in a box and it's not going to be easy to get out of this box. one solution that seems so incredibly obvious to me, raise taxes on extreme upper income people, i don't mean 250,000 a year, more like 2.5 million a year, that seems so obvious to me and seems to be ruled out as an ideological matter. i don't see any better solution to making a substantial start on the social and budgetary problems. >> and how long do you think we have before we start to feel the impact if we don't take any action? >> i would say some day quite soon one of the big