i'm ali velshi. welcome to a special edition of "your money." we' we're at chicago as the cme group, the chicago board of trade where all sorts of things are traded, real money changes hands around here. i'm joined by great guests. terry savage, personal finance editor of the chicago sun times. diane swonk, old friend, chief of messirow financial. joining me from washington, cnn contributor and conservative

columnist david from, the host of the fromme forum and former speechwriter for george w. bush. thank you for being here. the one thing we're going to be hearing about in the next 12 months, david i put it to you, a gop set of primaries, looking for a candidate, talking about the middle class, who represents the middle class in this country? the the democrats are trying to make some speeches that the democrats are the party of the middle class, republicans the party of the rich. the republicans struggling with that themselves. david, what's your sense of how republicans are positioning themselves and who this country represents the vast majority of people, the middle class. >> i don't think anybody is doing a very good job of it. the president gave a speech in kansas in which he tried to stake out this ground and gave an assessment of the major problems facing middle-class americans. his prescriptions were really weak. the president's main idea seems to be to have higher taxes on those who earn a lot and to use that money to expand public

employment and hope more public employment will create a broader government sector middle class. that's what tony blair tried, and gordon brown tried in britain, they drove up in some parts of the country government employment of 50% of the labor mark. they set the stage for the even greater crisis britain is facing now. >> david, the flip side, one of the things, diane swonk, we talk about in our politics, we cater to short answers, easy answers, simplistic answers. sometimes i would love to know what would happen if with you put economists in a room and said how would we fix this. >> take about 20 minutes and 10 minutes would be saying hello to each other. david's exactly right. i gave a speech and quoted bob dillon. the answer is blowing in the wind. the answer is right in front of us and we know what the answers are. a lot have consensus on it. dave talking about you can't

lower taxes, create middle class with government spending. we have a framework of a plan in the simpson bowles. deficit reductions. what most don't realize $4 trillion over ten years with over 10 years. the longer we kick this can down the road the more problems we're creating for ourselves. >> we don't kick the can down the road, someone has to pay. this has to cost people. terry, you write about this. you're trying to make the connection between economic concepts and viewers wondering how it affects them. they will cast ballots based on discussions about taxation in many cases. when we don't kick the can down the road, what does that mean to us? >> means we face reality. the irony, as they come together in washington over the payroll tax cut what you have on both sides is a general acknowledgement people do better when they have more money in their pockets, the government doesn't do well spending our money. they define poverty at about $45,000 and above. that's a very -- many more people are closer to poverty

than we acknowledge if that's the definition. >> one in five children. >> if those people get their own money to spend, it works better than the government spending it. we have the last four years and $3 trillion of government spending to prove that doesn't really jump-start an economy. if it works for middle income people it ought to work for upper income people to keep more of their money whether they save it or invest it. that's what we're facing now. >> it's a far reaching than that. the reality is, you can back load a lot of the pain. if we know a road map there has to be tax reform. it means spreading the revenues across higher income households and higher upper income households and middle income households. we have to get rid of the behavior reductions. our corporate tax code is a mess. these can be dealt with. we have lobbyists that stop it from happening. you have to look at it, it has to be revenues and it's got to be spending.

it can't be right away. if we deal now we can back load it. american public and corporations if we know where the potholes on the road are, we can brace ourselves or avoid them. >> this remarkable uncertainty, david, has been the problem for the next couple of years. we don't know what the next thin is. if we tell people what the next thing is, it might help individuals and companies plan. part of the problem we continue to get back into taking positions as political parties that seem to cater to particular constituencies. as a conservative, david, what is the solution out there that doesn't necessarily pander to a specific constituency that will get somebody the nomination for the republican presidency but at the same time will actually may solve some problems for the next five and ten years. >> you can't solve the problem if you keep asking the wrong question. >> right. >> the political problem in washington, fiscal policy, the government's finances. the issue is economic policies not fiscal policy.

we've got a patient, the american economy, suffering high blood pressure, the equivalent of the deficit problem and has been hit by a bus, which is the current downturn. everyone says no sense treating the trauma of the bus hit until we deal with the high blood pressure. i think that's exactly backwards. there's time to worry about the deficit. the world is happy to lend united states money for 10 years at less than 2%. i say keep borrowing that money as much as you can. use that money to address the immediate trauma of a country in crisis, incomes collapse. yeah, the deficit problem is not that difficult to solve, but do it later. solving it now to use one more analogy, how do you get down off an elephant. you don't you get down from a duck. we have to come up with useful answers. >> i agree with a lot of that, but back loading, putting america's house in order over 10 years not taking the pain up front is exactly what we need

and what ben bernanke -- i'm sorry. let me stop you. >> is there any evidence for that proposition? all the evidence i see is exactly the contrary. the uncertainty holding back the american economy that doesn't make sense to me. >> how many corporations have you talked to? i talk to companies with trillions on balance sheets and they are holding back, hesitation, that's a big issue. >> as a matter of fact, there are surveys out on this question where they ask business owners why are you not investing? uncertainty is not the reason they give. weak sales is the reason they give. >> in large corporate america -- i disagree. if you're talking small business -- >> i'm also -- >> systematic way that's not the answer you get. >> it is a systematic way. there are a lot of surveys out there that say uncertainty is the biggest issue, we have a crisis in confidence. growth i agree with you at the end of the day you cannot do anything without more robust growth. that is the crux of the issue and we agree 100%. i do think we saw in august with

the keystone cops playing politics that really caused, along with the downgrade of our debt, and european debt situation all come together, that caused a hesitation. >> that type of uncertainty than regularer to uncertainty is -- >> i'm not talking regulatory. >> i think we all agree, david, you made this point. we all know we've got remarkably low interest rates. the u.s. government can borrow money at a low rate, which is why deficit spending or borrowing against that could be a good solution for the short term for the united states. where that changes is with europe. we're tinkering around the edges, very concerned about what politicians are going to do in washington when in fact what's going on across the pond may be a greater concern. i want to take a break and come back with this great panel and discuss what role america should play, there are criticisms america is not doing enough to help europe and keep the world out of a global recession. a special edition of "your money" from the cme in chicago. [ sniffs ] i have a cold. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil

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welcome back to a special

edition of "your money" from the cme in chicago. the chicago mercantile exchange group, the floor of what used to be called the chicago board of trade, where things are traded. we'll tell you more about what goes on on this floor. it's a very exciting place to be, one of the few places you can see instant reaction to things around the world. economic announcement, what's going on in the stock market. there are real men and women down here trading things. we'll talk to you about that. my great friend christine romans is here. she started her career here as a reporter. she's going to be telling us about what's happening in the world of commodities, which are important to you. let's get back to the economy right now. we've been talking about politics in the united states and worried about what our candidates for office are going to be doing to fix this economy. there's a good argument so much of what's going on in the economy right now is not about what's happening in america but dependent on the rest of the world, particularly europe, which as a group is as large as the united states and our

biggest trading partner. europe's concerns continue to develop. christine lagarde, the former finance minister is now head of the international monetary fund. she says this is not europe's problem alone to solve. she said the whole world needs to be involved. listen. >> it's not a crisis that will be resolved by one group of countries taking action. it's going to be hopefully resolved by all countries, all regions, all categories of countries actually taking action. >> all right. we are joined by david frum in washington, cnn contributor and conservative columnist. with me in chicago diane swonk who is the chief economist at me zer ro financial and terry savage at the "chicago sun times." terry, let me start with you, it is trying enough for the average american, middle class american, trying to deal with their lives in this economy, to deal with whether republicans or democrats

with what they're doing with the economy and christine lagarde is saying solving europe's problem is the whole world's problem. i don't know how that will go over with your readers. >> it won't go over well. we are the largest contributor of the imf and the imf was created to help poor countries, germany and france don't qualify. american citizens are wondering what all this economic talk is about. first of all if you're a senior citizen, saved your money, government helping by keeping interest rates low, funding its own deficit. seniors are wondering where is the interest i was planning to live on. >> absolutely. >> younger people wonder, i'm paying 6.8% on my student loans, where the jobs that will help me repay those. people in 40s and 50s and thinking about retirement, scared to invest and worried about jobs. everyone knows someone out of work. the idea that the united states should be funding a bailout for european countries that can't get their own act together really turns people off. >> diane, americans are not happy they were funding bailouts of american banks.

although at the time and i think history will increasingly show, it was crucial and necessary. is it crucial and necessary we have a role in europe? and maybe it's not funding. >> we can't bail them out. that is not our purview, not our legal purview, not a political stomach for it nor should there be. we can't bailout europe. if europe goes down, the euro implodes it is an event larger than lehman for us and why it matters to us. we learned in 2008 there's no where to hide. unless you all have your oars in the water at the same time. you don't get out of it. there is this idea that christine is right about, lagarde, about we have to be part of the solution. being part of the solution isn't necessarily bailing out europe. there's no reason for us to bail out the european banks. however, our banks are exposed, underwritten cds. there's in the money market account in the u.s., very exposed to european banks. this is what went down on the might of the crisis of september

21st, 2008, and froze everything in the united states. >> by the way when american companies couldn't get credit because there was a global freeze they fired people. when people ask what does this mean to my credit card -- >> i said you are going to live in a cave if europe fails. >> we're not an island. that said, we cannot bail out europe. >> bernanke has said that he would stand behind the central banks of europe so -- >> he has. >> that's the important role. >> the dollar -- >> david brought up a few minutes ago, for our own problems in america, we have -- it costs us nothing to borrow money. david says like some say, at least to shore up our own finances and situation we should use some of the cheap money. david fromme, ron paul running for the presidency of the united states, feels opposite from the way you do. listen to what he said. >> we've bailed out about just about everybody when it comes to the banks and corporations. now it's europe. we're getting ready to bail out

greece and italy and spain and all of europe. it can't be done. it's unsustainable. we've already been downgraded once and we're on the verge of having our credit rating downgraded again. >> so david, before we get too carried away with this, the fact is there isn't an explicit conversation about america taking money and sending it to europe. but what role should america -- what should we be considering to make sure europe doesn't fail and we don't lose more jobs here in the united states. >> hit the mute button when ron paul talks. second, if you were unwise enough to leave the sound on the idea it is more sustainable to have a global depression, which is what is otherwise coming, than to help europe that's crackers. grandpa ron paul may welcome a depression and people sell apples for a silver nickel but not from anybody else's point of view. i would be in favor of european

bailouts if they were necessary. what is happening there, when christine lagarde says the world must help, that is only true if the european institutions refuse to do the job there. there's no necessity for american support of fiscal bailout if the europeans will be a monetary authority. the idea that the european central bank can't create enough euros they can create an infinite number of euros. they have all of them. how many do you want? it is the european central bank -- >> germany won't let them do it. >> sorry. who elected the germans to tell the european central bank what to do. >> believe me -- >> their refusal to do their job is the core of this crisis. >> thanks for the great conversation. teri, great to see you. >> always good to be here. >> personal finance editor of the chicago sun times, diane, the chief economist at me ser ro financial and david fromme,

joining us from washington. thanks for your great insights. we'll be back in a minute and talk about the middle class. who exactly is the middle class? who's the 1%, who's the 99%. you've heard a lot about it over the last several months. we'll get down to the bottom of it when we come back. you're watching a special edition of "your money" from chicago. ♪ now i'm a geologist at evron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wiress microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪

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welcome back to special edition of "your money." i'm ali velshi at cme in chicago, chicago mercantile exchange. this is the old floor of the chicago board of trade. you can see the traders down here, trading all sorts of things, commodities, treasuries, all sorts of things that matter to your life and affect your money actually get traded on this floor. christine romans with me just in the room next door in the agriculture pit probably trading hogs. this is where she got her start. a little while we'll talk about what goes on here and why it's important to you. right now we want to talk about something that's a concern to everybody watching us. who is watching the middle

class? this battle to be the champion of the middle class is under way. president obama made a number of comments recently, this latest one in kansas where he really claims the mantle of the champion of the middle class in this election cycle. here it is in his words. >> after all that's happened, after the worst economic crisis the worst financial crisis since the great depression, they want to return to the same practices that got us into this mess. in fact, they want to go back to the same policies that stacked the deck against middle class americans for way too many years. >> okay. if you're in the middle class in this country you listen to that, you think president obama is your money. the democrats are your people and republicans are going to go back to the same practices that got us all into the mess we are in today. guess what, if you listen to republicans, similar message. let's talk to will cain and pete dominick, the host of sirius xm standup. will cain a cnn contributor. will, how do you answer that charge? this is what we're bog to be

hearing month after month. republicans saying it's the democrats who kept us in this mess. democrats saying republicans got us into this mess. and are going to take us back there. what do you say? >> i reject the battle trying to find who is the champion of the middle class. i reject this concept of dividing according to class and say how are you doing compared to someone else. you're pan dering in that respect to a group as large as the middle class. what i would do is i would position the debate like this, position republicans as the defenders of a system, a system that has been one -- beneficiary for every single one of americans, every one of class, i would say stop asking yourself how are you doing compared to someone else but how are you doing? you would defend a system that moved more people out of poverty in the history of man than any system we've invented. >> wow, that's an interesting way to think about it, because we do set up ourselves up in society n work, in sports and everything we do where we compare ourselves to someone else or someone in a different

class. one of the things we've seen with the protests is the creation of a battle between us and them, 99% versus 1%. pete dominick, let me bring you into this battle. middle class is a strange creature in america. other countries you have rich, working poor and middle class aspirational. they have moved out of the working poor over the generations and try to get into the rich. you say that in america, particularly with the moniker of the 99%, it's a different beast? >> absolutely. i think ali it depends how you define middle class, $60,000 to $200,000 define themselves to middle class, prideful poor to the modest wealthy. but they are all part of the 99% in terms of the people that don't -- don't contribute to political campaigns. if you want to know who dictates legislation you have to find out who is contributing to political campaigns. you know what, yes, unions contribute a lot to political campaigns.

you know who contributes more to democratic campaigns, 0.1%. there's a new study that the sun life foundation just put out that said basically that turns out that twice as many democrats contribute to the campaigns, twice as many wealthy, the 0.01% contribute to democrats, i should say. it's not always who you think it is. who is dictating legislation, the people that contribute to the campaigns. easy to say republicans are the party of the rich but we need to know about who is contributing. >> let me ask will this then. however you define who the middle class is, this concept of pitching people against other people and comparing them we do know successful economies based on broad-based group of people who make enough money to educate themselves to live well, pay taxes that sustain the rest of the economy. what is the best argument for somebody running for office wanting to improve this economy right now if not arguing i am the champion of the middle class, what should the argument be?

>> you have to argue to reinforce the fundamentals of that system i described earlier, ali, the system that moved more men out of poverty. >> more out of poverty. >> fundamentals of capitalism. look, the argument pete i would suggest would make or many people like you had on this show today would make over the last 30 years we've had a divide, we've had a growing income inequality over the last 30 years. something has to be done. what has to be done. we've had broad economic shifts. we've had an economy in the united states to move to what is now a mature economy to one that did have a broad range of jobs. you have to focus on education in this relationship. how do we educate a population with an economy that moved into the future. it doesn't mean throwing more money into education. it means fundamentally reforming what education is. we've doubled it over the last 15 years, tripled it over 30 and seen marginal education attainment that's one of the main things to keeping an economy with the broad range of

taxpayers. >> unfortunately, will, in a tough economy like we have now, people worried about jobs and unemployment benefits running out, that isn't as sexy as the one that can make -- >> i'm not making a sexy argument. i know that. i'm just making the truth. >> but the republicans and democrats, whoever wants to win, they should throw the super wealthy under the bus and appeal to the rest of us and i agree we should focus on education but celebrate educating ourselves in this country and not being ignorant. this disdain in this country for academics. somehow they rely on government. private universities do not rely on government for their funding. we should celebrate ivy league experts not denigrate their expertise the way tea party and newt gingrich loves to do. that is wrong. >> i wish you two guys were running. i'd vote for one of you. for sure. will, you make it sexy just by talking about it. will cain, pete dominick.

listen, one of the things will was talking about, lifting people out of poverty, one of the things that's done that are unemployment benefits. are they going on for too long, are they helping or hurting? are they making people stay home and not look for work? that discussion, you're not going to want to miss it next on this special edition of "your money" from chicago. [ male announcer ] what if we told you that cadillac borrowed technology from ferrari to develop its suspension system? or what if we told you that ferrari borrowed technology from cadillac to develop its suspension system? magnetic ride control -- pioneered by cadillac, perfected in the 556-horsepower cts-v. we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs.

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and it's available free, wherever the web is. this is how trade strategies are built. tradearchitect. only from td ameritrade. welcome to better trade commission free for 60 days when you open an account. okay. we've talked about the middle class, taxes, now unemployment benefits, something you'll hear a lot about, again, over the next coming months. why are we continuing to have this discussion about unemployment benefits. let me give you a few facts. one, unemployment benefits extended at times. federal unemployment benefits since authorized in 2008 because of the financial crisis we're in. 17.6 million americans collected benefits over the past four

years, cost $185 billion to do that. extending them for another year estimated to cost another $44 billion. how should we be thinking about unemployment benefits which are meant to be an emergency thing? we've been going on for two years with them. i want to bring in two great friends, stephen moore editorial writer with "wall street journal," bob herbert, a senior fellow. steven is going to say something a lot of conservatives think and you are going to e-mail and tweet about how gri you are he said it and bob will try to calm you down. start with you, steven, a lot of conservatives are saying, some find it a distasteful comment, these are emergency benefits you can't keep them, it prevents some people from actively looking for work. >> i know your agenda here. it's to make me be the scrooge. bah humbug guy. let me say this, i have looked

at the data on this. i think the american people are compassionate. they want an unemployment system, maybe three, six, nine months of benefits so if they lose their jobs they have time and income so they can find a new job. how many times, seven times or something, we've extended these benefits. >> this will be the eighth. >> people can get up to two years of benefits. that's a long time, ali. i have looked at the evidence on this. it's pretty clear when you extend unemployment benefits, you extend the length of time people stay unemployed because you're giving them a payment to stay unemployed. >> let me ask you this. >> go ahead. >> let me ask you this. we know there are some 3 million advertised openings in the united states. we know 14, 15, 16 million people unemployed. ultimately there are going to be a bunch of people without jobs. there always have been. we've never gotten substantially lower than 5% in terms of unemployment. how do you deal with that? >> well, you have to have a pro

jobs issue. in fact, on this bill that we're talking about there's the keystone pipeline. why don't we create those 20,000 jobs like the president is supposed to. i want to say this. i travel a lot around the country like i know you do. you're in may favorite city chicago right now. when i talk to employers i'm priced how many times they say we can't find workers. that may surprise people with 9% unemployment. they say a lot of workers laid off they don't come back until their unemployment benefits run out. >> interesting. bob, what's your take on this? >> my take on this is there are an extraordinary number of people out of work and really hurting. the unemployment benefits, extended benefits they receive are the only thing that keeps them and their families away from destitution. so as a society, we have to make a decision on whether we want to continue providing those benefits for some term in the future or if we want to just cut them off. as far as the effect of unemployment on people looking

for a job, i think it has a small effect. i think a small percentage of jobless people will continue to receive unemployment benefits and will not step up their job search until those benefits run out but that's a very small percentage. a vast majority of people out of work really want desperately to get a job. >> is there a great middle ground between emergency unemployment benefits, not very much compared to what people typically earn and getting them off unemployment. what if we really put some thought to what stephen was saying, a whole bunch of people that don't find workers. maybe we have a lot of workers not trained in the right area. is there something to be said a well thought out system where some of the money going to provide unemployment benefits goes towards real training or relocation exercises to make people better equipped to handle this new economy? >> i don't buy that argument at

all. we know how many jobs are advertised as available. we know how many people are underemployed -- unemployed or serious underemployed. the ratio is about four to one. if you suddenly retrained all these folks or took away their unemployment benefits and put them out there on the job market they still would not be finding jobs. what we really need is a solution to the employment problem in this country. we have to figure out a way to fix the economy so that the economy provides enough jobs for all the people who want and desperately need to work. >> final word stephen to you. there is a consequence to getting people off unemployment if they do lose their homes, if they do -- we have more homes on the market, if these are unemployed people that become destitute and get involved in criminal activity. there is something to be said for not throwing them off unemployment and see if how

their luck carries them. >> six months i think is very reasonable. i'd ask bob how long do we extend these benefits. three years, four years of this has been a long recession. it's interesting, by the way, i think i got a little crack of an opening with bob today, where he basically acknowledged there is some negative employment consequence. larry summers as you know, he was the chief economist for barack obama, did a famous study a number of years ago where he did find pretty significant negative effects on this. let's get people to work. this is the christmas season. i think bob and i agree we need a positive job plan. i think the problem is here, we've had 9% unemployment for 2 1/2 years. it's a terrible job market. i agree with that. >> we're all agreed on that. i think everybody on unemployment insurance would rather have the option of a well-paying job to replace that. good to see you both. bob herbert, thanks very much for joining us. you stayed, stephen, something about a positive jobs plan. we agree on that. when we come back, one of our

great chicago friends in the city is going to help you get a positive jobs plan to try to fix your job search so it bears fruit in the new year. brad carr, standing by on the other side of the break. we're coming right back. paid-in-full discount. [yawning] homeowner's discount. safe driver discount. chipmunk family reunion. someone stole the nuts. squirrel jail. justice! countless discounts. now that's progressive. call or click today.

all right. you're watching special edition of "your money" right here in chicago at the cme, chicago mer can till exchange, old floor of chicago board of trade.

you can tweet me, @alivelshi, our job is to tell you what people are saying. it's to help you create a positive jobs program for yourself. we're going to do that right now. great friend christine romans one of her first jobs as a reporter was at the chicago mercantile exchange, over in the next room in the agriculture pits and she's got some information for you coming up on jobs. christine. >> thanks, ali. you're right corn options are right behind me. this is my old stomping ground. i'll tell you something in chicago the discussion about jobs, the discussion you just had how much longer we can continue to give jobless benefits in the country. the bottom line here is people are trying to find jobs. people are looking for where there are jobs in the economy and how to get them. brad karsh, a good friend to the show, both of us have used him in our books talking to people about how you can try to get a job. this is so interesting this time of year, you talk about a jobs plan. this holiday season is a little better than last year for job

seekers. newly unemployed the numbers are pretty clear, right, brad, that it's a little bit easier to get a job this year than last year. what do you need to be doing? telling our viewers what you need to be doing to get a job? >> speaking of this time of year, holiday theme this, don't be greedy this holiday season. a lot of job seekers want to hold out for the perfect job. if you've been out a job a week, a month, maybe hold out. if you've been long-term unemployed, you want to try to get a job, any job. i see people say i was a director, they will only make me a manager. my advice is prove it in the job, don't prove it in the interview. just get in there. >> just get in there. >> it's easier to have the discussion with hr once you've been there six months. >> if you have 5 million people roll off unemployment benefits you can't afford to wait too long for your old level. >> exactly. that's what a lot of people are doing. get in, do something. as long as you're not going to be miserable get in somewhere.

>> how can you use the holiday season to get in there, networks as an important opportunity, keeping up your social media connections. holiday parties, crass or savvy to be making those connections? >> well, i think it's never a bad idea to network. people definitely think or get worried they have to be a little too crass. people enjoy networking. they want to talk to friends, they want to hear what's going on and legitimately help you. >> you can't go right up under and say, hi, my name is christine, i'd like a job please right now. >> exactly. what you do is create a conversation, start talking about something. hey, listen, i'd like to chat a little about what you're doing, what you're up to, what's going on. what will happen, the conversation will evolve. what are you up to, brad. well, actually, now that you ask, i'm looking for something. create a conversation, talk about anything and the holidays a great time to start those. >> do you agree with me, there are two different categories, people newly unemployed and people long-term unemployed.

some of the strategies are different if you're out six months or longer? >> they are going to be very different if you're out six months or longer. if you're newly unem ploilds looks like there might be openingings more stuff going on, you can afford to be pickier, you can afford to not necessarily selling for any job. long-term unemployed you have to get something and more aggressive in the job search. >> ali, it's interesting, brad karsh was saying the trucking industry, ceos telling him, commercial real estate and insurance telling me they're ready to hire or very, very close to hiring in the new year. there you go. >> good. great advice. that is a positive job plan. brad, good to see you. christine, stay there. i've been promising our viewers what we're doing here in chicago and we're going to talk about commodities how they affect your life. they do. you use them all the time. eat them for breakfast, use them in the car, get to work, heat your house. stay with us. a special edition of "your money" right here in chicago. the markets never stop moving.

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okay. i have been telling you the whole show we'll tell you why we're here. this is christine's stomping ground. cme group, chicago america till -- chicago mercantile exchange, floor of trade, christine is in the next room called the ag pick. she's standing next to someone that looks like they may have the chick-fil-a cow on. explain what's going on here and why you're here? >> this is the allure of traders, you get the real flavor of what he does commodity futures seeing what his jacket is, people behind him saying moo out of love i'm sure. i'm here with scott. he's not only a trader, but also a family farmer. his family owns a farm. he really is connected with both the big picture of how the global economy affects what we pay at the grocery store and trade these commodities down to what it's like to be in the business. it's been a big year and start with farm prices, you're only one of three traders here who is a farmer too. farm prices unbelievable. i mean an acre of land is going

for prices people haven't seen since the '80s. huge jump in the third quarter for prices for farmland. why? >> there's a number of reasons. the first is we've had this big food inflation problem where the prices of everything going up. that's one great way to hedge big increase of investor action. hedge funds instead of buying products behind us, have come into the market and bought land inste instead. they see the future. we've had an incredible amount of money come to the ag world because they can't get a return on the equities and can't swallow the fact they have to pay 2% for a ten-year bond. >> and there is only so much land to go around. some of the farmland in the midwest is the richest in the world. >> the reason why i'm one of the last few guys down there who have a family farm is because the land prices are getting so expensive, it's pushing the smaller guy out. >> i want to talk about another thing that's a big topic of conversation. that's mf global. they're farmers who are brokerage accounts.

how has that affected the mood in commodity trading? eighth largest bankruptcy in the world. >> they have over 10,000 accounts. they're doing a ton of agriculture business. it's an old agricultural firm out of london. they are a key player in what we do down here. they absolutely brought a lot of this trading to a stand till. our volumes have dropped considerably. there isn't a light at the end of the tunnel yet. >> some guys are still waiting. farmers are still waiting to get their money too. it's been a really incredible year for commodities. explain to me about europe and the head winds from europe. people think about commodities as maybe the price they pay for a pound of meat at the grocery store. what's happening in europe, all of that factors into the price you're paying at the grocery store. >> as we lurch from headline to headline, that affects how strong the euro is with our dollar it makes our dollar look stronger, which makes it more expensive to buy our products.

>> anything that moves the dollar, moves this stuff. all this stuff is priced around the world in dollars. nice to see you. >> all right. thank you. >> down here at chicago board of trade. ali. >> what a great conversation. we have to remember when we talk about the world on finance and money, it's not around new york. it's not just stock markets. you got to get out in the midwest. this is where they grow the food for america. what a great conversation. christine, you're always in your element. more fantastic to see you in your element with you in chicago. i'll join you after the show. when we come back, i'm going to tell you a remarkable story about bill marriott. he's been at the helm of the company that bear his name for 40 of the last 60 years. before that, he was working for his dad, who founded the company. he's now handing over the reins. we're going say hi to bill when we come back. this is a special edition of "your money" from chicago.

you have all heard of

marriott, the hotel company. bill marriott has been the ceo of that company for 40 of the last 60 years that he has been involved with the company. it was founded by his father. he just announced in march of 2012, he's stepping aside from the ceo job. still going to be chairman of the company. the man who will become the ceo is another lifer. he's been there for 20 years. arnie sorenson. the current coo of the company. he's going to become the third ceo of marriott. we're going to have a lot of opportunities to talk. given the longevities of marriott ceos, we're going to talk a lot about the hotel business and what it means to the economy. i guess we're here to celebrate our good friend bill marriott. after 40 years, bill, i've been racking my brain to think about anybody else whose name is on the company of a public corporation who has been running that company like you have for this amount of time. do you have contemporaries of that sort? >> i don't think so.

it is interesting, the company is 85 years old in 2012. my dad was ceo for 45 years. i've been ceo for 40 years. there have only been two of us in 85 years. that's the interesting thing, i think. >> let's talk about you and hotels. you love the hospitality industry. what's different about it from when you worked in the company with your dad over those 40 years you were ceo to today. what's the same, and what's different? >> what's the same is taking care of people. we take care of our associates so they'll take good care of the customers and they'll come back. we're providing a good room, a good bed, a nice check-in experience. it sure has gotten to be complex. the internet has made it complex. the use of computers has changed the whole scene. the globalization of the industry has been huge and tremendous. we're now in 72 countries. we had ten new countries on the board the other day. it's really become a very big and complex company. >> arnie, one of your big

challenges is not just that globalization. i know you and other hotel companies are into expansion in places like china and other areas. one of the things marriott's been very involved in it making sure america continues to be a great destination, particularly for these tourists coming out of other countries. business travelers out of china and elsewhere. you have been lobbying the government of the united states to say, make it easier for people to visit the united states. make it more welcoming. >> that's absolutely right. we're at the cusp of a new golden age of travel. it's really driven by the fact we have tens of millions of new travelers from places like china and india. they're estimating we'll have 100 million people every year leaving china to go somewhere else on travel. the u.s. ought to get its fair share. >> arnie, final word. what's bill marriott not going to tell us about himself about how he managed to run the company for 40 years? >> bill marriott did a lot of things right. mostly, he listened to his people. thousands of associates across the company. he was trying to learn

everything he could learn from them every day that he worked, which he's still doing. listen to them, get their ideas, figure out which of those ideas are worth pursuing. then be willing to change and put those ideas into place. his ability to listen and inspire people has been profound. >> we have had many great conversations over the years that you and i will continue bill, we won't end our tradition of great conversations. we'll continue to have them. next time we talk, when we're not just celebrating your career, we'll talk about the economy and what you see going on with the hotel business. great to see both of you had congratulations on a remarkable career. bill marriott and arnie sorenson, continued success. >> thank you. >> that's it for our special show here from chicago. christine and i are here talking to people about our new book "how to speak money." we wrote it based on a lot of conversations we had had with you. pick up a book. we hope you enjoy it. we wan