welcome to "your money." i'm ali velshi. christine romans off this week. there are clear signs this economy has come out of a crisis, but we aren't out of the woods just yet. let me tell you what's happened. this week a federal reserve report found conditions improving in 11 of the 12 districts across the country. resa retail sales surged 1.6% in march, the fourth month in a row. that's a sign of improving consumer confidence. and the white house claims that the recovery act, the stimulus bill, has created or saved at least 2.2 million jobs through the first three months of this year. from when it started until the end of the first three months of this year. but the federal reserve chairman, ben bernanke, has stressed that it's going to take a long time to recoup job losses.

unemployment remains at 9.7%. it was 4.9% when the recession started. so the question is, does this recovery have legs? we're going to pose that question to "wall street journal" columnist and joanne lipman. folks, thanks very much for being here. i'm going to put my bias out there right now. i'm a confident guy. i think the economy is going to recover. i think that's where we're headed. but i'm also a journalist, as a couple of you are. and we've got to turn that stone over. we've got to say, there are mixed messages out there. so where are we headed? what can we tell our viewers about where we are in the recovery right now? john, let me start with you. >> look, there are some positive signs. this recession is two years old. it eventually does have to end. but most of your viewers are concerned about jobs, either jobs they've lost or jobs they worry about losing. this recession cost us 8.4 million jobs. now, just to keep up with population growth, we would have

had to add 2.7 million more jobs the last two years. so we're 11 million jobs in the hole. last month we had job growth. 162,000 jobs. but 40,000 of those were census jobs. we need -- those are temporary. we need 150,000 new jobs every month just to keep up with population growth. so ali, even though retail sales are up, we are still losing jobs because we have to create more to account for a higher population growth. >> steven, what do you think? >> ali, i agree with you that i think the economy has legs but i think they're very small legs. they may be sturdy and they may keep the economy growing at a relatively slow pace for, you know, sometime to come, i hope. but there are a couple of things about this recovery and about the recession that are different than things we've seen before. one was that it was caused by balance sheets. balance sheets exploded. and in the wake of that, we're not going to see very, very aggressive bank lending. that just will not happen.

the second thing -- and i know i sound like a broken record on this -- we're looking at rising commodity prices. index i follow which is this raw industrial index of the crb, there's no speculation in this, this is just a measure of what companies are paying among themselves for things like scrap steel, scrap iron, up 50% year over year. that's the fastest we've seen this index rise in at least 30 or 35 years. >> that's because there's demand in china. they're still building in india. they're building in brazil. they're building -- >> exactly, ali. and that building, unfortunately, is attacks to some extent on the american people. who would dream unemployment near 10% and you're paying $3 a gallon for regular gasoline. you know, that's a major tax and it's a major hurdle. >> joanne, let's put this all together. i think john is absolutely right. most of my viewers are concerned primarily with jobs and the

employment situation. stephen's right, we've got commodity price increases, we've got oil at $85 a barrel. we still have credit issues. what's your view on where we are right now? more positive? more negative? legs? short legs? what do you think this economy's about? >> i think the legs are short and wobbly, honestly. i'm in the skeptical camp. we have, in addition to all the factors we just talked about, you've still got major, major real estate issues. i'm not just talking about housing although it's a huge issue. there are something like 6 million homeowners now who are behind in their mortgages. there's 15 million homeowners who more to the bank than their houses are worth. and the foreclosure programs that the administration has put into place so far have really -- they've all flopped. and it looks like the most recent one doesn't look like it's going to be any more successful because the banks are revolting against it. then on top of that, ali, you've got commercial real estate issues. i think this is the big, big question for this year. we have been hearing for two

years that commercial real estate is in a bubble, and it's going to burst. and there's going to be huge repercussions. it hasn't happened yet. >> right. >> the reason it hasn't happened yet is because the borrowers have been able to renegotiate, have been able to hold on to their properties. they haven't had to sell them. >> borrowers in the commercial sector have been smarter than banks were with homeowners. they've sort of, because they've seen this coming, they've tried to dull the pain a bit a little bit. >> they're holding on to their property. so you're not seeing it in the open market. >> yeah. >> but you know what? it's not a sustainable position. unless real estate prices rise, you've got huge issues with your malls and your hotels. >> okay. >> you know, all of your commercial property. your office buildings. and there is no sign of those prices coming up right now. >> what i've got from the three of you, we're in a recovery, but, dot, dot, dot. what you all are are people who know about business and the

economy. we know the dow is up 58% since it bottomed out in 2009. we know interest rates are remarkably low and even though they're likely to go up, they're still pretty cheap. let's just talk now about opportunities for my viewers. what exactly can you do to get the positive side of this equation into your bank account, into your real estate or into your job. let's start with you, john. >> well, i'll be honest with you. the stock market is going up in part because, look. your viewers are not going to put their cash under a mattress. it's got to go somewhere. and the stock market is paying a lot better than cds and bank deposits. i think that frankly one of the best plays is municipal bonds. even though states like california and new york have shaky bond ratings, i'm sure they're ultimately going to get paid off, and those are paying 6%, 7% tax free. >> i think that's a much riskier strategy than it had been in the past. i mean, if you look at -- look at our states and towns and how many of them are in deep fiscal crisis. i mean, you've got 41 states that have budget gaps right now. so you're really --

>> states can't go bankrupt. >> yes, they can't. but you've got states and municipalities that are in deep, deep trouble. you know, you're going to have to raise taxes or cut services even further in order to, you know -- >> hey, stephen, i've got 15 seconds left. you tell me what you think our viewers should do. >> ali, i think you have to overweight commodities, probably overweight gold. i'm not saying 100% in gold, but you have to have at least 10% or 15%. i mean, there's just a flood of dollars, a flood of euros, a flood of currencies from every developed country in the world. china has indicated, though bleakley, that they are aggressive buyers of gold. there's an aggressive bid under the market. i think it pays for everyone, although i think it's getting better like you do, it still is extremely risky to at least put a few, if not gold, then silver under your mattress at night. just so you can feel a little bit better when you go to sleep. >> stephen, john and joanne,

we've spoken over the last couple years. i'd rather be in this situation where we've got different views on where things are going than a year ago when we all had exactly the same view of where we were in the economy. to our viewers i say these three folks know what they're talking about, taking the advantage to read up a little bit about what they're all suggesting you do with your money to try and take advantage of what will ultimately be a recovering economy. thanks so much to you, john fund, joanne lipman and stephen leeb. next, one of the things they touched on is the housing market. it's confusing. what does it mean to the recovery and how do you take advantage of it? and plus, how should you be investing your money right now? we're going to go a little deeper into that when we come back. [ male announcer ] when we built our first hybrid,

youtube didn't exist. and facebook was still run out of a dorm room. when we built our first hybrid, more people had landlines than cell phones, and gas was $1.75 a gallon. and now, while other luxury carmakers are building their first hybrids, lexus hybrids have traveled 5.5 billion miles. and that's quite a head start. ♪ [ advisor 1 ] what do you see yourself doing one week,

one month, five years after you do retire? ♪ client comes in and they have a box. and inside that box is their financial life. people wake up and realize i better start doing something. we open up that box. we organize it. and we make decisions. we really are here to help you. they look back and think, "wow. i never thought i could do this." but we've actually done it. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. if you follow the housing market as closely as i do, you're finding mixed signs.

prices for homes are stabilizing. sales are going up. but foreclosure filings are on the rise. the first three months of this year, 16% higher than the first three months of last year. so where are we headed with this? chris mayer is from columbia business school. good to see you again. thanks for being with us. >> good to see you, ali. >> first, foreclosure filings are up, but this is different from the first run of foreclosures that we had a couple of years ago. those were triggered by loans resetting, much higher interest rates, people not being able to afford their payments. this is largely because people have been hit by the recession and lost their jobs. >> yeah. i think what we're seeing now is, you know, part of it is the delay. remember banks basically slowed down their foreclosures, believe it or not. you've got over 5 million people who are 60 days or more delinquent in their home. and even though the unemployment rate seems to have stabled, there's still a lot of -- you know, there are people who are going out of the labor market and people are coming in. that leads to more problems. >> but we have seen, if you look at it by the numbers, we've seen

home prices stabilizing starting to go up, remarkably low interest rates continue. they started to tick up a little bit. the fed is doing some things that means they're not giving as much money to fannie mae and freddie mac to give to banks. where do you see this going? >> well, i actually -- although the economy is important, i think rates and credit are just enormously -- an enormously big issue for housing. we watched the housing market start to pick up prices anyway from the summer of last year when the fed had really intervened and brought rates down. >> right. so they put money into these agencies that buy mortgages from banks. and as a result, rates went down for a 30-year fixed mortgage, it was down to 4.6% at some point. >> yeah. we're still below 5.25%. but i think we are in a range where if those rates tick up further, you might say, well, what's another half a percent? the problem is that increase of a half percent in rates could be the cost of owning a home by between 5% and 10%.

that's the equivalent of a drop in a demand of that much, i don't think we're sitting in such stable shape that we could handle that kind of an increase. so -- >> but people do think -- people who follow rates very closely do say, we don't know whether house prices are going up or down. we definitely know rates are probably going up. some people say that 5.25% could become, like you say, 5.75% or 6% by the end of the year. >> yeah, i think there's enormous risk at the moment of rates rising. this is something the fed doesn't have control over directly. because loan rates have started rising, even though the fed hasn't raised its discount rate at all. >> good news if you've got a house that's under water. you may think prices are starting to go up. but people waiting to buy a house who have access to credit, they might be thinking prices are going to come down a little bit and i'm going to wait for that to get into the house. but as we've discussed before, if rates go from where they are now to 5.75% or 6%, the cost of owning that house over 30 years is going to increase significantly even if the price

of the house drops a little bit. >> yeah, i think you're at a point where if you're looking at a home that you're going to live in for a while, this is a tremendous opportunity to buy a house. probably not much down side on rates unless the economy really tanks. but boy, there's, you know, there's significant risk on the up side. if you can lock that in for 30 years and get an affordable payment, you know, the economy sort of improves a little bit. it's a good deal. >> yeah. and even people who think the economy is not fully on its feet yet don't think that interest rates are going down. chris, good to talk to you. chris mayer is the paul millstein professor of real estate at columbia university. april 15th has come and gone. did you get the return done? now what? if you e-filed, you'll get it quickly. if not, you'll get it a little later. we'll tell you exactly what you should do with that money when we come back.

a guy nafor 65 dollars.ce, wants a room tonight we don't go lower than $130. big deal, persuade him. okay. $65 for tonight. you can't argue with a big deal. and you can get a big deal on last-minute flights, too.

while everyone else's prices are on the rise, priceline finds the empty seats to save you up to 50% off published fares when you name your own price. big last-minute savings from the home of the big deal. ever wish you knew a retirement expert? let's meet some. retirement's a journey an@l we know the territory. we're chartered retirement planning counselors at td ameritrade. we're trained. we're seasoned. experienced. we'll help you with rollovers. consolidating old accounts. opening new ones. guiding you through paperwork. we're li0é retirement co-pilots. call us soon. when you're ready, we're here. time for fresh thinking. time for td ameritrade.

i thought after tax day we wouldn't be talking about returns anymore, but they're done hopefully. maybe you filed for an extension. maybe you're getting a big refund and excited about it. doug flynn joins me now. he said if you're excited about getting a tax refund, you are doing something very, very wrong. he's here. we're also joined by ryan mackey, president of optimum capital management. these two are going to tell you what you do if you've got a refund coming to you. doug, you feel that if you're getting a refund or you owe more than $1,000, you're doing something wrong. you're not withholding the right amount from your paycheck. >> yes, a lot of people don't realize that the w-4 form you signed when you first took your job, it doesn't have to be the one that you keep on file for the rest of your working career. you can change that from time to time. as your life situations change, you get married, you get divorced, you have children, your tax withholding is going to

adjust. so what you want to do is you don't really want to give the government a bunch of money to hold for you throughout the year. and then get it back in a big refund. unless you aren't disciplined enough to save throughout the year. >> all right. ryan, let's talk about i.r.a.s. what role should they be playing in people's lives right now? >> i definitely think the i.r.a., you can reduce your living expenses, reduce your debt and powerful ways to reduce your taxes. and the i.r.a. is essentially allowing yourself to get a tax-deferred savings plan and a tax deduction if you have a traditional i.r.a. in order to make sure you're maximizing wealth and accumulating wealth in the most responsible way. research says the top 400 income earners in the u.s. had about a 16.7% proportion of tax rate of their income. well, for those individuals who might not be billionaires, they still have ways to maximize their wealth. so the i.r.a. is a great tool to use in addition to your 401(k) because it's a great way to get tax deductions and save money in

a good tax-deferred strategy. >> when you invest in mutual funds, doug, on some levels you want your agnostic to what the market is doing. you want a good fund that follows the investment strategies that you believe in. so what should my viewer be thinking right now about their investment strategy versus what the market is expected to do in the next few months? >> well, a lot of people just did their i.r.a. contribution because they're doing their taxes. and so if you can get some money into the i.r.a. throughout the year, that's another big advantage to trying to fix your withholding. but when you're investing, you now have to choose what to invest in. and so some of the things that you want to do, you want to make sure right now if your portfolio has drifted, what a lot of people do is they look in the paper or look on morningstar and look at what just did the best over the last 12 months. they get out their 401(k) statement and look for the highest returning funds over the last 12 months. the problem with that now is that things that returned the most over the last year are some of the lower quality and more aggressive securities. so if you chase them now at this

high point in the market relative to where we were, you could be chasing last year's winners. the things that are likely to do better going forward are higher quality, you know, more dividend paying. and those don't necessarily show up as the highest returns right now when lure looking at options inside your plan. so look at that going forward. >> ryan, 15 seconds. give me a mutual fund pick and stocks our viewers should look at. >> i like the t. rowe price equity income. they have a great team of analysts backing them up. also as doug said, they try to get good dividend yielding stocks as well. again, if you're the long-term investor, mcdonald's is a great stock right now. you might not be able to get the large return, but they're kicking a 3.2% dividend yield. you might be a little risk on capital appreciation if the market does fall. but you'll still have a good long-term play for the good five, ten-year-plus investor. >> good to have you here, as always. good friends of ours, ryan mack and doug flynn.

next, big, big news on dpoe goldman sachs. we'll have details. from paying at the pump to products on store shelves, how much you pay is directly influenced by the price of oil. so where are oil prices headed and your expenses along with them. stay with us. ♪

(announcer) we all want to stay active. we don't want anything... ...to slow us down. but even in your 30s... ...your bones can begin to change. overtime, you can begin to have bone loss. calcium and vitamin d work together to help keep your bones strong. and yoplait gives you... ...20% of your daily calcium... ...and is the only leading yogurt with vitamin d in every cup. keep your bones strong every day... ...with yoplait. hey what's going on? doing the shipping. man, it would be a lot easier if we didn't have to weigh 'em all. if those boxes are under 70 lbs. you don't have to weigh 'em. with these priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service, if it fits it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. no weigh? nope. no way. yeah. no weigh? sure. no way! uh-uh. no way. yes way, no weigh-ing. priority mail flat rate box shipping starts at $4.95, only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship.

[ music playing, indistinct conversations ] the charcoal went out already? [ sighs ] forget it. [ male announcer ] there's more barbeque time in every bag of kingsford charcoal. kingsford. slow down and grill. ( tires squealing ) to have bad tires. come to meinekand save $20 on two or more tires. at meineke, you're always the driver.

big story this week, goldman sachs charged with fraud by the securities and exchange commission. it's not every day you heard the words goldman sachs and fraud in the same sentence. allan chernoff joins us now to help us break down the story. i'm going to warn you ahead of time, it's complicated, but it's important. allan. >> we're going to make it simple. first of all, obviously a huge embarrassment for goldman sachs, the most envied firm on wall street. the securities and exchange commission is saying that

goldman engaged in fraud essentially by deceiving investors and playing two hands. here is exactly what happened. this all involved mortgage-backed securities, investments in mortgage-backed securities and an investment pool put together to track a group of these mortgage securities, okay? so on the one hand goldman put together investors. now, they were buying into this investment based on the mortgage securities in subprimes, not high-quality mortgages, okay? on the other hand, goldman also was doing business with a giant hedge fund, paulson & company, and that firm was actually betting against some of these mortgage securities. goldman told the investors that a third party was picking the mortgages in this investment while, in fact, paulson, which was betting against these mortgage securities, was involved in selecting which mortgages were in there. so the sec is saying a conflict of interest here, a case of

fraud. >> where are we in this as we know? the sec has filed charges. the sec charges are civil charges. they're not criminal charges. >> that's right. that's all sec charges are civil charges. the sec has no criminal jurisdiction. this has just come out, just came out on friday. but clearly a very big embarrassment for goldman sachs which has been saying we did nothing wrong. as a matter of fact, have a look at "businessweek" from just a couple of weeks ago. in this issue, goldman says, hey, you know, we've gotten a lot of blame for the collapse of the housing market, for the aig problems, for being in bed with aig. hey, we were just doing business. we did nothing wrong. the sec now begs to differ. >> in fairness to goldman sachs, on a lot of fronts, that's true, they were doing business, but this is a specific thing that the sec is charging. that is not business as usual. >> exactly. the sec is saying, look, you know, you cannot tell your investors that a third, independent party is picking the mortgages that are going to be

in your investment when, at the same time, you've got a hedge fund that's betting against these investments, and you're doing business with them. you know, you can't have it both ways. >> all right, allan, thanks for a clear explanation on what's going on with goldman sachs. allan chernoff and our team will continue to follow this story. tune in. i'll be on cnn monday to friday 1:00 p.m. eastern. we will continue to follow any developments in this story. on to another story that's of a lot of interest to you, the price of oil. groceries, tires, television, home improvement products, you name it, the price of oil affects how much you pay for it. but it could also hurt our economic recovery. in toronto, jeff rubin, he's the author of "why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller." an expert on oil. jeff, good to see you again. >> good to see you, ali. >> 85 bucks for a barrel of oil and we're still not officially able to say that this recession is over. most people think it is, but it's 85 bucks. and we're in a tight spot with oil. stephen leeb was on earlier. he says look at china, india. they are using more oil. he thinks the price of

commodities including oil are going to go up. you agree with him. >> absolutely. you know, it was only two or three years ago that today's world oil price would have been an all-time record high. now it's where oil trades when most oil-consuming economies of the world haven't even recovered from where they were before the recession began. so i believe that we're going to see triple-digit oil prices by as soon as the fourth quarter this year. and by next year, we're going to be assailing that $147 a barrel high watermark that we set in 2008. >> wow! >> where we go from there, that's a pretty open question. >> on some levels we've changed some of our behavior, some of our driving behavior in the united states. for instance, $3.50, $4 oil did that, right? it took us off of those suvs as much as we were dependent on them. have we changed our behavior enough to manage $4 or higher gasoline? >> probably not quite enough. and there's going to be one other big factor and one big difference. our first encounter has left us

with the largest fiscal deficit since world war ii. >> yeah. >> i mean, not only do we not have room to do that again, but just as we're going to hit those triple-digit oil prices, we're going to have to start paying back those deficits. that's going to be akin to the government having its foot floored on the accelerator to slamming on the brakes. we don't have the room to run up those deficits again. >> is there danger? in history oil price spikes have triggered recessions. this one wasn't triggered by an oil price spike. it was a very unusual recession. are we worried about double dipping or somehow having a problem with our economic recovery because of the increased price of oil that you are predicting? >> it's not clear to me that the world economy is any better to handle $147 barrel of oil next year as it was back in 2008. i think what we're going to see is, we're going to keep running into the ceiling of triple-digit oil prices causing back-to-back

recessions until we start to reengineer our economies. and i think that's what's going to happen. >> boone pickens tried to do that with wind and natural gas. others have tried it with solar. if we get up to $100 or beyond in oil, guys like stephen leeb and i think you agree say that that stimulates production of alternative energy. that's been stymied a little bit because oil prices went down. >> it will, ali. it's all a matter of time. if we have 10, 15 year, there's no question we'll develop new technology. unfortunately, our rendezvous with triple-digit oil prices isn't in 10, 15 years. it's maybe in 10, 15 weeks. so instead of trying to figure out how to turn cow dung into high-octane fuel, we've got to learn to get off rogue, and that's exactly what we're going to do. >> give me something for my viewer to work with. okay, we're going to get hit by this high price of oil and everything we buy, ship and drive, is there some way i can make money off this? >> i think there's a lot of ways

you can make money on this. i think we're going to find there's a lot of silver linings. i think you'll find a lot of industries that we naught were gone forever, everything from steel to farming is soon going to be coming back. not just in america, but in a whole lot of places. >> jeff, good to see you. jeff rubin is author of "why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller." controversial but worth reading. >> take care. students in another country spending less time in school but doing better in math and science than in the united states. find out where and what we should be doing to fix our schools coming up next. [ advisor 1 ] i have clients say

it's really hard to save for the future and they've come to a point where it's overwhelming. [ advisor 2 ] oh gee, i'm scared to tell you i've got this amount of credit card debt or i've got a 15-year-old and we never got around to saving for their college. that's when i go to work. we talk, we start planning. we can fix this. i know we can do it. when clients walk out of my office they feel confident about their retirement. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach.

students in hong kong spend less time in school than students in the united states. yet, they often outperform their american peers in reading, math and science.

what's the secret? kristi lu stout checks it out. ♪ >> reporter: this hong kong junior is at ease at the keyboard and with the college boards. on the s.a.t.s he scored a whopping 790 in reading and 770 in math. 99 and 98 percentile scores. the secret, his after-school tutors. >> i'm doing pretty well at school in no small part thanks to these tutors. >> reporter: he spends four hours a week with tutors at hong kong's kelly yang project. >> there's the myth that every chinese kid is good at math, but aside from that, i think it's just that they have the access to the school, to the extracurricular activities, which are going to be helping them with these different subjects. and there's also a lot of priority at home for them to do well. and their parents won't take "b" for an answer. >> reporter: students in hong

kong spend less time in school than students in the u.s. and yet they often outperform their american peers in reading, math and science exams. why? it may all come down to tradition. i'm at hong kong's temple, and this is the confucion hall which honors the philosopher and his philosophy of self-improvement. researchers say it's the chinese tradition of emphasizing education that is the top factor behind hong kong's top scores. this man has been stud yg the education system here for more than 20 years. >> hong kong and this region at the confucius society is very test oriented. there's a heritage of that. but there are also some other pragmatic reasons why. if you pass examinations, you get into better schools, get into better universities. >> reporter: with such an intense emphasis on getting into that better university, tutoring is huge in hong kong. according to a recent survey, more than half of hong kong students get private tutoring. >> the entire hong kong school

community is very, very competitive. when i go to the u.s., for example, or even the uk, i find that people are a lot more relaxed. >> reporter: he's not happy with his s.a.t. writing score, a mere 680. mind you, that's a 94 percentile performance. kristi lu stout, cnn, hong kong. >> sounds to me the fix is in getting people to want to do better in school. how do we fix america's schools? we're posing it to hal sparks, you know him well, something of an expert on china, roland martin, our cnn analyst. hey, roland, kristi lu stout was talking about the things that seemed to set these students apart. it is a test-oriented culture. there's a competitive demand to get into the good universities. there is private tutoring. they find americans and westerners too relaxed. sounds to me like we're failing on all fronts.

>> well, first off, i think we're failing in certain areas of the country, in certain areas of cities. frankly, you talk about the students, but the folks behind the students. do you have two-parent house ho holds, a mother and father with high expectations. also there's an assumption that people responsible for educating are just the teachers when in reality, you're educating a child before they go to school, when they're at school and when they come home from school as well. when my wife and i took over the care of my four nieces because two of them were two grade levels behind, we had them in essence in a 24-hour education boot camp. we didn't allow any moment to pass where they simply skipped over something, allowing them to use incorrect english because like oh, it's just the weekend. it's having high expectations from day one and following through but you've got to be an involved person in your kid's education. >> let's ask hal.

you know a lot about chinese culture. >> it's true. i don't think necessarily the parental involvement is as big a structure there is that they really do look at education is something that's good for the country. there is a distinct section of the pop ulist in our country an there is also an element of the parents, again, roland was referring to the idea of a two-parent household being the ideal. that's not dealing in, i think, reality as it is on the ground. sure, that might be an ideal we hope for, but it's not something you can actually legislate. what you can do is fund and create after-school and preschool programs. >> but this is the problem with the education conversation. it is not just about legislation. >> it has to be. >> no, it's not. >> it has to be because we can control that part of it. we as a collective can actually do something about. >> no. but, again -- >> parenting. >> you give a perfect example. a few years ago i was on a program. we were talking with jonathan kozal. >> he's a writer who has

written -- if you want to read anything about education in this country, this guy has put it out there. >> jonathan kept talking about, it's about funding, legislation. his was interesting. you had reverend floyd who said wait a minute, jonathan. in my particular school, the average dollar spent per kid, $5,400. this is what jonathan said. well, reverend, in your case, you're a charismatic leader. so you have a different ideal for how you actually want the students to perform. point there is, it is simply not just about money. the point i'm making is -- and i saw it myself -- when you have parents who say it's just your job, then you fail. but if you don't have somebody who is saying, look, i am in partnership with you -- if i don't go to a pta meeting, if i don't follow through on education when a kid gets home, what they learned at school is a waste. >> roland is the exception -- roland's the exception to the rule. he takes responsibility for other people's kids doing the right thing. the question, hal, is what do you do --

>> it's holistic. >> i agree, but again, you can't legislate that part of it. i can't take care of how people parent their kids but i as a taxpayer and as a citizen can go, okay, the structure of our education system has to be such that the kids that only come from single-parent homes end up in as good a position as the kids without that. and that's part of what we have to focus on. >> i've got to end it there. this is a good conversation. roland, we're not going to sort it out today. i've got to go pay the bills. roland, good to see you, as always. thanks very much. and hal sparks, sticking around for another block. stay with us. >> all right. coming up next, it's a reality check. is too big to fail a real concept or a successful product of a spin machine? listen to this. that's your livelihood back there, ok. so you're gonna wanna keep it from swaying back and forth like hippies around a campfire. no sweat. introducing the all new 2011 super duty. it's got the most towing power and now, an advanced trailer sway control system. and it's standard.

yeah, that'll take the white outta your knuckles. kumbaya, baby. the all-new super duty. time for new zyrtec® liquid gels. they work fast. so i can get relief from the pollen that used to make me sneeze. with new zyrtec® liquid gels, i get allergy relief at liquid speed. that's the fast, powerful relief of zyrtec®, now in a liquid gel. zyrtec® is the fastest 24-hour allergy medicine. so i'm ready by the first hole. with new zyrtec® liquid gels, i can love the air®.

[ male announcer ] this week only, save up to $12 on zyrtec® products at zyrtectv.com and in sunday's paper. national car rental knows i'm picky.

so, at national, i go right past the counter... and you get to choose any car in the aisle. choose any car? you cannot be serious! okay. seriously, you choose. go national. go like a pro.

time now for "reality bites," our reamount check of some of the smaller bite-sized stories out there. joining us, rachel sklar. first off, economic recovery. we've heard about this various whatever you want to call it, green shoots, signs our economy is shifting back into gear. job growth in january and march increased consumer confidence and sales, all sorts of things, stock market's up. are we really recovering, or are guys like me just thrilled to not be thought of as profits of doom and happy to talk about any positive report that comes out on the economy? rachel, let's start with you. >> you know, the green shoots are popping up. it's hard to miss them now. consumer spending has been up for the past three months. you know, big-ticket items like cars have been up a lot. especially since toyota slashed prices on all the automakers slashed to match them. all of a sudden there's an incentive to buy cars. things do seem to be happening. i think, you know, the economy's like a giant oil tanker.

hard to turn around but once it's moving. >> but once we change course and we see the horizon in the right direction, we do get excited about it, hal. >> it's true. >> i have to tell you, i'm much happier reporting on the potential for good economic news than i am of the likelihood of a bad economy. >> no question. i certainly see more grins around this place than i did the last time we talked about this particular issue. and then, gee, what was the number last year about this time in the stock market? nearly half of what it is? >> yeah. we're up 16%. >> i would hardly call that a green shoot even. i would call that a full-blown forest, god's tear on eden. jobs lag behind. that's always the case. it will be a big, important issue. but i don't think you can disregard it. >> i would say part of the issue is that it doesn't all seem fair. it doesn't seem fair when the economy's going down or when it comes up. i think that's part of how you contextualize it.

let's move on. at a congressional meeting this week president obama addressed what he hopes to achieve through financial regulatory reform. listen to this. >> i'm actually confident that we can work out an effective, bipartisan package that assures that we never have too big to fail again. >> is there really such a thing as too big to fail, or did the media buy into that hype during the financial crisis? i mean, honestly, hal, why couldn't something actually fail? >> well, no. it has to. and companies actually internally take care of this particular issue in that they firewall certain departments financially and in regard to how they drive their business in case one section of their business starts to collapse. so that it doesn't take the rest with it. there is no reason why the government wouldn't protect the economy in a similar way. so absolutely, this is something that has to be dealt with. >> what do you think, rachel? >> you know, i think it's really

easy to look backwards know now and forget just how scary september 2008 was. it really was. in hindsight it was the right call to let lehman cut the it loose and let it go considering all they were doing behind the scenes. letting aig go really was scary. too big to fail? i think what's clear is that you can't allow too big to fail to happen. is there such a thing? >> right before it happens, yes. >> there is such a thing as too big to fail. >> no question. >> the issue is making sure we don't have too much of that around. >> any of it anymore, quite frankly. >> you vindicated me. i love it. stay right there. is cashing in on tweets going to cost twitter its fan base? first, mounting debt is a growing problem for small business owners. after a costly move to a new location the owners of a new jersey print shop were bury under a pile of bills they couldn't pay. the husband and wife team found their creditors were actually willing to listen.

here's allan chernoff. >> reporter: it may not look like much but this trash-filled 15-acre lot is what drew jerry and donna toner to the stroore front across the street that now houses their printing business. construction was about to begin on a large condominium and retail complex in ft. lee, new jersey. more than two years later, the site remains empty. >> we moved up here thinking this is great we could share resources and have visibility to the new complex across the street. no sooner than we moved in, they pretty much went bankrupt and it's been an empty lot since. >> reporter: the hub print and copy center does everything from print letterhead to make keys to ship and receive mail. without development across the street, business dropped off. bills added up, debt piled on. the toners watched restaurants, hair salons and nail shops close around them. some of their biggest clients went under, too.

>> we have to fight to get our money. meanwhile people want to get paid from us and sometimes we have to wait to get paid in order to pay. >> reporter: enter jerry silverman founder and ceo of corporate turnaround. silverman's company helps small businesses deep in debt negotiate with their creditors. the toners enlisted his help 18 months ago. silverman says the toners' problems are common among small business owners. >> all of our customers have dire situations. they all are looking for a way out of debt. these people want to pay their bills. they just can't afford to pay their bills. that's a difference between a debtor and a dead beat. >> reporter: they helped the toners prioritize their debt and struck deals with some creditors. they worked out a payment plan for the remaining debt. now don and jerry are cautiously optimistic. business has picked up this spring. the town recently received proposals from four different developers interested in the lot across the street. >> if i can get through this, this little recession or

whatever they want to call it, if i can survive this, i'll be okay on the other end. >> reporter: allan chernoff, cnn. aflac is not pay the hospital insurance. aflac is not pay the doctor insurance. aflac is not major medical insurance. aflac is affordable-we-pay-cash-directly- to-you-fast-when-you're-sick-or- hurt-insurance. if all you know about us is... duck: aflac! ...then you don't know quack. to find out all the ways aflac's got you covered, visit knowquack.com. [ male announcer ] we call it the american renewal. because ge capital understands what businesses need to grow. that's why today ge capital provides critical financing to more than 300,000 growing companies. ♪

♪ [ male announcer ] what are you gonna miss when you have an allergy attack? benadryl® is more effective than claritin® at relieving your worst symptoms and works when you need it most. benadryl®. you can't pause life. youtube didn't exist. and facebook was still run out of a dorm room. when we built our first hybrid, more people had landlines than cell phones, and gas was $1.75 a gallon. and now, while other luxury carmakers are building their first hybrids, lexus hybrids have traveled 5.5 billion miles. and that's quite a head start. ♪

twitter announcing sponsored tweets this week. is it going to turn off the social networking site's fan base? twitter will be experimenting with some paid tweets that will show up at the top of your list. rachel, you are a very active twitter user. do you have an opinion on this? >> well, i don't want it to

affect sort of the enjoyment out of my tweet stream. these are words you feel you need to put air quotes around. you're thinking about user experience. will the user experience be interfered with? on my blackberry there are ads in there, i don't notice them. your eye learns quickly what to go to. >> it's one more thing to ignore on the internet. we really have become good at this. the internet has slowly become like a shopping district in hong kong. there are so many lights and so many signs that after a day, the first time you're there, oh, my god, this is so overwhelming. but then you don't see them anymore. >> the ads with a google search come up on top. twitter is unique in the internet in its own web page, being nothing about a user experience. people who like the experience do it because of the content or

they use some third party software to do their tweeting. twitter almost looks like it was designed in somebody's basement. and continues to be run out of somebody's basement. >> right. >> i think the most important thing is the content. you hit it. what remains important is the authenticity of the person who is using twitter. the person you're following. transparency, if they themselves are being sponsored. >> ultimately pushing them to the top doesn't force anybody who watches to be involved with that twitterer or care more. ultimately, it may make them hostile to that person. >> i was almost going to say it almost goes away from the democratization of social media. >> exactly. >> to know i'm going to see a starbucks tweet at the top. then it might give me some offer that makes me go to starbucks. i'm certainly a creature of somebody -- of suggestive advertising. you might see my coffee input increasing or something. rachel, you don't think it fundamentally damages the brand? >> this is not the first time

twitter has -- their suggested user list was thrown wide open for all sorts of corporations and sort of like big names at the beginning. that's where you see the wide disparity. the people who initially had the giant following. >> ashton kutcher had 3 million followers. you have to uncheck his name when you sign up. that didn't translate to more people showing up to see "spread," his most recent film. the demockty -- you follow somebody because you want to follow them and you like their tweets because of the consistency. >> and you engage. it's engagement that's important. >> if they want to follow you guys. >> at halsparks and she is at rachel sklar. >> i'm at ali velshi. you can check out hal's comedy special. june 4th. also on dvd. christine will be back next week. until then join our running conversation on facebook and twitter. join us every week for "your money" saturdays at 1:00 eastern and sundays at 3:00.