claimed his sixth french open. the victory, nadal's tenth grand slam success, means he remains number one in the world of tennis. national unemployment remains above 9%. what can experienced workers do to get back on the job? in one hour, we'll give you four easy tips to reclaim your career. in the meantime, stay with cnn. "your money" starts now. the economic recovery may be losing steam, but is it the time to hit the panic button. i'm ali velshi. welcome to "your money." jobs, only 54,000 of them added in may. that's simply not enough. housing. it's that fear of double dipping in home prices. home prices hitting another new low in the first quarter of this year. down more than 5% over the same period last year.

these two are weighing heavily on wall street. your investment, your 401(k), your ira. the dow had its worst day of the year this week after losing all the month of may. diane is chief economist at mesirow financial. >> some of it is transitory related to the japanese earthquake, but oil prices also weighed heavily on employment. we saw lots of discretionary type spending, leisure. those areas saw energy prices taking a toll on employment where many had to cut employment because they were unable to pass on wage increases, and you know it when you go to the store. i'm waiting in longer lines at the stores because fewer people to wait on you. we will see that automakers are

pleased to see how fast japan is recovering on its supply chain. the bad news is the headwinds persist. lots of pink slips for teachers also came through in the month of may. >> diane, you hear this in the media a lot, that 150,000 jobs created every month just to get back to where we were before the recession. we need more than 250,000. here's a chart of what's happened over the last year. a year ago, we were losing jobs. the census jobs had disappeared, there was no extra emphasis from the stimulus. but by october we started gaining jobs. for the last six months, we had averaged better than 100,000 jobs created in a month, and prior to this month's number, we were doing better than 250,000 a month. is it even realistic? when you look back over history, is it realistic we can even create that 2, 250, 300,000 plus a month we need to get back to the 5% unemployment before the

recession, or is that just pie in the sky? >> that's a really good question, ali. i think the head winds we face will keep us more in the 200,000 number we face. this is going to be a tough spot we have to get through, but in an economy that has to go through a financial crisis, subpar growth is the reality. the hard part is actually living the reality, which is what we do now. it's going to be a very long slog ahead, and even ben bernanke said he expected us to take years and years to get back to those low unemployment rates. also disturbing was the number of people on long-term unemployment increased. that's something we really worry about, those construction workers who lost their jobs from the peak of the housing market loss are not building any, and it doesn't look like it will be strong any time soon, and we really worry about that, because the longer they're unemployed, the harder it is to be reemployed later on.

>> when things were moving in this economy, it became very fashionable for serconservativeo say they had spent too much money with t.a.r.p. and those things. now that we're looking at a positive setback in this economy, we're looking at more stimulus. diane just talked about ben bernanke. you're going to hear more from ben bernanke. what does this do about the public argument that we need to ease up on spending? >> it hurts it, ali, but let me say this, first of all. i am not an economist, but i think diane is having a mass understatement. employment, housing prices, investments, i would suggest to you are a symptom of a much greater problem, and you can boil this crisis down to one number, ali. the number is 350. that's the principle debt we have beyond gdp.

every neighbor you have is sitting on a pile of debt and they can't go spend. that means most financial institutions are sitting on a pile of debt and can't loan money out. that means most companies can't invest in hire. what do you do? how do you grow out of this debt? everyone is talking like this is just your normal recession. >> it's not a normal recession. i agree with that. >> this looks more like 1930 than any other time in history. >> very interesting. go ahead. diane? >> i just want to add in defense of myself, i guess, a little bit, i'm not saying there is anything great about this economy. i do think it's important to point out the cash and balance sheets are at record highs, and the cash is very strong, and that money could be redeployed with more center going forward. we haven't really seen corporations putting their money where their mouth is. they've been hoarding that cash and they don't need to borrow to be moving forward. that's nothing like the 1930s, and that's one of the

distinctive characteristics between japan as well in the 1990s. subpar it's painful, and we should not accept robust growth. i do not have a robust growth outlook. >> you brought up japan in the 1990s. i didn't want to go there. rowland martin is the cnn contributor. very different story. according to a cnn research opinion poll, 54% of americans approve how president obama is handling his total job as president. it's not his job americans seem to have a problem with, it's the lack of jobs for everybody else. when you ask americans how president obama is handling the economy, it's like the numbers switch. 58% disapprove, only 41% approve. rowland, your analysis? >> let's get to the heart of this. americans continue to be delusional when it comes to our economy. we are so used to this microwave attitude of, hey, next month, and then next month.

we wait every month for this jobs report, and we so you think all of a sudden it's going to magically reappear of having 300,000 jobs a month. when ben bernanke says it's going to be years, accept the fact it is going to be years. how is it that we accepted our sports teams would take four and five times. we try to win a championship that somehow would take only a few months. i've traveled all over this country. what's also happening is americans have listened to our advice, ali, and that is they stopped the crazy spending. our economy is so driven of people buying things. i think what's happened is americans have also said, you know what? i don't need to keep buying more stuff. let me hold off on that. let me actually save money and that's causing us to not be able

to add more jobs, so they listen to our advice. >> you somehow, all three of you, have come around to the same discussion. i want you to stay where you are because the discussion you're having is if we are frugal, if we are holding back, if we are cutting spending on every level, ourselves, our governments and our businesses, that could mean years and years of stagnation like diane was talking about in japan. i want to ask you about that and then i want to talk about will. he brought up the depression. which one is better, letting everything reset to a new level or years of stagnation and slow growth? let's talk about that. we're going to talk about mitt romney making it official. is this tried and true businessman going to make a good president if he wins? we'll check it out, next. stay with us. [ woman ] welcome back jogging stroller.

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you just gave us a real good outlook by the fact we're driven by instant numbers. we want high growth, we want solution. will, i want to ask you about this. we are acknowledging in this conversation that there might be two alternate realities for america going forward. one is a long time of stagnation or very slow growth or something more drastic. your thoughts? >> ali, sooner or later this gets back to politics, and you actually put that question to me earlier. so we ask ourselves, now that we diagnosed the problem, what do we do? what are the tools? i think there's about three. one is fiscal stimulus. that's a stimulus plan coming out of congress. i don't believe in the effectiveness of those programs. i believe they become political boondoggles. printing money out of the feds. they become qe-1, 2 or 3. i expect qe-3. is two or three years of

depression better than perhaps ten to fif teen years of muddleing along in stagnation with the feds funding the whole thing? >> diane, will has drawn a distinction between fiscal stimulus and monetary stimulus. a lot of americans don't know as we focus on that stimulus bill that we had a few years ago, the model that the federal reserve injected in the economy is many, many times higher than the fiscal stimulus. are we going to need more money from the fed? is that what's going to have to happen? >> i think the feds act is much higher than most give them credit for right now. the further stimulus for the u.s. economy is greater than the marginal benefits at this stage of the game. we really need to see a fairly sharp krakz in the economy. there is a lot of debate about the efficacy of it, and i don't

think they're ready to jump back in. we're clearly not going to see fiscal stimulus because we're talking about moving the other direction. >> in other words, we're talking about tightening our belts, not adding more stimulus. >> exactly. >> diane earlier talked about the balance sheets of corporate america. we're also living through the reality that our leaders of the treasury department and federal reserve did not put in the stipulations on these banks when it came to lending them the billions of dollars to say, you need to begin to extend credit. let's just be honest. robin rice talks about this. we made a mistake in shoring them up, and they turned around and held onto the money and did no lending. the problem is we're living with the result of them holding the money and not being able to lend it out because no restrictions, no conditions were put on any of it. >> it's a good -- i'm not sure

that's the whole story. diane? >> the banking industry, first of all, we lost the shadow banking industry which was a major supplier of consumer to credits. that's gone. secondly, the new recommendations are causing banks to raise their capital ratio and the regulations have forced them to tighten up on their credit because they were too easy. there are a lot of factors. it's a very complicated thing and it's very easy to use this argument, but i think the situation is more complicated than that. one thing i will agree with, the if he had printed a lot of money. it all landed in the trees out of our reach. we need to shake the tree. >> here's a potential solution, will. if america's top problem is the economy, why not turn to a successful businessman to run the country? that's the argument a couple contenders for the presidential nomination are making. most notably on the right, mitt romney, the former ceo of the giant consulting firm, bain and

company, and herman cain on the left. he used to head up godfather's pizza. will, i'm going to start with you. do you think this is good? is that the direction the republican party should head in, put a former chief executive at the helm? >> i don't think it could hurt. that's a pretty fine quality, someone who has run a successful business. in the end, we're going to have to grow out of this debt that's hanging over the community. would someone who had a successful business know better? i don't know. >> i know when we got hour firs nba president. president bush, george w. bush, people said, hey, he was an mba from harvard. the qualification for the president is not, do i have a corporate background, you have to have the political instincts to be able to negotiate with democrats and republicans.

the problem with the president is you have to pass these measures. if you don't understand how to negotiate with political folks even in your own party, i don't care how great of a ce, you ao,e going to fail. >> diane, what do you think if we had a business person as president? >> i don't care if they're business or not, i want some legislative ability on both sides of the party. we have to roll up our sleeves as americans to get ourselves out of it. we all got ourselves into that and we need to take responsibility and move forward. that means talking to each other and not demonizing each other across the table, which is happening on both sides of the aisle. >> any time you have an election, you're going to have folks demonizing. as long as you have people who run for reelection, and his medicare proposal, how they

demonize him. this is what happens when you have people running for reelection. >> i think our economic problems extend way beyond politics. are there things politicians, congress, the president can do to help? yes. but our problems exist much deeper than on a political level. >> you're right. i do agree with that. >> thanks so much, diane. good to see you. chief economist at mesirow financial. home prices hit a new post-bust low across the nation, but there are a few regions that are doing better. i'll tell you where they are and why, next.

you'll have heard people talking smack about the housing

industry this last week. a lot of people talking about a double dip in housing, an official double dip. there is no such thing. there is no measure of a double dip in housing but there is definitely something wrong in the housing market. i want to show you what's going on. let's go back to 2006. this is the s&p case house index. look where they were back in 2006. then take a look here. this bottom here was in 2009. that was when, really, we bottomed out because of the inability to get mortgages, a whole bunch of foreclosures, and there's been almost an i am imperceptible end to 2011. there's certainly been a decline in housing prices. i want to bring in richard florida. he's the senior editor of "the atlantic." he's the author of a great book called "the great reset."

richard, across america, there have been declines in home prices in the first quarter of this year, the first three months. by the way, there is one bright spot in this otherwise dismal housing picture, the washington, d.c. metro area. northern virginia. why? >> it's up 8% when the nation is down year after year by 5%. it's the eighth large ers mst mn the country. when you add baltimore, it's attracted more. it's not just a government town anymore and it has great neighborhoods. one of the things that has driven housing staying stable is those housing out in the excerpts have declined, but even the faraway neighborhoods in maryland and virginia have become more walkable, they're adding transit, but i tell you, there is a lot other metro

cities can learn, because in a few college towns they don't track, it's a big bright spot in an otherwise gloomy picture. >> you said transit. we know medical technology drives jobs. when you say there are things that build infrastructure for cities of the future, are those the key points? >> well, i think d.c. -- everyone thinks it's a government town. it's not. it's a major center, as you know, for cnn and aol and discovery and npr. it has a big media cluster. it's also government spending and bio tech and homeland securities. this is a really interesting statistic for folks listening in today. when they did an analysis, they compared all the metros in the country on their income levels but divided that by cost of living. new york was near the bottom of the list. only california and texas was lower. d.c. was second for the top.

one of the things d.c. offers is a high income. it has one of the highest income levels, 80,000 high income levels, but it gives you great level for the dollar. it was the second best place to live for cost of living. i think all those factors make it a very interesting place and why people are moving there in droves. >> one of the places people would like to live it miami beach. that place has taken a big, big hit in housing prices, but you pointed out in a blog it's made a lot of headway digging themselves out that far mess. what did they do to stimulate the economy and improve things? >> something we've found, areas that have a little bit of rental, when it gets down to about 55% as it is in new york, the city of d.c. and san francisco, you get a little more flexibility. what happened in miami is they took all those vacant condos and

they turned them into rentals. here's what miami beach did, which i think other cities can do. they went in and bought two or three of these vacant condos -- not high end, but nice ones -- and they turned them into affordable housing for people who work in the restaurant and hotel business. you know, we have 13.3 million vacant homes in this country. that's a lot of vacant homes and condos. we could begin through puzzle policy, but not national policy, cities and suburbs could help transfer them from bank ownership or foreclosure into rentals and make more affordable rentals available for people who need it. >> richard, you're talking to me from one of my favorite cities in the entire continent, in fact, i had started describing toronto as one of the biggest asce ascendant cities in north america. what's happening there? >> toronto is even more vibrant than d.c. houses sell in two days to a

week. you have to put 20% down. you can't have a long-term mortgage. you have to turn your mortgage over in seven years. you can't refinance your darn loan. it's only if you have variability of a closed mortgage. you have to hold that loan and the bank holds it, so supply and demand are a match. one other thing i wanted to say for folks watching today, believe it or not, i think now might be the time to think about buying a house. you know, ali, i'm a big proponent of renting, and i think for many people who can't make the down payment -- and i know financing is hard -- >> and if you can get a down payment, skpm yand you need a h. >> i think housing values have come down more now than in the great depression. so there's got to be a bottom. now, maybe it's going to go another 3 or 4%, but there is a lot of wonderful inventory. so if you're looking for a home, you couldn't do better to find the kind of dream house you

want, and already we see in washington, d.c. in the good neighborhoods, in manhattan, even in l.a., some of the better inventory start to go fly out of the market. i don't think it's for everyone, but if you know you're going to stay in the same place, you don't want to switch jobs, and the interest rates are still darn good, i think it's time to consider. you may never see the combination of these low prices and low interest rates in our lifetime. at least, i certainly hope not, because if we do, something is really wrong. richard, always a pleasure to see you. give my regards to toronto. richard florida, author of "the great reset." you've heard the term eurozone. why do you care? you should care. because what happens to the economies of the euro-based nation does affect you directly. i could even tell you how to make money out of it. i'll explain next.

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you're looking at 17 countries who over various times turned over their currencies and adopted the euro over the past decade. countries like greece, ireland and portugal are dealing with the type of debt disasters that many fear could one day hit america. they're all individual countries when it comes to their debt even though they share a currency. peter morici is a professor at the maryland school of business. peter, this eurozone debt problem. you can't simply transfer thatovthat over to the american situation. but they have their own problems there in europe. can they threaten a u.s. recovery? >> absolutely. banks hold a great deal of the

portugal, greece, whaetever, debt. they can handle a greek restructuring. the greek saying they're only going to pay back 60 cents on the dollar. but if it spreads to other countries, the viability of those banks become threatened, and the europeans don't have the kind of institutions that we have to back up their banks. the federal reserve -- >> why? why can't european central bank not do what the fed would do in that situation? >> well, the fed could essentially use the bond-selling capacity of the treasury to recapitalize our bank. the european union can't tax, so it can't issue euro bonds. it doesn't have the ability to back up the banks quite the way -- see, the fed doesn't act alone. the fed acts in concert with the treasury. >> hold onto that thought for a second. christine romans joins me right now, host of "your bottom line." christine, i'm worried about what greece might do if i have a

holding in that bank. if not, if i'm an average american, why do i care what happens in greece? >> you care because if you have a breakup or breakdown of the eurozone, that's a huge uncertainty that goes into a fragile economic system already. if you've got european banks that are in trouble because of their exposure to greece, then you have an international banking system that has a weak spot here at a time when you're trying to get the banks to be healthy again. even this week, we saw a couple days when they were worried about greece and greek debt, you had u.s. stocks going down. that's your 401(k), that's your retirement. it's just another uncertainty. i know people will say the u.s. is not greece. that's true. michigan, the size of the economy in michigan is basically the size of the economy in greece, i think, yes, but it is one of these important -- i guess pegs or stepping stones in the global economic recovery system. >> two years ago, most americans wouldn't be able to describe to you how an international credit freeze or crisis affected us so much, and then we learn that it

affects your ability to get a car loan, a mortgage, a business loan. are we in any danger of that? >> absolutely. greece has the potential to be europe's layman brothers. who would have thought that lehman brothers could start the domino effect that dried up credit in the united states? if greece went down and wholly disrupted america, they have a lot of cross-relationship with european banks. so we could have a credit problem in the united states of our own. >> i'm going to ask christine a question about peter's column. peter wrote recently, and i know you both know this topic very well. peter wrote recently that americans should be prepared for a time to come when americans may turn to china for the type of aid that greece is turning to germany for. do you think that's reasonable, christine? >> i think that's really far down the road, and i hope that people in washington would be able to get their acts together

before we're ever in that kind of situation. i know peter is a little more hawkish on that than the rest of us are. we are in a position here where you've got us talking about the u.s. running out of time. the u.s. is running out of time to address its fiscal problems. at the same time, you have people like paul krugman and other economists saying, don't make a mistake and pull back too quickly on the money flooding the system. that could cause another leg down on the economy. so we are talking about a fine line that policymakers have to walk, and i think we've proven raising our debt ceiling ask not getting our act together, the people making these decisions are not making good decisions. >> the greeks are having the shots kaulds by the germans because the germans are their principal creditors. we might not be able to run the kind of deficits we are now, and in the process of trying to

restructure our debt, it's the chinese who are the logical people to make demands, because they hold the most u.s. bonds. >> peter, good to see you as always. peter morici is the professor of business at the maryland university of business. you can watch christine romans every night. don't let your investments keep you from investing in international companies. there are companies out there that are growing and there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to take advantage of them, but i'm going to tell you how to do it safely and properly, next.

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we hear about the debt crisis in europe. there are some simple ways to invest in companies that are growing and reap those benefits. jim, good to see you. this is interesting. you've always said, and many people say, that you should invest internationally. there is more uncertainty now than ever before. is it still a good thing to do? >> yes, absolutely. you accomplish several things. first, you diversify your portfolio. second, you can position yourself for areas that are growing faster than the united

states. third, you get balance with a global footprint, and i would make the case that those characteristics actually lower your risk. >> right. hard for people to understand, but when you spread your risk, you lower it. let me ask you this. very often you talk about ways for the average investor to invest using exchange-traded funds, which are baskets of stocks. you and i share a view on this. when it comes to more specific areas, including international investing, you may want a mutual fund with an active manager. >> right. in this case, you should pay a little bit more so the managers can pick good geographies to invest in and good companies within those jgeographiegeograp because to say international there are places with corruption, places with no growth, places with liquid capital markets or dominated by commodity prices, so in this case you should pay more and get more. >> you are recommending one fund called the tweety brown global fund. the particularer there is tbgvx.

what do you like about this? >> that's the way to invest in the developed world. in the developed world, there are some economies doing better than the united states. we know europe has a lot of problems but we also know germany is doing great, the swiss are doing great, they're growing faster than the united states, they don't have the debt problems, so this is the fund where the two biggest j geographies. >> and they can say, i'm not going to go big on german banks. >> which are growing and exporting and the germans are really in terrific shape. >> great division you made between the developing world and the emerging categories. particularer lzoex. tell me about this. >> the emerging markets are the best long-term growth story. if you look at the growing middle class, the growing populations, the demographics, the saving rates of governments of individuals, there is a huge transfer of wealth going from the developed world to the emerging world, so you want to

invest there, but again, you want an active manager who can take you out of the bad geographies and get you into the good growth companies, and lazard has a good reputation of doing this that has good diversification and fair price. >> that one you talked about, tweety brown, 23%. let's talk about groupon for just a second. we saw linked in's ipo shooting through the roof. they're firing a public offering, facebook possibly coming up. what do you think of these? >> there is tremendous momentum in the group. there is a lot of demand for the stock, but i'm hearing serious questions about the valuation and about the sustainability of their business model. they're losing a lot of money, so on this one, they're going to inve inve investors to talk. stock momentum but questions about valuation on the business model. >> thank you, jimmy, for coming

by. >> my pleasure. the u.s. is associated with great innovation, the internet, the ford model t. but is all that in the past or can this country once again rise to the top? fareed zaka rirksria up next. ♪

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working with a partner you can trust is always a good decision. massmutual. let our financial professionals help you reach your goals. the u.s. is used to being at the forefront of innovation, at least, that's how we feel, but our best days, some say, could be behind us. take a look at this chart of the innovation rate. singapore, south korea, switzerland, iceland, hong kong, finland. all of these are said to be ahead of the united states. fareed zakaria is author of "the

post american world 2.0" and he's hosting a show called "the american dream." is this true? do you believe that sort of ranking? is that a fair evaluation of where the u.s. is in terms of innovation? >> ali, it's a fair evaluation of where the trend lines are moving. these are all per individual numbers, so if you were to look at the aggregate number, it's probably quite far ahead, but that lead is shrinking every day. and the reason this is crucial, ali, is the jobs of the future are going to come in the united states out of innovation and innovation-based industries. we don't have a steel industry anymore. the auto parts businesses are all going to china and indonesia. we're not going to be able to compete in the low wage manufacturers or even low wage services. the places we'll find new jobs

is going to be the high-tech, innovative business products, so if we lose this race, we're going to lose the standard of living to make the viewers' and kids' lives better. >> there's some people, particularly some conservative economists, who say the best way to innovate is lower taxes. make it easy and cheap for people to invest. but you take a view that you need some government intervention in the form of incentives to conduct research and development. >> if you look historically, ali, from the development of the steam engine that may have been the innovation of the industrial revolution, the steam engine comes from cannon designs. who funded all those cannon designs? the military. nasa and the military bought every computer chip that was produced for ten years which is

what reduced the cost. look at this list we're looking at? singapore, south korea, switzerland, iceland, ireland, hong kong. most of these countries have high taxes, a lot of regulation, but they spend that money efficiently. now, i'm not in favor of high taxes and high regulation. regu. all i'm saying is directed government policy, south korea 30 years ago decided they were going to become a world leader in steel and shipbuilding. government decision. china is doing the same thing in solar panels, wind turbines. we're doing nothing. we're having this ideological debate about the free market. meanwhile industry after industry is moving away from the united states. >> we've seen a decline in spending, in research and development spending. i can bring up a chart that shows us that. is it spending? do you actually have to spend that money or can you provide some sort of incentive for companies to spend that money on their own? >> look, the most important thing you can do is to do this efficiently, smartly and in a

fashion -- in some cases there's no question you need government to do basic research and development. because when industry spends money on research, they're spending money figuring out how to make the next product a little bit better. >> some will argue, and it's something america's uncomfortable with, that that picks winner. it picks winners by industry. if we decide we want more wind power or we want more solar energy, by government putting in tax credits, the government is saying it's not a free market. it's not a level playing field. how do you counter that? >> it's true. but the government does all kinds of things that alter the free market. the government gives us all enormous deduction on interest for mortgages. it produces a housing bubble. we don't therefore say the government shouldn't be involved in housing. the key here is think of silicon valley and venture capitalists. nine investments that every venture capital firm makes fail, right? but one succeeds. so when you talk about government spending and people say won't they pick winners and

won't those be the wrong ones? yes. you can call it a waste of money or you can call it misses. there will be hits and misses. the defense defendant's venture capital on funding for the internet, for gps technology, stealth, all kinds of things there are a bunch of misses as well. >> ones we never hear of. >> you can look at those and say that's wasted money. people don't look at silicon valley venture capital firms and say they wasted money. >> pharmaceutical firms. >> there's a lot of trial and error in innovation whether it's government funded or private funded. >> some will tell you it's the tax credits and the direction the government can send it in and others will tell you it's the matter of education. this is per capita investment in research and development in different areas. we're definitely you can see 34 cents of every dollar going to universities and colleges. 31 cents of every r & d dollar coming from industry and 26% the federal government. >> the most important piece here

is the federal piece because it's basic research. nobody else does that kind of blue skies research. so pharmaceutical companies, as you say, spend a lot on research but they're tinkering with the drugs. it's the money that goes to the nih, government money that is for basic research that ends up producing, you know, the big bangs, the enormous leaps forward. in all these cases, it's not that i'm -- i'm arguing that the private sector is not amazing and, you know, much of the innovation is going to come from the private sector. but historically, at least, the shadow behind that private sector has been government policy. >> basic research, you mean not something that necessarily has a commercial end result. it's research to discover. >> precisely. it is resrj to think big. if you think about energy policy, right now we need a lot of basic research in energy because tinkering on the margins, getting a slightly better wind turbine, getting a slightly better solar panel is not the key. the key here is we've got to figure out what's going to allow

us to consume massive amounts of energy at incredibly low prices. nobody has come up with that yet. that's what research can do. >> you're a big thinker. we like that and need that. the host of "fareed zakaria: gps." there's a special this sunday. american dream, how to innovate. worth watching. if you know me or watch me on tv you know i'm a big cell phone and blackberry fwi. imagine how happy i was to hear about a new study that cell phones could cause cancer. i've got some very pointed thoughts on that and i want everyone in the cell phone industry to listen closely. it's all in my "x, y, z" next. stamps.com is the best. i don't have to leave my desk and get up and go to the post office anymore.

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as you probably heard pb the world health organization has added cell phones to the list of substances that are possibly carcinogenic. the wireless association which represents the cell phone industry is dismissing the report saying the classification is based on, quote, limited evidence and no research. okay, cell phone companies. if you know enough to dismiss the finding what evidence do you have about the long-term effect of cell phone use? because if you're sitting on a report that proves conclusively that cell phones don't cause brain cancer, release it. save us all a lot of worrying. but if you aren't, as i suspect, why don't you get out in front of this issue. you're making billions of dollars off of us. it may be good business to do some independent research and put this pesky question to rest. some people are already comparing cell phone companies to tobacco companies. you know, the very first study linking smoking and lung cancer

was done all the way back in 1939. other reports followed, but it wasn't until the late 1990s that tobacco companies actually began admitting this smoking causes cancer. here's the difference. unlike smoking, nobody's actually calling for us to quit our cell phones. just the opposite. it is a growth opportunity. a whole new industry could spring up around technology designed to keep our phones a safe distance from our heads or our hearts or our reproductives orrens. imagine all the new headsets an radiation proof cases that could be sold. if it's liability you're worried about, sitting on critical information for decades didn't save the tobacco companies any money in the end. get out in front of this now. that's my appeal to you. but if you won't step up, maybe it's time for the government to step in. we need a fresh look at current radiation standards for our phones and we need maybe a federal research program to study the effects of cell phone radiation on humans, especially on children. can't afford to wait 30 or 40 years for the answer to become