your credit card to keep your car on the road and paying for your kids' school clothes instead of a vacation. blaming the poor is a poor idea. >> from kate, certainly the poor should share responsibility for our economic woes, as should the rich and the middle class. we're in this together of the because we got here together. as far as entitlement programs for the poor, i like to thank that we are only as great as the least of us. and enough to eat and a roof over your heads is not entitlement. please keep the conversation going. facebook.com/americanmorning. thank you as always. cnn newsroom with kyra starts right now. 9:00 am on the east coast. 6:00 am out west. thanks for joining us. watching wall street and how it reacts to the painful downgrade of u.s. debt. we'll see how investors around the world are viewing it. grieving family members praise the loved ones killed in the nation's single deadliest incident in the afghan war. 30 americans are killed in the helicopter crash. 22 of them elite navy s.e.a.l.s.

in syria, brutal crackdown on protesters, more than 60 people are killed in the latest military operation, which got under way yesterday. folks, we are about to witness history. this hour, wall street opens with the u.s. wearing the black eye of a downgraded credit rating. the prospect would have been unthinkable, even laughable, just six months ago. while congress bickered, the world watched and economists sneered and now it's time for all of us to pay. we're going to go from wall street to the white house and follow the markets from chicago to hong kong. let's begin with christine romans in new york. christine, let's talk about all the things that this downgrade actually affects. >> sure. >> and impacts us right now. >> clearly, kyra, it will be a line in the history books. what will it mean for your pocketbook? first up, stocks. stock futures are down 242 points for the dow jones

industrial average, hitting your stock holdings today. we'll watch to see what it means for your stock investments long term. i will caution you in the case of japan and canada, when they lost aaa status, their stock markets rallied in the next year because markets had been anticipating it. it's not clear what will happen longer term with stock markets. how about loans? if interest rates rise, longer term, it will make home loans, car loans, college loans, even credit card loans more expensive. i'm going to caution you again, keera it is not written in stone what will happen in the markets right now. we are seeing interest rates fall, which means in the near term, you could have lower rates for some of your floating debt. closely watching what it means overall for interest rates for companies, for insurance companies, for the companies that you invest in, how well they'll be able to borrow money. i also want to say, very quickly here, that a source close to the decision at s&p this weekend told me they're expecting very mild, real-world impact from this decision near term for you.

your life does not change today because of what s&p did. you need to put your own financial house in order. >> alison kosick is at the new york stock exchange. alison, we're less than half an hour away. how are things looking? >> we are about half an hour away. this will be the first chance for investors to react, kyra. it's looking ugly. get ready for major averages to tumble. the major averages are are down more than 2%. dow futures, in particular, are down over 230 points. this, of course, follows the sell-off that happened around the world while all of us were sleeping. gold prices, they hit another record high above $1,700 an ounce. this all coming after the worst week for stocks since the 2008 financial crisis. this, of course, was all of last week. that's when the major averages fell 5% to 8%.

as far as today goes, most analysts expect this initial shock in the markets at the opening bell and see a will the of emotional trading throughout the day. then, they say, you know what? we may see stocks stabilize a bit. this downgrade is unprecedented. it's expected that you'll see this kind of shock at the open. but, believe it or not, some of the fear was priced in last week when we did see stocks really take a tumble. even though if we open 200 points lower, where we start, kyra, is not necessarily where we're going to end up. you look at friday. the dow swung 400 points and wound up ending a bit higher. it's anyone's guess what will happen next. some say what you're about to see is a knee-jerk reaction, kyra. >> stay with us. that's what we're saying to everybody right now, all our viewers. we're following this, minute by minute. alison, thank you so much. let's take it to the nation's heartland and the activity rumbling to life at the chicago mercantile exchange.

ted rowlands is there. what's the early view? >> the bond market has been open for 40 minutes, kyra. as christine talked about at the top, short-term ramifications of the downgrade are that interest rates are actually going down. people are parking their money in u.s. securities, despite the fact that the u.s. has been downgraded. it is still the safest place to put your money worldwide. that's what we're seeing early on here. one of the effects that this downgrade could have on local government sincere a concern, and that is that municipal bonds around the country could get downgraded because they're tied to the federal government. communities across the country are watching very closely, because it will mean more expense to those local and state governments. right now, the headline here is that everybody is watching for that opening bell in new york and interest rates actually going down a little bit in the short term, because people are are parking their money with the u.s. government. kyra? >> ted, we'll be talking a will the more this morning. thanks so much. let's check in, see how

investors are reacting around the world. we'll begin with the markets in europe. joining us now from london. what can you tell us, leone? >> markets are down here as well, across europe. we take a look at the numbers. they are down, the ftse is down 1.5%. we've seen them between 2% and 3% lower and smi in switzerland doing the same thing. the day slightly higher. two reasons for that of the over the weekend, we got a statement from the g-7 ministers, saying they were committed to restoring confidence. they would take whatever action necessary to restore confidence. although, they didn't say what they were planning to do. we also got a statement from the european central bank in which the central bank said it would buy back bonds from italy and spain in whichware seeing the yields jumping quite highly, to

unsustainable levels. that did do enough to lift the markets at the start of trading. they have gone back down. the reason for that, kyra, obviously, everyone is looking to see what happens on the stock market with the s&p downgrade. hanging over europe like a dark cloud at the moment. people are just concerned. it's very difficult to resolve at the moment, kyra. >> leone, thanks. to asia now. anna corrin, tell us what's going on from hong kong. >> it started off here. asian pacific was the first region to react to the downgrade in the u.s. credit. it was nothing short of a blood bath, some of the main markets dropping around 4%. thankfully, it improved throughout the day. it was still a sea of red when markets closed. let me bring you the numbers. japan and hong kong closing more than below 2%. australia's s&p 300, closing almost 3%.

shanghai composite down almost 4%. certainly an ugly day for investors here in the asian pacific. it is worth noting, kyra, china's official state news agency made a statement, scathing assessment of the u.s. economy over the weekend, saying the u.s. must live within its means. there's a real sense of frustration here in the asian pacific, but particularly in china which, as we know, is the biggest holder of u.s. debt. kyra? >> anna, thanks. let's take it to the white house now, reeling against the downgrade and backlash against all the anger and political gaming here. br brianna keilar is there. >> reporter: finger pointing at the s&p because the math, the white house says miscalculation in the deficit analysis.

that's what you'll hear some white house officials refer to as a $2 trillion mistake. s&p says its judgment will stand, in part, because of the sluggishness of increase in the debt ceiling and the uncertainty that caused. that has the white house pointing a finger at house republican, saying it was speaker swron boehner, who step add way from a bigger reduction plan. you have blame game going on. but the white house looking forward, saying this is just proof, s&p's judgment that something bigger needs to be done. this is just proof that this committee, this fiscal commission, needs to come together and do something that is bipartisan and balanced, as the white house puts it, tackling entitlement reform, tax increases, something that's hard, respectively, for democrats and republicans. i will also tell you, big news involving secretary of the treasury, timothy geithner. he will be staying on as secretary. there was a lot of speculation he might leave after this debt

ceiling battle. as it turned out, president obama asked him to stay on and says they welcome his decision to stay on into fall of 2012. as you know, there is a little election we'll be seeing. >> yeah. all right. brianna, thanks. opening bell is 20 minutes away. after the break, we'll talk to financial lifestyle coach clyde anderson. he will tell us what he thinks we should do with our money. later, remember the war yrs who went down in that chopper crash in afghanistan. we'll hear from a widow of one of those navy s.e.a.l.s. vaycay. ooo. sounds pricey? nah, with the hotels.com summer sale, you can find awesome deals for places nearby. interesting... wow, i'm blown away. you look great. hotels.com summer sale, save up to 30%. and get a free kindle. hotels.com. be smart. book smart.

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we've been talking about it all this morning.

the u.s. stripped of its aaa rating and exchanging around the world have been taking hits with this. u.s. futures are down with the opening bell, a few minutes away. on "meet the press," former fed chair alan greenspan says it's not just the economy taking a hit. it's the american spirit. >> what i think the s&p thing did was to hit a nerve that there's something basically bad going on. and it's hit the self esteem, the psyche and it's having a profound effect. >> s&p stands by its decisions, sayinging it's based on $14 trillion in debt and our inability to control it. what is the s&p and how do they have so much sway over the economy? christine romans, let's talk a little s&p 101. what is it and who is it?

>> look, standard and poors is one of three big ratings industries, standard & poor's, moody's and fitch. they assign a grade to show a country's ability to pay back their loans. the safest bets are stamped aaa. that's the rating that the united states held since 1917 until friday. now, those ratings are based on the opinions and analysis of the agencies. and, right now, s & b is pessimistic on our government's handling of america's debt. the five factors they look at when assigning what's called a credit score for sovereign debt. they're each rated on a scale of one to six and create a political and economic profile and a flexibility and performance profile of what's happening in a country. political risks and a rising debt burden were the two driving forces in its downgrade of america's once stellar credit rating. now, u.s. has been downgraded. how do the other countries stack up? here you go.

these are some other countries. 16 actually are left in s&p's aaa club. china, second national is not on here. a rating two notches below the u.s. at aa minus. i should point out, aa plus is still very, very good. it's still a very good credit rating. it's just not perfect. why do these credit agencies matter, kyra? who listens to them? obviously we're all listening to them right now. they're closely watched by investors and leaders around the world for their judgments on debt. interest rates on the bonds that they can sell to investors. the safest bets pay the lowest interest. who pays these agencies? a lot of you are asking us that. these agencies are paid for by the borrower, who wants to know what a rating is, for something that it's going to try to buy. also, from subscribers who receive the published ratings in their related credit reports. s&p tells us that the u.s.

rating is unsolicited and the u.s. government does not pay for its rating. kyra? >> okay. christine, thank you so much. of course, the biggest question on everybody's mind right now is what does the debt downgrade mean for me? how is it going to affect my borrowing and what i need to do? clyde anderson is a financial lifestyle coach and cnn contributor. we've been talking about car loans, mortgages, credit cards, all of this. >> yes. >> where are we going to feel it first? >> from a borrowing standpoint, we're going to feel it as far as rates, short-term rate sincere where we'll feel that impact. cars. people are looking to buy cars right now. you'll see those rates increase. interesting, on student loans as well. part of the debt deal was that graduate students with subsidized loans can no longer have that. they need to pay interest rates on those. and credit card rates will increase. >> what's going to hurt the most, do you think?

>> hard to say right now. greenspan talked about the emotions we're feeling right now. that's the thing. we're losing that faith. when we lose the faith, it's going to be hard. people aren't spending. we need people to spend money in this economy to boost back. we looked at all the information about jobs and those things not being there right now. we're in a really tough spot when you look at it from that standpoint, kyra. >> if i came to you and said i really have to borrow some money right now, and there's a lot of people that need to. how would you advise me? >> make sure you have tip-top credit to even get into that conversation about borrowing funds. if you do, go and do whatever you need to do right now. it's so uncertain. before we see any movement, look at that. on the mortgage side, we may see a better or improvement on the rates. ten-year treasuries are doing pretty well. what happens now on that standpoint, ten-year treasuries are up, then the mortgage rates go down. a lot of people are speculating that the mortgage rates are going to go up. we don't see that happening right now. >> you actually have gone out to say, look, the long-term effect

is not going to be that bad on borrowing. >> yeah. >> if we look at history -- >> exactly. >> japan, canada, it ended up being okay. >> exactly. we're still in a good spot right now. and the market is waiting or anticipating people to react. that's what people have been doing. they've been reacting. you have to sit back, look and don't let emotions take over. don't jump into anything too quickly. >> you sound like a typical financial planner. don't panic. if i brought my 401(k) to you, you would tell me exactly what to do. >> exactly. >> i'm going to start printing my stuff out on the computer. >> as long as you don't panic. >> thanks, clyde. we'll talk next hour. >> my pleasure. defending its decision to downgrade the nation's rating. and poppy harlow had a chance to talk to the head real chicken, even accents of tomato and avocado. yeah! come on! [ barking ] gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo!

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president obama's former top economic adviser says the credit downgrade is another body blow to an already weak u.s. economy. larry summers says it's an indictment in the way congress is dealing with key economic decisions and u.s. families will pay the price. >> the large issue here is that the house majority played chicken with america's credit worth worthy -- worthiness and america's families are now going to be the losers. >> treasury secretary tim geithner also blasted standard & poor's, says that the credit agency showed terrible judgment in downgrading the u.s. he defended that downgrade and warned that future downgrades may lie ahead. what else did he tell you? >> he vehemntly defended the

downgrade against tim geithner's words. he went on to say that the u.s. and our public finances right now are on an unsustainable path. he said geithner made those two points, that he didn't dispute the facts. here's more. >> treasury is clearly unhappy with our decision to downgrade. but isn't disputing the underlying analysis that we're making, both on the path of public finances and also on the process as it's playing out right now in washington, which makes it extraordinarily difficult, extraordinarily difficult to find common ground across the political divide. the political choices that are needed to stabilize the debt burden over the medium term. >> so, poppy, does he think a downgrade could make the bad economic situation even worse? >> that's the big question. he said it's not clear what kind

of impact it will have on interest rates. that's what we all care about, from our mortgage, to our car, to college loans. he says he expects the overall impact to be relatively mild. we have such volatile stock marks around the world, that may not be the case. he pointed out the strong global headwinds to our economy and said, look, downgrade is one of the many factors that can further weaken this already weak economy. kyra, he said we've got a one in three chance right now of a second downgrade to the u.s. economy in the next six to 12 months if things don't change substantially. not only have they downgraded us once. this could happen again in the next two years. he pointed out troublingly the fact that our economy is on what he calls a path to future growth that remains sluggish. we still have a lot of outliers here that are not clear. how political this decision was. >> oh, yeah, and increased pressure now on congress. poppy, thanks so much.

alison kosik is monitoring everything from the new york stock exchange this morning. we're expecting a sell-off today. then what? >> then what everyone wants to know, is this the start of another downturn in the market? that's a really good question. no one really knows if this is a start of another downturn. the fact is that this downgrade is unprecedented. we don't know what the full effects of this are going to be. you ask many analysts, they say, no, this isn't necessarily the beginning of a long-term downturn. the downgrade was expected. s&p warned of this months ago and its impact is actually more political and psychological left knee financial. you're seeing a hit to the confidence of the market. some of it may have already been priced in the past few weeks. moody's and fitch haven't followed in the footsteps of s&p. this selling you'll see at the opening bell in about six minutes will probably be a knee-jerk reaction. we'll see the dow plunge into the triple digits. and analysts say the big concern

here is that you'll see emotional trading, trading on this fear of the what if, what could happen. and the scary thing is, kyra, it could be a self-fulfilling appro prophecy, especially in the short term. >> you and i just mentioned -- we're talking about possibly a 200-point drop at the open. gold, though, hitting a record high. silver lining here? >> yeah. there is. then you look at treasuries. ten-year treasury bond is falling. that's counter intuitive. think about it. the u.s. government securities, that's exactly what s&p downgraded. some have been talking about this big spike in rates. we don't see that happening right now. also, oil prices are down 3.5%, trading around $83 a barrel. we saw the same thing happen during the financial crisis. the thinking is if the u.s. economy takes a hit, oil demand is going to take a hit, too, because you're not going to see consumers out there, filling up their tanks as much.

i'll be honest with you, it's not necessarily worth celebrating these low oil prices because it's really taking a huge sell-off just to get there, kyra. >> alison, minutes away until the markets get going. we'll see how they respond to the big downgrade at the opening bell. stay with us.

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opening bell, we're almost there, 60 seconds now. pretty darn grim. alison kosik, christine romans, richard quest. take us few the first few moments here of trading as the clock is ticking. we are about 45 seconds away to see how the u.s. markets will react. fashion that seat belt. we were expected to plunge into the triple digits. we know this because we've been watching dow futures under 200

points. a lot of emotional trading, knee-jerk reaction. this is to be expected. think about what s&p did. it's historic. we're watching history in the making as we're waiting for the opening bell in about 25 seconds. no one knows what to expect. we're also keeping our eye on the monday markets. not seeing a reaction there. we'll see the reaction here as the opening bell rings, about five seconds before the numbers start posting. get ready for that knee-jerk reaction, emotional reaction to the historic move by s&p. we are starting in the red, as we go down, as we speak. dow down 19 points as it continues to slide. kyra? >> we'll keep the numbers up. stay with us, alison. christine, today, what do you think the biggest concern is? or is this just the tip of the iceberg? >> let me tell you, you're only seeing 26 or 33 points. each of these dow component sincere opening up one after another right now. that is not giving you the full effect of how much selling there's going to be here. that's going to take a couple of

minutes. tip of the iceberg, that's a good question. for stock investments today, they could have a big hit. we have no idea how things are going to end up at the close, kyra. it's been wild. remember last week in stocks? you saw a huge decline. so, there could be, quite honestly, professional investors buying stocks today and you've heard a lot of people over the weekend counseling real main street investors, don't freak out today. you already have seen a big decline. this is not the time to be freaking out in your 401(k) or the like. in terms of stocks versus bonds, the bond market is twice as big as the stock market. that affects everybody. those interest rates, how they move and how they change will affect every area of your life, or they could, from car loans to house loans to student loans to what your companies in your neighborhood are doing, how well your local government can borrow money so that it can do improvements in your neighborhood. that's what we're really, really going to be watching, longer term for the impact on your own

dollar. i want to say, very clearly, that the bond market -- there has been safe haven, buying into the bond market. what that means, kyra, is that bond -- interest rates have been going lower. you could see in the near term interest rates actually fall for the things that you care about, before they end up moving higher later on. kyra? >> in negative territory, dow industrials down 226 points right now. richard quest, broader impact here, internationally, for sure. >> absolutely. but don't panic. don't panic yet. we're seeing nothing that we didn't expect. and we seem to have just hit a very temporary lull, as so many of those dow 30 have opened. we have seemed to hit a lull just under 2%. europe is roughly the same. although, germany is off 2.6%, 2.7% at the moment. this was not unexpected.

at the moment, i would say just have another cup of tea. sit calmly. let's just wait. we've got many hours of trading before this one is over. >> all right. we are sipping that cup of tea or that cup of coffee, whatever we sip in the morning. grab the red bull. let me ask you a couple of questions since i have you, and your international expertise. is the u.s. really a bigger risk here? >> oh, come on. we know that the u.s. is not going to default on its debts. we know the reasons why this was done. and we know the political backwards and forwards, the blame game that's been going on. in terms of u.s. treasuries they were as safe today as they were last week as they'll be next week. long term, there will be ramifications. for instance, those bonds that guarantee israel debts have also been downgraded by s&p announced

out of london. look at the nuances. keep your eye, kyra, in the hours ahead, on the big picture. growth, interest rates, potential for double dip. what's happening with unemployment, the job market? keep an eye on those big picture items. >> speaking of big picture, other countries have lost their aaa ratings in the past and ended up not paying more to borrow in the long run, richard. is it possible that that's what could happen with us? >> that's exactly what's going to happen, providing -- providing that the politicians in washington do a long-term deficit reduction deal. that's what has to be done. all three rating agencies have said it. it's only s&p that's downgraded. everybody agrees that the long term -- remember, we are not talking about taking deficit reduction measures in the middle of a recession or a slowdown. you're talking about the long term deficit reduction. now, what's likely to happen today? you see the markets found a

bottom. it's found a bottom down roughly 1.7%, 1.9%. we know treasuries yield on the ten have come back a bit because of worry about growth. we know gold is at a record high. oil has come down because of worries about economic growth. these are the big picture items that really help us more understand what's going on than the knee jerk of whether the dow is up at any given moment. >> alison kosik, did you notice that, as richard was getting more optimistic? numbers are getting better. >> exactly. it's almost like they heard him talking. >> you pointed out some of the same things he did. >> yeah. you're going to see that kind of initial freakout, like we saw. then you'll see it calm down. watching, you saw that initial knee-jerk reaction. cooler heads prevail, you see

here. one thing i want to point out that's happening in the markets overall. even last week, when you saw the huge drop in the dow, you're seeing a market that's repricing each individual stock in relation to how the economy is doing. you have to remember, we got that really weak gdp report a week or so ago, showing that we've got aanemic growth here in the u.s. investors stepped back, took a look at their stock and said i think all of these stocks are overpriced, considering where the economy is and where the economy is going. wall street is a forward-looking indicator. what we're seeing today is this knee-jerk reaction to s&p and people just sort of figuring out, gee, what does this mean for the future? that's why you're seeing this sell-off as well, kyra. >> stay with us. ali velshi is in the house. is that true? are you with me? >> i'm with you, kyra. >> ali, you've obviously been covering the financial aspect of this, as well as the political aspect. you've been listening to

richard, alison and christine. overall, what do you think the -- i guess does this come down to just a sense of urgency and pressure on this new congressional super committee that now has to come back and talk about some new measures here? >> yeah. >> does it look like we're kind of safer than we thought? and now this was all about just putting pressure on the right people politically? >> there is a road out of this. it is very different. as richard points out, it is very different from the situation of italy, spain and, for that matter, greece are. here in the united states, and the s&p has made this very clear. you can be mad at s&p for not getting it right in the 2008 financial crisis and not get the lehman brothers and aig right. they've been pretty good on country debt, sovereign debt. this is as much political as it is otherwise, they've made it clear. i have to disagree with something richard just told you.

that we're not talking about short term cutting spending in what feels like some people to still be a recession, even though it isn't. we are. those people who voted against the debt ceiling increase, fiscal conservatives who voted against it did so in many can as because they said there's not enough cuts happening now. we have to wait too many years to wait for the cuts to happen. richard lives in england. he knows, this is dangerous. it's really, really bad for the economy. two issues here. this policy committee has to figure it out. s&p has spelled out what that road is. they said if we mess up again, we could have further downgrades. moody's, christine told you, said in its weekly letter out to its cliepts that they might downgrade the united states. we're not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. until people start to understand that you cannot cut government spending at this point in a recovery, we risk becoming -- getting in a worse situation than we've got right now. that said, this market is

oversold and investors are buying in, who think that this isn't the place where this battle should be playing out, on the stock market. >> i heard you call out our richard quest. i'm going to try to bring him back. he had to go to do a live report for cnn international, our sister network there. point well made. we'll bring you guys back, obviously, be talking about this all morning. >> good. >> we'll watch the markets throughout the day. also straight ahead, we want to turn fo to another big story. the u.s. helicopter shot down in afghanistan. the widow of one of the navy s.e.a.l.s on board said he wouldn't want to leave this earth any other way. you're going to hear from her. >> i want to tell the world that he was an amazing man, that he was a wonderful husband and a fabulous father to two wonderful children. >> coming up next, remembering the warriors who went down in that chopper crash in afghanistan. [ male announcer ] to the seekers of things which are one of a kind.

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history has been made with the s&p downgrade. now we're waiting to see if the numbers are going to do the same. 15 minutes after the opening bell, dow industrials down 180. you heard from all our money analysts here on the air. this is what we expected. we'll continue to watch it, of course, throughout the day. stay with us. the other big story we've been talking about, a nato helicopter made a hard landing in afghanistan today, two days after that chopper crash that killed 30 americans. there were no casualties today. 22 navy s.e.a.l.s were among those killed in wardemocratic ak province saturday. a rocket propelled grenade downed that helicopter. recovery efforts and an investigation continue. chinook crash was the single largest loss of life for u.s. forces since the afghan war began nearly ten years ago. the s.e.a.l.s ultimate sacrifice has hit one virginia community especially hard.

brian todd joins us from virginia beach. >> reporter: it's been a tough couple of days for virginia beach and norfolk, lot of navy installations, including two key navy s.e.a.l. bases in this general vicinity. navy s.e.a.l.s and their missions are a point of pride for people here. they don't know much about the s.e.a.l.s or their identities. they still find themselves identifying with the s.e.a.l.s. one of the most moving parts of any of these situations, including this one, moving aspects is when you hear from loved ones about what it was like when uniformed officers come to their door and inform them that their loved one had been killed. we spoke to kimberly vaughn, the widow of navy s.e.a.l. aaron vaughn. >> i woke up, saw the reports on the tv. my mother came and told me about it. i was okay. nobody had come. as i come up the stairs, i heard the door bell ring and i thought hopefully, it's just a neighbor.

as i rounded the stairs, i saw the men in uniform. and i just fell to my knees. it was just -- there's no preparing for it. you know, it's something that you see in the movies, not something you're supposed to live through. but it was men from the command and, you know, it was as nice as it could be, i guess. >> reporter: kimberly vaughn is now left to care for a 2-month-old daughter and a little boy who will be about 2 years old next month. she says -- the family says that aaron vaughn left for his latest deployment in afghanistan only two weeks after the little girl was born. kyra? >> brian todd, definitely and continues to be a tough story for all of us to hear. if you want to hear more on the helicopter crash, check out our new national security blogs, security clearance at cnn.com/security. reports, analysis, opinion pieces. we're also on twitter

@nationalsecurity cnn. can you pray away a bad economy? texas governor rick perry raidsraids raised some eyebrows when he did just that. does this blur the line between politics and religion? every day, all around the world, energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems

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this weekend in houston, governor rick perry stood before thousands of people, a live band, his face up on jumbo trons. but he wasn't announcing his candidacy for president. at least not yet. the gathering was supposed to help kick start our sluggish economy, but not with politics, with prayer.

so, was this a political rally or christian revival? will cain from new york. when you see this video and listen to his speech, it brings back memories of billy graham at one of his famous revivals. was this a smart move, will? >> politically, yeah, yeah. it was a pretty smart move, kyra. i will say this. i don't think we should begrudge individuals, their ability to practice their faith in public just because they've been elected to office. i don't think that requires you to hide your faith. that being said, this thing is kind of odd. look, the atmosphere of this deal with people swinging and swaying and falling out, it did look like a revival. it did look like something joel olstein crafted. it's hard not to think there are political motivations. >> l.z.? >> i don't think joel olstein was there. but with that said, i agree with

will. >> he would have filled it up. >> true. >> you can have whatever religion you want as a political office holder. my problem is that he's trying to mask, pretend this is all about religion and not about his politics, even though he he did it in the first place. >> you thought he was being dishonest here, l.z.? >> absolutely. you can't tell me when your name is up for being president or presidential candidate, at least, that you did not know that you can put two and two together and equals four. with that being said, democrats and liberals don't have a leg to stand on because their candidate goes to black churches and get the black vote behind them as well. both parties are guilty of doing this. >> this is his home -- go ahead, will. >> i would say dishonest is a little harsh. i would say political.

i don't know about being dishonest, but he was being a really good politician. >> he's a politician. he is dishonest. >> oh, boy. now it's going off into this -- look, it was his home state, right? that you have to expect the turnout and how successful it's going to be. a lot of people say he was taking a big risk and he did pretty well and you can understand why, but bottom line, if you want to talk about the politics here, will it work in iowa, in new hampshire, in south carolina, l.z.? >> if you follow someone based solely upon their christian values and yeah, it was a brilliant plan and there are tons and tons of voters who know if you say jesus more than twice. in that case, yes, i think it will work in those other states. >> will? >> yeah. yeah. we can talk about whether or not it should work, but will it work? yes, absolutely. >> we'll see, we'll find out, won't we? apparently he's going to see

something within a couple of weeks and we've heard that week after week. a lot of people praying for him, i think. lz, will, thanks, guys. >> a reminder for the political news go to cnnpolitics.com. some people think it was a bird or a bat that got stuck inside aye an airlines flight and we'll tell you what happened to this stowaway coming up next. medication continuously s for twenty-four hours. she uses one exelon patch daily for the treatment of mild to moderate alzheimer's symptoms. [ female announcer ] it cannot change the course of the disease. hospitalization and rarely death have been reported in patients who wore more than one patch at a time. the most common side effects of exelon patch are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. the likelihood and severity of these side effects may increase as the dose increases. patients may experience loss of appetite or weight. patients who weigh less than 110 pounds may experience more side effects. people at risk for stomach ulcers

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checking news across the country. the fbi searching for the dougherty family. lee, ryan and dylan are siblings and the attempted murder of a florida police officer. their faces are on hundreds of

billboards across the southeast now. parentses of six alabama students who were killed by tornadoes accepted diplomas for their which were this weekend. students say that the graduation ceremony helped bring closure. the april storm killed 47 people and six of them had been attending cool in tuscaloosa. a bird or bat somehow got aboard the flight to wisconsin, a passenger took this video before it got trapped in the bathroom and it slipped away as quickly as it came in. >> let's check in first with richard quest, richard? >> in the next hour the markets are down, but it is early days on a long trading session. how will they respond? we'll have details from the united states markets and of course, those around the world in europe. when it's open, we're reporting on it. i'm sandra endo at a car

dealership in los angeles. how will the u.s. downgraded credit rating accept business and consume are confidence? i'll have that coming up in the next hour. i'm brianna keilar and downgrading the credit rating and taking aim at house republicans. details ahead in "the newsroom." >> also next hour it's being called the worst humanitarian disaster in the world, 12,000 people dying or at risk in the horn of africa. our dr. sanjay gupta is there and joins us live. you give us your information once, online... [ whirring and beeping ] [ ding! ] and we give you a discount on both. sort of like two in one. how did you guys think of that? it just came to us. what? bundling and saving made easy. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

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as you know, the warning shot has been fired and this is a result of the s&p downgrade. the dow industrials down 187 points. we are watching the numbers for you very closely all throughout the day. it's just before the top of the hour and these are some stories that are also making news later today. next hour, in texas, a sentencing hearing for warren jeffs resumes. he could face life in prison. at 11:00 eastern. a pretrial hearing begins for dr. conrad murray and he faces manslaughter charges for michael jackson. in wisconsin police release new details about a weekend shooting spree that killed eight people. it is now 10:00 a.m. on the east coast, 7:00 a.m. out west. i'm keara phillips and thank you for joining us this hour. police arrest people in connection with weekend riots. the working class neighborhood turned on police after officers

shot to death a 29-year-old man. in the middle east an extraordinary condemn nation, saudi arabia's king blasts syria for its crackdown on protesters. more than 60 people have been killed since yesterday. across the u.s., grieving family members praised the loved ones killed in the nation's single deadliest incident in the afghan war. 30 americans killed in a helicopter crash, 22 of them navy s.e.a.l.s. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com now as i mentioned this morning we are witnessing history. wall street opens with the u.s. wearing a black eye of a downgraded credit rating. the prospect would have been unthinkable and laughable six months ago, but while congress bickered, the world watched. we all watched, and economist, of course,er. >>ed at it all and now it's time for all of us to pay. allison kosik joining us from wall street. ted rowlands at the mercantile exchange and leona is covering

the markets overseas while brianna keilar is at the white house. let's begin with allison kosik at the new york stock exchange. the markets opened just over 30 minutes ago. we're still in negative territory. >> we are. we watched the dow tumble at the opening bell more than 200 points. it's been bouncing around, you can see it down 183 points. we're off the low. there's movement in other places. i'm watching oil. oil's watching 3% on worries that the economy can slow even more. i'm also watching the vix, the fear index, the soaring 13% and what that measures is nervousness and uncertainty in the markets. listen, some analysts say the market's going to be okay in the long term because the u.s. has a fiscal problem, but listen, we didn't default and what you're seeing here is emotional trading. >> ali velshi, what do you think the biggest concern is going forward, looking beyond today? >> i truly think what happened

thursday in the markets was oversold and overdone, i think this is too. when you look at the fundamentals of the american companies they're supposed to reflect what they earn over time. this doesn't affect most companies. when you see the dow 30, the 30 companies in the dow, someone needs to explain to me how it is that this downgrade is affecting those 30 companies. there are certainly some that will be affected by it, but not all. so this is one of those things where people are being non-specific in their financial behavior and you what that creates, kyra? it creates buying opportunity and that's why you're seeing this market go down and you're seeing more people buy and you're seeing more people sell when they get their money back and some are buying. i do not think this is a long-term problem for the stock market. every time i say that i get tweets from people, i'm the same as everybody else. i have a 401(k) like everybody else. in this kind of market, the people i'm talking tor buying into it. they're seeing opportunity, not the other way around. >> you know, while you're getting criticized, i'm looking

at all of the various write-ups, ali, on this internationally here, domestically, calling this a warning shot. it certainly absolutely is, but as you and i discussed last hour, we're not greece, we're not spain and we're not italy. when there are structural problems preventing the ability for problems to impose austerity problems and you have people rioting in the streets about it and there are issues with their ability to raise money. it has to be done a different way than we can here. we didn't have either of those two problems and we have very hard working and very productive workforce and for all of the people who talked about outsourcing in the united states, some of that money, much of that money that the companies make to that come back from the united states. we have companies here that as a stock market you're looking at that are wealthy and they're sitting on money in the side lines and i'm not suggesting that everything is perfect with our economy and what i'm suggesting is that american-based companies, like them or not remain remarkably good investments and when you

talk about interest rates potentially rising which is the outcome that most worries us about the downgrade. if you're sitting on cash and you don't have to buy a lot of stuff, what difference does it make to you? it is a warning shot about dealing with our economy and dealing with our debt, that's very different from what you're looking at on the right side of the screen. >> okay. ali, thanks. the mercantile exchange, our ted rowlands is there. ted, you're taking the pulse, what do you think? >> well, initially, kyra, as ali was saying the fear of the downgrade was that interest rates would go up and initially in the short-term you're seeing the opposite and people are flocking to u.s. treasurys right out of the gate meaning that gre interest rates are going down. people are buying treasurys despite the fact they downgraded america, one thing, though, that could affect communities around the country is the fact that the u.s. government is tied to

municipalities around the country meaning that you may see a downturn in the bond rating for local governments and those local bonds. that could cost money in terms of projects and counties and cities around the country just because they're tied to the u.s. market. that's one thing people are watching here, but the bottom line and the headline is that fear that interest rates are going up because of the downgrade, it doesn't seem to be panning out at least here in the short term. >> thanks so much. now let's talk about those investors around the world and how they're reacting. let's talk about the markets in europe with lioni joining us from london. >> kyra, no surprises, obviously. the markets are down in the red. if we take a look at the main market and you'll see down across the board, i'll give you a couple of numbers, kyra, the ftse was down 2%. the dax in germany down 3% and the cac is going between 2% and

3% all day which is in paris. the reason for that is obviously what's happening in the u.s. everyone is watching what's happening on wall street. they did go a slight bit more when wall street opened and europe has its own problems. over the weekend we saw a bit of action taken by g-7 leaders and european central bank to try and restore confidence in the region. we have this massive debt burden in europe that is really, really causing a cries of confidence in europe and over the weekend the european central bank came out and said that it was going to implement, actively implement a bond-buying scheme. a program to buy italian and spanish bonds to prevent them, their yields, from dropping too low -- to prevent their dealyie sorry, from rising too high and to keep them low. it has worked to a certain point, but the overall problem, kyra, as i mentioned are people are so concerned that the

european economies will not be able to contain the overall debt burden and that is what's really unrattling the markets here in europe. >> all right, leone, got it. thanks so much. the nation's credit rating is bumped, embarrassing, sure, maybe unsettling. what does that mean now and down the road? what does that mean? richard quest joining us from new york. is the u.s. really a bigger risk than some would say tiny little luxembourg? >> absolutely not, and if you look at the rest of them, take the united kingdom, my own home country. of course, the united states is not a greater risk anymore next week as it was last week. as long as it remains roughly under control there's no problem whatsoever. there's nobody, really, that has suggested it. what they've done, of course s they've opened a political hot potato to mix metaphors and that's really the problem that's

happened with the debt downgrade. on the wider front, though, and let's keep our eyes on the bigger picture here. we have a market that's off 230 points and we're off 214, but with a long way to go and what we really need to focus on is the structural impediments in the u.s. economy and the european economy and spain and italy, kyra. now they're not things that happen overnight, but the financial fires are telling us that they have to be dealt with, and it's three years since the recession and now, really, it's only getting seriously getting around to dealing with them. >> and we talked about therlier about other countries that lost their aaa ratings in the past and ended up not paying more to borrow in the long run. so what do you think? do you see the same thing playing out as everyone says don't panic, don't panic? i'm just looking at the numbers on cnn.com and they told the

story. the u.s. tenure is actually lower now than it was on the yield before the downgrade and that's because of worries about the u.s. economy and the fact that interest rates will stay low. money is pouring into treasurys and they can't get it fast enough, when there's a bond auction coming off the spigot they're trying to get so much money in. the truth is that the new ramifications to use the horrible phrase, it will take time. there will be consequences of the downgrade and they won't be great and they won't be today and they won't be next week. they'll number six months and nine months down the road by which time, you hope, the super committee in washington has done its business and long term deficit reduction has been on the agenda. >> yeah, get those measures set in place. >> richard, thanks so much. the white house is reeling against the downgrade and

bracing against the backlash of a lot of public anger. brianna keilar is there in between the punches and trying to dodge the bullet. so what do you think, brianna? is the white house sitting back and saying okay, zee to step up this offensive in the blame game. >> we certainly saw it over the weekend and kyra, there are some looking backward and some looking forward. i'll start with the looking backward. the white house is criticizing s&p for the nation's credit. we heard the white house calling this amateurish, calling this political saying this was a miscalculation calling that a $2 trillion error, something that the s&p is calling a smoke screen and saying that the reason they continued with this downgrade has very much to do with the political climate that creates so much uncertainty in raising the debt ceiling and dealing with these long-term fiscal issues. the white house also pointing a finger at house republicans for

that very reason saying they're the ones who really slowed down this process. of course, you'll hear the reverse coming from the other side, won't you, kyra? looking forward the white house is seeing this as an impetus saying hey, guys this is proof that you need to tackle deficit reduction in a comprehensive way because we've heard the president say there needs to be a compromise and entitlement reform and it's something that democrats are not fans of and it is something that republicans have been very resistant to, kyra. so here in the long term they're seeing this in the long term saying this is the reason for the fiscal commission to act in a way that conflict for all of these different options for deficits on the table. >> thanks. the downgrade is hitting u.s. markets hard, but what impact might it have on the auto industry and the interest rates on any of your car loans? we'll address that specifically right after the break.

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geic personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. at 15 minutes past the hour. dow industrials down 227 points as we continue to talk about the s&p downgrade. the historic move that was made is impacting us all today. and as the u.s. is stripped of its aaa rating former fed reserve chair alan greenspan is speaking up and he says it's not just the economy that's taking a hit now, it's the american spirit. >> what i think the s&p thing did was to hit a nerve that

there is something basically bad going on and it's hit the self-esteem of the united states, the psyche and it's having a much profounder effect than i conceived could happen. >> all right. so let's say you want to buy a car or you've got a car loan right now, could the credit downgrade impact interest rates? sandra sandra endo is taking that for us this morning in los angeles. >> kyra, that's the big question, the unknown factor out there, where interest rates will settle and if they do go up that will affect local businesses like this car dealership in los angeles. car loans could go up. mortgage rates could go up as well as credit card bills as well. so clearly, there's a lot of worry out there. the news is still fresh, the rating is fresh, but we were just here talking to the sales manager ron wheeler last week when there were jitters about a debt ceiling deal and a massive default.

that didn't happen, but now this worry, the downgraded credit rating. this must be an emotional roller coaster for you when you have to think about sales and keeping this business afloat. >> you know, sandra, we've been in business almost 100 years, and i don't think -- i think it's been pretty close to 100 years since the last time the united states has had such a low credit rating, and you know, we are just tired of the politicians in washington playing chicken with our credit, with our livelihood which affects millions of people and every time they bat an eye in washington it just reverberates down to us and it has an effect on everything we do. >> reporter: so far we haven't seen the effect and it's still too fresh to know what will happen to interest rates, but it could possibly really affect sales here and what would it do and mean for business? >> you know, that's the unnerving part about it. this morning interest rates are actually down, so maybe now is a good time to buy, but we don't

know that. we don't know the american public's reaction. maybe we'll be in a holding pattern. it's going to affect sales one way or another, we do know that. this business used to be predictable years ago, but now it just fluctuates and it is so unpredictable that it is very fearful for business. >> ron wheeler, thank you so much for your thoughts. a lot of worried consumers as well as businesses because of the news. >> we'll be following it all. thanks so much. the debt deal and the downgrade. who's to blame for this mess? the president? the tea party? the political battle is coming in to weigh in. [ male announcer ] to the seekers of things which are one of a kind. the authentic, the rare, the hard to define. to those always searching for what's pure and what's real

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numbers still in negative territory, not getting any better. dow industrials down 277 points right now as we continue to follow the s&p downgrade. the other huge story that happened for us in the past couple of days and we're still talking about this morning, the ultimate sacrifice and the historic loss. we're talking about the 22 navy s.e.a.l.s and eight other of our warriors that were killed in afghanistan on saturday. their helicopter was shot down during a rescue mission, and now for the first time we are hearing from the families of those who lost loved ones and how their bravery and courage will be remembered always. >> for all who were on that helicopter, every life is important, not only this incident, but all of the ones before them. >> he was intense. he was funny. he had that dry humor. liked "seinfeld." >> barbara starr is at the pentagon. what's the latest on

investigation? >> reporter: well, kyra, what u.s. military officials are now saying is that when the s.e.a.l.s went in on this helicopter that got shot down they were going to assist u.s. army rangers already on the ground in a very serious fire fight with insurgents who they're attacking with rocket-propelled grenades, ak-47s. the s.e.a.l.s are there to back emthem up and help to that fire fight when they got shot down by all accounts by a rocket propelled grenade and that's the working assumption at the moment. very, very tough business now. a huge loss, not just for the entire military, but for the special operations community. it takes years for these men to be trained up and ready to go on some of these very dangerous missions and this is a major loss to the u.s. navy s.e.a.l. community. the remains of the fallen are expected back at dover air force base in delaware in the coming

days and even perhaps as soon as late tomorrow. it's going to depend on aircraft schedules and family arrangements so there's nothing official on that yet, but we are told to watch for those remains to return to dover fairly soon, kyra. >> barbara starr, tough, tough day for our military, tough couple of days. >> for more on the helicopter crash you can check out our new national security blog, cnn.com/security. and we're also on twitter at national security cnn. we will take you once again live to the new york stock exchange for the very latest on how the s&p downgrade is impacting us all. right now dow industrials are getting bigger, down 306. with two children and no way to support them. people told me i wasn't going to do anything. and i just decided i have more to offer than that. i put myself through nursing school, and then i decided to go get a doctorate degree. university of phoenix gave me the knowledge to make a difference in people's lives.

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as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. checking top stories now. saudi arabia has just recalled its ambassador to syria to protest the continued crackdown on opposition protesters. in a statement saudi king abdullah demand the stoppage of the killing machine. another 100 people arrested in london.

riots broke out after police shot and killed a local man. many involved are opportunistic looters, not protesters. and we continue to follow the stocks as stock markets around the world are selling off after standard & poor's took the unprecedented move of downgrading the government's debt. allison kosik is following the numbers for us still from the new york stock exchange and not looking good, allison. still in negative territory, where are we, down -- >> we are down 323. the selling has picked up now that more news has hit the wire, kyra, of s&p downgrading mortgage financials freddie mac and fannie mae. they've been downgraded. these back the majority of the mortgagees in this country. they directly rely on the federal government and this has kind of been expected because they rely on the federal government because the u.s. was downgraded. it just shows you the line of succession of other entities that will be downgraded, but the market obviously reacting again

in a knee-jerk reaction to it even though this was expected with the dow dropping even more now down 340 points. kyra? >> i think a lot of people are asking is it possible for the u.s. to get its aaa rating back? >> it is possible, but you know, it doesn't happen automatically. you look at how other countries have fared, you know. five countries have lost and regained their aaa status including canada, australia, but the caveat once again, is that it takes time. if you think about it the shortest time to get back to aaa was nine years. just like if you or i lost my credit rating you have to sort of prove that you can get back to where you were and that takes time. and then you also have to remember this is just one agency's opinion. moody's and fitch are holding the u.s. rating at aaa for now. >> kyra? >>al right, allison, we appreciate it. despite the criticism, standard & poor's is again defending its decision to downgrade the nation's credit rating.

treasury secretary tim geithner says the agency showed terrible judgment. cnn's poppy harlow just talked to the global head of sovereign rating and he commented on what the u.s. had to do to get the aaa rating back. poppy, you talked to him one-on-one. >> reporter: i certainly did. it was interesting. cnn asked him this morning also, you know, about the $2 trillion quote, unquote error that you heard the administration pointing to, and he called that a smoke screen, essentially deflect the debt problems of this country. as to what the united states has to do to regain the aa accredit rating, obviously, we have to get the fiscal house in order. the s&p would like to see more spending cuts, but one of the more interesting things he pointed out was the issue of taxes. i want you to take a listen to how he addressed increasing taxes. take a listen. >> it's possible also that the

administration will be able to persuade by next year congress to, you know, do what the administration wants to do and make for extra revenues from high income taxpayers and that could also enter the vix in which case the outlook could possibly revert to stable. >> so he's talking about the fact that their outlook is that the taxes need to increase, more money needs to come to get us to stable ground and kyra, this comes after the fact that not only did the agency downgrade us, but they put us on negative watch which means we as a country could be downgraded another notch further if things don't turn around, kyra. >> well, does he think that this could make things even worse in an economy -- we're already suffering and it is so fragile long term effects here? >> it's a good question. the market certainly appears any it thinks it does, down 355

points and it is not clear what the effect is on interest rates and we all care about that from the morgue are mortgage to car loans and school loans and he does point out that the dramatic headwinds facing the u.s. economy. he thinks that impact of this will be, quote, relatively mild and we will have to wait and see. this is uncharted territory and an unprecedented event for the u.s. economy and he did clearly say that s&p's view is that the united states right now has a one in three chance of a further downgrade. we're clearly not out of the woods yet, a one in three chance. i pressed him hard to get an answer on whether or not the agency thinks that we're headed into a second recession. he would not give me an answer on that one, kyra. that is certainly something we would like to know as we hear increased chatter on the point of the u.s. economy. >> poppy, thanks. even as we're talking, the dow industrials diving even deeper right now, far past the 300 mark there, dow industrials. your political buzz. your rapid-fire look at the political topics of the day.

three questions and 30 seconds on the block. maria cardone a sirius xm political talk show host, and dana loesch, all right, guys. first question. howard dean comes forward and says tea partiers have not just been drinking their tea, but smoking it. they came out and said that the president is destroying the foundations of the u.s. economy. what do you guys think? blame the debt downgrade on the tea party tactics or the president, maria? >> there's no question, kyra, that this is the tea party downgrade. i call it tea party hangover. you can absolutely lay the downgrade in the lap of the tea party. s&p actually mentioned that this was one of the reasons in their analysis that they downgraded because political leaders were willing to gamble the debt and the nation's -- the nation's political future, frankly, financial future on the

negotiations. they were willing to do that. they took us to this point and now all americans can be thankful for them for that. >> we'll get you some hot tea, poor thing. you've got a lot to say, i know. dana? >> what maria said is just an absolute, blatant, outright lie. let's look at the facts here. there was one plan that had bipartisan support and was going cut $4 billion which is exactly what s&p said it needed for the downgrade. tea party endorsed it, but harry reid in the senate killed it and our own president said he would veto it if it reached his desk. either the tea party is irrelevant fringe or it's -- it can hold all three braefrns of government for three years. pick a narrative. >> pete? >> well, listen, you can blame the president for being a worst negotiator than my 6-year-old or even that he provided poor

leadership, but only one group wanted to see the default, wanted to see the debt limit not raised and she wouldn't have raised the debt limit so you have to blame the people who have no understanding of basic arithmetic and how economics works and that is clearly michele bachmann and many of her supporters. >> that's exactly right. >> question number two. >> you can only raise revenue by raising taxes apparently. >> sorry. >> 33 seconds each. all right. "the huffington post" got a hold of govern or track scripts. he did get an a in improv of learning. okay. what the heck is improv of learning, my first question, and is that a skill that's necessary to be president? dana? >> i have no idea. he took all these classes and got all these grades while he was still a democrat. so, i'm willing to give him a pass on that because he became a republican later on in life.

i have no idea what the improv of learning is, but all i know is that his records on jobs in texas speaks for itself and i would put that up against the national record any day of the week. >> maria? >> i looked it up and improv of learning is improvisation of leaders. it's some class where you learn to think outside the box. i think i would rather have my chander in chief know economics. i would rather have my commander in chief know history. we have many leaders running for president on the republican side that have no idea about american history and that i think is more important than improv of learning, whatever that might be. >> pete? >> i think this is another stupid tactic that in this case liberals are taking to point out that grades matter. i don't really think grades do matter. if grades mattered i would be a homeless street clown, kyra. nobody cares what grade governor perry got when he was in college 20 years ago. it really doesn't matter. who really cares about this

stuff? i don't think voters are really going to care. we should be talking about his prayer meeting this weekend. that's what matters for governor perry. he'll get the nomination, i think. >> pete, you do comedy. i thought you would go off on the improv angle and how essential that is. >> he must be a -- listen, i didn't want to say it. he may have been a super senior who needed an elective. all of us needed that, kyra. i'm sure you have grade ke skeletons in your closet. >> i need renaissance, more than improv learning. >> maria, what do you think? >> you don't even want to know. >> all right. we shall move on. buzzer beaters. 20 seconds each, guys. the president heading out to the midwest, rather, on a bus tour next week, he says he'll get out of washington and meet with regular folks. so if you could pick anyone, i don't know, a member of congress or anyone, that you would like to see join him on the bus who would that be? maria? >> i would love to have him take

willie nelson, kyra. he's been on cnn talking about how he thinks that the whole debt ceiling negotiations were just ridiculous because people actually care about having a ceiling over their heads. he might take perhaps a student whose loans are going to be a lot more expensive thank you to the tea party is what i was trying to say earlier. again. bye. >> dana? >> well, i think -- i don't think he should take anybody. in fact, i think he should stay home because isn't this entire tour being financed by the tax payer? we don't have that kind of money to spend. if he wants to spend his own money like he did on his big 40 grand birthday party, so be it. i don't think we can afford to foot the bill, so stay home. keep everyone else there with him. >> pete? >> there are so many people i would like to see him bring, dean baker and i would like to see him bring captain planet if he's available and maybe he can bring reverend wright and bill ayers. that would be entertaining.

>> we would love to roll camera on that. great chatting with you on this monday. we'll see you tomorrow. >> thanks, kyra. >> once again f you haven't been tuning in, you probably should because we're continuing to talk about the s&p downgrade and how it's impacting all of us and look at how it's already impacting the markets. it's been just a little over an hour and we are still in negative territory. it's not looking good. down 375 point, dow industrials, but we will keep monitoring and see how we end up by the end of the day. more from the cnn "newsroom" straight ahead. [ male announcer ] to the seekers of things which are one of a kind.

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unimaginable. 12 million people in dire need of assistance, in need of food in the horn of africa. somalia is the worst hit by famine. almost 30,000 kids have died in the past three months. cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta just arrived in the region a few hours ago and sanjay, the united nations is saying this is the worst humanitarian disaster in

the world. what have you seen so far? >> reporter: well, we're at the largest refugee camp in the world which i guess sort of makes sense with what you said, kyra. what i can tell you is a couple of things. first of all, what we're seeing here is not something that has happened overnight. you know, in this particular refugee camp right along the somali-kenyan border you can see the border of the camp over here behind me, they had about 300,000 refugees in several months ago and now they've had a gradual increase in those numbers because of this drought that people have been talking about for some time. it was not sudden. it was not unexpected and not a surprise. people knew this was going to happen and yet we're still seeing these terrible consequences of the drought. we're seeing the famine and we're seeing people leave their crops and as a result, lose their livestock and as a result have to walk hundreds of kilometers to try to find a refugee camp to try to find some of the most basic necessities. small children are often walking with them. it's really tough to describe

entirely, kyra. it's pretty awful. >> i think it's hard for a lot of people to understand. humanitarian groups have been trying to get food and basic supplies there now, but a lot of questions remain on how did it even get to this point? i mean, for so long millions and millions of people now literally are starving to death. >> reporter: yeah, i mean, this part of the world and this country in particular had a long history with this sort of thing. there was a famine here about 19 or 20 years ago, so this is something that has happened in somalia previously. i think in particular, this was just a really bad drought, probably the worst in 60 years, they say since 1950 and it led to this loss of crops and the livestock, and i think it's been compounded by a long history of conflict as well in this part of the world. there was a ban on any western aid coming into somalia by an islam militant group called al

shabaab. that ban has been lifted over the last couple of days and there's an atmosphere of mistrust. aid workers have been killed in the past trying to bring resources and aid into the country and now they're not sure what the lift on the ban necessarily means. i think these two means are compounding the situation. if they don't get aid into somalia so many people are forced to walk 100 kilometers, a month of walking and doing it at night because it's cooler then and a month of walking with young kids in tow to get to refugee camps all week. >> know you and the team will be in the region all week and can you tell us what's your journey and what you plan to bring us? >> reporter: you know, i'm looking specifically at the medical aspects here, and i can tell you already that most of what i'm seeing was entirely preventable. again, providing basic food, basic water, that could have been done, that should have been done especially with all of the forewarning there was. we're seeing kids with measles, with perituses, dipper thissia,

tetanus and all of the things that have been vaccinated against. we'll be visiting the hospitals and they're talking about 2,000 more refugees a day. there's no hospital system in the world that can deal with that kind of volume and learning how they will manage that and how they'll expand to take care of all these people, kyra. >> our sanjay gupta, appreciate it and our anderson cooper will be reporting live from the horn of africa and the region's devastating famine starting tonight. 8:00 p.m. anderson cooper's "360," somalia on the front lines of famine. the credit downgrade and your 401(k), at the very least it could change the way the way you think about your portfolio. coming up after the break we'll talk again with financial coach clive anderson.

it's been one hour since the opening bell on live street and on the first trading day since the u.s. credit rating was downgraded. you can tell that investors are not happy. stocks have been in the red since the opening minutes. a big question on everybody's mind, how is the downgrade going to affect my 401(k), my retirement nest egg. clive anderson is back with us. financial lifestyle coach and cnn contributor. let's start with stocks. we tried to hammer out where we should begin. you say stay with the big companies. so name three and tell me why. >> we're talking about the staples, the companies that we know and they have a track record so i'm talking about your walmart, johnson & johnson or your microsoft. these are the companies that have a stable record like multinational companies and a

lot of them are down with the rest of the markets and those are the ones that will come back and they'll remain and not going anywhere right now. >> so walmart, name some more because i know folks -- >> johnson & johnson. ibm as well. those are ones that you look at and things that you use, gillette. invest in what you know and what you're using. these are companies that have been around for 20-plus years. >> the ones that are aren't going away. we don't have to worry about those in a bad economy where people are losing jobs. >> they're staples and things that we have to buy and they're necessities and those are the things that you want to gravitate to. >> how about bonds? >> that's a good question and that's the uncertainty that everybody -- >> this is what i was told to buy lots of in the past couple of years. go conservative, go more bonds and i did pretty well. >> it always has been. these are unprecedented times and that's why it's unique. you have to look at the whole

perspective. you don't want to be heavily invested in bonds. it's not just the u.s. government bonds or corporate bonds. a lot of corporations have bonds that you can invest in. >> for example? >> major companies that we talked about as well. banks and other organizations that are actually building or trying to invest. we're talked about hospital bonds. light of them will get hit if they're government bonds. we really want to be careful with that. you want to make sure that you have a good adviser and someone that's talking to you about where you should invest. treasury bill f they're long term treasury bills like the ten-year notes are actually going up and that's a good thing if you're holding on to the bonds. they're going up a little bit. >> here's what i want to know. what have you done in the past 24 hours? well, no, because we're on a monday. what did you do last week and what will you do today? what are the moves you're going to make? >> i reached out to my friends and we talk about this a lot. and the thing is we knew this was coming. i knew what the market was going do today. i don't have a crystal ball, but

you can look at history and history repeats itself. people will sell sxauf they're going to panic and that's when it will be time to buy. buy low, sell high. >> you still haven't told me what you buy. we can't even get him to go forward with that. all right, clive, maybe i can squeeze it out of you next round. >> we'll talk. >> thanks so much. appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> we'll go to the stock exchange for the latest number -- actually, we can probably share the numbers. the dow industrials down 293. it continues to remain in negative territory. we'll take you there live with allisison kosik after the break. [ male announcer ] this...is the network --

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right now, dow industrials

312 points. we will continue to talk about what the u.s. downgrade means to you and all of us. a pretty historic move. we'll talk to analysts and the money team throughout the morning and the afternoon. other stories that are making news later today at noon eastern police in ohio have scheduled a news conference to release details about a weekend shooting spree that killed eight people. also at noon, defense secretary leon panetta swears in the new head of special operations command, general william mcbraven. and president obama a tensed a fund-raising event in washington, the democratic national committee. coming up in the next hour of cnn "newsroom." she's 61 years old, but age isn't slowing down this baby boomer. she is in the middle of a 103-mile swim from havana to key west without a shark cage. it may take as many as three

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. the s&p warning america could get slammed with another downgrade and there's no letup in the political gridlock and so far there's no sign that republicans or democrats are ready to play nice. just listen to the finger pointing that took place during

the sunday talk shows. >> you have a negative outlook which speaks to a longer timeframe from six months to 24 months and if the fiscal position of the united states deteriorates further, or if the political gridlock becomes more entrenched then that could lead to a downgrade. >> i think in a narrow sense it is a political move and i think it sounds strange for me to say it, an outrageous move. the government can't pay its debts and it's legally obligated to do so and it has the wherewithal to do it. >> the s&p's track record has been terrible and its arithmetic is worse, so there's nothing good to say about what they've done, but that's not the large issue here. the large issue here is that the house majority played chicken with america's credit worthiness and america's families are now going to be the losers. upon. >> don't shoot the messenger. is there anybody that believes

that s&p is wrong in their assessment of the situation -- of the fiscal situation of the country? >> this is the tea party downgrade countered the will upon republicans in the united states senate. >> the tea party hasn't destroyed washington. washington was destroyed before the tea party got there. >> this is not an issue of credit rating. the united states can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. so there is zero probability of default. what i think the s&p thing did was to hit a nerve that if something basically bad is going on and it's hit the self-esteem of the united states, the psyche, and it's having a much profounder effect than i conceived could happen. >> as you can imagine, the presidential candidates are also weighing in on what they -- how they feel about this downgrade.

paul steinhauser, mitt romney, michele bachmann pointing fingers at the president. >> surprise, surprise. what did you think, they would compliment the president? no. not going to happen. mitt romney on the campaign trail up there in new hampshire and he was on the president over what happened. take a listen. >> the failure of the president to reignite this economy and to get people back to work is one of the reasons we're seeing such high lechl levels of deficit an debt continues to grow at an alarming rate. we need to put more americans back to work, and i'm afraid the president is out of his depth when it comes to understanding how the private economy works. >> that's part of romney's argument. the president doesn't know what he's doing on the economy, and romney, former businessman, does. he was quick to point out when he was government of massachusetts they upgraded it not downgrade period upon you'll hear more from the campaign troil throughout the week. >> americans are not too happy with members of congress