trust obama compared with 16% who trusted george w. bush. most countries surveyed have much higher approval ratings of america in 2012 than they did in 2008 when bush was president. and by the way, consider why obama's ratings are low in one area in particular, the arab world. the two strongest justifications given by people in every arab country that was surveyed were, first, that obama has not been fair in dealing with the israeli/palestinian issue and, second, that he's used drone attacks in afghanistan and pakistan to go after terrorists. in other words, the reason obama has lost some of his global popularity is that he's perceived as too pro-israeli and too hawkish. think about that, mitt romney. romney has tried to used the standard-issue cold war republican attack on democrats. the world is dangerous, our enemies are growing strong, obama is weak. the problem is most americans recognize that none of this is

really true. the world is actually quite peaceful right now. our adversaries like iran are weak and isolated. china is growing strong, but it has not used its power to contest america in major national security terms. the one enemy americans recognize and worry about remains al qaeda andaffiliated islamic terror groups and obama has been relentless in attacking them. now mitt romney is a smart man who has had considerable professional success in his life. but even republicans, insiders have admitted to me that he has been strangely amateurish on foreign policy. his campaign, they note, is not staffed by the obvious republican foreign policy heavyweights. people like robert zoellick, paul wolfowitz, richard haas, steven hadley. as a result he has bluster good russia being our greatest geopolitical adversary. actually it's a second-rate power. he seems willing to start a trade war with china. he's vague yetty abo y aboubell

syria and iran. he's gone back and forth on withdrawal from afghanistan. romney faces a tough problem. president obama is the first democrat in nearly 50 years to enter an election with a dramatic advantage in foreign policy. the last time was lyndon johnson versus barrry goldwater. unless romney can craft a smart, strategic alternative, that gap will only get wider. for more on this, you can read my column in this week's "time" magazine and on time.com. let's get started. foreign policy is the flavor of the week finally. so let's get to it. i have a great panel -- paul wolfowitz is former deputy secretary of defense under george w. bush and then president of the world bank. two former state department policy planning directors -- richard haas, president of the council on foreign relations, anne marie slaughter, back at

princeton university. finally from washington, "the new york times'" foreign affairs columnist tom friedman. welcome. tom, let me start with you. you talked to a lot of people in the region, what is your sense about whether assad can hold on? so far he has defied many expectations and has held on. >> well, fareed, i think it's the nature of these kind of regimes that they're strong, they're strong, they're strong until they aren't, and then they go quickly. we just don't know whether that moment will be. the reason he has held on up to now is because he clearly has support. support of the minority that he represents. first of all, his own aloite sect, offshoot of shiism, 12% of the population. christians who basically fear a sunni/muslim majority taking power in syria. and some sunni muslims who have been allied with the regime for

business and other purposes. so this isn't a one-man show. there is support there. it's basically tribe and sect based. they're deeply afraid, cornered, and they're fighting that way. >> do you feel like he can hold on? >> well, i think -- actually, if you look at it, he's losing ground steadily. i mean, it was back in february when the chinese and the russians vetoed the first u.n. resolution. they essentially gave him a couple of months to roll up the opposition. he did actually make some real gains, but then he's been steadily pushed back. and even a month ago if you'd said they would be fighting in aleppo and damascus and that you would have an assassination of some top people right in damascus, people would have said no. so he's holding on, but he's getting steadily weakened. i think we're moving toward the end game actually rapidly, although it could be long and bloody and u.s. policy has something to say about that. >> you think we should be doing more? >> i think we should have been doing more a long time ago. the arguments i heard at the

time for hanging back were that the country would be broken, it would descend in chaos, the regime would collapse. all of that stuff is happening now with our not having done anything. and i think one thing that is certainly happening as this goes on is position may be weakening. but the people who are fighting for them are more desperate. they have blood all over their hands. it's going to be much harder to achieve any kind of reconciliation. i think the country's going to suffer, and our interests are going to suffer as a result. >> my concern is that more people could ultimately die than, say, the 17,000 or 18,000 people that died afterwards. this is a sect-based country. you have tremendous amount of arms. you've got all sorts of fear and vengeance in the air. and i actually think as much of our time as possible ought to be devoted to preparing for the aftermath, thinking who's going to help essentially prevent sfroir going the way of iraq and lebanon and becoming a prolonged, sect-based violent, revenge-filled country. >> tom, you've been skeptical

about u.s. involvement, precisely for that reason. i think you once wrote that syria won't implode, it will explode. >> yeah. i mean, my concern is, fareed, and i wrote this the other day, that syria is really a lot like iraq. in many ways, a minority-led regime, multi-sectarian. a state with deep fear and mistrust of different -- among different communities. and that, you know, when it does break, you're going to need some kind of midwife, some kind of armed and trusted mediator to referee its transition from dictatorship to some new consensual politics without getting stuck in a hobisian war of all against all. i think the american people have limited patience and desire for any high-profile iraq-like, you know, mandate of the united states to take this on. so i'm certainly ready to listen

to any alternative. arab league force, u.n. force. i don't know. i think it's a bit of a stretch to believe that the opposition will cohere, reach out to the aloite and christian motor, and they will find a way without a midwife -- when you have no midwife and no mandela, you have a prescription for i think a long war. >> what do you think? >> i think all these are exactly the reasons we actually do have to do much more now. i think richard actually outlined the scenario if the conflict keeps going. it becomes increasingly sectarian. the chances of it spilling over to other countries are much greater. we can't plan for a transition if we're not willing to help bring it about. if we try to bring it about now, much more likely to happen on our term. and what we do is support the commanders on the ground who are declaring safe zones. they now control territory particularly on the borders. what they need are anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft weapons to prevent assad from pushing this back again. i think assad actually probably

would be willing to use chemical weapons on his own people. i'm certain he will bomb them, he will do what it takes -- >> it's not just a military matter. i think american political leadership would make a real difference in terms of helping the opposition, both to cohere and to cohere around a plan for syria afterwards. we shouldn't estimate our ability to do that. i think it's important. >> paul, what do you think the lesson is that you drew from iraq to prevent the kind of post-war problems that iraq had? >> i think iraq and syria are almost completely different situations. we're not talking about a major american ground force or an american force at all. i mean, if anything might have some parallel, it's bosnia. where for three years we sat back while the country of shattered. then ultimately we had to provide half of a 60,000-person peacekeeping force. i think ultimately syria is going to be governed by syrians. i don't see why people are so comfortable saying we shouldn't

be arming them, but it's okay for islamic -- islamist governments in the persian gulf that don't share our objectives, it's okay for them to be arming thi them. i think trying to arm the future political government is important. >> a lot of people say, well, how are american interests directly involved? so syria's a mess. >> we have humanitarian interests, i don't think the united states as a matter of principle ought to turn a blind eye when innocent people get killed the way they are in syria. and we have strategic interests. the fact that iran is as involved as it is gives us, i think, a strastrateg-- strategie in no. that's why the president is right to make an unlimited american commitment here. >> quickly. >> we do have vital interests if you put al qaeda who are infiltrating and chemical weapons on the other. that's one place everybody agrees you've got chemical weapons stocks and you've got terrorists on the ground. i actually think we have more vital interests here certainly than we did in libya.

and just on the face of it, this is one of the most strategic countries in the most strategic region in the world. >> an ally of iran which makes it -- maybe not a vital interest but an important strategic special. >> all right. we are going to take a break. when we come back, we're going to talk it iran. we are also going to talk about mitt romney with two people who might be advising him or might not. when we come back. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement.

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...we inspected his brakes for free. free is good. free is very good. my money. my choice. my meineke. wolfowitz, richard haass, anne marie slaughter, and tom friedman. tom, let's talk about iran for a second outside of the syrian context. what do you think is going to happen -- obama was able to defuse the issue of possible war with iran by saying i am -- i really take this threat seriously. i'm going to press and press them as hard as possible, containment is not an option. we will not live with an iranian nuclear program that could become a weapons program.

and so at this point, either the iranians have to surrender completely, i think, or president obama faces a problem. in other words, he's kicked the can down the road, but it's going to come back soon. >> i think the iranians are very good at reading power and the global power scene. i think they've taken the measure of the world right now. and they don't think that -- that anyone's going to force them to give up their nuclear program. i think they realize that israel would be very, very wary of undertaking a military action before the american election or at a time that it could tip the global economy into a downward spiral right now. i think they realize president obama doesn't want to take military action. they certainly know the europeans aren't going to do anything. so i -- i think the only thing that could get them to move, fareed, would be the president put on the table the kind of minimum iranian demand that they want, which is for some kind of peaceful, internationally

monitored, civilian nuclear reprocessing program for peaceful purposes. to go right to the bottom lines, say we're ready to offer you this, if you're not ready to take it, we're ready to act militarily. i think other than facing them with that choice, they've read the scene quite well. i don't think they're going to do anything. >> anne marie, the problem is if obama does look for that kind of win-win where he gives the iranians something but they have to make big concessions, does he have the political room to make that kind of concession to iran? in other words, part of what tom's staying, i assume, is we will roll back sanctions, et cetera, et cetera-goes to congress, republican house, and says, would you place roll back these sanctions on iran, they will call him an apeaser. >> he's not going to do anything before the election. i essentially think the issue is on hold until after the election. he's not going to attack until after the election if an attack ultimately becomes necessary, and he's not going lift sanctions. >> i would keep lots of sanctions in place, given their support for terrorism, given what they're doing in the

neighborhood, given what they're doing for their own people. at the end of the day, i'll be honest with you, fareed, i not only want to deal with the iranian nuclear program, ultimately i would love to see iran run by a very different government. the united states ought, to i think, consider over the long run we want to have a different iran that's part of the region rather than a threat to the region. >> which by the way is can i think what's happening in syria is so important. we sit here comfortably saying assad can't survive. that's not so clear. if assad does survive, i can't think of anything that would be more discouraging for political change in iran. and i agree, political change in iran is where the real solution will come. >> tom, the egyptian elections, what do you make of the election of the muslim brotherhood's candidate, actually his -- the second candidate to be president of egypt? >> you know, it shows you egypt's divided. in fact, the sort of secular, more liberal, progressive, traditional, whatever you want to call them, voters in egypt were a majority, but they weren't able to, you know, coalesce to actually win the election. we have a muslim brotherhood president. we're going to have to work

through this. you know, my view is simple. in iran today, a story of political islam in power with oil. saudi arabia's the story of political islam in power with oil. egypt will be the story of political islam in power without oil. how that will ultimately shake out, i have no idea. i'm just taking notes. but i find this desire to predict that, you know, it's all going to fall apart, it's all going to be wonderful, i don't know. i'm not smart enough. watching the egyptian muslim brotherhood run egypt, that's like watching elephant flying. something you never expected before. first rule of journalism, whenever you see elephants flying, shut up and take notes. >> all right. got to close by asking you the two of you a tough -- an all-court question to answer how you will. romney does not seem to have developed a very -- a large coherent foreign policy, you know, set of positions. i mean, he has sort of flip-flopped on the afghan withdrawal date. first he was against it, now he seems to be for it.

he has a couple of slogans about iran that he'd be tougher without kind of specifying exactly how. he called russia the greatest geopolitical foe the united states has. what's going on? >> a trick question, fareed? i think what he's got to do is tie his principal theme, the economy, to foreign policy. this would basically make the case that restoring the foundations of american economic power needs to be front and central. much more of an emphasis on trade, which has been one of the weaknesses of the obama foreign policy -- >> he's threat noting a trade war with china. >> his most recent speech actually put that to the side. talked about china potentially being a partner, can cheat. which everybody agrees, but can be a partner in the world economic order. much more -- he's also recently said something about immigration, that people with high skills and high education stapling that to -- >> you're covering all the parts that you like, richard -- >> no, no, what it says, i think, is that this is what makes the most sense for romney foreign policy. to take the economics that's central to his campaign, you

know that, everyone watching it knows that, that's what the campaign is going to be about, and basically showing where the connection is between foreign policy and that. and to the extent he does that, i think it actually -- i'll leave it to others to say whether it's good politics. but i think that's good policy. i would hope the administration would do the same thing. >> i'm not rimes adviser, romney spokesman, so i'm speaking for myself here. i think, look, president obama's lucky. there aren't -- unless syria collapses, which it might -- we don't have a media crises. you used the word kick the can down the road about iran. china's a problem, but it's a problem down the road. most of our problems -- afghanistan's a problem, but they've sort of kicked that can down the road. i think it's legitimate to question, first of all, the degree to which on syria in particular but more generally we are ceding to the united nations, allowing the russians and chinese to veto actions that are really quite important to american interests. and secondly and quite importantly, to use a phrase the president likes to use about false choices, posing a false

choice between nation building abrad and nation building at home. the united states can't afford to lead unless we fix our problems at home. but we can't afford not to lead. the world is too dangerous, and our role is -- as democratic secretary of state bahama samad albright said, our role is indispensable. we have to fix it for our sake and for the leadership of the world. that's what i would say. >> paul wolfowitz, richard haass, anne marie slaughter, tom friedman, thank you very much. next, "what in the world?" how the u.s. compares with other countries on gun crimes and gun control. the data will surprise you. customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

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>> 315 -- >> it's been ten days since a lone gunman opened fire on moviegoers in aurora, colorado. the airwaves have been dominated by soul searching. most of the pundits have concluded that the main cause of this calamity is the dark, strange behavior of the gunman. talking about anything else, they say, is silly. "the new york times" is usually extremely wise columnist david brooks explains that this is a problem of psychology, not sociology. at one level this makes sense as

theppro proximate cause, but th about this -- are there more lonely people in america compared with other countries? are there, say, fewer depressed people in asia and europe? so why do they all have so much less gun violence than we do? the united states stands out from the rest of the world not because it has more nutcases -- i think we can assume that those people are sprinkled throughout every society equally -- but because it has more guns. look at this map. it shows the average number of firearms per 100 people. most of the world is shaded light green. those are the countries where there are between zero and ten guns per 100 citizens. in dark brown you have countries with more than 70 guns per 100 people. the u.s. is the only country in that category. in fact, the last global small arms survey showed there are 88 guns for every 100 americans. yemen is second at 54.

serbia and iraq are among the other top countries in the top ten. we have 5% of the world's population -- [ gunfire ] >> and 50% of the guns. the sheer number isn't an isolated statistic. the data shows we compare badly on fatalities, too. [ sirens ] >> the u.s. has three gun homicides per 100,000 people. that's four times as many as switzerland. ten times as many as india. 20 times as many as australia and england. whatever you think of gun rights and gun control, the numbers don't flatter america. i saw an interesting graph in "the atlantic" magazine. on a spectrum from yellow to red, red being the worst, it shows the number of gun-related deaths by state. now if you add one more piece of data -- gun-control restrictions -- you see that the states with at least one firearm law, such as the assault weapons ban or trigger locks, tend to be the states shaded in lighter colors, meaning fewer gun-related

deaths. conclusion -- well, there are lots of factors involved, but there is at least a correlation between tighter laws and fewer gun-related deaths. i've shown you data comparing countries and comparing states. now look at the u.s. over time. americans tend to think that the u.s. is getting more violent. in a recent gallup survey, 68% said there is more crime in the u.s. than there was a year ago. well, here's what i found surprising. the u.s. is actually getting safer. in the decades since the year 2000, violent crime rates fell by 20%. aggravated assault by 22%. motor vehicle theft by 42%, murder by all weapons by 13%. but guns are the exception. gun homicide rates haven't improved at all. they were at roughly the same levels in 2009 as they were in 2000. meanwhile, serious but nonfatal gun joisinjuries caused during assault have increased the last decade by 20% as gun laws have

gotten looser and getting weapons has become easier. we are the world's most heavily armed civilian population. one out of every three americans knows someone who has been shot. look, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. but not to his or her own facts. saying that this is all a matter of psychology is a recipe for doing nothing. we cannot change the tortured psychology of madmen like james holmes. what we can do is change our gun laws. we'll be back. up next, a debate on the economy, paul krugman and ken rogoff join me. one a day men's 50+ is a complete multi-vitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. ♪ it has more of seven antioxidants to support cell health. that's one a day men's 50+ healthy advantage.

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i'm candy crowley in washington. "fareed zakaria gps" will be back in 90 seconds. first, mitt romney took a break from meeting israeli officials today to visit the western wall. one of judaism's holiest places. the romneys were joined by the same rabbi who accompanied president obama's visit to the site during his 2008 trip to israel as a presidential candidate. we'll have live coverage of mitt romney's foreign policy speech in israel at noon eastern. syria's opposition leaders are warning that a massacre may occur in aleppo, the country's largest city. military is using tanks and

helicopters there to pound rebels. some advice from the u.s. top diplomat in afghanistan. american policymakers should heed the lessons of the recent past while weighing military options for the future in syria and iran. ambassador ryan crocker, who is retiring this month, tells "the new york times" that u.s. leaders should remember the law of unintended consequences and recognize the limits of america's capabilities. florida republican senator marco rubio was supposed to appear at a campaign rally for mitt romney in iowa, but he couldn't because the plane he was on made an emergency landing in albuquerque, new mexico. rubio, who's been mentioned as a potential romney running mate, did address the iowa rally by phone. an albuquerque airport spokesperson said the palestinian may have had an electrical issue. those are your top stories. back to "fareed zakaria gps." as the american economy continues to disappoint, an old

debate has resurfaced. is there anything the government can do to get things moving again? or is it all in the hands of the private sector? to talk about this, i have two very eminent economists. paul krugman is columnist for "the new york times," professor at princeton and has a book, "end this depression now." and ken rogoff is a professor at harvard university and a former chief economist at the international monetary fund. welcome. paul, let me begin with you by asking you, just how bad is it? because at some level, you know, compared with europe, we're doing okay. we're growing at about 2%. we still have no housing recovery, which presumably there will be at some point in a demographically vibrant country. so is the situation as dire as -- as, you know, you write about? >> you know, there's a -- the not as bad as is one of the issues that comes up. you say this is not as bad as the great depression. not as bad as europe. it's pretty terrible. it's -- thing i like to focus on

is long-term unemployment. we've gone around four million people out of work for a year. that's devastating, that's an ongoing process of enormous devastation to families. it also means probably damage to our long run future because people who have been out of the work force that long find it hard ever to re-enter. young people coming out into a high unemployment environment may never get properly started on their careers. we're doing a lot of ongoing damage. to say, well, you know, we're not spain, we're not greece, and things -- we're not falling off the cliff, you know, this is good. but it's -- it doesn't stop the fact that this is, in fact, an ongoing crisis. >> ken, would you agree with that? >> i certainly seatbelt e an uro it. it doesn't mean that they're easy answers. there's a role for the government. we've had the government doing essentially nothing in terms of fundamentals. they didn't fix the tax system, health care, if i do say so, sort of half baked. i mean, there's something coming in, but there's a lot that needs

to be done. i do think there's room for infrastructure investment. there are many things the -- the government doesn't have to just sit on its hands. i must say we have an energy bonanza in the united states. the new sources of energy. the price of gas is 1/5 what it is in europe. we could be having manufacturing come back here. but the whole landscape is so dormant from nervousness over where things are going that nothing's happening. >> what would provide certainty that would get businesses investing again? >> well, decisive change in the election. not necessarily a change in the presidency, could be in congress. but so that -- you could get stuff done. i, frankly, think having somebody able to govern the country and move things along would be better than being paralyzed for another few years. that doesn't mean i agree with all the ideas floating out there. you're right, though, our country's become more divided. the voters are more divided. states can swing from the very left wing senator to a right-wing senator, and that makes it hard to have long-term

planning if you're a business. >> i just don't buy any of this. >> okay. >> that's not quite true. i buy five cents on the dollar of it. i buy that there is uncertainty out there and that is an issue. the main thing is something which is not uncertain but known which is that everybody in the private sector pretty much is trying to deleverage. everybody's trying to pay down debt. the one thing we know is that if everyone tries to do that at the same time, the result is a depressed economy. if everybody is trying to spend less than their income since you're spending is my income and my spending is your income, we're going to fail. in the end we have a depressed economy which means this is a time when somebody has to be -- has to be moving the opposite direction. i would very much disagree with ken. i think there are easy solutions. right now the private sector and investors are begging the government to issue more debt. they're willing to buy long-term u.s. government bonds which are protected against inflation. at an interest rate of minus 0.6%. >> what about the role of the federal reserve? you want the fed to do more, you say it can't lower rates

obviously because rates are basically zero. it should do this sort of creative stuff it's been doing in the -- in quantitative ease, one, two, three? >>, that which, you know, is a very uncertain in its effect but should be doing more of that. i'm still, you know -- when we hashed over these issues a dozen years ago with regard to japan, we kept on -- it kept on coming up that it would really help in situations like the one we're in now if the fed would make it clear that it is willing to tolerate a higher rate of inflation over the medium term. it can't make that happen right away. but a signal that it's willing to tolerate a higher rate of inflation would be helpful. >> you worry about inflation, though? >> no. i actually -- >> you agree? >> i actually -- sorry. agree on this one. i think we should be willing to have a higher inflation rate for a while. this is a once in 75 years problem. the trouble is, how do you credibly do it? paul, what would you think of the idea of appointing you

federal reserve chairman, a credible signal -- >> people have been saying that ben bernanke should go around wearing a hawaiian shirt. seem credibly -- fact is he does have a taste for hawaiian shirts. it would be better to appoint me. sure, that would help drive down the dollar. it would help drive up inflation. >> do i want to create an argument that i think -- >> no. the one thing is as long as somebody else does the actual work of running the place because you don't want me doing that -- >> all right. when we come back, we're going to talk about mitt romney, bain, and the explosion, possible explosion of the euro when we come back. when you have diabetes...

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and we are back with paul

krugman and ken rogoff. ken, is europe going to explode? everyone thinks -- everyone says it's going to. but what i'm struck by is, europeans the seem to somehow always just do enough to get by. the germans write enough checks to get by, and they allow the european central bank to ease up in a variety of ways just enough to get by. can they just keep muddling through? >> i'm not sure. i mean, it might be a slow-motion train wreck. i think a better description than just, you know, they're doing enough is the crisis keeps getting worse. and the response keeps getting bigger. but it doesn't get ahead of the crisis. and that still looks like where we are today. spain probably will next need a program. even bigger than anything we've seen. it's a much bigger economy. i believe there's no end game to this besides a political union among the countries that are in the eurozone. and you can say -- you've got to be kidding having france and germany in a political union.

i don't think the single currency is going to work. they say, well, politically, we -- we need to share fiscal revenues, we need to share the banking system. how do you do this without political legitimacy? and that is not even on the table at the moment. >> it's not going to happen. presumably the other binary choice is that the euro breaks up. >> i don't say it's not going to happen. i feel like in my lifetime a lot of things i didn't think were going to happen happened. the fall of the berlin wall and such. >> france and germany uniting governments? i mean -- >> italy is -- the even harder story. no, it's -- no, although the europeans do have the ability to, you know, push back the disaster, the half life of those things keeps on shrinking. used to be that a new set of measures would buy you six months of peace in the markets. now you're lucky if it's six days. i think we are heading toward a moment of truth. probably, you know, hard to know exactly what it is. probably involving greece because they're very close to the edge right now. and then domino -- >> the moment of truth, what

happens? >> one way or other, the greeks run out of money. the greek government can no longer pay its bills. which means that there's a run on the greek banks, which means that, you know, that the banks are closed. when they reopen, they're -- >> either the germans have to transfer huge amounts of money to the greek banks or the greeks get out -- >> that's right. >> maybe the economy gets caughterized. they put in controls. you can't get your money out. so it's in the euro but not really in the euro. >> yeah. but at that point -- then you have domino effects. then you're going to have fast jogs, if not bank runs, bank jogs. i think bank runs in spain and italy. greece, almost everybody, is a lost cause are. they willing to lend the very large amounts? we are talking hundreds of billions, probably a trillion-plus of euros to contain a run on spain and italy. and we don't know that. and if there's any hesitation on that, then you -- you can tell the story with the whole thing falls apart.

it's amazing -- bl i can't we're at this point but we are. they might string it out, but it does look hard. >> one of the things you've been writing about is romney. >> yeah. >> do you feel that the obama campaign's attacks on bain capital, about his tax returns, you think this is all legitimate? and you think -- >> of course. particularly since romney, romney does not have a coherent, comprehensible economic program. it's very difficult to figure out what if anything he's proposing aside from tax cuts for people like himself. a lot of it has been, trust me, i'm a successful businessman. i know how to make things work. then the question is, well, exactly how did you achieve your business success, and exactly how did you get so rich? those are legitimate questions. look, we've always expected presidential candidates to be very forthcoming about their personal history. their personal financial history, their business career if they had one. romney is trying to keep everything that he did in his life before 2010 under -- under, you know, a shroud.

>> do you feel like it's -- it's a legitimate relevant? >> i think the 14% tax rate is a real issue. it's incredibly unfair. now he didn't break the law, he didn't make the law. but he ought to say my policies are going to change the law. this is wrong. so i think it's reasonable to talk about it. that said, i think a lot of voters may say, well, i don't like this, but i'm going to look at the economy anyway. and i. -- i want to take a chance. that, unfortunately, is a big issue. >> final issue, fiscal cliff. do you -- i assume you think it would be a bad thing, a drag on the gdp. >> yeah, yeah. >> do you think it's likely to happen? >> no, but i'm not sure because it's so divisive, and one side or the other may see a gain. i have no idea what's going to come out of it. i think the clear thing is we don't know which direction they're going to turn it f they don't go off the cliff. are they going to go to see higher taxes, lower government

spending, some combination. i have no idea. and that uncertainty weighs very heavily on businesses right now. >> well, i mean, it's a game of chicken. and i actually think if obama's re-elected, i think that there's a quite good chance that for a month or two we actually will go off the cliff, which doesn't do that much harm. it's brief. i think obama if hee is re-elected has to say government by blackmail is not an acceptable way to run the country. i'm going to call your bluff and let the people paying for your campaigns come running and demanding that you make a compromise with me. i actually would put substantial odds that we will in fact, at least temporarily, see those rates go up. and then it's a different game. >> we are going to have to leave it at that. the economy is going to be front and center for a while. so we will have both of you back. paul krugman, ken rogoff, thank you. up next, who is this man, and why the fuss over a new 3d model of his face?

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how many countries are there in the world? you get different answers depending on whom you ask. the united nations recognizes 193, including the world's newest country, south sudan. the u.s. recognizes 195 nations. that brings me to my question of the week -- how many countries are taking part in this year's olympics? is it a, 190, b, 193, c, 195, or d, 205? stay tuned, and we'll tell you the correct answer. go to cnn.com/fareed for more of the "gps challenge" and lots of insight and analysis. you can also follow us on twitter and facebook, also

remember if you miss a show, go to itunes. you can get the audio podcast for free, and you can now buy the video version. go directly there by typing itunes.com/fareed into your browser. this week's become of the week is called "the righteous mind: why good people are divided by politics and religion." this is an important book. it's by jonathan haidt, professor at nyu. rich analysis that combines psychology with politics and christianity affairs. haidt explains we arrive at our political views less than rigorous political analysis and more through soft, even emotional paths. he shows what values people on the left and right cherish, and he explains why conservatives understand liberals better than liberals understand conservatives. it's a deep and very intelligent book. now for "the last look." you'll rarely hear somebody on tv ask you to do this, but i want you to close your eyes for a second. okay? now conjure up an image of shea

guevera. that was easy, right? you've seen him on t-shirts. picture simon bolivar. nothing comes to mind, right? there are few images of him. never worry, hugo chief of staff says coming to the rescue. to mark the 229th anniversary of bolivar's birth, chavez unveiled a 3d impression of his face. this is what it looks like. the likeness was created by artists who studied bolivar's remains. just like many politicians love to run in the shadow of chay in latin america, chavez has always tried to latch on to bolivar's popularity. and surprise, surprise, mr. chavez is up for re-election in just a few weeks' time. the correct answer to our "gps challenge" question was actually d, 205. how, you ask? well, the international olympic committee recognizes a number of countries the u.n. doesn't. american samoa, aruba, bermuda athe cayman islands, hong kong,

even palestine. thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. stay tuned for "reliable sources." remember how the media went wild over barack obama's overseas trip four years ago? mitt romney is getting a very different reception for his visit to london with the british press ridiculing him for a gold medal gaffe. >> i picked up a copy of the tabloid "the sun suhe sun" this look at the headline, "mitt the twit." the gun control debate explodes in the media in wake of the colorado movie massacre with pundits accusing each other of exploiting the tragedy. >> the left wing and gun control advocates are wasting no time politicizing the tragic shooting in colorado. >> when a mass murderer uses 100-round ammunition clip to kill and wound as many people as he possibly can, our government believes that we should do

nothing. >> are the media inflaming the issue? plus, with the london olympics underway, nbc news pulls out the stops to promote the network's coverage of the games. >> back here in london with tower bridge lit up so beautifully behind us, with less than 24 hours to go now until the opening ceremony -- >> is this promotion in the guise of news? we'll talk about that and more with veteran sports writer frank deford. i'm howard kurtz, and this is "reliable sources." it's becoming standard practice for a presidential candidate to buttress his dippic credentials by meeting with world leaders when candidate obama did it in 2008, all three network anchors flew overseas to interview him. [ applause ] >> i'll be reporting next week from the middle east. we'll have the first one-on-one rv