happens on the roads right in front of their mosques otherwise it's going to be useless for us to fix it if it's going to get blown up again and if they know who to go to like the sub governor and express their needs that's good and they can come to us and express their security needs and that's good so it got traded off. . .

>> one days the u.s. troops and a zeck reconstruction team held an event. so this was an event that was organized by the americans and the czechs. but in collaboration with the sub governor. and with the cooperation of local vets, the army carved out this big space and this compound

by the district center, and set up little lanes and fences and tents, and put out the word to the afghans in the surrounding communities that free veterinary services were available. >> basically we're providing minerals and vitamins for the healthy animals, and we're encouraging them to bring in their unhe will animals. a lot of families will bring their animals inside their home for warmth and we want to make sure they don't pass along any diseases or any problems. >> the problem we had is separating the population from insurgents. >> it provides another instance of where the government as a larger enity is working to help the people here. this brings them into the

district center and shows them that it's a place to receive help. >> we want to help you, but we can't get your animals here, and we can't give you the medicine to take them. you have to bring your animals here. >> the first few hours, a couple of kids showed up or showed up without their animals. not really willing to commit. so this is an event that the army had hippinged a lot of their plans on. this was going to be an outreach program for convincing local afghans that their government can work, we're here to help. we can all work together. this was a big thing. but it all depended on afghans showing up with their animals getting treated, talking to neighbors, spreading if good word. what happened was on his own initiative, a local afghan got on the radio and said hey,

everybody come out right now. i don't know who that man was or in what capacity he was acting, but it was a brave thing to do. he hung his own name on this thing and said hey, everybody get out here. and they did. they came, hundreds and hundreds of them. by afternoon the army had the opposite problem that they had in the morning. instead of nobody being there, everybody was there. families with all their animals, big trains of cows and goats and sheep. it got overwhelming at point, like the army had to push everybody back and set up a new checkpoint so they could bring people and their animals in a slow trickle. but overall, the vet event was a smashing success. mostly due to that one afghan who got on the radio and made an appeal. >> this is a connection between the local people. what we've tried all along is to get government down to the

lowest level possible. so a vet camp, which is what these people do. 80% of the population works in this culture. so if we can show that the government is involved alt that level, that they care at that level, you can see they're doing that. it was kind of slow at first, but once word of mouth gets around, this direct center is providing these vaccines and all. the thing about it is they've got everybody involved. so, they talk to the people, they understand hey, this is a local. i see this guy in my town and he takes care of my animals. so it shows the government was working and that there's a caring face to it. >> what does it take to get folks involved? >> it takes a lot of convincing. we're lucky to have the radio, that's a start. safety is always curned.

so it's just a couple of days, you get key leaders involved. you're talking a day or two before you can let the local population. >> huh? you only have one, two, three, four? right? you need to bring one over here. i want to bring more, ok? >> what the long term effects of this will be is hard to say. it's hard to have the met tricks for judging the success of this kind of outreach. certainly lots of animals got treated, but does that mean that 10% more people are now on the side of the local government? that's impossible to judge. you can count the number of attacks on the coalition and returning refugees which would be an a perception of improving

security. and by those measures, things are getting better. whether you can draw on the event and apparently improving security here, it's hard to say. but something's working. at least temporaryly on a local scale. >> david action was there in october and november. this was his second trip to afghanistan. to watch more video and interviews from this trip, visit c-span.org. in the search box, type axe. >> next, a speech on the economy by the president of the federal reserve bank of richmond. then, president obama comments on the latest unemployment

figures. after that, live at 7:00 a.m., your thoughts and comments on "washington journal." >> in fed we trust, the role he played after the economic collapse of 2008. he'll discuss his book with the former vice chair and first director of the congressional budget office. part of booktv on c-span 2. now remarks by jeffrey lacker, president of the federal reserve bank of richmond. he spoke to a gathering of the maryland bankers association in baltimore. this is about 45 minutes.

>> in 2009, he served as a voletting member of the federal open market committee. as a member of this committee, dr. lacker was involved in decision making process that determined not only the fed funds rate, but decisions that affected interest rates in general, foreign exchange rates, employment, and the general level of prices of goods and services. many of you were at this event last year and heard dr. lacker as he started in this role. we are certainly looking forward to hearing what he has to say about 2010. and he has agreed to take questions, so questions come to mind during his presentation, write them down and he will try to answer them for you. dr. lacker. [cheers and applause]

>> thank you rick for that great introduction. it's a great pleasure. after last year's invitation, i want to thank rick and kathleen murray, head of the association who does a great job in that role, for inviting me back here again. it's also a pleasure to share the stage again with the ba soon. i understand some call him the troy polamalu of economic -- [laughter] unfortunately i didn't get to see his presentation but i did catch his assertions that he nailed it. [laughter] so, i fear my presentation might not live up to his in quality. i'll try to makeup for it in modesty. [laughter] [cheers and applause] >> when i spoke to you last

january, economic activity was contracted quite sharply. and i thought it was a reasonable expectation to see growth in the second half of last year. and despite that there were substantial uncertainty about how the contraction would ultimately play out. in particular, there was a possibility i thought of a deeper contraction that i thought i couldn't dismiss. in the end we did see positive momentum. third quarter growth and real g.d.p. exceeded 2%. it was about 2.5%. most see a determination made that the recession ended about the middle of last year. while that's undoubtedly good news, the level of economic activity is still far below where it was a couple of years ago. and unemployment is quite high. many households and firms are

making due with far less than they once did. more over, there are aub seasonsal economic challenges looking amade. having said that, i do believe growth will continue this year, and that incomes will generally improve. in my remarks today, i'm going to focus on the national economy . and i'll touch on some of the important economic challenges i think we face. before i begin, i have to do the usual thing by noting that i speak only for myself and not necessarily for my colleagues on the federal market committee. so when i spoke last year, i went back and read my remarks. i spent a fair amount of time on a list of factors that appeared to have contributed to the decade long boom in housing and housing finance that proceeded and appeared to have

precipitated what we saw in the financial market turmoil. productivity which passed through the gross and real income and the demand for housing. low, long term interest rates, driven improvement which lowered borrowing threads and expanded access to credit for many americans. and a regulatory regime which may not have adequately contained the moral hazard associated with the perception in the market place that many large financial institutions, including especially the government sponsored housing finance, fanny mae and freddy mac were too big to entail. i don't expect to discuss these at length. but i mention them as a warning against mono causal explanations for what we've been through. the recession just ended ranks as one of the deepest on record.

it was led, as i suggested, by the plunge in housing construction that followed the boom. during the boom, housing prices almost tripled. but by 2005, evidence was emerging that the run up had gone too far. they can see rates began to rise in late 2005 and hit record highs. measures of home construction and sales activity began to fall. home prices also began to decline. that reduced equity values and household wealth. it led to rising defaults and foreclosures. the layoffs in residential construction dampened growth and thus dampened growth in overall household consumption spending. that caused the rest of the economy to slow and then the expansion officially ended in december 2007. we turned into contraction mode. the recession that followed was longer and deeper than any we've experienced since the 1930's.

i can site a few of dismall statistics, but i'll confine myself to one in particular. the number of people employed has fallen by 7.2 million. a tremendous number. the contraction in overall economic appears to have ended last summer. the data we've received since then indicate that activity has jean rl lay improved. i'll discuss first the most evident. i'll start here with housing. several indicators of sales and construction activity hit low points early last year and have risen modestly since then. for instance, single family housing starts have increased 35%, and new home sales have increased by 8%. there are signs that home prices have bottomed out as well. one widely followed index of existing home prices nationwide rose a seasonally adjusted 3.9%

from may through october of last year. even with these welcome gains, new housing construction remains well below the pace allowed to accommodate population and income growth on the sustained basis. but that's to be expected, given what with hindsight appears to be overinvestment in housing after the boom. as a result, while i expect residential investment, and many others do as well, will no longer be a drag on g.d.p. growth, going forward. a lengthy period of adjustment may be necessary before any growth in residential investment is warranted for our economy. consumer purchases of cars and trucks also began to fall off in 2007 and then fell very sharply in 2008. so hit a low point last february and increased very gradually before the cash for clunkers program boosted sales over last summer. the sub quint pay back

afterwards was smaller than many analysts had forecast and sales have improved steadily, an encouraging sign. but just as with housing, it looks like autos will no longer be a drag on g.d.p. growth going forward and should make positive contributions as well. again in welcome contrast to the last two years. apart from that, will consumer spending, which fell slightly during the recession also resumed an upward path last year. in the third quarters, consumer spending, excluding cars and trucks again, increased at a 1.6% annual rate. many economists are expecting a some what larger advance to be reported in the fourth quarter. let me be clear here, though, consumers are by no means in a

happy mood. the rise in the savings rate to over 4% from 2% last august, likely reflects a combination of apprehension about future income prospects, and a desire to rebuild wealth that was depleted. but the stable has no doubt returned. and it gives consumers a bit more confidence in their income prospects going forward. business spending on new equipment and software, which fell a sharp 21% during this recession has also reversed course and registered positive gains.

it does not preclude the emerges of profitable opportunities, to reduce costs and drive increases in productivity and processes and services. so i suspect it to continue on an upward trend. there's been a world bound rebound. they were falling at 40%, but in the third quarter, real exports increased at almost 25% annual rate. so toting up all these favorable demands, recent estimates suggest that real g.d.p. grew at roughly in the second half of last year. it's most rapid growth in several years.

part of that growth reflected a swing. it kept production that is g.d.p. below final sales. and the shift towards inventory accumulation provides a temporary boost. it will help in the fourth quarter and the first quarter as well. that addition to production will necessitate the hiring of new workers which will add to household incomes. consumers having deferred many purchases during recession will respond to growing incomes with higher spending. this is the typical pattern in the period immediately following a recession. we don't see any reason for this time to be different. indeed, sinals of improvement in the supply side of the economy are evident. increased production since the low points in june of 2009, while the mid-summer rebound in auto production was significant. even without autos, they are increased over that span.

more over, the survey based indexes that we have, the ones published by the institute for supply management have risen which indicates the growth in manufacturing activity has spread broadly across different industries. the new orders components of those indexes have registered even more impressive growth over that period and is now at the highest level since december 2004. these particular indexes have a 60 year track record of giving highly reliable signals, and again, we have no reason to suspect a break from form here. one key element supporting the recovery is the significant improvement in financial conditions that's occurred this past year. corporate borrowing costs declined considerably, and corporate bonds are now much lower than they were last year. many major banks have sold stock successfully and now have the capital to support new lending, even if conditions turn out

worse than expected. now granted, we do hear things frequently about business borrowers being turned down for credit or having long-standing credit lines withdrawn. it's important to recognize, however, that many borrowers will naturally face tougher credit terms in a soft economy, because their revenue prospects are likely to be more uncertain than they otherwise would be. more over, the proper bench mark is the ability of the banking system as a whole to supply an appropriate quantity of credit, not any given individual bank. since any one individual bank could be shrinking their balance sheet as others are expanding. i'm not aware myself of any evidence that the banking industry as a whole is inreceively or inappropriately constraining the availability of credit.

i've been focusing on the economy where improvement is evident. there are other areas where we face major economic challenges. commercial real estate is top of mind here. construction is falling, rates are rising, falling property prices are e rosing equity positions. and some community banks are now facing rising delinquency and losses. no one expects a quick reversal of this, and as a result, business investment in nonresidential structures, that's what we call the commercial component of g.d.p., is likely to be a sizable drag on u.s. growth in the near term. more worriesome is the labor

market. the number of people employed has fallen in 23 out of the last 24 months. the unemployment rate has more than doubled to a 10.0% rate in december. wages are under pressure, average hourly earnings in december were up only 2.3 ters over the previous december. about half the rate of increase we were seeing in 2007. going forward, as overall economic activity continues to improve, employment will return to an upward trajectory. indeed, we've seen a few initial signs of improving labor demands, such as an increase in the average work week since october. and indeed, the rate at which employment is falling has declined significantly since early last year. and we're going to need to carefully monitor employment and earnings for an extended period of time. so let me put the whole picture together for you.

i think the most likely outcome is that the economy will grow at a reasonable pace next year. now, housing should recover from a depressed state. should be stable through next year. consumers should gradually expand spending. business investments on equipment and software should make something of a comeback. and these components of demand should overcome a continuing drag of commercial construction. now, i'm often asked in the last couple of months how economists can be so upbeat in the light of the obvious economic challenges we face, such as the severe weakness in the jobs market, below level of construction activity and the declining commercial construction. my answer begins with the observation that there are obvious, serious problems coming out of every recession. we have a historical record of 31 recessions to prove it. despite the obvious problems at the end of each recession, we always recover and quite often more rapidly than many expect.

as you drill down into the details of those, some common elements are apparent. i already touched on one, the end of the inventory cycle which is boosting production right now. more important in my views, behavior of individual consumers during the recession. while many workers lose their jobs obviously during a darn turn and suffer greatly because of it, a much greater number of workers remain employed. many of them will take the precaution of cutting back on spending and defering major purchases, particularly automobile and electronic products, just in case something happens to their own job. as the recovery takes hold, these workers become more confident about the future job and income prospects. they begin to spend a larger fraction of their incomes. similarly, many firms will find it prudent to reduce capital spending, but this demand revives, the same firms will see an increasing number of viable investment opportunities for

themselves. in short, deferred spending during recession creates pent up demand by consumer and pizzas that will bolster spending. i see no reason for this cycle to be different. now, there are always risks to this. the future is always uncertain. the labor market could recover more slowly than many expect, which would restrain consumer spending. but household income and household confidence could rebound more vigorously, in which case, consumer spending could expand more briskly. these are standard risks on either side of the outlook coming out of a recession. also worth mentioning a risk that to me seems particularly prominent in this recover. it's been mentioned earlier here today. firm and individuals are facing major uncertainlies surrounding federal policies, like trade,

the environment, health care, financial services, taxes. for a business considering a commitment to a new capital spending project or a new hiring, it can be difficult to estimate after tax yields for some new endeavor, in an environment that is so rich with proposals for higher taxes and new regulations. this uncertainty, which i sense has not been so pronounced in previous precoveries could well bias firms in hiring commitments, and that could lead to a lower productive growth and hence a slower recovery. turning now to the outlook, a year ago when i was here, many economists expected the exceptionally low level of economic activity to depress inflation, perhaps even push it below zero. things turned out differently. inflation expectation, which embodied projections about the future conduct of monetary

policy, have remained fairly stable, according to the best available measures. fortunately, the risk of a pronounced reduction in inflation seems to have diminished at this point. zd stablization while it appears to be minimal at this point, we'll have to be careful if it unfolds to keep inflation and inflation expectations from drifting around. what we will need to be careful about is how to with draw the monetary stimulus now in place. this requires care during every recovery, but this time the fed will have two monetary policies to grapple with, not just one.

the fed traditional has targeted the overnight funds rate which acquired appropriately adjusting the supply of our monetary responsibilities, in order to intersect demand at the federal funds target rate. so, by targeting the federal funds rate, we gave up control of monetary liabilities. we had to bury them to hit the target. now, veering the said funds rate affects a broad range and that's how we influence economic outcomes. since october of 2008, as the bankers in the room are very aware, we have had the authority, the reserve banks, to pay explicit interest on reserve balances they hold with their banks. essentially, we have so much reserves in the system that the interest rates are driven down

to this peg, this overnight interest rate that we pay on balances. that becomes a substitute for the federal funds target rate. so when it comes time to with drawing monetary stimulus, the federal reserve will be able to raise interest rates on reserve and there be influence the, or drain reserves which will have its own affect on the consolation of interest rates, or we can do both. now, despite these added challenges, and added complexities in this recovery, in this new regime, the core objective of monetary policy remains the same, and that's price stability. this will require keeping them anchored. they reflect views about the future conduct of monetary policies, as i said, we will need to carefully choose when and how rapidly to remove monetary policy stimulus. so the inflation expectations don't erode. the same difficult task we face

in every recession now. for my part, i will be looking at the time at which chick growth is strong. when it appears to be brighter than the year just ended, our economy does face several significant challenges over the longer term. i'm going to conclude by mentioning two of them very briefly. the first challenge that we face over the long run that i want to highlight for you is the path of future federal budget deficits that are applied by current and planned fiscal policies. it should be self evident that any government's debt cannot grow indefinitely at a rate much faster than the economy itself grows. which is implied by current law, it turns out. ultimately something has got to change, either taxes are raised, spending is reduced, or the real

value debt is eroded through inflation. that latter alternative is one i'll vigorously oppose, by the way. while economists can debate the particular changes, at some point, a government debt that grows relative to g.d.p., so that the ratio debt to g.d.p. is rising. at some point that debt will compete with private borrowing, lead higher interest rates, and therefore, slower improvement in our country's standard of living. chen short falls get large enough, these effects would be exacerbated if there were ambiguity. so failure to establish credible plans for bringing our fiscal position back into balance could dampen economic growth in the years ahead. another challenge, particularly aware of, rises in the area of

financial regulatory reform. in the wake of the crisis we have just been through, it makes sense to reexamine our approach to financial regular -- regulation. i've argued that we need to establish clear and credible limits to the financial safety net, which has grown considerably as a result of the response to this crisis. i believe that the crisis itself was in no small measure the result of us not having clear limits on the extent of government sporlt. leverage and excessive risk taking were encouraged by belief that they were protected. and those beliefs have been radified. and which of their liabilities would benefit from such support, if we do that, then i suspect

our susceptibility will continue to grow, and with each crisis, the safety net will become ever more expansive. a expansive safety net will require more regulation, but they are limited in their capacity to completely offset the effects of the safety net. so just like like ambiguity, continued ambiguity about the financial safety net could limit our capacity for growth in the long run in the years ahead. once again though, it's a great pleasure to get to speak with you. thank you very much, and i'd be happy to take your questions. [cheers and applause]

>> any questions for dr. lacker? >> my question is -- -- >> housing activity was extremely strong by historical standards, especially in the decade from 1995 to 2005, but especially in the several years proceeding 2005. housing activity as i noted has declined to a level that's far below what we need to replace the housing stock, and keep up with it in growing demand for housing stock over time. having said that though, i think the way you should think about it is that we built two expansions worse of housing in one expansion. we've gotten ahead of ourselves in investing and housing and it's going to take years before our need for housing rising to the level where we need to expand construction very much.

that's why i said that you know, i think what we should expect and hope for is the level of new home construction that's platt going forward. so markets seem to be pretty liquid. i think that liquidity was awaiting the appearance of a bottom in housing prices, so i think the fact that housing prices appear to have bottomed out, virtually nationwide has lent some people confidence that they have a sense of what the market is telling them about the value of their house, finding it easier to price houses. so we've got a housing market that's functioning, it's not in free fall where people are holding things off the market. liquidity has come back to the housing market in that sense of people buying and selling existing housing.

but i don't think we should hope for an expansion in residential construction to play a major role in this expansion. in fact, if we do, i think it will come back to bite us. >> [inaudible] >> so, the question is what role do i expect the federal reserve to play in fiscal policy issues ahead. there's a simple answer and there's a delicate answer. [laughter] there's a simple version to your question and a delicate version. the simple version is that with regard to congresses decisions about tax and spending, the federal reserve has typically acted as an institution ready and willing to offer its good counsel to congress, but it's ultimately up to congress to

decide on matters of the public purse string. we, i think, within the federal reserve system we're accutely aware, because we're in the business interimmediate yit, accutely aware of the budget deficit and aware of ways in which sustained deficits so we're in an institution that members are typically going to counsel that it's a good idea to close the gap when you can in a sensible way. the delicate version of your question has to do with the fact that the federal reserve has engaged in some activities, has done some lending that from at least an arguable point of view institutes fiscal policy in the run rate. when we lend to a private institution, if we don't expand the money supply when we do it,

we have to sell u.s. government security. so essentially we're issuing t bills themselves and using the money to lend to their a.i.g. and congress has a right to view that as fiscal policy, and we're very aware that it is. and so we take that responsibility very seriously. i think that there's coming out of this crisis, the lingering question about the federal reserves balance sheet. it's implication for fiscal policy and the politics of central banks. for now i'll leave it at there. >> you spoke about the market stabilizing -- [inaudible]

what do you see the feds doing if anything the security portfolio -- >> good question. so, let me first observe that a fall in commercial construction activity and problems in commercial mortgage back security markets are typical coming out of recession and they're typically a late developing part of the cycle. so it declines later, recovers much later. i think undoubtedly has to do with the gestation language is longer for a commercial build project than a rezz -- residential project. it's a more prominent part of the financing of commercial real estate endevers, now than they

were 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. but having said that, they're still not the only game in town. and not the only source of financing. >> i think the commercial real estate problems at community banks, and regional banks is a manageable one. there are some banks that are heavily concentrated, chose some strategies in terms of execution and region that turned out poorly for them so we're seeing bank failures around the country, particularly in markets that are especially troubled, georgia, california, florida and the like. but i think for a banking system as a whole, it's going to cost the american taxpayer a bunch but i think it's manageable. for the mortgage back security markets i think it's going to be a manageable problem. the federal reserve does have a program that's called -- well, i

don't want to tell you the acronym. it's some big acronym. [laughter] and it's like providing a little bit of lending and leverage to private enities that want to raise their own capital to invest in commercial mortgage backed securities. but it's focused on new issues. and not so much on seasoned issues. it's not going to help in the rollover finance challenges ahead. but my overall take, knock on wood, it's a manageable problem going forward. let me go over to this side of the room. let's go with the young lady that stood up. >> your projection seems to be based largely on prior recovery. this recession was -- the

current recovery of stimulus coming from the government. how have you factored that into your current projection? >> um, the question is how have we factored in fiscal stimulus, which appears to be unique in magnitude and structure in this recovery to our forecast, our sense of how the economy is going to recover. well, it does seem as if this stimulus is adding to growth, did add from growth to the second half and will add some this year. the amount it adds will be diminute shing over the course of the year. i think the economics of the relationships i described, the way consumers gradually recover confidence, at least a broad measure of them, the way firms gradually recover confidence, that dynamic is kind of the same either way, with or without the stimulus. the magnitude may differ, the

location of the recovery growth may differ. stimulus may steer growth towards particular sectors and away from others. but, i think overall the broad contour, maybe the numbers would be different, but i think the broad contour would look roughly similar. there's been a lot of analysis in the procession and within the federal reserve, what would the recovery look like with or without that comparison. it's pretty clear we would get a recovery. the guy who didn't stand up. [laughter] >> we keep hearing commentators on bloomberg and others talking about 10%-12% of mortgage that are -- [inaudible] >> well, depends on whether you're one of those borrowers.

there is a huge adjustment process underway of people who have mortgages that they can't afford or have mortgages that are greater than the value of their house. it's going to take a long time for the system to digest those problems. servicers are working overtime. we in fact at the federal reserve help sponsor these events where they invite a bunch of mortgage borrowers who are in trouble or seemingly in default, try to get them to something to see what can be done. but that's a labor intensive process, because it involves collecting new data. you have to gage the borrowers current income so you know what they can afford. you don't want to modify alone and have it blow up again in a few months.

and sort of sort through what's best for everyone combined. should they stay in the house or not? that's just a data intensive process. it's tough for the borrowers to pull together the right paper work. it's tough for the servicers so get through this mountain of paper work. some servicers are doing a better job than others. the treasury has helped with their modification programs that are out there. but it's going to be months and months before we're over the hump. now what that means for growth, it's not necessarily a disaster, right, if you have this process that works out where you're taking people in houses and you're rearranging who's in which houses and what mortgages they have. ultimately that doesn't have to have a large impact on spending per say. these are people who have cut back already because they're under water in their mortgage,

or their incomes have gone down. you know, as disruptive and costly and terrible as an eviction is, you know, by itself that's not going to put the economy in the tank. one more from over here? >> whether or not since you're looking at timing issues, whether that would have -- [inaudible] >> so i think the question was about the really curve. and he was wondering about whether the timing, so we have all these assets in choo we bought or are planning to buy a quarter of a trillion of -- and

some more agency data, i think $175 billion. so the mortgage back securities, and the treasury as well is going to mature and roll off. but one of the options we have is to sell these securities. that's an interesting question. we've announced this purchase program, and you would expect market interest rates to take into account that we're going to be buying for a while, and then after that we're not going to be buying. so, myself, i'm not expecting a huge increase in mortgage rates on the date that our m.b.s. purchase program ends. if there's a little blip, maybe that would happen. but i think expectations about our purchase program have largely been built into market rates. out beyond that, i think markets

are going to react to decisions we make, and announcements of plans we have. and you know, i think what experience we've had over the last year and a half show they line up with exa actually happened. so things get in pretty rapidly when we announce our intentions in regards to asset holdings. thank you very much. [cheers and applause] >> thank you dr. lacker. as always, very informative. we really appreciate you taking time to come and speak to this group, and especially time to answer some questions. this concludes our program for the year. the first friday economic outlook forum is an annual event. one that we hope we will expand every year as it becomes bigger and better. mark your calendars now for first friday, 2011, that's

january 7, right here at the b.w.i. marriott. i would like to thank our speakers, the maryland association of c.p.a.'s, the maryland chamber of commerce, the maryland realtors associate, the gazette of politics and business and all of our guests for making the third annual first friday economic outlook forum a success. bundle up and drive carefully. [cheers and applause]

>> i'm always concerned about the potential unforseen consequences of new regulations. new regulations of any kind act as a tax. and when you tax or regulate something, you tend to get less of it. >> this weekend on the commune tators, republican f.c.c. commissioner robert mcdowell on efforts to create a national broad band trade, in the wireless industry today on c-span. >> now, president obama calls for a program to help tens of thousands of new technology jobs. this comes following the announcement that the economy lost more jobs in december and the unemployment rate was changed. >> announce the significant new investment for making and clean energy. i want to give another update on a matter of concern to every american, that's our employment picture.

the jobs numbers that were released by the labor department this morning are a reminder that the road to recovery is never straight. we have to work every single day to get our economy moving again. for most americans, and for me, that means jobs. it means whether we are putting people back to work. job losses were one tenth of what we were experiencing in the first quarter. in fact, in november, we saw the first gain in jobs in nearly two years. last month however we slipped back, losing more jobs than we gained. though the overall trend is still pointing in the right direction. what this underscores though is we have to continue to explore every avenue to accelerate the return of hiring. which brings me to my announcement today. the recovery act has been a major force in breaking the trajectory of this recession and stimulating growth and hiring. one of the most popular elements of it has been a clean energy

manufacturing initiative that will put americans to work while helping america gain the lead when it comes to clean energy. it's clear why such an effort is so important. building a robust clean energy sector is how we will create the jobs of the future, jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced. but it's also how we will reduce our dangerous depends on foreign oil. and it is how we will combat the threat of climate change and leave our children a planet that's safer than the one we inheritted. har netting new forms of energy will be one of the challenges of the 21st century. unfortunately, the nation that pioneered the use of clean energy is being outpaced by nations around the world. it's china that has launched the largest effort to make their economy energy efficient. we have fallen behind countries like germany and japan in

producing. wlm all of the battery that we use to power our hybrid vehicles are still manufactured by japanese companies, or in asia. though, because of one of the steps like we're taking today, we're beginning to produce more of these batteries here at home. now, i welcome and am pleased to see a real competition emerging around the world to develop these kinds of clean energy technologies. competition is what fuels invasion. but i don't want america to lose that competition. i don't want the industries that yield the jobs of tomorrow to be built overseas. i don't want the technology that will transform the way we use energy will be invented abroad. i want the united states of america to be what it has always been, and that is a leader, the leader, when it comes to a clean energy future. that's exactly what this will help them do. it will help close the clean energy gap that's grown between

america and other nations. through this initiative, we're awarding $2.3 billion in tax credits for american manufactures of clean energy technologies, companies that produce solar panneding and assemble cutting edge batteries. the initiative we're outlining will likely have 17,000 jobs and the roughly $5 billion more than could help create tens of thousands of additional jobs. at the same time, this initiative will give a much needed boost by building new plants or upgrading old ones. we'll take an important step of doubling the amount of renewable power built right here in the u.u.s. of a. it is good for securities, good for our planet. over 180 projects in over 40

stills will receive these tax credits. one of them is t.p.i. composite, inc, in newton, iowa. t.p.i. composite will not only be able to expand an existing fa facility, and not only build a brand new facility in alaska, they'll be able to hire more workers. in fact, this initiative's been so popular that we have far more qualified applicants than we've been able to fund. we received requests for three times more in funding as we could provide. that's why as part of the jobs package on which i'm urging congress to act, i've called for investing another $5 billion in this program which could put even more americans to work

right away. in the letters i receive at night, many of you know i get about 10 letters a night i take a look at. i often hear from americans who are facing hard times. americans have lost their jobs, or can't afford to pay their bills. they're worried about what the future holds. i am confident that we harness the ingi knewity of companies like t.p.i. composite, we tap and gain the lead in clean energy worldwide, then we'll forge a future where a better life is possible in our country over the long run. that's a future we're now closer to building because of the steps that we're taking today. thank you very much everybody.

>> next, live, your calls and comments on "washington journal." then secretary of state hillary clinton talks about international. and then the federal reserve bank in richmond. today, president obama's ambassador at large for global women's issues talks about supreme court justice, the changing roles of women in the law, and the rights of women around the world. .