regulations. in about 45 minutes, we will take your calls about the government's role in the solar energy industry. our guest will be rhone resch, president and ceo of the solar energy industry association. and we will look at employment trends with keith hall, commissioner of the bureau of labor statistics. >> there is no reason for republicans in congress to stand in the way of more construction projects. there is no reason to stand in the way of more jobs. mr. boehner, mr. mcconnell, help us rebuild this bridge. >> the deficit proposals the president put forward i think are a step backwards. his plan, in my opinion, will destroy jobs by raising taxes on small businesses and their capital, the key ingredient, i think, for job creation in our country.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] host: those are some competing sound bites from leaders yesterday as the white house and congressional republicans continued their duel. late last night the house of representatives passed a short- term funding measures to keep the government and business after september 30. democratic senate leaders say no chance of it and the senate. at the market reacted to the fed's latest move with a drop in the dow of nearly 400 points. we have a question to you about whether or not washington and policymakers -- here are the phone lines --

host: of course this is not just the u.s. issue, but global. some headlines. "los angeles times" -- economic fears drive a global sell-off. "the atlanta journal constitution" -- "the richmond times dispatch" -- "the pittsburg post-law clause " -- and this is from england, "the guardian" -- and "the globe and mail" in canada -- the world economic leaders are coming to washington this weekend for the world bank and imf meeting.

our question to you is whether or not -- and we will focus on the united states -- but whether or not the u.s. leaders -- the fed, the white house, congress -- really have the tools to fix the economy, it is there something washington can do to intervene to get the economy on the right track. we will get to your phone calls and your tweets and you can vote on this on the facebook page. sue davis bringing us up to date on what is happening in college. last night the house leaders found enough votes to pass a short-term continuing resolution. but the senate was quick to say this is a nonstarter for them. how real is the possibility of a government shutdown? >> guest: i do not think there is the possibility of government shut down. there is posturing on both sides of this issue but at the same time house speaker john boehner and senator harry reid both said

the government is not going to shut down. so, while the path to get out of this is not immediately clear there is no real worry at least on capitol hill right now that the government will shut down when the run out of funding september 30, presuming congress cannot resolve it before then, which they are most likely to do. host: are they expecting weekend sessions? guest: that are supposed to be in today and have not said whether they will be in this weekend but what i have been told from republican leader of this is is they do not intend to be, does their position is they pass their bill and this is the best chance for a bill to get through the senate. senate democrats want to reject the house bill and not likely to do it today in a symbolic vote of the question senate democrats have is if they pass their own bill, they want to double the amount of disaster assistance in the bill and it wants to remove a couple of view -- offsets to use to partially pay. the question is whether they can get to 60 votes.

now, they were able to get to 60 votes on disaster funding last week on a separate measure but minority -- minority leader mitch mcconnell probably told john boehner he thinks he can hold -- hold back his republican members to prevent harry reid from getting the vote. host: are they aware/concerns that the divisiveness -- like the reaction we saw on the stock market yesterday. guest: they say they are but if you look at that action does not necessarily lineup. it was an interesting test in the house on the cr, the funding bill, which originally failed in the house on wednesday. and when given the opportunity to move forward on this, the speaker was given two options. either he could change the bill to get more bipartisan support or he could change the bill to get more conservative support. after much internal debate within the conference, he opted

for the latter, to bring on more conservatives. that was seen by democrats as a move of partisanship, that he did not want their help and was not looking for it. i think it further duggan democrats on their position in the senate, an in-house as well, we will not just take this bill. and the minority whip -- majority live before senate democrats said yesterday we are getting really tired of this. i think everyone's back is against the wall and little bit right now. but at the same time, i don't think either side is willing to push to the brink of shut down the way they did earlier this year. i would also say -- and this is just for congressional scheduling -- next week is the jewish holidays. beside that congress is also supposed to be in recess regardless, i think there are a lot of members who would like it resolved so they can be home in time for those. host: as a timber 30 as looms. thank you for bringing us up-to- date on the wrangling.

host: week so -- showed you a lot of gloomy headlines. let me show you one good news story before we go to the calls, and that is the front page of " under times" this morning. gm plans to reopen the plant and towns -- and towns miles. in this story, they write --

so a question, can washington fix the economy. from iowa, this is welcome republican. caller: i am normally not up this early so this is a treat seeing the news covering the economy. i watched the debate last night, and the economy question came up there. i guess my concern would be everybody seems to be talking about its, but in a very small terms. because of the economy is a very big figure. it is huge. and you hear, for example, you just had the house people speaking back and forth about

this $500 million would ever issued. yes, it is important and there should be oversight. but in reality, the economy is huge. and the one person i think has been speaking about it the most is actually ron paul. and he is ahead big -- the head of the monetary subcommittee. i am intrigued by the findings. very soon i think we will see how much smoke and mirrors is going on. because wall street numbers go up and down. of 400 bit recently. but when it comes down to main street, nobody believes unemployment is ninth with one. when you look at the real numbers, it is closer to 23% and at the height of the great depression it was 25. we are in for serious rough times and no one person can pull us out of it. it has to be a complete change in the mindset of the individuals. otherwise, you would just have one side trying for any little

power left. host: thank you for calling in. from twitter -- the next call is from louisville. dominique. caller: how are you doing today? my comment is i believe in order to stimulate the economy we have to come together and work things out. this constant going back and forth and republicans and not even taken into consideration what the president is trying to do is ridiculous. i watched the debate yesterday and all of the nine candidates, and none of them are even close to being ready for being president. it is scary. we have to work on these issues. and president obama is trying his best to get us to come together and work about these

things where it is said to see mitch mcconnell not even taking into consideration for jobs plan that president obama has set forth. that is my comment. thank you. host: from the associated press this morning, their lead on the news roundup. the world's major economic powers are pledging to launch a bold effort -- our question for you is, can washington fix the economy. the next call is from little rock. this is paul, an independent. caller: good morning, susan. no, i feel that washington

cannot fix the economy. a there is too much partisan bickering. and this president has created a the hugest deficit in this country that our children and our grandchildren will never pay for. i think that mitt romney has the right ideals. i am 100% behind mitt romney. and i hope he will become our next president. host: thanks, paul. let me show you facebook. you can answer the question in the form of yes or no if you go to the facebook page. a few people are participating. if we could go in on the tally. nos about double the yeses. next is a telephone call from georgia.

greatan, you've got a screener and i absolutely love c-span. i just want to is i i have been a stockholder for 45 years. i am one of those investors the president wants to tax more. let me tell you, there is no doubt in my mind there is one person -- and i watched the debates -- and the clear winner was mitt romney. at mitt romney with his economic and business background, i think if he is elected president the dow jones average will jump to a thousand points. susan, i am so fired up about mitt romney. i want to make us the no. 1 mitt romney stronghold in america. washington can't fix it. but mitt romney can. i think he will be elected and i keep will be the greatest president in the history of the country. host: and longtime be aware and always a strong supporter of the candidates he is following. -- a longtime viewer and always a strong supporter of the candidates he is following.

bucks county, pennsylvania. nacke, a democrat. caller: good morning, susan. how are you? i have to go with most of the calls. i don't think that the government can fix this economy. and now what is really scary is, i was watching fox business yesterday, and the banks are having trouble again. bank of america. at $1 trillion in deposits. and i hear some of these experts, conservatives on fox

business saying, yes, let's bank of america go under. people, we are talking $1 trillion in deposits. that would be the great depression part two if it happens. host: let me ask you a question dared what can be done, if not to fix it, but at least to reverse the trend? caller: you know, susan, i don't know. mr. bernanke is supposed to do this, the president and the congress is supposed to do it. they have not done it. i watched the debate yesterday, too. i will be honest, even though i am a liberal democrat but i am at the point if mitt romney can fix this thing, i am all for him. host: from "the new york daily news" they call it a crisis of poverty in new york city.

by the way, we are just going to be in here for two hours because the house is coming in at 9:00 a.m. today. but we will be doing america by the numbers, looking at joblessness and the trend lines from government statisticians. next is a call from bristol, virginia. michael, republican. caller: good morning. host: what is your comment, please? caller: i think they can fix the economy. you got people on social security. they need to deal with that first. host: what do you mean deal with it, in what way? caller: $330 trillion in the fund for social security. you've got less than 80 million

people on social security. if you give them a million dollars that would only be $80 trillion. once that money starts circulating in the economy, our government will come back and come back strong. host: thank you for your comments. countryside, illinois. phyllis is an independent. welcome to the discussion veered caller: good morning, susan. in regards to what can be done in the economy. number one, the president does not even need congress to help him. he has the power to bring all of our troops home. that is $2.10 trillion a year and then put an import tax to all countries that delivered to us. and it should equalize $20 an hour american made. and then you've got to this nonsense in iraq to with this new embassy, 17,000 workers, all

iraqians working there and being paid in american dollars. that is ludicrous. the president doesn't need a vote from congress to bring the troops home. he doesn't need a vote from congress to handle the tariffs and import tax. in the meantime, you have senator durbin from illinois saying privatize midway airport. what is he going to do, selling to china and have china come here and open jobs at ridiculous pay? our congress right now is nothing but smoke and mirrors. they are all together a bunch of wolves in sheep's clothing and that includes a the president. host: cybele's intervention in the way he described can help.

c-span democrat tweets us -- >> is a phone call from national, tennessee -- next is a phone call from tennessee. caller: i own a business and let me tell you in my circumstance we historically always hired college students during the busy time of year, which is now, but we are not going to this year for one simple reason. one, our top line is what is suffering. customers are uncertain about the economy and what is going on, so they are not coming in. and, two, from my perspective, i've got a look at it as what is government going to ram down my throat when i bring down this new employees, even though it is a part-time employee.

and obamacare is the single thing stopping small businesses like mine from doing what we traditionally have done. host: what business are you in? caller: the fire side business. host: what do you sell? caller: gas logs, fireplaces. host: you are happy about the first day of fall. caller: indeed. host: thank you for calling. let us listen to a little bit more and fall from what he said yesterday as he had an event at a bridge connecting the two congressional leaders estates, ohio and kentucky. >> i can't imagine that the speaker wants to represent a state where nearly one out of four bridges are classified as substandard, one out of four. i know that when senator mcconnell visited the close bridge in kentucky, he said that rose and bridges are not partisan in washington. that is great.

i know that paul ryan, the republican in charge of the budget process, recently said you can't deny and destruction does create jobs. that is what he said. well, if that is the case, there is no reason for republicans in congress to stand in the way of more construction projects. there is no reason to stand in the way of more jobs. mr. boehner, mr. mcconnell, help us rebuild this bridge. host: president obama yesterday at the bridge connecting the two states of the leaders. both -- both leaders responded. here is an e-mail from a viewer from atlantic city, new jersey. next is a call from orlando.

louise. caller: good morning. greedy corporations have held working americans hostage for over 30 years ever since reagan. why should corporations do what president obama wants and repatriate our jobs back to america? they have it made now. they pay farmworkers' lower wages. if they sell the products and then hide their profits in offshore institutions. these corporations outsource our jobs also because they can pollute with no penalties and most of these countries where they do business. corporations hold the upper hand and this has been going on since reagan. i believe, like the republicans, these greedy companies won't support obama's jobs program because they want obama to lose in 2012 and then they can get a bigger and better deal from a republican president. if that happens, god help the poor and middle-class.

we are finished. fdr had a quote -- they keep calling obama socialists. this is what franklin roosevelt said. the liberty of a democracy is not say if the people tolerate the growth of private power to both of delaware and become stronger than their democratic society. that is fascism. membership -- ownership, i am sorry, of government by an individual or a group. host: dw watching from seattle --

next is a call from maryland. this is tom, a republican. caller: good morning. a host: would you hit the mute button on the tv. caller: i don't have the tv on. host: go ahead, sorry. caller: the ones to fix the economy and the ones who created it -- i do not think it is washington. host: what can be done, tom? caller: regulation and new laws that are being passed. i worked for a small business myself for the last 30 years. this is the worst i have ever seen it. host: are you still working right now? caller: yes, i am at work now. we are in construction. we cater to the utility contracts. and of more regulations that are put down are shutting down more

jobs. it takes two years to get a job up and running after it has been bid because of regulations. host: your message to washington is your regulations. thank you for your call. about 40 miles outside of washington. a viewer writes to us -- >> is a call from port richey, florida. andy, a democrat. caller: i am glad you took my call. i was a rescue worker in the world trade center and i got quite a few illnesses in that. when i listen to speaker boehner bank, he did not want to talk to the president. i believe the country can fix the country back again. because that is what we need our jobs. jobs pay taxes and taxes make the country survived.

-- survive. these republicans don't want to talk to the present. they want everything their way. especially that mcconnell and what his name -- host: from "the wall street journal" two stories. fear gauge hit a high this month. on the other side of the same page -- negative sentiment can be a positive.

a contrarian view of advantages in the market. also, investors show a yen for the dollar. also from "the journal" today. we are asking can washington fix the economy. next is a call from florida. ibp. good morning. caller: good morning. the question is can washington fix the economy. i feel that they have to fix it. they are the ones who got us into this mess. for starters, they could nationalize the federal reserve. second, they can repeal nafta and the cma and then reinstate

glass-steagall. host: speaking of the fed, from "the journal" this morning. let me show you a headline on the jump on that story. if we could go up here. it says -- all the way up at the top, if we can, with the camera. markets are pounded and the fed is out of bullets. we are taking a call from nashville, a republican.

caller: my comments today is, i think that obama looks more like a man trying to save his presidency rather than trying to help the economy. i am really frustrated that nobody wants to ensure -- addressed the issue that the first two years he spent his time and everybody pushing health care down america's throats instead of trying to worry about the economy. i am curious, when is he going to do something? he really does, he looks like a man who is campaigning and i am very sad by that. host: next up, a common from omaha. this is linda. a democrat. caller: i think that obama could fix washington if the republicans would not think that they should be the the wholes through world, through the whole time. if they would stop trying to

always complain about how they are taking their money and everything away from them, they could try to fix this country. instead, they want to ship our jobs over to china and india and then we don't have nothing. i would like to know, when the republican gets in and they take all of our entitlement away from us, where are they going to put us all? we don't have any jobs here anymore. where are we going to be put -- put in a place, because we are all going to be poor. are we going to be put in a place where they can watch over us? host: linda, thanks. from omaha. let us check in with our facebook poll. you can see the graph.

you can participate in this if you go to the facebook page as well. here is a open the washington post" story about the debt super committee that is meeting. ms. montgomery writes that --

next telephone call is as louisiana -- is louisiana. ed. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to say the trickle- down theory has not proven to work. not only the reagan administration but the george w. bush administration's mantra and now the republicans moderate is give more money to the wealthy and they will start creating jobs. when actually it has worked in the opposite way. they have had exorbitant profits while the jobs have been cut. also, of these people do not want the average middle-class to have a working wage. that is why minimum wage doesn't

work. it creates a false low so that it -- and minimum wage is the least that you can pay somebody to work for you. by law, what does it mean? if they did not have a minimum wage we would all just be slaves? it does not make any sense. thank you for taking my call. host: "the washington post" frontpage is a political story about speaker boehner.

next is a call from florida. mark, republican. caller: first of all, it is not the government's or president obama's job to fix our economy. it is not their job. it is not what they were put in bear for. host: do you think they agree with you on that? caller: that is the problem we are having right now. in europe and the united states, and basically western civ, is we decided to do all of these global unions and all of these so you don't have these independent countries really trading with the trade negotiations were in a profit and loss on the decisions you make and trade. now it is all linked together and what they decided to do is to make their profits, well, they said their jobs to china and india and places where they

do not have the epa or the tort and all the medical programs and things like that. the people take care of their people so they can keep their wages low and make profits. that is the way it is done. that is the only thing i think will fix it. i think western civ will have to get to basic trading with the job -- so we get an argument every now and then -- and take care of poor people. the lady who said the republicans will throw everybody -- where are they going to go? do you drink i am going to throw my grandmother into the ditch? hello? republicans have families, too. thank you very much. host: to that and, here is a story about trade agreements. this is a reuters piece in "the new york times" this morning.

next is a call from california. brenda, a democrat. caller: good morning. thank you for the program. it is always interesting. i think washington can fix the economy if they take the time to work together to find common ground and if they can use -- for the common good and also use common sense. thanks so much. host: several of our callers

mentioned watching the latest republican debate sponsored on fox news channel. we have a clip from gov. harry bang -- gov. perry from texas talking about his program for jobs. >> you look at the state of texas and look at what we have done from the standpoint of lowering the tax burden, the regulatory climate. we have taken of those types of regulations of of the throat of small business operators. people understand that the state of texas under the last decade, something special happened there. it was the no. 1 state for relocation there and -- for five years in a row. and we plan on keeping it that way. host: are question this friday morning is can washington fix the economy. next is a call from ed water, maryland. sarah, independent.

caller: i don't believe washington can fix the problem because they created the report of -- the problem. what they have turned america through centralized planning, a bailout nation, but most of what a bankrupt nation. we are bailing out of the wrong people. what they implemented is socialism for the rich and true capitalism for the poor. financial debt pyramid. in order for the economy to grow, the debt has to be fleshed out of the system. all they have done is through their monitor the policy and that everything is paper over their real problem by printing money, and the system is still rotten from inside because they can't fix it and they don't know what to do and all they are doing is trying to control the media by making it sound like they got it under control when behind closed doors they are pushing the panic button. this is an economic depression and we are probably not going to get out of this for the next five to 10 years. host: sera from maryland.

on a different and later topic, this is "the baltimore sun." this is a national book festival weekend -- it was created during the bush administration, laura bush was instrumental in working with the library of congress and it has been going on all these years cents. we will have live cameras and presenting you authors writing about nonfiction topics, and telephone calls. live on c-span2 this weekend. jacksonville, florida. fran, a democrat. caller: i am calling because someone was saying that the president was going around pushing the health care act instead of trying to create jobs, and i feel like the health care is the foundation for fixing the economy. it really -- if people really sat down and thought about where

their money went -- for insurance, for medication, things sometimes they don't even use, especially the insurance. the bulk of their money is being spent to either fix their health or to prevent catastrophe for a health problem. if they were to get behind the affordable care acts, they would see the reason that the insurance companies and republicans are so dead against it because it frees them up, it frees them up to make money for themselves, it does not enslave them to a corporation just for health care, and it makes them afraid to become entrepreneurs, to use their ideas for their own enrichment. they don't understand that the insurance companies have to pay 80% of their premiums on the

clients. host: thank you. we are running out of time. thanks for your call from jacksonville. from the newspapers, this is from "the washington times." charlie rangel's official portrait was unveiled. we have some video. cameras were there. minority leader nancy pelosi, steny hoyer from maryland among those attending. charlie rangel was on our program earlier this week as well. a viewer tweets this -- another call from louisville. this is ron, a democrat. caller: unfortunately in america this is a new norm. this will be like this for the next 10-20 years. we are not paying attention to

what we are doing. the concept that small businesses cannot invest because they are concerned about anything other than clients is nonsense. people run their businesses based on demand. all of this of the talk about what the government may are not do is just fun and light to -- unenlightened thinking. host: next call is from north carolina. good morning, charlotte. you are on. caller: i do not think people are realizing that these banks and lending institutions have done it to me. they have sabotaged my business to the story my business and to push me into a financial bind and to push me into foreclosure, and not one time. i am going through this many times. they are doing it so they can take my property. for example, giving us loans and and sabotaging.

this is just one -- i owed them $200,000 and they were calling my business telling my employees that i was behind. they destroyed my business -- it was a day care. this is not one piece of property but many pieces of property. we are talking about banks getting rich off of stealing our businesses and our properties. somebody -- i am asking the federal government to come in. we've got the laws. i am asking them to step in there and stop them. they are giving them bailouts. it is not fair -- and the government is giving them these loans, and they give them to us and let us make payments all these years and then steal our property? how fair is that? host: a viewer on twitter sends this message --

from "usa today" if you are interested i will direct you to them on the news land -- newsstands or on line. online they have interactive graphics and video to see on a state-by-state basis how they say state legislators in flee their pensions. next is hazelwood, missouri. you are on the air. caller: talking about consumer confidence wagging -- lagging. i wonder what half of the

population not making enough money from their jobs to zero taxes, -- to owe taxes, how are they going to pick up the economy when they are barely keeping up their body and soul? republicans act with a maze of anger when they say, well, why should we raise the taxes on the bridge when half of the people in the united states don't even owe any taxes. it doesn't seem to occur to them that these people are just getting by hour by hour sometimes, wondering if they are going to feed the kids with these minimum wage jobs. host: thank you, from missouri. it report from a federal auditor in a "the financial times" this morning.

baltimore is up next. good morning. caller: good morning. listen, i have been listening very carefully for the entire time that you have been on today and all through all of this crisis. i think that the people who are going to fix this economy are right now out of jobs and looking to find work. the people who have money in their pockets to go to the stores are the people who are going to save this economy over time.

it is not going to happen overnight. a lot of those folks did not pay attention when they were in school taking mathematics and economics and they really need to listen carefully and get a good education as to how this economy works and how money is used, a money is made, and how money makes money. most of those folks don't know anything about that. and when they sat down in front of the dealer to get a house that they did not know enough about and signed on the dotted line, they should back up to say i don't have enough money in my pocket to go this way. they have lost a lot of money. and until they pay down those credit cards and find some work to do, this economy is not going to get a jump started unless that happens. i would recommend anybody who has a back yard to break in the ground and plant some food because you are going to need it next year. pay attention to the first lady. she is right on time. host: thank you. baltimore, maryland. we will close with our facebook

poll. you go to our facebook page. and you can continue the conversation on c-span's twitter page. let me tell you what is coming up next. our final segment, as mentioned, is going to be a look at america by the numbers, what does the jobless it was a look like from the federal tabulators. and in a couple of minutes we will get a primer on the solar industry with the solyndra hearings on capitol hill and also a big demonstration by the department of energy, the competition on encouraging solar development. university of maryland among those competing. we will get a primer how it works and how the federal government works to support from our next guest. as we take our break, i would tell you a little bit about charlotte, north carolina -- sorry, first up, the students cam competition has been

announced and the topic is the constitution and you. student documentarian's are welcome to compete by creating a brief documentary and telling us about any provision of the constitution that you think of sex you and demonstrate that through video. -- any provision of the constitution that affects you. you can find out more on our website -- studentcam.org.

>> spent this weekend in charlotte, north carolina, with book tv and american history this week ended throughout this week and a history of literally life from the site of the 2012 national democratic convention. when book tv on c-span2, sholom's banking industry. and karen talks on how the south was created in american popular culture. and at a -- learn about the relationship between independent bookstores and publishers. on american history tv on c-span 3, tour 11th president james polk's birthplace and charles jones civil rights leader -- charles jones about the lunch counters it is. and where gold was first discovered in america. book tv and american history to be in charlotte, north carolina, this weekend on c- span2 and 3. >> you don't pay plot -- pay --

play politics at a time of national crisis, with the economy, and you never ever paid -- play politics with people's jobs. >> with the house of commons in recess annual party conferences are underway in the uk. watch deputy prime minister nick clegg's keynote from the liberal democratic conference this sunday at 9:00 on c-span. in the weeks ahead, party conferences with labour party leader and a conservative prime minister david cameron. >> in my opinion, i think they bounds of economic freedom have been pushed too far. >> and the faculty lounges, and author suggests that tenured job for life entitlement mentality needs to go. >> there are basically professors of cooking -- professors of nutritional studies who have tenure now. and when pressed, someone at the aup or a professor toeing the party line will say, well, we need someone who have -- who has

tenure in securities that is so they can talk about immigration, even though it is controversial, or somebody with nutritional studies has to be able to say something controversial about obesity. sunday night on "q&a." "washington journal" continues. host: let me introduce you to our first guest, rhone resch is the president and ceo of the solar energy industries association representing their interests in washington. thank you for being with us. guest: thank you for having me. host: today representatives from solyndra are expected to come to capitol hill. we are told that would take the fifth amendment. i am wondering about your reaction to this headline in politico earlier this month. "solyndra scandal a pr nightmare for the solar industry." guest: there is no doubt that what has happened is it has

become a political issue rather than the public really taking an accurate look at what is going on in the solar industry, and i think it is a mistake if we start to judge the entire industry on the basis of the performance of one company. we are in a extremely competitive market. we will have companies that succeed and companies that fail. but the reality is the solar industry did -- grew 70% this last quarter from last year and one of the fastest-growing industries in the united states today. host: we thought it would be useful to get a primer on the solar industry and we welcome your questions. let me ask you, how big of an industry is in the united states and how many people employees? guest: over 100,000 people, twice as many than two years ago. a thousand companies in the united states. that makes up manufacturers, construction, install is -- and

they are operating in all 50 states today. " we are seeing as the industry has grown is it has put a lot of americans back to work. electricians, plumbers, those let go by the housing industry have found a new industry in solar. host: what is global competition? guest: right now the united states is not in first place. germany installs about eight times more solar as we do in the united states, and japan and italy are ahead of us. in the installation we are on fourth place. however, we are growing fast and we think the u.s. will be the largest market in the world by 2014. host: what is the basic elements needed for a successful solar business. what is involved in the technology? guest: multiple technologies. first, panels that directly convert sunlight to electricity. solar water heating, the heat of water for cooking, cleaning, showering, or industrial. then concentrating solar that focuses sunlight and creates a very high temperatures that it

generates steam and basically electricity. it's one of those has a very different business model. physically for the homeowner they are installing solar electric and thermal systems in homes that directly displaces the liches, allowing them to live with their electricity bills and provide a clean energy source. host: there is residential and commercial and agricultural. guest: agricultural -- and solar power plants in the southwest taking advantage. host: what segments are the largest? guest: all of them are growing. which is great news. the largest segment is commercial. rooftop or ground mounted that you see on a home depot or lowe's. you have seen this sector grow a little over 30% quarter on quarter. in fact, went people think about it as only california technology, new jersey is now the number-one state for installing commercial operations of the second quarter in the

united states. an exciting development as you see more markets open up around the country. host: before we get to telephone calls there is a lot about solar in the news today, not surprisingly what the hearing an investigation of solyndra. "the washington times" frontpage. related to that -- in a rush to assist solar firm obama administration is warning signs. at first solar says it will not meet its u.s. loan guarantee deadline. there also positive stories. related to that, 200 students, no wasted energy. university of maryland competing in a solar decathlon. tell us, first of all, what is a solar the cap the lawn and then we will talk about the government involvement. guest: competition from

universities really around the world, architecture and engineering programs coming together to build homes that are entirely solar powered that are down on our nation's mall as an example of what the technology tended to day -- not in the future, but this is office of technology powering homes by over 100% of their electricity and heating and cooling demand. it is a real example of what innovation can do but also an example of what these architecture programs and what these students are doing in this country to help but vance clean energy and to help of a and new techniques and housing -- help advance clean energy and to help indians new techniques. it is a great opportunity for the public to come down and not only see technology but innovations in energy efficiency and appliances and top distance to learn how they can go solar as well. host: u.s. department of energy is involved? guest: the primary sponsor. host: can you describe the ways

in which the federal government, i guess primarily through the apartment of energy, helps foster solar technology? guest: the federal government has made it a priority to support all energy in the last 100 years. oil and gas industry has enjoyed permanent incentives, it really was not until the 2005 energy bill that a real incentive was provided to help homes and businesses go solar. but since the policy has been put in place we have seen the industry grow bright -- grow by over 600% so we are competing in a cost basis with a natural gas in california. we are seeing the investment pay off very quickly. not only the scale but costs coming down for the consumer. host: are these in the forms of grants or bad loans or both? guest: we have the loan guarantee program which was created with the 2005 kennedy bill as well and then adopted and the recovery act in 2009.

that program is designed to invest in those technologies or bring projects considered higher risk or, frankly, innovative, such they cannot attract the capital from wall street to finance either the scale or the new technology. other technologies. host: we have some examples of a longer list of federal loan guarantees. here is a look at them. one is the one we showed you, first solar. g.m. california. solyndra the one in the news is $535 million. what has changed? you said the program changed during the stimulus program. how does the loan question program change? guest: they expanded it such that it focused more on deployment. actual projects to be in utter

in the ground and companies can apply multiple times. it adjusted to advance the technology much further much faster. host: with the hope of creating more jobs quickly? guest: absolutely. and when you look at the 10 projects approved the vast majority were just in august and september of this year. seven out of 10 just received funding but those in place for a while are creating jobs in rural areas that have some of the highest unemployment across the country. so they are making investments and moving dirt and creating new opportunities. host: what changed about the loan question program that increased the risk to u.s. taxpayers? guest: there is no adjustment if you will to the risk to the taxpayers. it is the same in the 2005 energy loan question program as it is in the 1705 program. the primary shift is the

credit subsidy cost is covered in the 1705 program. in the 1703 program the applicant needs to put that up, which means if you have a $100 million project you have to put $10 million up in escrow through the legislative of the project to be able to get the loan gogh. a lot of start-up companies that is an impossible hurtle. so the escrow requirement was taken away. wouldn't that automatically increase the risk to taxpayers? guest: it would in the sense that there is an appropriation involved. but what you are doing is putting money into those projects that are most likely to succeed. when you look across all of the portfolio projects that have been approved by the loan question program what you find is there are just a few a like solyndra. the vast majority are utility scale power plants and they have

20-year power purchase agreements with utilities so they have a contract in place and a guaranteed rate of return and what they are overcoming is just the scale of the solar projects. we never built a 250-megawatt project. so wall street is unwilling to projects.ese that is where it becomes critical that you have a industry to allow them to scale up, but it ultimately delivers a lower cost to the customer. host: last question then. what was the overall size of the toeral loan question program solar? guest: so far for the projects that have been approved is $7.3 billion. that is in private investment that will go into solar. that is 10 projects. the problem is so many of them were just in august and september where they finally got approval so they are just ramping up. there is an additional eight projects in the queue that the

d.o.e. is evaluating worth another $7 billion so you are talking about a substantial investment in the u.s. economy that can be advanced if d.o. gets them approved. host: what is the default rate on that figure you gave us? guest: it is just solyndra right now. when you evaluate the risk across the entire portfolio you will find that solyndra, which represents a little less than 2% is a pretty small piece you will get a solid return from the rest of the projects. host: let's go to your calls about the solar industry and federal support for it. let's again with a call from cape cod. peter is watching there an independent. caller: good morning. this is a fascinating discussion. i'm a program manager and independent consultant for private solar systems here and the systems we have have been extraordinarily successful. the solyndra thing troubles everybody.

my favorite contractor has two solyndra systems in place and they are not happy about this. but the obama administration deserves a good slap for their misbehave your because two years ago the model said solyndra would run out of cash in august of 2011. they declared bankruptcy then but the department of energy guarantee program that was used was put in place under the bush administration. so, it seems to me that stupidity just runs through government. it is probably more than a coincidence that one of the original lead venture capital companies has a partner who is a cousin to guseorge bush. but the politics are far more hazardous. i have a liquor store across the street with a roof that exceeded the projections by 135%. so if we can make moan on cape cod with solar you can do it

almost everywhere. host: to help people understand how it works you can see it is a pretty gloomy day in washington. how does the technology account for long periods of no sunshine? caller: you can pull one of the panels on this building out of a truck and it starts generating electricity instantly. it will generate electricity under 12 inches of snow. a clear cold winter day in new england is a better generating day than noontime in tuscon in the middle of summer because the air is clearer. the technology continues to advance. the productivity of the product continues to get better and better. will giveinstallation you great results. where the federal subsidies are helpful is in the 1603 program and tax advantages. all forms of energy generation are subsidized one way or another, whether a railroad subsidy because they are 50% of

revenue are hauling coal or direct subsidy for oil and gas. if there is an issue with subsidies we should not let things like the disaster of solyndra torpedo a fine industry that is providing tens of thousands of new jobs. host: let me jump in. his overall comment is politics is more hazardous to the industry these days. guest: i think that's right and thanks for the call, peter. what aware seeing is -- what we are seeing is unfortunately solar is becoming a bit of an issue. but we are an industry and i think if the politicians look not at who is supporting their pac and showing up at their fund-raisers but who their constituents are and where the jobs are being created they are going to find they have a solar company in their district and manufacturing facility or two in their district and their

constituents want greater use of solar energy more today than ever before. we need to correct the record that points out that solyndra is a failure and allow congress to do the investigations and make sure that the information becomes available and if solyndra broke the law they need be held accountable to the fullest extent. then we need to get past that because today the solar industry employs over 100,000 people. host: that caller talked about all forms of energy being diseased. i want to show you a chart and the topic is energy cost production average per megawatt hour and solar is second place, 210 just off of offshore. why does it cost more per hour to produce that energy guest: that is flawed. it is looking at the investment aspared to what is installed

opposed to the potential the investments will have in greg the industries. is critical is with respect to solar is we are a small part the energy mix. so if you compare think of the investments in solar you will get a distorted number. the fact is that solar has a higher return on the dollar investment than any other energy technology. we create more jobs per megawatt than any other energy technology and right now in the united states we are expanding and innovating in this industry that allow us to be the global leader. which is critical. we want the united states it be the leader, not china. host: next call for reason ron who represents the solar industry in washington a republican from new jersey. caller: thank you. i would like to say i think solar is augmentation rather than a substitute to the fossil fuels and as long as we have fossil fuels like the marcellus

shale i don't see solar taking off. and like the last caller is from cape cod so it will cost a lot. most people can't put solar on the house. we can barely afford to pay the electric bill these days. your segment is the golf role in solar and the role is not to make a market but to allow businesses and homeowners to be able to put the money into research and development and get out there and yet the industry rather than having it subsidized. that is pretty much it. i see a lot of this is misrepresentation that is going into solyndra and it seems lining it is criminal. guest: you are in a unique position in new jersey with a high rate but what you will find is there are companies -- this is the incredible thing about the industry. the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit is greater in solar than think or industry in the united states. you can find three or four

companies in new jersey who will install solar on your house for no money down and it will cost you not one penny to go solar and they will guarantee that the electricity coming from the system will be cheaper than what you pay right now. so you can go solar for no money down and save money on the bills. you just pointed out how expensive the electric is. solar can safe you money on the bill. these are the innovations in the business models. the government has nothing to do with that. but if you create a stable policy platform that allows businesses to have an environment where they can grow and innovate what you will see is that it is that cost that will be reduced more so by innovation than research and development. that is where the government role is, provide a stable platform similar to what you the oil and gas industry and coal industry, have a level playing field and you will see solar will outcompete them. host: a similar theme struck by the chairman of the energy and

commerce committee. we will listen to his question and if you can respond. >> what the solyndra failure means for the loan question program. just one bad bite or is it the tip of the iceberg? d.o.e. has closed over $8 billion in loan guarantees to other green tech companies and has about $10 billion to spend before the september 30 deadline. the administration was so wrong about sole some after 19months how can we -- how can it exercise the proper controls when doling out another $10 billion in the next couple of weeks? this time of record debt i question whether government is act as a venture capitalist picking winners and losers and shelling out billions of dollars to keep them afloat. host: we are back. is is it just the tip of the iceberg? purpose of the

programs is to make investments that the private sector would be unwilling to do. so, solyndra is a very unfortunate example of what has happened. but i think that when you look at the loan question program it has integrity across the board there. is similar to the agricultural sector and export sector in this country. so, loan questions are part of what we do to help build up new industries. unfortunately there are failures from time to time but what is important is that there are some great successes and those need to be highlighted coming out of this. host: next call palm bleaeach a democrat. caller: i'm walter fuchs from the world house project. i introduced the program and only two people knew what we were doing. the rest were people that morning at the

u.n. there is an opportunity to exhibit at the world future energy summit in makings of a zero energy house based on the square foot areas composed of 10 fi fiber panels that technology is no need for traditional roofing. we cut the cost of construction by 50% by eliminating many now nonessential components. there is a difficulty in having our government sign on an event that would start feel the world a zero energy house that pays for itself. ideas go back to an american architect frank lloyd wright in the 1930's who came forth with his ideas. i find it very strange that the state department no matter who is contacted in government, they

don't seem to want to boost america's image in innovation. any suggestions? guest: i agree, walter. it is a shame because i think america as a country can o else in the nybody world. and we are seeing that in both low cost manufacturing in solar and high efficiency. right now the u.s. is home to the lowest cost manufacturer of solar and they manufacture in ohio and building a new plant just outside of phoenix. you also have the highest efficiency solar panel manufacturer here in the united states. and as we look forward what you are going to see out of our industry are innovative products that are integrated in the roofing, products that are higher efficiency, lower cost, have applications on the back of your iphone up to utility scale solar projects. when you look forward in the

next five to 10 years what is critical is we focus on american innovation. we don't get bogged down in the failures but highlight the successes and make investments in these technologies and companies that are going to be the future of our economy. we will outcompete the chinese if we make the investments. host: north dakota, chris, republican. caller: good morning. i was wondering if part of the problem with supporting solar energy has anything to do with just government's role in solar energy but government's role in supporting gas and coal? is there -- i don't know -- a bipartisan fight over that? guest: chris, to the point i made before, which is the federal government has always

made strategic investments in energy and they have been in large part what made the country great. investments in hydroelectric power allowed to us produce large volumes of equipment going into world war ii and to succeed. our investments in oil and natural gas through the 1920's and 1930's led us to be a global leader. we need to make sure we are investing in the 21st century technologies. technologies that we manufacture and those technologies to create jobs and provide safe reliable for customers and consumers in the united states. so when we look at the role of government it is not to subsidize these industries but to create an investment opportunity to track private capital and helps us get through that stage where the product is being developed so that it becomes commercially viable and that ultimately toes jobs are

created here. host: aware over time but we're talking about investment. could you explain this one paragraph in the "new york times" if there is a single bet made by the pweupls that would determine the success or failure of the investment in solyndra it is centered on the global price its competitors pay for one of earth's most common elements, silicon. >> it is a feed stock material that is in the panels or semiconductorors. as the industry grew fast in 2007 and 2008 we had a shortage of polysilicon so the price went from about $60 to $300 per kilo tkpwrpl. that was the opportunity for those that didn't use it to enter into the market. solar panel prices were going up due to that shortage. so companies lake solyndra and other thin film companies attracted private investment because it seemed like they had

a competitive advantage and could enter the marketplace at a lower cost point than the po polysilicon manufacturers could. what we saw is that you had policy collapse in spain and other countries and the markets decreased and you saw the market react which was to produce more po polysilicon. so the price is down from $300 to $60 today. what that thaoepbs is po polysilicon manufacturers and solar manufacturers have been able it lower price. to give you a sense in the last year the price of solar has come down by 30%. aware seeing a very competitive environment and up form companies lake solyndra are not able to compete. host: thank you for being here. to our viewers if you happen to be in washington over the next two weeks you may go to the national mall and see the solar decathlon. here is the story in "u.s.a. today". u.s. department of energy is the major sponsor. it is a competition.

19 teams building solar inspired projects and you can see how the government is involved. then today we are going to be providing coverage of the solyndra hearing. you can watch that on our network and we will have it available on our video library. thank you for being here. i appreciate it. our final segment will be america by the numbers. we are looking at the numbers concerning unemployment in the united states. during our break once each weekend eight southeastern cities are featured. we are visiting with the local content. first is charlotte, north carolina. hosted by time-warner cable local content vehicle visited elections to showcase the history and literary culture of the city that will host the 2012

democratic national convention. let me introduce you to the charlotte mayor anthony fox who explains how charlotte landed the convention. >> we are excited to host the 2012 democratic national convention. was a product of a lot of work on many people's parts to get us here. i got involved shortly after my election as mayor in 2009. it is one of the most intensive recruiting efforts you could do to get any political convention. it involved many phone calls and hours thinking about how we could pitch the city to the d.n.c. a lot of negotiating once they whittled it down to a few cities and lobbying. i tell a story about seek president obama on several occasions and on each occasion saying we would love to host the democratic convention in charlotte and i knew i made my point when the last time i tried this the president said i know

you want the democratic convention. takes a lot of work on a lot of fronts. host: watch charlotte, north carolina, throughout the weekend on c-span 2's book tv and american history tv. you will visit sites as the local content vehicles tour. you can find out more at c-span.org/local content. we will be right back. >> william jennings brian one of the best known speakers of his time and first approximately toys campaign from the back of railroad cars and automobiles ran for president three times and lost but changed political history. he is one of the 14 men featured in our weekly series the contenders. fairview the bryant home in lincoln, nebraska. learn more at c-span.org/thecontenders. >> the joint chiefs of staff have agreed to remove the

question regarding one's sexual orientation from future versions of the enlistment application and it will not be asked in the interim. >> this week marked the end of "don't ask, don't tell" the policy that kept openly guy lesbian and gay personnel from serving in the military and they can apply for reinstatement. follow the history of don't "do ask, don't tell" online at the c-span video library. >> which part of the u.s. constitution is important to you? that is our question in the student cam competition. make a video documentary five to eight minutes long and tell us the part of the constitution that is important to you and why. include more than one point of view and video of c-span programming. entries are due by january 20, 2012. there is $50,000 in total prizes and a grand prize of $5,000. for the details go to

studentcam.org. >> we provide coverage of politics, public affairs, nonfiction books and american history. look for congress to continue federal spending into november including funding for natural disasters. keep tabs on the deficit committee as they formulate a plan it lower the debt and follow the presidential candidates as they campaign. it is all available to you on television, radio, online and on social media sites. search, watch and share all programs any time with c-span video library. we are on the road with our digital bus and local content vehicles bringing resources to and showing ties events from around the country. the c-span networks created by cable, provided as a public service. host: on the screen is dr. keith hall commissioner of the bureau of labor statistics. fridays we have been inviting

the people who keep america by the numbers who give us a portrait of the country to tell us more about aspects of our society. today we look at unemployment numbers. we welcome your participation. dr. hall is in a four-year term of the bureau of labor statistics. sworn in 2008 and faculty member in the economics department at university of arkansas and missouri. tell our viewers about the agency you head, please. guest: the bureau of labor the other is like statistical agencies. we have a long tradition of independence. we are about 3,000 employees and we have about two dozen defend programs. the highest profile is the unemployment program so we also produce most of the price indexes, data on productivity and data on workplace injury illnesses. host: you provided us with quite

a few charts and graphs about our unemployment situation and i'm going to -- i hope i don't throw you for a loop. i will pull them out of order because the one that caught my attention was long-term employment because there is so much debate in this town about employment benefits and what happens to people after they reach that threshold. let's look at that chart that shows us the numbers of people after the year 2008 which have reached that threshold. what does this chart tell us? guest: we consider anybody who has been unemployed six months or more to be long-term unemployed but we keep statistics on those unemployed more than a year or two years. it tells you the number of people who have been unemployed for a rather long time period. they are still looking, willing to work and looking for work. host: and it seems to have spiked.

guest: that's right. we are somewhere over six million people which is a remarkably high number because the previous record was below three million. we have more than doubled the old record in long-term unemployed. host: we can go into some of these in more detail. you have given us a stat that looks at the share of long-term unemployment by age. this compares the overall labor force and you can see it on the scre screen. long-term unemployed compared to force.or it looks like 25 to 54 have the highest. guest: the blue bar tells you the share of labor force held by the groups. 16 to 24-year-olds make up about 14 14.2. 25 to 54 is 65.9 parts and 55 and older is almost 20%. the red bars tell you their

share of the long-term unemployed. you see 16 to 24-year-olds are about 14% of labor force but 17.5% of the long-term unemployed. so, they are overrepresented in the long-term unemployed. host: authorize those 355 and older their personal is equal to the share. guest: they are about the same. they are not overrepresented. host: now we see how race affects the numbers. white, black, hispanic are the statistics that you have here. yes.: the whites make up about 81% of the labor force but only about 70% of the long-term unemployed. so the two groups, african-american and hispanics are overrepresented, particularly african-americans are roughly two to one. host: so as a personal of the liberal force 11.7% but

long-term unemployment is 23.5%. guest: that's correct. host: next statistic. share of long-term employment by education for those 25 years and older. guest: you have a similar story as the race and ethnicity. there are certain groups overrepresented. those without a high school diploma 8.8% but 15% of long-term unemployed. high school diploma are overrepresented as well. some college or associate degree is also overrepresented. the only group underrepresented are those with a college education. host: what is the message of this statistic? >> this is a stay in school chart i suppose. host: i will pause and give our the numbers that you can send us a comment or question by twitter twitter. we also divided the phone lines a little differently.

that is number for those who are unemployed and we would like you to briefly tell us your own story that is 202-737-0001. and all others either employed, still retired or students and want to participate in the discussion 202-737-0002 is the all other line. we will get to calls in a couple of minutes. this is another chart that looks at five firms and downturns. help us understand what you are showing. guest: this is a comparison between the current recession or recent recession and 2001 recession. the red bars are the downturn from the 2001 recession the job loss by firm size. you notice on the red bars the far right are large firms, 500 employees and more. they are overrepresented in the

last recession, 2001. it was very little job loss in t the smaller firms. host: this time small firms are much more likely to be affected? guest: that's right. ou see that the blue bars are fairly evenly space sod this recession smaller firms and medium sized firms participated more in the downturn. this is repeated throughout the numbers. this was such a deep and long that it affected all ethnicities, all educational levels. host: all company sizes. guest: all company sizes. host: we have seen small business sometimes insulated in the post-but there time affected equally by the downturn. there is a look at the united states and it is a graphic look at unemployment rates from july 2012 and how states -- 2011 and are affected state by

state. those that are in red 12% california and nevada, 10% higher ar in the southeastern area and michigan. 8% to 9% are green and a good majority of them there. the blue charts have unemployment rates of 6% to 7.9% so lower than the national average. those lucky states through here and vermont and new hampshire in pink have 5.9% or lower unemployment. can you speak to -- i know you gather the numbers on the unemployment but what is going on in those states that are at the end of the spectrum? it is hard to say because obviously it is dependent on the local economies in the state. some of them are states that have particular problems with the housing market, big do

downturn. some manufacturing is involved. a lot of job loss was concentrated in manufacturing and construction. those two combined for over half the job loss during the recession. so states that had a lot of manufacturing and big downturn in housing construction were hard hit. host: do you know what is going on with vermont and new hampshire? they are doing well compared to their regional neighbors. we will take calls then come back and look at employment and particular sectors including construction. earlier we had a call from the construction industry and financial services industry. we will take a call from brooklyn. this is a person who is unemployed. caller: organ good morning. i don't have a question. i do have a question. i was -- host: turn the volume on your tv down. you are getting feedback. caller: i was a bank for

jpmorgan chase for two years. i was like i collected unemployment for two years. why can't we do something simple like everybody who collects unemployment the way i did has to do some kind of simple job or have to go outside and pick up the trash from the street a, street b in the local neighborhood and kind of supervision. this way they are not sitting there collecting this money for nothing? host: let me hear about your own prospect. you are in brooklyn in the financial services industry. we keep hearing companies like bank of america still plan it -- plan it lay off more. what are your prospects for finding a job? caller: anybody if they get up every morning and work and work, you know, toward finding a job they can find something.

wherever it is going to be something that pays you enough money for your family, i think there is always some kind of b job. it is hard to fit the job to life style because there's a big difference getting a job that pays you $40,000 and having a job that pays you $10,000 a year is not that hard but can you feed your family and pay for an apartment or buy a house. not going to happen. host: what is your optimism level at this point? caller: as far as 10 years down the line i think it is good. i think as far as something short-sighted, the next six months, i have thoughts, i don't have a lot of things in the short term but i still believe we have satellites in space and we can't solve a problem like making sure everybody has a job. i don't think it should be so

difficult. but then i'm not a decision maker. i don't make policies. so, i'm not going to make a change. host: thank you for your call. he has been unplayed for a while -- unemployed for a while. this chart looks at financial activity employment from 1999 through 2011 including the 2008 downturn. what is happening in that sector? guest: a couple of things you will notice. first the employment decline in the sector. the blue band represents the recession. the right hand is the current recession, left is 2001 recession. you notice the downturn started before the recession started so it is sort of a leader into the recession. the drop, you know, the drop in employment is three-quarters of a million jobs. in the financial activity sector it is split 2010 finance and --

between finance and insurance and includes not only securities and commodity contractors and typical financial types of firms but also it includes real estate. host: what is fascinating is it brought us right back to the level in the sector of 1999. guest: yes. host: so all the build-up in that brought a lot of jobs but we came to the point where we were before it began. guest: another thing if you look at the 2001 recession the financial sector didn't participate meaning there was not any job loss. call as we look at america by the numbers is a call from bernard in oklahoma city and also unemployed. you are on the air. caller: hello. i'm bernard, oklahoma. i have a college degree in architecture and i have been unemployed for over a year and i understand that oklahoma is doing very well statistically. however, has there been any

study between minorities with college degrees versus nonminorities with college degrees. because i live in a state where it is probably offrepresented, and i want to hear your comments on that. host: first, he said oklahoma is well and by the borrow of labor statistics oklahoma is one of the states with lowest unemployment, 5.9% or lower. you can see it here. he asked about by the numbers and racial demographics. guest: not only does that show up in this recession is minorities are impacted more than others. the unemployment rate for and hispanics ns and other minorities increase by more, start higher and increase by more and employment by

industry in different industries doesn't really explain it. or education doesn't fully explain it. so if you do it just with the people with college degrees, those of the minorities do have their rates go up more than nonminorities. caller: architects related to the construction industry so let me put your chart on the screen that looks at employment in construction from 2000 through 2011. look at those numbers. guest: two things. if you look at the employment before the recession you see this tremendous build-up in employment in the construction industry. this is when construction was high of new homes. what now appears like an unsustainably high level and it began like the activities the decline started around the beginning of 2007. you saw the deadline in employment and housing starts

dropping and employment dropped significantly. it dropped about two million since it started. you look at the bottom you see it is down. host: when we looked at financial service it is came back to the 2000 level but the difference aware showing here in 2000 the jobs were between 6.5 and 7.0 million but now nowhere near where we were a decade ago. guest: yes. host: so, i don't know what to ask about that. i will take a telephone call. ryan from boca raton, florida. caller: good morning. my question is for the gentleman. my question is that one question will be what the statistics of the personal there and how they

-- percentage there and how they come up with the result and the other is on drug laws and how the interception them has d disenfranchised them. and what type of people are unemployed? and in the sense of what type the elderly, are they people who have physical or mental disabilities? are they people that are not educated enough? there is some reason that these statistics -- how she is statistics are based on something. and then on the drug issue, i will take my question off the air but for the drug issue since the inception of them they have put fear in our society to stop people from a racial standpoint and now if someone has the ability to get a scholarship or get into government programs or

government jobs an they have a prior record or felony, that is going it deny them access to that job. so i really question the how this is come about. thank you. host: we will let the second comment stand but he wants to dig into the profile of the unemployment. we looked earlier by education and racial demographics. what else can you tell us? guest: in this recession there is a significant increase in unemployment by all groups. so even though the college educated have a much lower unemployment rate than those without a high school degree, the unemployment rate did go up significantly during the recessi recession. so it is made up of everybody. there are overrepresented groups but there are virtually no groups who were spared this time. host: next telephone call as we talk about america's

numbers this is mark from rochester, new york. also unemployed. caller: hello, how are you. host: what field did you work in? caller: photography, optics. i got my bachelor's degree from r.i.t. and got a master's degree from r.i.t. in color science. i'm actually calling because i have laid off a number of times in my history of going through college i was in the workforce in 2000, laid off from a company that does aerial images for bing and places like that. and went to work for kodak and was laid off from them and most recently worked for i.t.t. one of the bigger employers left in got laid off when they lost a government contract. so, i'm very familiar with the workforce, i guess. my question is, where are people like me that have been laid off and decided they will take their

future into their own hands and now we are coming up through this lending crisis and we can't money to hire anybody or equipment and we would like to create jobs but away can't. host: when you went into this field did you have any sense of how volatile it was going to be? caller: a more global level i guess. more than just my industry. i could tell that i was -- my industry branches into many industries from medical to printing, display, cameras, you know. we touch everything. so i could see this was not just one industry that was squandering, it is more of a global crisis. host: how old are you? caller: 33. host: if you had money what business would you like to create? caller: i have created a business. it is real estate investment busine

business. so you are not using your photographic skills. caller: not at all. host: he is young, his part of the society and its unemployment statistics are what? how much are the young affected compared to others? guest: the younger probably more impacted than other age groups. for example teenagers or those up to 24, they have had a particularly big drop-off in employment to population. host: but where he is against the norm you showed us, the early graph was stay in tkpwraourp and he stayed for college and graduate and found in an industry with a lot of volatility. what would you say to that? guest: there are certain industries that have a high degree of volatility. reason we never get to zero unemployment rate. the low prior to the recession

was 4.7%, which is very small compared to now. but there is still a fair amount of churn where people are between skwrobls, sometimes unemployed for a -- jobs, sometimes unemployed for a while. so you have to recognize that there is some long-term sustainable level of unemployment that you can get down to but never down to zero. host: here is a chart with a lot of colors around statistics. unemployment rates for persons 25 years around older by educational attainment. we are picking up on the stay in school theme but this is two decades. what are you telling us here? guest: this is a similar story as the long-term unemployed. during this recession the last recessi recession those with more education had a bigger impact. if you look at the top line, the blue line, that is the

unemployment rate for people with less than high school diploma. you notice they started before the recession at about 7% unemployment rate and it has grown to 14%, doubled. you look at the bottom those are bachelors and higher their rate started as low as 2% and just now up to 4% so they have not gotten as high a rate during the recession as those who without a high school diploma prior to the recession. but again all of the rates went up for all the education levels but those with lower levels are impacted more. there is more than a stay in school graph. it is also telling you the sort of people who are unemployed they -- the lower education are overrepresented in that group and you think about that when you try to come out of the recession. host: you are the commissioner

of the bureau of labor statistics and we are looking at the numbers his statisticians gather about unemployment. we have a call from mchenry county, illinois. catherine. i understand you are unemployed. caller: yes, i am. i was laid off in january of 2010. and my situation is i'm a divorced person, i live by myself. i raise six 13 r -- i raise six children had are doing well. my one son is in italy now. i was laid off and making good money and there wasn't really any -- i bought my house, ok? in november of 2009. and i fought my way up because i was divorced and trying to raise the kids and it was kind of hard

and i had some problems and i made it through the credit thing to where i could buy a house. and i bought just a little house. i have two dogs and a cat. at the time when i did by the house i made a joke saying watch me get laid off and sure enough, january of 2010, after i did purchase my house in november of 2009 when it was still looking good and i didn't see any reason to be laid off but i made that jump and i did get laid off. host: what field were you working in? caller: purchasing. and i had been in purchasing almost 20 years and i was -- it was all on-the-job training. i got a g.e.d. before i got my -- i didn't graduate from high school but got a g.e.d. i made myself get it before my first son graduated from high school. host: let me, in the interest of

time, cut to the chase. are you able to keep the house? caller: i'm fighting for my live. i have been unemployed for almost two years. january will be two years. the unemployment kept me going because i managed to buy a husband where the mortgage payment would be sustainable. host: i will stop you there. that illustrates a number of statistics. we have not looked at the difference between men and women in society and how they have been affected. katherine being a woman, let's look at how she fares compared to society as a whole. guest: the blue line is the employment level for men and red for women. you notice that this recession a couple of things. first, women participated in the recession, the point if you look in the 2001 recession women had a very small drop in employment levels. but there is a fairly big drop this time. at the same time, men lost jobs

two to one compared to women through this recession. and the line has gotten close so the level of employment by men and women became almost equal for a while. the next thing you notice is the almost so far has been exclusively with men. women haven't participated much yet. one interesting thing to note is it probably drives the whole graph is women's representation in different industries. for example, during this recession it was a wide recession so a lot of industries were hit. so, women participated because some of the jobs were like ditional manufacturing and construction which have underrepresentation by women, a lot of other industries were hit by the recession. in the recovery it is showing

back women is job loss in local government. since the recession ended local government has lost about a half million jobs, and out of that 400,000 were women. that is big reason why the wo n employment hasn't recovered. host: our viewer on twitter offers this comment saying they don't call it a phaman session nothing. next call is washington, d.c., and this is anthony on the air. caller: i have two jobs. i work delivering food for chefs warehouse to restaurants around washington during the day and at night i work as a dishwasher in urban barbecue and they seem to be hiring but can't get cashiers or delivery drivers so people looking in the washington, d.c. area urban barbecue is hiring.

ost: what is kwryour education level? host: i have two years of college, four years in the marine corps. i had my own computer store which shut down in 2001 after 9/ 9/11. no one was buying anything so i went back to driving a truck. host: what is your income or standard of hrfliving with the jobs versus what it was before when you had your own store? caller: it is about the same. nothing has changed. it is just an adjustment of unemployment. defend things you were doing. i'm still making an average of $50,000. i was doing about $70,000 at the most before 9/11. and i'm still about $50,000 with two jobs. host: are you working the same number of hours? caller: definitely not. i work 60 hours six days a week

on the truck job and four days a week as a dishwasher at night i'm putting in a lot more hours. america has gotten to the point where we reached a crescendo with the rise of housing prices that no one can afford a house and same thing with healthcare. michelle bachman said it is because of obama care businesses are not hiring but she forgets that during the bush years the last couple of years jobs were flowing out of the country before president obama came on the scene. so, it is not obama care that is killing jobs, it is the prices of everything that are so high and nobody can work to afford to get anything. and then of course the jobs have left the country. if we just opened up the factories with people who worked there before in the steel industry and all the other industries that left this country and stop importing,

buying imports, we have to build our own and making our own clothes and socks and metal. we have to do this again and open up the clothes factories. and bring housing prices down. nobody can afford a down payment and it will be at least 20 to 3 years before these houses that have just been built that are sitting will start it get sold. if they do bring the house prices back down you are not going to have any housing is the number one economic leader for people getting on their feet to have their own home. host: what time do you start your workday? host: today i'm off. i start at 4:00 every morning. i usually am done by 3:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon truck driving and i start at 5:30 at night until 9:30 derby wa -- d

washing. calle host: thank you. how would anthony show up in your numbers, someone who used to have a full-time job and is working two part-time jobs? guest: he will show up as multijob holder. we keep track of that and he will be counted as employed but we have a special category. we keep track of people who are part-time for economic reasons. so, people in other words they are part-time, they would rather be full-time so probably both his jobs he would be counted as part-time even though he is counted as employed. host: next telephone call from memphis, tennessee, larry, unemployed. caller: good morning. yes, i was employed in manufacturing. my job closed up at the end of this year but i was laid off on july 25. i think we have two problems. number one problem is wal-mart.

wal-mart insists that they going to keep you on their shift you have to do a certain percentage of [inaudible] about five years ago we did 23% of our business in china and ever since it is more and more. that is the reason the jobs are leaving. wal-mart insists you have to manufacture in china. number two reason is we are in this situation is because our government. we have a government that is setting people up with tax breaks and paying people to move overseas. we need to get rid of all of the people that doing that. they work for the people that is lining their pocket. they don't care about working people. they are for the rich. host: thank you. we have a series of statistics about public sector employment.

there is what it looks like over the last decade with a spike right after the recession. can you tell us what is going on? guest: you see a spike around 2010 and spike around 2000. both of them were temporary hiring by the census bureau to conduct the census. this last time it was about 600,000 jobs at most. they were temporary so you see the spike went up and came down. another was a sense success hiring. host: before the recession overall if you look at federal government employment has been growing since the recession. guest: yes, it is a little up. maybe 50,000 to 60,000 higher. host: let's look at state government. what is happening there? guest: state government there's been a steady decline there. one thing you notice is that it

hurri -- a lot of it occurred after the end of the recession. state government in fact since the end of the recession has dropped about 100,000. host: but look how much it has grown over the decades. so when we started out in 20004.7 million and now 5.1 million? guest: that's right. host: local government, another stats technique. guest: the local government right now is within sector that is consistently still losing jobs. you notice the local government employment grew significantly up to the middle of the recession but since the recession it has lost about 400,000 jobs. host: then this one is the civilian unemployment rate. so, what is this? guest: this is the rate for everybody. and it is civilian because we don't collect information on military based in the united

states. it is a data collection issue. host: so it is public and private sector? guest: yes. and you will notice that the unemployment rate is around 9% now. it peaked at around 10%. it is still significant since the start of the recession. host: let's listen to a call from harrisburg, pennsylvania. scott. caller: thank you. i'm a wholesale distributor of grain and i have seen a recent uptick in business. i was at a fabricator the other day and for the first time in two years i have seen all of his machines running. now, everybody seems to be busy right now but none of us, myself included, have added employees because we are not sure. our numbers w