welcome to "the wall street journal report." i'm maria bartiromo reporting from outside the new york stock exchange. jobless claims rise. corporate america did not cash. is the news really all that bad? we'll talk to an advisor to president obama. and the real deal on steel. we'll get a report from the frontlines of the green steel company that's fighting competition from china and around the world. and we're all ears about commodities that get the bad rap. you'll be surprised how it's being used these days and how you can invest in it. "the wall street journal reportç begins right now. >> narrator: this is america's number one financial news program, "the wall street

journal report." now maria bartiromo. as we head into a new week on wall street, general motors is setting the wheels in motion for its long-awaited initial public offering which could be one of the largest in american history. the company filed papers for its ipo this week, which would allow gm to become a public company again, rather than a ward of the state. it is mou profitable. the treasury department which owns 61% of the companies expected to sell enough shares after the ipo to bring its ownership to less than 50%. the ipo is expected to raise at least $10 billion. . the dow industrial broke its losing streak rising triple digits, but it was hammered again on disappointing economic news. the dow fell again on friday. chip maker intel acquiring mcafee for more than $7 billion, and bhp billiton, the mining

company, is making a hostile bid for potash for $39 billion. that's a bet that demand for fertilizer will rise in developing countries. we're at the tail end of earnings season with companies reporting profits. wal-mart beat analyst expectations. hewlett-packard met its preannounced expectation. the corporate news remained fairly strong. the economic news in general has want been, so how do we get out of the malaise? joining us now is laura tyson, and member of president obama's economic advisory board. wonderful to have you on the program. welcome back. >> thank you very much, maria. >> just about every measure of the economy looks weak. initial jobless claims to a nine-month high. gdp not growing at nearly the rate many had hoped. the consumer as well fragile. what needs to be done to turn this economy around in your view? >> well, i think it's very

difficult to do, and i want to start with that. this is not an easy situation. we are in a very treacherous recession because it started with a big financial shock, and our big problem here is the consumer. consumption has been the major driver of u.s. economic growth. going into this recession, it was a major driver, and now the consumer is hurting in many ways. slow income growth, high unemployment, jobless, loss of wealth. no wonder the consumer cannot provide the momentum, and that is cç big problem because you can't shift an economy around that fast from consumption orientation to investment or export orientation. >> what about business? obviously business is supposed to be creating jobs. president obama and the business community not exactly the best of friends these days. how important is that? what do the president and the business community do together to repair that? >> right. well, i want to start by saying i think the major reason that

the business community investment is not p responding as completely as one hoped is a -- business leaders, too, are looking at uncertainty. how fast is the consumer going to come back? what's going to happen to growth in europe? is asia going to slow down? so they're looking at their capacity. they have plenty of capacity. the capacity still relatively low. they're ready to hire if you need them. you want to wait and see. certainty is a key issue, and it's not -- and it's uncertain. as far as the government is concerned, a lot of businesses say regulatory uncertainty. where can the government work together with industry -- with industry? i think a key area actually is trade policy. a key issue here is increasing our manufacturing base and exporting to the rest of the world. that's going to require rather active participation in things like getting trade agreements

passed, workinging on new trade agreements, working very hard to make sure that our trading rights around the world are being enforced. sfwloop it's a great point. laura, how much do you think about the debt? i mean, the congressional budget office just came out with its budget forecast, and even though the 2011 deficit is still projected to be slightly smaller than 2010> you know, it doesn't alarm me if it's a patch to a long run trend to get the deficit down. i think we have to make a distinction here. first of all, we have a deficit problem in the short-term this year and next year. primarily because the economy is so weak. tax revenue is down, and the government is understandably trying to spend money to revive the economy, so you've got recessionary affects on revenues and policies to fight the

recession. if you take that away, you think where is the debt issue in the united states? it was with us before the crisis, and it's with us after the crisis, and it has to do with the long run debt associated with major parts of the budget. social security, health care, defense, revenue. what do we do with those four major items to bring the debt to gdp ratio to a stable position? i think the key thing is to look at the trajectory of debt to gdp. >> the bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year. taxes on the highest earners are likely to go up to where they were in the clinton administration. bad idea? we're in such a fragile situation, a fragile economy, or good idea? do we need to close that deficit? >> i think the following. i think that if we allow the bush tax to expire on the top -- the top richest americans, we will end up with $36 billion or

so of extra revenue next year. i think that extra revenue should be spent on job creating programs in the united states. i mean, for example, again, the emphasis on infrastructure. we need to really invest. the rest of the world has been using the recession, particularly in asia, to modernize and build every form of transportation, and we have not been doing that. so my position is, yes, let the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest expire on schedule, take the $36 billion and spend it in ways that make meaningful investments in the economy. i would focus on infrastructure and education. i think those are meaningful investments where the long-term growth of the economy is going to depend upon what we do with those funds. t's always wonderful to have you on the program. thank you for your insights. we appreciate it. >> thank you very much, maria. >> we'll see you soon, laura tyson.

next we'll focus in on the business of steel. it's one of america's most important manufacturing companies. then from the field to the plate to your portfolio. corn is king and how sweet it is. as we take a break, take a look at how the stock market ended the week. there's oil out there we've got to capture. my job is to hunt it down. i'm fred lemond, and i'm in charge of bp's efforts to remove oil from these waters. you may have heard that oil is no longer flowing into the gulf, but our spotter planes and helicopters will keep searching. we've still got thousands of vessels ready to clean up any oil we find. we've skimmed over 35 million gallons of oil/water mixture. i grew up on the gulf coast and i love these waters. we'll be here as long as it takes to clean up the gulf. boss: and now i'll turn it over gecko: ah, thank you, sir. as we all know, geico has been saving people money on rv, camper and trailer insurance...

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for decades the steel industry dominated america's economy and led the world. now, while that is no longer the case, it is still an important bellweather for much of the u.s. economy and the globe. my next guest is chairman and ceo of nucor, a major steel company. dan dimicco is with me right now. great to have ow the program. >> great to be here. >> you really are on the frontlines of business. >> always. >> always. yeah. where do you see the economy right now? is it a soft patch or something worse? >> best way i can sum up the

economy today, severe draw the last 18 months. basically it's never happened. just look at the economic fundamental that is are out there today in our economy. we're in the worst recession since the great depression. >> wow. >> how else do you look at it when you have 26 million people that can't find work, they've given up looking for work or working part-time making 60%, 70% of what they were making three years ago. the economy is not good. >> it's a very tough story. i mean, when you say we're still in the greatest recession since, you know, the great depression, i mean, i thought things had improved a bit. you still feel that this is a very tough spot that we're in. >> extremely tough spot. we have a runaway budget deficit. we have a runaway trade deficit. we're not exporting muff. we're importing too much. we've had ten years or one problem after another where people tried to find a way to replace manufacturing in our

econo economy. monthing and turn it into something of value. that's how you create real wealth and how you create a middle class, and we've been focussing on the wrong things for some time now. >> do you think that something the government can be doing? >> absolutely. >> to create more jobs? >> first thing they need to do is get out of the way of the private sector. the magnitude of this crisis is similar, for different reasons, to what we went through in world war ii, and to solve that serious global issue back then we had to have public sector and private sector working together as one team focussing on building our strength to deal with the global issues. it's no different today. today there are economic issues. today the issues in our public sector and our private sector, the business community, need to be working on as a team. we don't need one sector or another berating the other sector. >> i think it's important to note that you are the largest steel producer in the united states.

yet, 14th largest in the world. the competitors are out there. what does that say about the u.s. economy and demand for steel in the country? >> well, the chinese got it right when they went and put $700 billion into creating real jobs through the infrastructure they had over there. in this country we have the same need for infrastructure, but we've wasted the last 18 months working at things that had nothing to do to really jump-start the economy and keep it running for two, three, four, five, ten years. the real problem is we've gotten away from making things. our gdp, manufacturing, is less than 10% of gdp. it should be over 20% in a healthy, growing economy. so we have got to get to the point where we are making things in this country to create wealth. >> so we need a national policy then to keep jobs here so that america can actually produce things? >> oh, we can. nucor is the most productive, efficient steel producer in the world. we may be 14th by size, but

we're not 14th by efficiency, productivity, technology. nucor has reinvented the steel industry. we're known for that. we're known for our invasion. we haven't laid nebraska off during this crisis. >> most people when they think about steel they have an image of smoke belching old industry. yet, you paint the company as green. technology has really enabled change. tell me about the green techniques and how you are operating. >> we use all the modern technology that have been developed around our plants. we produce steel at 0.4 man hours per ton versus traditional three man hours per ton and it used to be 10 or 12. in china they're way above 0.4. our cost of labo$10 a ton.low. freight costs more than that. as far as green goes, our color is green. our technology allows us to emet one-fourth the greenhouse gases and integrated producers that

start from iron ore and coal to one-fourth our energy. one-fourth. >> you wear a red shirt for a reason. >> a reason. number one, i would like to shout-out to all the men and women serving in our military here and around the world. every friday throughout our company it's red shirt friday in their honor. nucor has been award several presidential awards for how we treat our men and women when they go into service. we pay and make sure their salaries are held and take care of their families when they're gone. i'm a die-hard yankee fan. last all-star game at yankee stadium. >> go, yanks. thanks so much. really appreciate your time. dan dimicco joining us here. up next on "the wall street journal report" are commodities experiencing a heat wave? we'll take a look at one in particular. the impact of higher prices from gardens to growers of corn. find us on fac

commodities prices, do they have the chance to go as high as an elephant's eye? a ban on exports in russia have caused concern about the global wheat supply, and investors are following suit, but planting cash in crops. we have an exposure to commodities in exchange traded funds. some $270 billion was invested by the end of last year in etfs that tracked the futures contract of wheat, corn, and

other commodities. whether or not you want to bet on mother nature, higher commodity prices don't necessarily mean more money to those in the field. >> i grow approximately 700 acres of field corn. also, roughly 200 acres of wheat. the supplier called me and asked me, you know, to put my wheat order in. a week later he said are you sure you want that much? i got to turn other farmers down. he said i don't have enough -- there's not enough seed to fill the orders. the price of wheat went up, and farmers thought, well, we're going to plant more wheat this year. i get excited when the price is going up, but you got to think who you are selling it to and are they going to be able to afford it and when a price goes up, it also affects your inputs. i mean, your fertilizer goes up. seed corn and the price of seed corn goes up. >> with the volatility in prices, we've basically tried to get out of field corn.

we grow about 35 or 40 acres of sweet corn. it's fresh, picked daily from january through may. our farm business has a negative cash flow, and we have to borrow all that money to get to the month of july where we turn around and have positive cash flow. it's -- it can sometimes be a challenge using the banking credit, vendor credit. probably about three-quarters of our business is fresh produce to consumers. >> corn, the u.s.'s most -- crop and iconic staple inxwreedent in food and beyond. joining us is dana cowin. it's great to have ow the program. >> thank you so much for joining us. we hear a lot about corn's use in ethanol as well as processed foods. it gets a bad rap for that. what do you think corn's reputation is right now? >> well, i think you really have to look at the two sides of corn. there's sweet corn, what we eat, versus what's on this table, and there's field corn, and that's what you make ethanol from, and that's what the livestock eat, and that is the majority of the

corn production in the united states. 86.5 million acres of field corn. me as a food person, i'm interested in sweet corn. >> of course. >> eating it and corn which is being used in more ways in non-food products as well. let's talk about what you have here. you have a handbag, a pot, malt liquor. this is amazing. this is made from corn. >> it was. tommy bahama came out with a great idea to put corn husks which would have been thrown away and he made them into a beautiful bag that is detailed with some leather. you can make it your market basket or your work basket. >> what else do we have here? >> right here we haveç rubber. now, hello, spaghetti rubber because it's made from corn and corn powder. you can -- >> you don't want to use it on your good china. >> it's that tough. it would make sense that it's a

scrubber. >> yeah. >> corn or -- >> what we have here is malted barley beer. it's -- rogue makes amazing beer in oregon. this is a malt liquor. we've pumped up the alcohol a little bit by adding corn. lots of great midwestern corn in this beer made to a lawinger. >> add in the corn and pump up the alcohol? >> yeah. you translate the sweetness into alcohol essentially. >> interesting. >> it's a corn pop. if you would like, it's a people's pop. it's made from fresh corn. they ripped the corn off the p cob and get the milk and add a little sweetness so when they freeze it, it doesn't get too sour. next day -- >> it's so delicious. >> frozen corn. delicious. it tastes like -- >> and then a very -- i love these corn pops because it's

basically, you know, childhood in a ball. >> i don't know if you ever ate cracker jacks, but this is the new cracker jack. you have some popped corn, some corn puffs, peanuts and carmel and buttery and crunchy and salty and pretty darn goon good. >> how much can you expect to pay when you buy sweet corn directly from the grower? >> okay. i buy it every weekend for about 60 cents an ear, and then when it's in the height of season, it will drop to 50 cents an ear. that is actually pretty darn expensive in a way, but worth every penny if approximate you are getting it right from the grower and it's fresh from the field. >> how do you prepare it? what would you recommend in terms of separation and, you know, using the whole ear? >> here's one thing i do. i boil water. don't like corn. i put it in there for three minutes. i always make too much corn. i give them hot off the cob. eep the corn water, and i

make it into a stock, so you can make a vegetable stock with the corn water. i never throw it away. then i take the corn off the cob of the extra cobs that i had and make a corn salad. i usually get three meals out of one set of corn cobs. >> love it. of course, august is the high month for çit. >> it is. this corn is magnificent right now. >> good to have ow the program. >> thank you so much. >> dana cowin joining us. to get the recipe for popcorn balls gshgs it our website wsjr.cnbc.com. up next on "the wall street journal report" we'll take a look at the news this upcoming week that will have an impact on your money. the heart of american finance, but where is the wall on this? in this. one day, i'll park this in a spot reserved for me. it's got 26,000 miles on it now, but i'm gonna take it to a thousand million. [ male announcer ] when you own a certified pre-owned mercedes-benz, chances are they'll own it one day, too. which is why it undergoes such a rigorous inspection

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the stories coming up in the week ahead that may impact your money this week. on tuesday the nation's realtors report the number of existing home sales last month, and then on wednesday we get more housing news for sales of new homes for the month. last month's durable goods orders, consumer products meant the last three months or more are also reported on that day. the commerce department releases the second estimate of the second quarter gross domestic product. typically a market mover. the university of michigan issues the latest reading of consumer sentiment. well, wall street has become sin anonymous with big business, but it all started out in the means of defense called new amsterdam 325 years ago downtown

manhattan. dutch enhas been tants were once protected against indian attacks by a 12 foot high barrier. the structure ran from colonel street to trinity place past the spot we're standing right now. it was torn down after 14 years, but the name wall street lived on. just a century later the new york stock exchange was born, and the rest is history.ç that's it for us for today. thanks for joining us today. next week we are rolling along with bicycles. how two-wheeled transportation is changing city streetscapes. keep it right here where wall street meets main street. have a great week, everybody. see you again next week.