hi, everybody, welcome to "the wall street journal report." the jobs report, oil breaking an important barrier and the markets go on a wild ride. behind the numbers with pimco's mohamed el-erian. plus one of the most powerful and important members of congress. i'll talk to budget committee chairman paul ryan about debt, the deficit and taxes. also, the godfather of hip-hop, a major mogul in the hip-hop world, fashion and finance. joining me to talk about having it all, russell simmons on the real meaning of success. "the wall street journal report" begins right now. >> this is america's number one financial news program, "the wall street journal report." now maria bartiromo. >> here is a look at what is

making news as we head into a new week on wall street. it is one of the most important indicators of the strength of the economy d the economic covery. and on friday, the unemployment report for february came out, showing 192,000 jobs were created last month. with the unemployment rate dropping to 8.9%, a nearly to-year low. the numbers were in line with analysts' expectations. the price of oil did something it hasn't done in more than two years, closing at more than $100 a barrel this week. on unrest in the middle east. oil is up more than $20 over the last few months, and gasoline is following oil's rise, now well over $4 a gallon in some parts of the country. the markets generally moved in the opposite direction of oil. the dow spiked nearly 200 points on thursday, the best day of the year. that, though, came after a drop of more than 100 points on tuesday. in his semiannual testimony to congress, federal reserve chairman ben bernanke said the fed is not backing off of its quantitative easing program because the economy still needs

it, and said a prolonged increase in oil prices would be harmful to the economy. but it's more likely we'll see a temporary increase in consumer prices, not runaway inflation. and apple introducing its new version of the ipad this week. this big surprise wasn't the computer but who was there. steve jobs was there to show off the new tablet which boasts two built-in cameras and is thinner and lighter than the original. jobs has been on medical leave since january. when it comes to the jobs report, it's not just the headline number but what is behind the number that says more says my next guest. mohamed el-erian is with us. he is ceo and chief investment officer of pimco. mohamed, great to see you. >> thank you, maria. >> we saw 192,000 new jobs created in the month. the unemployment rate dropping to 8.9%. but you say there is more that we need to look at in order to really get a true picture of the economy. what do you mean? >> the good news as you say that we've created jobs in a

broad-based manner. so that's the good news. the bad news is when you look behind the numbers, there are increasingly structural assets. so for example, teen unemployment, which is really important. because if you're unemployed early on in your career, you become unemployable. that is 24%. the average duration of unemployment has gone up to 37 weeks. which means that the longer you're unemployed, the quicker your skill erosion. and finally, labor participation. how many people are actually in the labor force has come down. so the good news is that we're creating jobs. the bad newss that we need to do even more to really put a dent into this serious unemployment problem. >> how are we going to do that, mohamed? do you think the economy can continue a recovery and withstand higher oil prices? we've seen crude oil spike above $100 a barrel because of the unrest happening in lib and across the middle east. and companies just aren't really hiring in a sustained way.

>> yeah, companies are still nervous. and the recent spike the oil prices will not help. at about 100 for wti, we think of it as a headwind. so it's not enough to completely offset growth, but it will slow growth down by a quarter to half a percent. so it's not good news for the economy that oil prices are going up. there is also the budget issue. there needs to be clari on how we're going to solve this over the medium term. so there are some structural issues out there that are going to create headwinds for what a strengthening recovery. >> would you expect oil prices to go keep going higher? >> i'm nervous about this, maria, very nervous, and for two reasons. one is the supply uncertainty. no one, and i stress no one knows how the middle east is going to evolve. it has surprised everybody so far. we can make projections about it, but deep inside we don't really know. so that's on the supply side. on the demand side, when you get a sharp increase in oil prices,

oily, demand goes up. so airlines, for example, are more likely to hedge their future oil demand at 100 than they did at 70. and even motorists, the amount of people i know that are saying i'm going to fill up not every four or five days, i'm going to fill up every two days, because every time i go past a gas station, the price has gone up. >> mohamed, let me ask you about the mid east. how do you see this playing out? i know you've been to saudi arabia and kuwait recently. do you see the introduction of democratic states? >> i think by the end of the process, so the destination is going to be greater democracy and greater individual freedom in the middle east. and that's good. that means a more stable area. getting there, the journey is going to be pretty bumpy. and it's going to be bumpy in different ways. so at one extreme, you have countries like yemen or libya who risk being what are known as failed states, who risk not having enough cohesion, and we

may see fragmentation and chaos. that's not a good thing. on the other side, we've seen countries like egypt and tunisia go through a peaceful revolution, and are now looking to complete this revolution. so we're going to see a lot more differentiation. the destination is a better one. but we've got to get ready for a rather bumpy journey. >> you've been concerned about the dollar, mohamed, and its role as a reserve currency. talk to us about that. why you concerned? what do you think happens next to the currency? >> so let me give an example. if we go back on the 24th of january, and that's the day before things really started heating up in egypt, and if i had been on your show and you had asked me are we going going to have six weeks of uprising in the middle east, what do you expect the dollar to do, i would have told you unambiguously, i expect the dollar to get stronger. actually, it's gotten weaker. it has weakened by 2% over a powered in which we would have expected a flight to quality and a flight to safety. now there is some good reasons

for that interest rate differentials. but more importantly, it's a warning shot. it's a warning shot that we cannot assume that the dollar will be the world's reserve currency at the same standing that it has had in the past. we have to take the message, which is the world is worrying about our fiscal situation, and if we want to maintain all the privilege that comes with being a reserve currency, we've got to get our medium-term fiscal house in order. >> so with all of these scenarios, these headwinds coming out, mohamed, what is your advice to investors? in your last appearance you told us to move up the risk ladder into safe investments. that where we are now? >> we're there and it's been a good place to be because we've had the appreciation without the downside of the volatility that can come with being lower down in the risk spectrum. i would say continue to be careful about interest rate risk, about government bonds. they are still repricing because of the higher debt, and they will continue to reprice for a while.

and make sure that you scale your investments in a way that you can maintain them during this bumpy time. >> great advice. mohamed, wonderful to have you on the program. thank you so much. >> thank you, maria. >> we'll see you soon. mohamed el-erian from pimco joining us. up next on the "wall street journal report," digging out of debt. republican congressman and budget committee chairman paul ryan with his plans on busting that deficit. hip-hop mogul russell simmons says you can have it all, with the clarity of yoga. as we take a look, a look at how the stock market ended the week.

this week, congress passed and the president signed an emergency stopgap spending bill to fund the government for two weeks and avoid a government shutdown. as washington continueto debate dollars and cents, i

spoke to wisconsin congressman, congressman paul ryan. >> nobody is interested in shutting down the government. we're interested in cutting spending. we have a prorated version, $4 billion now. this gives us two weeks to negotiate. but all i know is we're now off of those 2/10 funding levels which the president wanted to stay at. we're below the levels and headed in the right direction as far as i'm concerned. >> tell me how your going to bridge this gap. we're talking about a $61 billion difference, obviously lower than that now. >> yeah. >> where are the easy steps in your view? >> well, the difference is my definition of low-hanging fruit and the president's definition are very, very different. >> right. >> we'll see at the end of the day where this comes to. we simply cannot accept these elevated 2/10 spending levels because that means we're increasing domestic agencies 24% on base over four years. we're not going to do that. that's a trillion dollars of extra spending. we're trying to get that spending down. >> it's interesting that you say that.

we're talking about a spending freeze, which the president said we are right now. that's where we are, a spending freeze. it's hard to see it as a spending freeze because the fact we've seen so much spending in 2010. >> this is a spending floor to lock in the massive spending gains they got through congress the last two years. so a freeze may be a euphemism for something else. it's really a floor to lock in gains. we want to take those gains away. >> that's a great way to put it. no matter how much you cut out discretionary spending, representative, it's not going to be much unless you really tackle the entitlements. talk to us about how serious you want to be in terms of restructuring social security, restructuring medicare. >> so we had to deal with the drivers of our debt. the drivers of our debt are our entitlement programs there is no two ways about that. you can't escape that math. what is disappointing to us is the president, even after having a fiscal commission to deal with this punted on the issue, disavowed his commission and didn't propose a single reform to get the deficit an debt under control. so where he failed to lead, we're going to pick up, and we're going to lead. we're going to bring a budget to

congress in april that will deal with these entitlements, that will get this deficit and debt under control. >> so from a practical standpoint, what does that mean? chris christy the other day said okay, i said it, and i haven't been killed or anything. we have to change the retirement age. is this the kind of measure that you would see implemented? what are the real, practical measures that can actually make a dent? >> well, i've been saying things like that for years, and i'm still standing here as well. i come from a district that is very evenly politically divided. i think americans are ready for the truth. i think they're ready to be spoken to like adults, not children. i don't think the demagoguery on entitlement reform is going to work anymore. i'm not going to get into the details of the what our budget will do because we're releasing that in april. we're still rung our numbers, getting our numbers in shape. but yes, we're going to address the drivers of our debt. and we are going to propose bolden advertisement reforms that are smart and necessary to get this debt and deficit under control and get the economy growing today. >> and you call it a tidal wave of debt facing the u.s.,

according to your figures. the national debt will soar to 800% gdp? >> those aren't our figures. they're the congressional budget office. the model they use to project the economy going forward crashes in 2037. meaning the cbo can't conceive of any way in which the american economy can continue past 2037 because of the dire debt, because of the debt burden it is policing on the economy. so those are cbo numbers which show we have our own debt crisis coming in america. and so the smart thing to do is preempt this debt crisis, get this under control so we can prosper today and leave our children witha more prosperous future tomorrow. >> which is why your state is seeing what it's seeing, wisconsin in the throes of battle right now, the governor trying to change collective rgaining. tell me about that. where do you stand on that? >> obviously i support what scott walker is trying to do. he is trying to get at the root cause of spending problems in wisconsin. he is trying balance our budget. he doesn't want to raise taxes because that will chase jobs out

of the state. he is trying to get the budget lanced and grow the economy. one of the things i think is pretty modest is asking among public employees some shared sacrifice. and if you take a look at what he is actually proposing, it's fairly modest. state workers will have more collective bargain rights than federal workers have. they'll have better benefit packages on health care than what federal workers have. with the collective bargaining, he is not repealing it, he is simply mod fight it, which is far more generous than what many other states do for their state workers. but he is trying to give local government the tools they need to balance their budgets so that local government, county executives, mayors, don't have to lay people off or cut essential services. he is trying to give them the tools so they can get this modest shared sacrifice among their employees to balance their budgets as well. >> you're talking about long-term fixing the country's fiscal issues and the debt and the deficit we face. when would you expect if in fact your plan is if plan to move forward? when would you expect a balanced budget? >> i don't know the answer to that because we don't have our

baseline from cbo yet. we'll get that in about two weeks and then start running numbers to actually get the answer to that question. i literally don't know the answer to that question. but most economists agree, bernanke and all, the sooner we put in place a plan to get this deficit and debt under control, the faster today our economy can grow. today's high def it ises are nothing more than tomorrow's high tax increases and interest rate increases. the sooner we can get this fixed and get a plan in place, the more job growth creation we can have today. >> my thanks to paul ryan. one of the biggest moguls in music says he is wealthy because he doesn't really want a thing. lessons on being super rich from a hip-hop pioneer. and you can find us on [ female announcer ] to get fresh-baked

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i have clients say it's really hard to save for the future and they've come to a point where it's overwhelming. oh gee, i'm scared to tell you i've got this amount of credit card debt or i've got a 15-year-old and we never got around to saving for their college. that's when i go to work.

we talk, we start planning. we can fix this. when clients walk out of my office they feel confident about their retirement. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. my next guest is the self-made millionaire who took himself from dealing drugs to managing some of rap music's biggest selling artists. with his pioneering record label def jam. russell simmons is the author of the new york times best-selling book, "superrich, a guide to having it all." russell, its great to see you. >> nice to see you. >> what does it mean to be super rich? >> the idea of super rich is based in the idea of being in a state of christ consciousness or nirvana. the buddhists refer to -- yogis refer to samadi. a space consciousness of needing

nothing. i wrote the book because there are so many people entitled and don't feel empowered. there are some people empowered but still act entitled. the idea is to get people to take advantage of their power and to operate from inside as opposed to letting what is going on in the outside move them around. and when you say a state of needing nothing, a prosperity preacher might refer to that as operating from abundance. so there is a prosperity component to it. but the book is about happiness. >> so it's really not necessarily about stuff and being super rich, meaning having a lot of stuff. >> right. >> it's really contentment. >> the stuff is a by-product. it's about being a servant. you wake up in the morning and decide what you want to give. and if you're a great servant and intern, many stories of leo cohen, julie greenwald, all these interns i had that become presidents. the same story. they were such great servants that they made everyone better.

and the title changed from intern to president because they continued to make people better. and of course as presidents, you're a servant. as a president you're the servant. that kind of attitude, that giving attitude. >> which is why you write in the book love what you do. promote the products that you believe in, do good. >> yeah, yeah. i wrote this book. at first i did think it was for people in the corners and men in prison or people who are suffering or locked out. but then i realized that the people who need it most are business people, people who are operating from a short-term greed instead of a long-term happiness. and so what we want people to do is give the world things that make them happy and that they're proud of. >> how do you stay connected? you're a wealthy man. you're very successful. how do you stay connected to your young, urban consumer who lives in a very different tax bracket. but you're very connected with that person. >> well, you know, i think first of all, hip-hop culture has become such a broad thing. i mean it speaks to everybody

around the world. and my relationship with the world i don't think is limited to the urban consumer. but i do believe the urban consumer is the trendsetter. and it is true, i should be connected to them. i spend lots of time. i run five charities. i spend lots of time speaking to people who live sometimes in the poverty mind-set, or sometimes a selfish mind-set. whether they're on street corners in board meetings. so i spend a lot of time with people who are disconnected. and i don't think it has to do so much with the economic bracket, because people are suffering. the book is about needing nothing. many rich people are needy. and therefore they suffer. >> they want stuff. >> neediness -- >> instead of recognizing the contentment part of it, what you're talking about. let me ask you about your financial services company offering the prepaid debit card, the rush card. >> there is a chapter in that, the business yogi.

i started the business. first it was just an idea as a social idea and i would do it for charity, or for a social program. the universe company started for people who got their check, went to a check cashing places, got robbed. they didn't get robbed, but the margins, and they charge 10, 15% maybe. >> so they were getting robbed. >> the companies that made small margins still. then they went online to pay the bills. they couldn't rent a hotel, a car, anything. so we built a card for them. then we start to improve the services and get the technology better. the next thing, the card transferred money card to card by a phone. you can send money by your phone. you don't need western union. then we created credit-building processes. we negotiated with the credit unions. then health care processes where we're starting to help. then we created budgeting processes. and then i look at the price, and i find it cheaper, or maybe half the price of a major bank account. so the middle class is migrating from the banks to our service.

because j.p. morgan's report says that a big bank will likely charge a middle class consumer twice as much for a free bank account per year as the universe service. >> russell, thank you so much. great to have you on the program. russell simmons, author of "super rich, a guide to having it all." up next on the "wall street journal report," we'll take a look at the news this week that will have an impact on your money. and who is betting on bieber stay with us.

for more on our show and our guests, check out the website, wsjr.cnbc.com. you'll also find a link to my blog, investor agenda@cnbc.com. i hope you will check it out. now a look at the stories coming up in the week ahead that may move the markets and impact your money this week. on thursday, february's figures for the federal budget will be out. interesting in light of the looming $14 trillion court of appealing on the federal debt. also on thursday, the international trade balance will tell fuss the u.s. imported or exported more goods. on friday, total retail sales for the month of february will be out. and the university of michigan will release its latest reading on consumer sentiment. finally, from one of the world's top-grossing stars, what is normally swept off the floor sparks a spending frenzy. heartthrob justin bieber got a haircut last month. after that breaking news, he gave talk show host ellen degeneres a lock. the charity of shorn hair ended

this bit with a final of more than $40,000. online casino golden palace.com was the winner. no word on what they plan to do with it. but the betting is good that this won't be the last we'll hear of the bieb's hair. that will do it for us today. thank you so much for joining me. my guest next week, the bangladeshi economist who pioneered microfinance. dr. mohammed eunice. have a great weekend, everybody. i'll see you next weekend. [ male announcer ] this...is the network.

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