and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> i intend to wirntion i intend to be part of the whole effort to crush the other team. >> for grover norquist, the other team is anyone who wants to raise taxes. >> okay, folks, we want to get going. >> reporter: the conservative activist is at the centre of the deficit negotiations because he's holding pledges from virtually every republican in congress promising never to vote for anything that makes tax goes up. >> these are people in north carolina who voted for a tax increase when they said they wouldn't. >> reporter: and if they break their word, they can expect a primary challenge in the next election. >> you got them by the short hairs. >> the voters do, yeah. i plaud them on the sidelines. gi very good, yes, yes.

>> christine lagarde is an accomplished lawyer, former finance minister of france, and now the first woman to run the international monetary fund. the decisions she makes move markets and she's a key player in the current battle to prevent economic disaster. >> it is a very serious situation, unprecedented in many ways. >> what's the worst-case scenario? >> stalled growth, high unemployment, potential social unrest as a result, and financial markets in disarray. not a pleasant-- not a pleasant picture. >> you are a role model and you know. >> i think it's my responsibility to know it. >> well, good evening, los angeles! >> taylor swift is a role mod told millions of fans who pack into arenas all over the world to hear the 21-year-old sing songs she writes herself. >> every little bit of-- ♪ ♪. >> her shows are extrav

gajza-- extravaganzas and we were allowed backstage to watch taylor run in and out of quick change rooms, getting ready to hit the stage. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesly same-store sale w i'm lara logan. >> i'm scott pelley, those stories tonight on "60 minutes." this is what you had been doing. you know, working, working, working, working, working, working. and now you're talking about, well you know, i won't be, and, you know, you start thinking about what's really important here. my grandson calls me grandpa. my littlest one, my great grand, now she calls me poppa.

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gives you the lowest plan premium in the country... so you can focus on what really matters. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. so you can focus on what really matters. congressional committee on deficit reduction has just three days to reach a deal eliminating at least $1.2 trillion from the

nation's debt, using some combination of cutting spending and raising taxes. the person at the heart of those negotiations, and some would say the person responsible for the deadlock, is neither a member of congress nor the holder of any public office. he is a lobbyist and a conservative activist named grover norquist, who, over the years, has gotten virtually every republican congressman and senator to sign an oath called "the pledge." it's a promise that they will never, under any circumstances, vote to raise taxes on anyone. and so far, grover norquist has held them to it, controlling 279 votes, including the speaker of the house, the senate minority leader, and all six republican members of the joint committee on deficit reduction. a lot people think you're the most powerful man in washington. >> grover norquist: the tax issue is the most powerful issue in american politics going back to the tea party. people say, "oh, grover norquist has power." no, grover norquist and

americans for tax reform focus on the tax issue. the tax issue is a powerful issue. >> kroft: grover norquist is trying to be modest. since creating americans for tax reform at ronald reagan's behest back in 1985, norquist has been responsible, more than anyone else, for rewriting the dogma of the republican party. >> norquist: the republicans won't raise your taxes. we haven't had a republican vote for an income tax increase since 1990. >> kroft: and this was your doing? >> norquist: i helped, yeah. >> kroft: it began with the simple idea of getting republicans all over the country to sign an oath called the "taxpayer protection pledge," promising their constituents that they would never, ever vote for anything that would make their taxes go up. >> norquist: this is speaker gingrich's tax pledge back in 1998... >> kroft: and once they sign the pledge, grover norquist never forgets. the more signatures he's

collected, the more his influence has grown. >> norquist: i think to win a republican primary... it is difficult to imagine somebody winning a primary without taking the pledge. >> kroft: the signatories not only include more than 270 members of congress, but all of the republican presidential candidates, with the lone exception of john huntsman. >> norquist: okay, folks, we want to get going. >> kroft: all that leverage has made norquist's wednesday breakfast meetings a must-attend event for republican operatives fortunate enough get an invitation. david keene, the president of the national rifle association, was there the day we attended, along with conservative columnist john fund. >> fund: this is the grand central station of the conservative movement. >> kroft: we were told it was the first time cameras have ever been allowed into the weekly off-the-record strategy session. >> our approach is going to be to just simply drill away every day. >> norquist: it's people from capitol hill, house and senate, think tanks, tea party groups, business groups-- everybody who wants the government to be smaller and everybody who wants the government to leave them alone. i intend to win.

i intend to be part of the whole effort to crush the other team. >> kroft: grover norquist has been called both the "dark wizard of the right's anti-tax cult" and "the single most effective conservative activist in the country." he is a libertarian ideologue who believes that washington is controlling our lives through the taxes it raises to fund big government. and he's said that he wants to shrink it to a size where it could be drowned in a bathtub. you want to drown it in the bathtub? >> norquist: no. we want it down to the size to where it would fit in a bathtub, and then it could worry about what we were up to. >> kroft: i mean, you did say that your ultimate ambition was to chop it in half, and then shrink it again to where we were at the turn of the century. you're talking about 1900, not 2000. >> norquist: well, the... i think... >> kroft: 8% of gdp. >> norquist: yeah. we functioned in this country with government at 8% of g.d.p. for a long time, and quite well. >> kroft: that was before social security. it was before medicare. it was before welfare assistance, unemployment assistance.

is that the federal government you envision? >> norquist: each of these government programs were set up supposedly, in name, to solve a problem. okay, do they solve the problem? could the problem be better solved through individual initiative? i mean, i think we've found, under welfare, that we are doing more harm than good. >> kroft: do you feel the government has any obligation to the poor or the elderly or the unemployed? >> norquist: yeah. it should stop stepping on them, kicking them, and making their lives more difficult. >> kroft: norquist claims he got the idea to brand the republican party as the party that would never raise your taxes when he was just 12 years old and volunteering for the nixon campaign. he says it came to him one day while he was riding home on the school bus. >> norquist: if the parties would brand themselves the way coke and pepsi and other products do, so that you knew what you were buying, it had quality control. "i vote for the republican. he or she will not raise my taxes. i'll buy one. i'll take that one home." >> kroft: so this is about marketing? >> norquist: yes, it's a part of that. yeah, very much so. >> kroft: but norquist says the

success of any product requires relentless monitoring and diligent quality control to protect the brand, whether it's coca-cola or the republican party. >> norquist: because let's say you take that coke bottle home, and you get home, and you're two-thirds of the way through the coke bottle. and you look down at what's left in your coke bottle is a rat head there. you wonder whether you'd buy coke ever again. you go on tv, and you show them the rat head in the coke bottle. you call your friends and tell them about it. and coke's in trouble. republicans who vote for a tax increase are rat heads in a coke bottle. they damage the brand for everyone else. >> kroft: grover norquist is not interested in compromise. he likes things ugly and takes no prisoners. those who refuse to sign the pledge or backslide are subjected to primary fights against well-funded opponents, backed by norquist. >> norquist: these are people in north carolina who voted for a tax increase when they said they wouldn't. and down here in blue are which ones were defeated in the next election. >> kroft: well, is there any set of circumstances in which you

would condone a tax increase, or release people from the pledge? >> norquist: the pledge is not to me, it's to the voters. so an elected official who says, "i think i want to break my pledge," he doesn't look at me and say that; he looks at his voters and says that. that's why some of them look at their voters, don't want to say that, and they go, "well, how about you? could you release me from my pledge?" no, no. i can't help you. >> kroft: but you... >> norquist: you didn't promise me anything. >> kroft: but you're the keeper of the pledge. >> norquist: we remind your voters that you took the pledge. >> kroft: you are the ones that are... >> norquist: that's true. >> kroft: ...going to retaliate if they break the pledge. >> norquist: oh, no, no, no. the voters will retaliate. we may inform the voters. but let's say the voters all want 19... >> kroft: inform the voters with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign or educational expenditures to point out the fact that they broke the pledge. >> norquist: if necessary. >> kroft: but you make it pretty clear. if someone breaks the pledge, you're going to do everything you can to get rid of them. >> norquist: to educate the voters that they raise taxes. and again, we educate people... >> kroft: to get rid of them. >> norquist: ...to encourage them to go into another line of

work, like shoplifting or bank robbing, where they have to do their own stealing. >> kroft: you've got them by the short hairs. >> norquist: the voters do, yeah. >> kroft: and they have to march in lockstep with grover norquist? >> norquist: with the taxpayers of their state. i applaud from the sidelines. i go, "very good, yes, yes." >> kroft: if nothing else, it is a brilliant, bare-knuckle political strategy with some of the characteristics of a protection racket. many republican congressmen fear retaliation from norquist if they even suggest that a tax increase for the wealthiest of americans should be up for discussion in the current deficit negotiations. and democrats, like senate majority leader harry reid, have been demonizing norquist on a daily basis. >> harry reid: they're giving speeches that we should compromise on our deficit, but never do they compromise on grover norquist. he is their leader. >> kroft: but he also has some critics among elder statesmen of republican the party, the most vocal being senator alan simpson. what do you think of grover norquist?

>> alan simpson: ( snorts ) >> kroft: simpson gleefully accepts that he is one of norquist's republican rat heads in the coke bottle. he got there by serving as co- chairman of the national commission on fiscal responsibility, which recommended that some tax increases would be necessary to solve the nation's debt problem. simpson has no use for norquist. >> simpson: he may well be the most powerful man in america today. so if that's what he wants, he's got it. you know, he's a megalomaniac, egomaniac, whatever you want to call him. if that's his goal, he's damn near there. he ought to run for president, because that will be his platform-- "no taxes, under any situation, even if your country goes to hell." >> kroft: simpson also wants to know where norquist and americans for tax reform, with its multimillion-dollar budget, gets its money. >> simpson: when you get this powerful, and he is, then it's, "where do you get your scratch, grover?" is it two people? is it ten million people?

the american people demand to know where you get your money, grover, babe. >> kroft: but under federal law, "grover, babe," as simpson calls him, and americans for tax reform-- a nonprofit organization-- aren't required to disclose the identity of its contributors. so the finances of a group that demands transparency in government are opaque. norquist says the money comes from direct mail and other grassroots fundraising efforts. but a significant portion appears to come from wealthy individuals, foundations, and corporate interests. in the interest of transparency, would you disclose your major donors? >> norquist: i... i would not... i don't know. haven't thought of it. it doesn't really matter, because what we do is what we do. i guess i would argue, thinking back on it, we've had times when people who are contributors to us were literally threatened by senators and congressmen. >> kroft: so you're protecting

the corporate interests from harassment and threats? >> norquist: well, protecting me and anyone who wants to participate in american politics. you don't want people threatened because they want to fight against higher taxes. >> kroft: over the years, some of his group's lobbying activities have stretched into areas that are not generally associated with preventing tax hikes. he has lobbied the state department on behalf of the controversial keystone pipeline, and has dipped into areas like communications law, raising suspicions that the "leave us alone coalition" includes a lot of wealthy and powerful interests. his reputation also took a hit a few years ago because of his close association with disgraced lobbyist jack abramoff. but none of the insinuations of impropriety have ever stuck. >> norquist: it didn't work, because at the end of the day, there wasn't a there there. >> simpson: he is a houdini. you can throw him in the bottom of the east river in chains, and he'd come out of there. >> kroft: but alan simpson predicts that norquist could soon become irrelevant.

he thinks the country's financial situation is so dire that tax increases will become inevitable, and that a lot of republicans who have signed the no-tax-increase pledge are already experiencing buyer's remorse. you think there are republicans who have signed it who regret it? >> simpson: i do. i know damn well they have. i've talked to them. they come up to us and say, "save us from ourselves. i got trapped by this guy." >> kroft: in fact, there are a few signs it's already beginning to happen, albeit on a small scale. 37 republican pledge signers have urged the select committee to consider all options in solving the debt crisis. and six republican congressmen, including steve latourette of ohio, have rescinded their pledges altogether. latourette, who signed his back in 1994, says his driver's license expires, the milk in his refrigerator expires; the only thing that never expires is the grover norquist pledge. >> latourette: my word has been good on this tax pledge for 18 years. to be bound by something based upon circumstances that existed 18 years ago, when the circumstances are different, i

think that's a little naiïve. >> kroft: grover norquist says he's not losing any sleep over the defections. he's convinced that the republicans have no intention of raising taxes, and he still has signed markers from 279 members of congress promising that they will never let it happen. >> norquist: most of republicans i know are very pleased that we make it easy for them to credibly make that commitment. they're smiling when they're getting their picture taken with me and... and the pledge. not grumpy, smiling. >> kroft: do you believe that everybody who smiles at a press conference is actually happy? >> norquist: no, but most, many. there may be one or two that are... are grumpy. and if they wish to provide their names, we'll focus on their states in upcoming elections. >> kroft: i mean, you've got them coming and you've got them going if they're a republican. if they sign the pledge and break it they're toast, and if they don't sign the pledge, they're probably toast. >> norquist: but if they sign it and keep it, they win the primary. they win the general. they get to govern. and i've helped make all this

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>> logan: with the world economy teetering on the edge, one woman has emerged at the center of the battle to prevent disaster. christine lagarde is an accomplished lawyer who became the first female finance minister of france, and is now the first woman to run the international monetary fund. she took over the i.m.f. in july after a sex scandal forced her predecessor, dominique strauss- kahn, to resign. at nearly six feet tall, with her striking silver hair, lagarde's physical presence is as formidable as her reputation. she'll need those attributes and then some to keep the overwhelming debts of countries like greece and italy from setting off a worldwide recession. we interviewed christine lagarde friday, at the end of another turbulent week for world markets.

>> lagarde: it is a very serious situation, unprecedented in many ways. >> logan: what's the worst case scenario? >> lagarde: stalled growth, high unemployment, potential social unrest as a result, and... and financial markets in... in disarray. >> logan: for many people around the world, for many americans, it feels like they've been here before. is this worse than 2008, the current crisis? >> lagarde: you know, it's a continuum of 2008. let's face it, it's the same process that is unfolding before our eyes. >> logan: with the potential to be worse? >> lagarde: i'm reasonably optimistic, and sometimes desperately optimistic. and... and i want to be desperately optimistic, and i want to believe that countries will understand that they can actually change the... the course of things. >> logan: and if you look at the u.s., what are you most worried about here? >> lagarde: political bickering. certainly, i would hope that, on a bipartisan basis, both democrats and republicans can come to terms in their super-

committee, about the deficit objectives and the deficit cutting measures, and the debt. and there is a degree of certainty that is so much needed for markets. >> logan: trying to save the world's economy has kept christine lagarde on the go from the moment she took over. when we caught up with her in washington in september, she was on her way to address the imf for the very first time. >> lagarde: it's not always a job where you make friends, because sometimes the truth is not that pleasant, when you go through debt ceilings, deficit cutting and all the rest. >> logan: and no second thoughts about taking this? >> lagarde: no. ( laughs ) no regret, ever. >> logan: inside the decidedly gloomy auditorium, lagarde delivered some of those unpleasant truths. >> lagarde: there are dark clouds over europe and there is huge uncertainty in the united states.

>> logan: uncertainty fueled by the turmoil in greece, whose debt crisis threatened to bring down the rest of europe. lagarde played a critical role in forging a late-night deal to keep greece from defaulting on its debt, at least for the moment. then, she turned to italy, whose economy and debt problem are even larger. at the g-20 summit earlier this month, she helped persuade the dysfunctional italian government to accept i.m.f. monitoring of its finances. do you think you could describe the i.m.f. as kind of financial fireman? >> lagarde: it's a fire brigade, sometimes, when there is a crisis. you know, we try to put out the fire, and we do so with rules and funds available that are always paid back. in other words, we say to a country, "we will lend you money. we will support you. we will help you get out of that crisis. but you have to fix your problems."

>> logan: the i.m.f., with 187 member countries, is based in washington, d.c. it sits on a fund of $842 billion. but that's not nearly enough to meet the potential needs of all the countries in europe facing crippling debt. the u.s., the i.m.f.'s biggest contributor, is reluctant to put up any more money to bail out europe. but member countries like russia and china, that are flush with cash, have indicated they may be willing to help. >> lagarde: letting europe down is going to mean-- if it was to happen-- major consequences, and negative consequences, on many other economies, including the united states of america. 20% of u.s. exports go to europe. there is a very strong linkage between u.s. banks and european banks. there are plenty of european employees that are employed by u.s. companies, and there are plenty of u.s. employees that are employed by european companies.

>> logan: before christine lagarde's arrival in july, the i.m.f. had a long-held reputation as something of a "boys' club." the most obvious thing, when you look at these walls, is that it's all men up there as the past directors of the i.m.f. >> lagarde: quite right. yes. >> logan: in lots of the things that you've done, you've been the first woman. does it matter to you? is it important? >> lagarde: well, what matters to me is that i'm not the last one. >> logan: lagarde's success can be traced back to her life as a young girl in the port city of le havre, in normandy. she grew up in this house, the oldest of four and the only girl. her parents were academics, and home life was steeped in books and music, an idyllic childhood that changed dramatically when her father died after a long battle with a.l.s., lou gehrig's disease. you were young when he died. >> lagarde: yeah, i was 16. >> logan: so that must have been extremely difficult. >> lagarde: it was tough on all

of us. my mother was young. she continued being strict and very demanding. >> logan: what kind of influence do you think your mother had on you? >> lagarde: big one, big one, because she was courageous, because she was strong, because she was very determined. she didn't suffer fools gladly. she was a role model. >> logan: lagarde's ambition and drive were evident from the start. when she applied for her first job with a paris law firm, she was told her credentials were impeccable, but there was one thing she should know. >> lagarde: "don't expect partnership in this firm." so i said, "why?" and he said, "no, you'll never make partnership because you're a woman." and i looked at him and i said, "oh yeah? well, i'm gone. thank you very much." and i just fled. >> logan: you ended the interview? >> lagarde: oh yes, of course. i packed up and went. >> logan: her self-confidence wasn't misplaced.

lagarde quickly landed a job in the paris office of baker mckenzie, one of the largest law firms in the world. just 14 years later, she moved to chicago to become its first female chairman-- a french woman, at 43, running a major american law firm. then, while at the very top of her profession, her country came calling. taking a significant pay cut and wading into unfamiliar waters, she returned to paris to join the government, eventually becoming the first woman to serve as france's finance minister in 2007. for president nicolas sarkozy, lagarde's appeal was her american-ness-- her near-perfect english, great rolodex, and no-nonsense style. you got yourself in trouble sometimes speaking too plainly. ( laughter ) >> lagarde: yes, i did. it's become my brand, in a way, you know, speaking the truth even though it was not politically correct.

>> logan: i want to ask you about the speech you made on july 10, 2007. do you know what speech that is? >> lagarde: no, what would that be? >> logan: well, that is when you said that france is a country that thinks... >> lagarde: oh, yes. i know what it is. i know, i know, i know, i know, i know... >> logan: it was her first speech as finance minister, and she was trying to get her countrymen to work harder. but she dared question the value of a favorite french pastime, thinking. "france is a country that thinks too much," she declared to the national assembly. "we have in our libraries enough to talk about for centuries to come. enough thinking, already. let's roll up our sleeves." >> lagarde: i'm glad that i gave that speech. but it was ground-breaking and it was shocking for a lot of the french members of parliament, especially on the left, because it was not the sort of language they were used to. >> logan: you were trying to motivate people.

>> lagarde: yeah. i was naiïve, you see. i was trying to communicate that on a very broad basis. and clearly, i was pushed back, brutally, in parliament. >> logan: people were horrified? >> lagarde: i was praised in the u.s., and heavily, brutally criticized in france. >> logan: when the 2008 financial crisis hit, lagarde was highly critical of her u.s. counterpart, treasury secretary hank paulson, for his decision to let investment bank lehman brothers go under. did you feel that you'd been left out of the loop, that you would have some kind of warning? >> lagarde: we had warnings. i remember telling hank, "we are debating what kind of swimming costume we will wear and the tsunami is coming." i remember him saying, "no, no, no, no. things are under control. it's okay. it's fine. it's fine. it's under control." >> logan: but it wasn't. >> lagarde: no, no.

of course, it wasn't. >> logan: three years later, lagarde told us not nearly enough has been done to prevent another crisis. >> lagarde: everybody at the time said, "oh, we need to regulate better. we cannot let financial actors-- banks, financial institutions, speculators-- just run loose without rules." and we've been relatively slow in... in, you know, putting the rules in place. >> logan: some people listening to you say that will be horrified. they'll be "that's the last thing we need is more regulation." what do you say to them? >> lagarde: regulation is necessary, particularly in a sector, like the banking sector, which exposes countries and people to a risk. >> logan: one thing that looks very familiar to americans when they look at the european crisis right now is that the banks are at the center of it. >> lagarde: mm-hmm. >> logan: the average american is mystified as to why the

taxpayer always has to pay when something goes wrong and the banks fail. but when times are good, the banks don't hesitate to reward their own with massive compensation. >> lagarde: it's offensive to taxpayers in general that, while there is taxpayers' money put into companies, be they bank or otherwise, those institutions continue to operate on their terms. that's not right. that has to be changed. >> logan: from her elegant corner office three blocks from the white house, lagarde is leading the imf through perhaps the most critical and unpredictable period in its 66- year history. she has been called one of the most powerful women in the world, and her advice and negotiating skills are in high demand. but it is her work she takes seriously, never herself. >> lagarde: when my father passed away, and then when, later on, i gave birth, those

are sort of ground-breaking experiences that put everything else into perspective. you know, when i sit in meetings, and things are very tense and people take things extremely seriously and they invest a lot of their ego, i sometimes think to myself, "come on, you know, there's life and there's death and there is love." and all of that ego business is nonsense compared to that. >> logan: in paris, we met up with lagarde on her way to the market, where she still enjoys doing her own grocery shopping. with longtime boyfriend, businessman xavier giocanti, at her side... ...lagarde's trademark charm was on full display, and she looked every bit the seasoned retail politician. walking with you in the market, people are talking about you as the next president of france. >> lagarde: oh, that's because it's in the air at the moment, because everybody is talking about the next presidential election.

so they fantasize a bit. but i'm doing what i'm doing at the moment. i'm the managing director of the international monetary fund. >> logan: at the moment. >> lagarde: i have a five-years term. >> logan: five years? >> lagarde: that's a long moment. ( laughter ) what's in the mail? well, it just might surprise you. because this is how people and business connect. feeling safe and secure that important letters and information don't get lost in thin air. or disappear with a click. but are delivered. from person to person. and, sometimes, even face to face. have a great day. you too. for some of the best ways to connect and protect... it's all in the mail. learn more at usps.com/mail.

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,, >> stahl: five years ago this fall, a 16-year-old girl released her debut country music album and dreamed of making it big. well, today, that girl, at 21,

is as big as it gets. she has sold more albums over those five years than any other artist in any genre. taylor swift's has been a meteoric rise. she seems to know, even at her young age, just the right notes to hit-- in her songwriting and in her business. in an era of declining record sales, taylor swift appeals to people that pay a lot for music, girls and their moms. she's held onto her country fans even as she's gotten huge in pop. and then there's her image-- in a welcome deviation from the all-too-familiar story of early success gone wrong, she has been in the spotlight without a single public misstep. take a look at the crowd at the staples center in los angeles, where taylor swift sold out four shows. within minutes.... >> taylor swift: well, hello, los angeles.

( fans screaming ) >> stahl: the decibel level here reminds you of the beatles. it's almost as if she's their spiritual leader, with her message that you can be a good girl, a nice person, and still have fun. taylor swift writes her own songs, about love and heartbreak and being the ordinary girl next door. she's been called "the poet laureate of puberty". are they great songs, in your opinion? we spoke to bill werde, editorial director of "billboard." >> bill werde: maybe if she looked different, like let's say she wasn't young and cute. i think people would be talking about her as a great songwriter. >> stahl: so, you think that the persona and the fan base and all that almost diminishes... >> werde: yeah, i definitely

think it does. you know, i think that it's hard for critics to look at an arena of screaming 12-year-old girls and say, "this is really credible songwriting." >> stahl: but you say it? >> werde: oh, absolutely. yeah, no doubt. pop... music >> stahl: all taylor swift's songs are autobiographical. "love story" grew out of a teenage argument she had with her parents over a boy. they thought he was a creep. >> swift: and he was, but i, at the time, just thought he was amazing. >> stahl: she started thinking shakespeare. >> swift: and i got this pre- chorus in my head that said, "you were romeo, you were throwing pebbles, and my daddy said 'stay away from juliet.'" ♪ ♪ >> stahl: she raced in to work out the chords on her bedroom floor. >> swift: maybe it's... ♪ you were romeo you were throwing pebbles ♪ and my daddy said 'stay away from juliet'... and you're just like, "oh, okay, well, that's that." i had to fight for that song,

because when i first played it for, you know, my family, a few people, they were just sort of like, "eh." >> stahl: but you believed in it. you trust yourself. >> swift: yeah, it's almost more fun that way when... when you have something to prove. >> stahl: "love story" went to number one on both "billboard's" country and pop songs charts, the first song ever to do that. proving doubters wrong is a big themes in the tale of taylor swift. she started singing when she was still a toddler. >> oh, my love, my darling >> stahl: she fell in love with country music, and not as a coalminer's daughter from kentucky. she's a stockbroker's daughter from wyamissing, pennsylvania, who, at age ten, began nagging her parents to take her to the mecca of country music. >> swift: it was just on repeat, just like a loop, constantly.

like, "how about we go to nashville? can we go to nashville? can i take a trip to nashville? hey, so i looked up this tourist brochure about nashville. can we go see nashville?" >> stahl: spring break 2001, they finally gave in and headed to mecca, says her mother andrea. >> andrea swift: we started driving up and down music row. and at that point, she would say, "mom, mom, pull over. that's mercury records. let me out." >> stahl: she was 11, toting cds of herself singing karoake songs. and she'd run in? >> andrea swift: she would walk up to the receptionist and hand them a demo cd, and say, "hi, i'm taylor. i'm 11. i want a record deal. call me." >> stahl: anyone call? >> andrea swift: no. sadly, no. ( laughter ) >> stahl: she spent the next few years performing every chance she got, even in a bar when she was 13. >> taylor swift: i remember there was all these, like, rock- n-roll dudes and, like, biker guys. and i'm like, "this is a song that i wrote about the guy who sits next to me in class." and it was just like... ( laughs ) you know, sometimes i ended up in the wrong venue. but it was still... it was learning to talk to a crowd,

regardless of whether it was the crowd that's going to be most susceptible to liking your music. >> stahl: somebody at rca records liked her music and offered her a one-year development deal. that's when the swifts moved to nashville. taylor was finally where she belonged. or so she thought. >> taylor swift: i would go and turn in songs, and more and more, i would just get suggestions that i write... that i sing other people's songs. and, you know, i just didn't want to. >> andrea swift: and at that point, she said, "my contract's coming up, mom. i need to just walk." and i thought, "you're kidding." >> stahl: how gutsy was that for a 14-year-old? >> scott borchetta: gutsy? no, how about unheard of? >> stahl: scott borchetta was an executive at another label. >> borchetta: you don't have artists walking out of one of the biggest record companies and saying, "you know what? i don't think i need another year of development. i'm going to go," all right.

>> stahl: she did it, though. >> borchetta: she absolutely did it, at 14. >> stahl: borchetta heard taylor, liked her songs, and offered to sign her as his first artist on a new label he was starting. she took the risk and it paid off. >> borchetta: as of this week, "speak now" has sold five million copies worldwide. >> stahl: "speak now" is her third multi-platinum album, and she's been on a worldwide 76-city tour to promote it. the show is an extravaganza, with aerialists and fireworks on stage... and frantic darting about below, as taylor runs in and out of quick change rooms, and braces herself inside this glass contraption, preparing to be tossed in the air. >> taylor swift: i'm praying that i'm not going to break my leg. i'm like, "dear god, i'm very

clumsy. i'm not a gymnast, i'm not graceful. please don't let me break my leg." that's what's going on. >> stahl: like big-time musicians today, taylor makes a bundle on her tours. she's become a brand, with "merch," as they say, like t- shirts and show programs; product endorsements, like for cover girl. she even owns her own buses. taylor swift is big, big business. >> borchetta: yes, she is. >> stahl: i've seen figures. >> borchetta: they're big. >> stahl: $100 million to $120 million, just on this tour. >> borchetta: i've seen those figures. >> stahl: that's like a major corporation. >> borchetta: taylor swift is a major corporation >> stahl: and who's at the helm? look who we found running the management meeting. >> taylor swift: it's like they messed with the color, or it was bluer in that other edit, and this one is a little warmer, but it's not where it was in the original. >> stahl: unlike other stars of her caliber who sign up with management companies, taylor created her own. as c.e.o., she manages herself. >> taylor swift: it's fine, just

because it's subtle. >> stahl: but it's taylor's way of tirelessly courting her fans that may be the key to her success. remarkably, she spends an hour before every show meeting and greeting and charming. she was a pioneer in using social media to connect personally with her fans, posting funny video blogs she edits herself, with glimpses of her offstage life, making her fans feel like they're part of her close circle of friends. and she's orchestrated her concerts, too, to get as close to her fans as any performer we've ever seen-- halfway through the show, she walks through the audience and sings three songs to the people in the back. all while members of her team all while members of her team search the crowd for the most enthusiastic fans and reward them with gold-- an invitation to hang out with taylor after the show.

( screaming ) then, taylor heads back to the stage through the crowd, touching and hugging all over again. and when the crowd roars, her expression of awe, again and again, can be, well, hard to believe. are you really surprised, or are you just kind of putting it on? >> taylor swift: i'm really surprised every time i see a crowd like that, because i never thought i'd get to play to a crowd like that. >> stahl: so when you go... it's real? >> taylor swift: does it look like that? great. ( laughter ) >> stahl: one of the things her fans love about her is that she laughs at herself, as in this video with rapper t-pain... >> taylor swift: ♪ i knit sweaters, yo. >> stahl: ...poking fun at her squeaky clean image and turning her uncoolness into cool. >> taylor swift: ♪ you guys bleeped me and i didn't' even swear. >> t-pain: ♪ she didn't even swear... >> taylor swift...

>> stahl: taylor swift has won just about every music award there is, including the industry's highest honor, the grammy for album of the year in 2010. but the few setbacks in her meteoric career have come, ironically, on those award nights, as when kanye west grabbed the mike from her, and the time she sang a live duet with stevie nicks at the grammies off-key. one nasty review said she had killed her career overnight, and was "too young and dumb to understand the mistake she'd made." >> taylor swift: the things that were said about me by this dude just floored me and, like, leveled me. and i... i don't have thick skin. i hate reading criticisms. like, you never... you never really, like, get past things hurting you. >> stahl: but then, taylor did her thing and turned the wound into a song, the hit single "mean."

>> stahl: and in the music video, taylor broadened it beyond herself to a boy in a locker room reading a fashion magazine, a girl who shows up wearing something different. the song has taken on a life of its own-- a sort of anti- bullying, anti-meanness anthem. there's a deep, deep connection here. as one of her fans told us, "taylor lets us know it's okay to be ourselves." ♪ all you'll ever going to be is me ♪ ♪ why you got to be so mean ♪ ♪ scott borchetta says she's a cultural leader and she knows it. >> taylor swift: well, i definitely think about a million people when i'm getting dressed in the morning.

that's just part of my life now and... >> stahl: you're a role model and you know it. >> taylor swift: i think it's my responsibility to know it and to be conscious of it. and it would be really easy to say, you know, "i'm... i'm 21 now. i do what i want. you raise your kids." but it's... that's not the truth of it. the truth of it is that every singer out there with songs on the radio is raising the next generation, so make your words count. >> stahl: what it's like to achieve your dream so early? >> taylor swift: you know, it's great. ( laughter ) >> stahl: the answer is, "it's great." >> taylor swift: you know, it's not bad. and it just means that i have a lot of time to figure out how i'm going to prove myself over and over and over again, and... and i have time to do it.

update. i'm james brown in new york. the packers stay perfect behind three roger touchdown passes. the lions overcome a half time deficit and the bears keep pace in the nfc north. the ravens tied for first. and the north was idle pittsburgh. the falcons bounced back. the niners are 9 and 1. dallas needs a field goal in ot to win a third straight. for more sports news and information, go to cbssports.com. and with my bankamericard cash rewards credit card,

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captioning funded by cbs, and ford-- built for the road ahead. access.wgbh.org >> an update on a story we broadcast last week about insiders, about insider trading in congress and the lack of support for a bill called the stock act that would stop them from among other things making personal stock trades on nonpublic information. we received quite a reaction. democratic congresswoman nancy pelosi's office called our report a right wing smear while republican speaker boehner's office calls his inclusion on our story idiotic. but the past week after or story aired at least 79 members of congress had signed on as cosponsors of the stock act and for the first time the bill has been introduced in the senate. i'm steve kroft. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes."

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