>> tom: more than a week after air strikes began, what's the taxpayers' bill so far for u.s. military operations in libya? >> we've spent between $300 and $500 million, but as we move forward those costs should drop substantially. >> suzanne: as president obama talks to americans about libya, we'll look at how much money the conflict will cost the u.s., even as nato takes the lead. you're watching "nightly business report" for monday, march 28. this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson.

"nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening and thanks for joining us. susie gharib is off tonight. i'm joined by my colleague suzanne pratt. u.s. warplanes, ships and missiles have been striking against libya for more than a week.

this evening, suzanne, president obama makes his case to the american people. that's after facing questions about the goals and costs of the mission. >> suzanne: and, tom, the president's speech comes as congress has yet to agree on a federal budget. lawmakers continue to haggle over spending cuts ranging from $30 to $60 billion. >> tom: while nato has agreed to take over the mission and take full command, the cost to the u.s. has been estimated at between $300 million to $1 billion. todd harrison is a senior fellow at the center for strategic and budgetary assessments. he joins us tonight, todd, what is your financial estimate of the cost of the u.s. mill taefer action in libya so far? >> well, so far based on the number of cruise missile es that we've launched and the number of sortee the u.s. has flown in this operation, i would estimate that we are towards the lower end of that, probably 300 million to 500 million dollars spent in the first week of the conflict. >> tom: okay so, we'll take $400 million as your estimate, do costs stay at that level over the next several weeks if the mission remains the same? >> no, they should drop

substantially because a large part of the initial cost was just ending up the no-fly zone, taking outing the integrated air defences command and control centers. once we've done that it makes it easier to operate in the country and much less expensive. we should see the costs come down substantially in the next week or two. also the cost will come down for the u.s. as more nato airplanes takeover the air mission of controlling the no fly zone. >> tom: now that nato is in command, not just the u.s. how much further down do you think the cost estimate will come down from the average of 4-million so far. >> just the basic cost of patrolling the no-fly zone, i would estimate given the size of the no-fly zone we are talking about, it is probably around 50 million per week. >> tom: okay. >> the cost, and if nato is take over a substantial portion of that, our costs could be as low as 20 million per week. >> tom: is that personnel or mostly equipment? >> it's mostly the operating expense of the aircraft

involved and some of the moonician-- munitions that would be involved from time to time. >> tom: todd, a want to look at how this operation costs compare to the continuation of the wars in iraq and afghanistan, by your estimates iraq costs about $800 million per week, afghanistan costing an average of over $2 billion per week. but these libya costs as you know, todd, were unanticipated as recently as a month or so ago. can account u.s. financially afford the action it has already taken in libya? >> you have to put this in the context of the overall peacetime dod budget. so not including the cost of the wars in iraq and afghanistan, the dod budget is still over $500 million a year. so they can pov some money around between accounts and actually fund something at this level. but the question is if this goes on instead of weeks, if it takes months and drags on throughout the year, then it does become more of a drain on the dod budget and they would possibly have to ask for appropriation to pay for this operation. >> tom: and it sets aside

any economic assistance that may come after the military action that we see in libia. but all of this happening, todd,as you know with the ongoing debate in congress about spending how long do you think this shapes that debate as we're still awaiting a budget for this fiscal year? >> well, it certainly has been a hot political item. people talking about the extra cost of the conflict given that we already have such a large deficit in the budget right now. but to put things into perspective, our budget deficit right now is 1.5 trillion dollars, and here we are talking about something that is a few hundred million dollars. a hundred million dollars is a lot of money, it is, you know, it makes really no difference at all to our overall budget picture given the size of our deficit. >> tom: the insides with todd harrison, thank you for your time, with the center for strategic and budgetary affects. >> suzanne: here are the stories in tonight's n.b.r. newswheel: developments in libya sent oil prices lower today. in new york trading, may crude fell $1.42 to settle just under

$104 a barrel. stocks also finished lower after a late tumble. the dow slipped nearly 23 points, the nasdaq lost 12 and the s&p 500 off three. volume started the week light. and auto lender ally financial reportedly may go public in the next two weeks. the i.p.o. pricetag is not yet known, but the deal will help taxpayers further recoup the $17 billion bailout of the company. and gourmet gift basket king harry and david filed for bankruptcy today. the company is nearly $200 million dollars in debt. under chapter 11 protection, harry and david will continue operations. still ahead, walmart. will the huge retailer face a huge discrimination lawsuit brought by more than a million female employees. >> tom: americans are back spending faster than their incomes are rising.

new data show personal income rose 0.3% last month, thanks in large part to a cut in payroll taxes. that extra cash put americans in the mood to buy, boosting personal spending by 0.7%. so, as a result, their savings rate falls. that sounds like bad news, especially as so many americans still are digging themselves out of debt. erika miller reports. >> reporter: david alexander has a problem familiar to many people. he is struggling to reduce debt while paying rent, food and tuition. >> i'm very frugal. i eat a lot of canned food. i'm living in student housing. a lot of my friends in the city have real jobs. they're my age and they go out to nice dinners on the weekends, and i tend to skip those because i just can't afford it. >> reporter: penny-pinching is one reason u.s. household debt has fallen to lowest level in six years. unfortunately, the far bigger reason is lender write-offs due to credit card and mortgage defaults. regardless of the reasons, economist constance hunter says

consumers are in a better position to help the economic recovery. >> this is good for our economy. people are spending at a healthy rate. they are spending within their means and, since consumers make up 70% of our g.d.p., it's really important to have strong, healthy, sustainable consumption. >> reporter: last month, many people were forced to boost spending as a result of higher food and gasoline prices. that meant less money to put in the bank, and the nation's savings rate slipped to under 6%. but economist cary leahey says that's still a vast improvement from dangerously low levels a few years ago. >> ironically, right now, you can make the argument that maybe it's a little too high, because consumer spending growth appears to have slowed to something less than 2% so far this year, and you might want the growth rate to be a little bit higher. but-- all and all, 6% is not bad. >> reporter: but over the long run, economists say a higher savings rate would be good for the country. that's because without domestic

savings, the u.s. government has to borrow more from abroad to finance operations. still, for many people these days, saving money is a luxury they can't afford. >> i try not to think about it. but when i do think about it, it puts me in a little bit of a slump. but, i feel good, i know i'm confident in what i can do. >> reporter: like others on campus, he views his debt as an investment-- one which will someday lead to a good paying job. erika miller, "nightly business report," new york.

>> tom: japan continues to struggle to contain the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years. tokyo electric power, or tepco, runs the damaged fukushima nuclear complex and says more radioactive water was found leaking from the plant today. plutonium has also been found in soil around the plant. tepco has asked french nuclear giant areva for help with crisis. as for the auto industry, some analysts now say it could be summer before japan's vehicle makers are running at normal capacity. goldman sachs estimates the shutdowns cost the automakers $200 million a day. meanwhile, damage at japan's auto parts makers has ford motor idling a european plant. the plant in belgium will shut for five days starting monday, to conserve parts. and, if you want to order a ford f150 pickup, you might not get it in tuxedo black. ford has stopped taking orders for some specialty colors as a paint pigment supplier near japan's disaster zone remains closed.

>> suzanne: a potential billion- dollar battle takes center stage at the supreme court tomorrow. it's a massive sex- discrimination lawsuit against retail giant walmart. the suit claims millions of former and current employees were discriminated against because they are women. as darren gersh reports, the issue before the justices is who should represent the interests of all those women. >> reporter: for years, chris kwapnoski trained men who were soon promoted over her at wal- mart. eventually, she asked a manager what she had to do to get ahead. >> and he told me i need to blow the cobwebs off my makeup and doll up. >> reporter: at the time, kwapnoski was working in the back of the store taking in merchandise. >> if i'm going to doll up, i'm going to wear nice clothes, high heels, whatever. i could just see myself scooting across the concrete floor and breaking an ankle or driving a forklift in a skirt and heels. and i'm not sure what makeup would have to do with my daily performance as far as my job goes. >> reporter: the key issue before the supreme court is whether more than one million

current and former wal-mart women can sue the retailing giant as a group. lisa blatt represents other big- box retailers who have filed a brief with the supreme court supporting wal-mart. blatt says if the supreme court allows a handful of employees to represent over a million, it will let plaintiff's lawyers force settlements out of employers. >> you need to have something that shows that there's a link with all these employees. remember, it's a million and a half employees-- other than "we all share the characteristic of being female" and anecdotal evidence that there was discrimination. >> reporter: brad seligman, the lead counsel for kwopnoski and the other women suing walmart, says the link is obvious. >> yes, some people are redheads and some people are brunettes, but all of them are subject to walmart's policies. all of them are subject to the same culture that tolerates that kind of pay disparity. >> reporter: for the supreme court, the issue will come down to finding the right balance, says law professor heidi li feldman. >> if you permit this case to go forward, you're giving other

classes a template for bringing this sort of case. and if you don't allow this sort of class to go forward, then you've really cut off the only avenue available right now to attack that problem. >> reporter: the supreme court won't decide if walmart discriminated against women. by june, it is expected to decide if some of those women can bring their case together as a class action law suit. darren gersh, "nightly business report," washington. >> suzanne: hey, tom, pretty quiet day here at the exchange today as investors are kind of waiting on the sidelines for all these numbers that are coming out later this week, you know, the big one on friday. >> tom: yeah, lots of economic data still to come here this week no doubt about if suzanne, maybe that is why we saw a little lighter volume overall. and just some smaller moves for the major indices. let's get ebb updated with tonight's market focus.

>> tom: some small gains to begin the week were erased in the final 20 minutes of the trading day. we begin with today's trading of the s&p 500. here's what the entire day looked at. it opened just below 1,314. the modest gains earlier came on the stronger consumer spending and income data, but the buying disappeared in just before the closing bell. close at the lows of the day. where was the strength? telecom was the strongest sector, thanks in-part to at&t. shares led the dow industrials with this almost 2% gain. it was a week ago that at&t announced its intention to buy t-mobile. this is the past 90 sessions. the stock is well above where it was when the deal was announced. verizon was another big mover in this sector today, up more than 1% as it continues its break out over this recent

resistance. in fact, this is a new 52-week high for verizon. investment bank r.w. baird thinks the at&t/t-mobile deal could actually benefit verizon. meantime, sprint continued its recent rally, tacking on another 2% on heavy volume. it formally asked the federal government to stop at&t from buying t-mobile. cell phone tower operators s.b.a. communications and american tower also continued to rebound after last week's sell- off. morgan stanley upgraded shares. despite the good news on income and spending today, the worst stock sector was consumer- focused. marriott led the drop, falling more than 6%. look at this trend lower we've seen. volume jumped fivefold on this fall, which takes marriott back to its october low. its first-quarter guidance came in on the low end of expectations thanks to soft business in north america. that hurt other hotel operators. hyatt, starwood and wyndham each dropped by about 5% or more.

meantime, radioshack saw some buying today. it has been a tough 12 months for r-s-h. shares had been as high as $24 and below $14 earlier this month. they jumped 5% today. big volume. tomorrow radioshack said it will start selling apple's ipad 2. it will be the largest retailer yet to sell the tablet. while we hear from the president tonight about libya, oil services giant schlumberger today said the mid-east turmoil has had significant revenue disruptions, but the japanese earthquake business impact has been minimal. still, it cut its first-quarter earnings outlook by up to a dime per share. that didn't hurt the stock though. in fact, shares were up 4%, back above $90 for the first time in three weeks. saudi arabia has called on big oil service companies to help boost its production capacity.

that may have led to some buying. finally, one to watch tomorrow may be shirt maker phillips van- heusen. shares were as much as 2.5% above this closing price after the bell tonight. it reported better-than-expected earnings thanks to its acquisition of tommy hilfiger. and that's tonight's "market focus." >> tom: the nfl season remains in jeopardy tonight while major league baseball throws out its first pitch this week amid its own labor talks. tonight's "beyond the scoreboard," our look at the business of sports, focuses on

the two major sports leagues and their labor relations. rick horrow is a sports business analyst and c.e.o. of horrow sports ventures. and richard walden also joins us. he's the head of sports finance at j.p. morgan private bank. welcome to be on the scoreboard, nice to see you. >> thanks, great see you. >> tom: rick, let's begin with you. how do these two labor situations differ? >> well, they differ because of the substance, first of all the nfl has had a partnership for 20 years sharing basically the net and the issue is on how much you deduct the gross revenue. baseball hasn't had that con second. second more important the personalities. baseball has done deals before with these personalities and football even though they have been at this partnership for longer, these are two relatively untested rookies and roger goodell. >> tom: do the personalities involved, rick walden, what about the finances here, are the financials easier for major league baseball to get a deal done? >> well, the financial structure is very different

between football and baseball. you've got a salary cap in football, no cap in baseball but it em sos like base ball has been able to share revenue working it out among the players and owners. looks like they may have-- with all the parties working out how to share a pot that is frankly much bigger than attractive. >> tom: at that point we have the numbers here that look at just the postseason ad revenue that comes in for just the broadcast partners fox, and nbc, cbs. it's twice as much for the nfl play-offs in the super bowl. compared to 340-- 345 million for major league baseball play-offs and world series. rick, what is in it for major league baseball and its business partners if there is no nfl season in september. >> i take the view that it is good for baseball if-- people will be so cynical, basketball is in the middle of this too, about strikes, lockouts, decertification. people want to kill me when i try to explain this stuff. imagine for another six to

eight months. i think negatively ripples on the entire industry and the tide is reducing all boats instead of increasing if we continue to talk about labor and don't resolve it. >> tom: do you think major league baseball doesn't benefit even if there is no nfl season. >> i absolutely agree with rick. i think a lockout is bad for all the leagues. much better to have people playing. i hate to see it when somebody trieses to kill the golden goose. i think the first league that really has serious trouble, ie, misses a significant amount of games is goinging to be a bad thing. the race is to make sure things get done, put in place prior to the season beginning. >> tom: rich, a lot of sponsors will spend money on nfl and major league baseball from your perspective, which one is a better return on investment? >> well, depends what kind of return are you looking for. from a pure financial standpoint you have to believe football is a bigger return, just bigger numbers associated with it. with baseball perhaps you can get more intimate

tailored sponsorship, marketing deal or other financial return. really depends what are you lacking for. >> tom: maybe not as itch for the community but for football, 100 million, 200 million dollar economic impact. billion dollar stadiums. it's bad for everybody if we cross the rube i con on all of these legs. let's hope we are plague ball in the next year. >> tom: all right, going beyond the scoreboard. rich walden with jpmorgan private bank and rick horrow with horrow sports ventures. >> suzanne: here's what we're watching for tomorrow: we'll see quarterly results from homebuilder lennar, along with january's s&p/case shiller home price index. and, we'll talk to starbucks c.e.o. howard schultz about plans to expand in grocery stores. >> reporter: this is diane eastabrook. tomorrow, i'll take you to austin, texas-- a city that's shaping the future of electric vehicles. >> suzanne: online auction house ebay is doing some buying of its own. the company is purchasing g.s.i. commerce for almost $2.5 billion in cash and debt. g.s.i. owns and manages retail websites. the two firms say the deal will

let them connect buyers and sellers with ease. it also makes ebay more of a rival to online powerhouse amazon.com. but the transaction hasn't been gaveled yet, as g.s.i. has until may 6 to entertain other offers. >> tom: ebay's electronic payment system paypal will face a new competitor-- american express. the charge card company is rolling out a product called "serve" that lets customers transfer money to other people using mobile phones and the internet. serve will expand amex's footprint to people who don't have traditional credit cards.

>> suzanne: in tonight's commentary, how helping nonprofit firms could help unemployed americans get back on track. here's bill rodgers, professor at rutgers university. >> even with over 200,000 private sector jobs created in february, it will still take approximately four years before the unemployment rate returns to a normal level. as a bridge to normality, we need to expand incentives for nonprofits to hire unemployed americans to work on short-term capacity-building projects such as fundraising, marketing, grant

writing and strategic planning. what's my rationale? the nonprofit sector suffered major job cuts, eroding its capacity to meet the needs of american families, which have yet to reach a peak. the 22 million americans that are unemployed or working part- time possess a wealth of underutilized talent, which will atrophy with continued idleness. many americans that lost their jobs are considering new careers, careers with missions that seek to advance the common good. sure, this approach requires a financial commitment, but the personal, family and community benefits will exceed their costs. rebuilding the nonprofit sector is a win-win for america. i'm bill rodgers. >> tom: a reminder, the tax filing deadline is getting close.

only a few weeks away. taxes are due back at the i.r.s. in just three weeks, and we're here to help. you can submit your tax questions on our website for tax guru kevin mccormally. want to find out? just go to nbr on pbs.org. kevin will also join us for a week of last-minute tax tips starting april 11. that's "nightly business report" for monday, march 28. i'm tom hudson. good night everyone, and good night to you too, suzanne. >> suzanne: good night tom. i'm suzanne pratt. good night everyone. we hope to see all of you again tomorrow night. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program was made possible

by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org