>> susie: president obama today talking jobs, and he's not the only one. it's likely to be the issue in next year's election. >> we're gonna have to up our game when it comes to how we train people for the jobs that actually exist. >> tom: but republicans say there's a quick fix for job creation-- cutting the budget deficit. you're watching "nightly business report" for monday, june 13. 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 >> susie: good evening everyone. for president obama, the focus today was all about jobs. as he toured a lighting plant in north carolina, he tried to reassure americans that he's committed to putting americans back to work. tom, he made the case that jobs in science and tech are key to boosting u.s. economic growth. >> tom: susie, before that tour, the president met with his jobs council. that group is made up of c.e.o.s from some to the nation's biggest companies. the panel gave him five ideas to create one million jobs. they called for cutting regulatory red tape, providing more loans to small businesses, investing in energy efficiency, boosting tourism and partnering with community colleges on

worker training. >> susie: president obama pledged to act on these suggestions. >> their recommendations aren't going to solve every problem we face, but slowly, steadily, they're helping us to move forward. we're going to pursue these ideas, and any ideas out there, no matter where they come from. >> susie: tonight we're likely to hear several republican ideas. candidates running for president will hold their second debate in new hampshire. they'll be pushing hard to cut the deficit as a way to boost employment. but as darren gersh reports, the evidence that sharp budget cuts create jobs is mixed. >> reporter: house republicans often make the argument cutting the federal budget is the fastest way to create jobs. here's house speaker john boehner. >> if we're going to raise the debt limit, the spending cuts should exceed the increase in the debt limit. otherwise, it'll serve to cost us jobs in our country. >> reporter: there is only one

problem with that argument-- it contradicts what most economists have been taught. the economic policy institute's andrew fieldhouse says the market isn't buying it either. >> the major forecasters, the people who are being paid for real economic advice, would all disagree with this. >> reporter: congress's own congressional research service examined studies that found countries that cut their deficits grew faster. instead, the c.r.s. found deficit cutting was only successful in creating jobs in countries that began the cutbacks with very low levels of unemployment. the report concludes: "reducing the deficit while the economy is still fragile and well below full employment would likely involve further contraction." but former bush administration economic policy expert andrew biggs says the type of spending cuts also matter. infrastructure cuts are likely to hurt growth, but cuts in government paychecks or entitlement programs might encourage more people to work, boosting growth. >> there is a lot of moving parts here.

i am not strong proponent that cutting spending in recession is going to give you a burst of growth, but it is the best policy we should make for the long term. >> reporter: supporters of deep spending cuts use canada as an example. in the 1990s, canada cut its budget and boosted growth. but wells fargo chief economist john silvia says that's because the value of the canadian dollar fell. at the time, the u.s. economy was booming and canadian exports rose sharply. standard economic theory says a big cut in the federal budget would weaken the u.s. dollar now. that would make u.s. exports cheaper, which might increase employment, but silvia cautions europe and japan may be too weak to buy many u.s. goods. >> we also have this sort of conflicting view about what about the dollar? are we willing to tolerate a fairly significant decline in the dollar in terms of getting this fiscal consolidation? >> reporter: republicans argue cutting spending now would make businesses more likely to hire

now because they would be less worried about future tax hikes. that might work in the long run, but democrats argue the immediate cost would be a weaker economy. darren gersh, "nightly business report," washington. >> tom: here are the stories in tonight's n.b.r. newswheel: a mixed day for stocks, as a couple of big takeovers helped offset new worries about greece. the dow rose a point, the nasdaq fell four and the s&p 500 was up a fraction. trading volume started the week with 905 million shares moving on the big board and just under two billion shares on the nasdaq. standard & poor's slashed greece's long-term debt rating today by three notches to triple "c." it thinks the country will see one or more defaults over the next 12 months. mexico's top banker wants to be the next head of the international monetary fund, but the french finance minister is still the frontrunner. still, mexico's augustin carstens says electing a european would be a conflict of

interest because greece, portugal and ireland have borrowed so heavily from the fund. oil prices hit a three-week low today on worries the sluggish u.s. economy will crimp demand. oil fell almost $2 to settle at $97.30 a barrel. still ahead, economic winners and a loser from the business of basketball as we go "beyond the scoreboard." >> susie: this is the year millions of baby boomers turn 65 and will retire. but the sad truth is that a vast number of them have not adequately saved for retirement, and a new study shows that many still have to financially support their adult children because of the weak economy. according to a poll by t.d. ameritrade, more than half of baby boomers have adult children living with them. 76% of boomers say they would feel obligated to financially support their adult children if asked. more than half of those polled

say they will support their kids even if it derails their own retirement plans. and of those with adult children at home, almost half say it's having a negative impact on their lives. joining us now to talk more about boomers and retirement, lule demmisse, managing director of retirement at t.d. ameritrade. >> hi, nice to have you much. >> good evening. >> why is this happening? >> well, fundamentally it's what your -- it's the opening remarks in your story, about jobs, it's the fact the economy is not producing the employment these younger generations need. it's no secret unemployment does impact young adults that at a stronger rate. what our results show is jobs and overwhelming debt is driving a lot have people back to their home. >> and you're saying in your survey that those families that have brought their adult children back home say this this is having a negative impact, financial impact on their lives.

who is. >> absolutely. >> susie: how much of a financial impact is this having. do you have a way to quantify it. >> we didn't, but we know that what people are feeling, it's an expense not just about room and board but individuals are starting to pay for their children's college loans, as well as discretionary spending, cell phones, so essentially the kids have moved back home and you've got other debts that they have accrued to pay for as well. >> susie: now, you have some discussions of how to deal with this difficult situation. let's go down the list. you say one thing is work as a team with your kids. in other words, have some family meetings. what are you supposed to discuss? >> absolutely. i think a lot of us have fear about talking about the elephant in the room in terms of what mom and dad can afford, and also frankly what your children can take on as an expense. some of it is coming out. shell discussing perhaps with your financial advisor, whoever you

find to be your professional advisor, to talk about what you can afford and what that could impact in terms of your retirement nest egg, but also is to have the conversation about what is it [no audio]

>> susie: many americans are puzzled why big u.s. companies are reporting strong profits even though the economy is in a soft patch. will that trend continue when companies report second-quarter numbers in a few weeks? erika miller reports. >> reporter: american workers may be struggling, but the nation's biggest companies are set to report record second- quarter profits. s&p 500 firms are expected to earn a combined $232 billion for the period-- the best showing in four years. market strategist joseph tanious sees more good news. >> you will see that corporate balance sheets are as healthy as they've ever been. you have profit margins which are near their cyclical peaks, and we do think profit margins are going to keep inching higher

over the next quarter. >> reporter: second-quarter earnings are expected to grow 14.5%, with even bigger gains in the third and fourth quarters. but economist stephen wieiting warns all may not be rosy with those second quarter reports. >> we expect them to guide down very aggressive estimates for gains in the back half of the year. we do think their profits can grow in the back half of the year, but not as robustly as the estimates at this point. >> reporter: it's clear the u.s. economy has hit a soft patch. the question is whether the recovery will slow further when the fed stops its second bond- buying program at the end of this month. in spite of those concerns, some analysts think corporate profits can continue to surge. part of the reason is productivity has been improving, thanks to cost-cutting during the recession. in addition, almost half of the revenues for s&p 500 firms come from overseas. taken together, some analysts predict strong earnings will propel the market up about 10% by year end. >> if we take a look at fundamentals, we take a look at

corporate balance sheets and margins, and we take at expected earnings not only for this year but for next year, we do think there's an opportunity in the equity markets here on the back of stronger earnings. and i would personally view this as a buying opportunity to get in, if you are a long-term investor. >> reporter: that's reassuring for stock investors, who have watched the market flounder the past six weeks. but it's not much consolation for the 14 million unemployed americans waiting for strong profits to translate into strong hiring. erika miller, "nightly business report," new york >> susie: tom, when era was talking about profits, or the top of the program about jobs, just a lot of question marks and uncertainty on people's minds. that's why in the markets it almost went nowhere. >> tom: which was actually good news considering the trajectory which has been lower stroke prices. -- stock prices. we saw companies put money to work with tonight's market focus.

investor confidence was helped by several buyouts, but worries about a slowing economy hit energy prices again. let's focus on that drop in oil prices. here are the past 90 sessions, of crude oil, showing the drop from $114 in late may to $97 today. we've been chopping around here this is the lowest closing price in oil since february. energy was the weakest stock sector, led lower by coal. three to look at here. alpha natural resources fell to its lowest price since october. peabody energy shed almost 4%, and consol was off 3.5%. the slowdown in the u.s. and china has investors worried about coal demand. the financial sector was the best, led by citigroup-- up more than 3%. nice rally.

we saw this on most actives. in early may, citi completed its reverse one-for-10 stock split, but shares haven't be able to catch much of a bid. a busy merger monday may have helped the financial sector as it works to put together corporate deals. today was the biggest day for mergers in more than a month. at least 10 deals were proposed, totaling more than $12 billion. let's walk through a few. one of the biggest? shoe company timberland. it has an offer for $43 per share from v.f. corp, the company behind the north face, lee jeans and nautica. timberland stock jumped above the buyout price. the market may be thinking a higher price could be coming. in a sign of confidence, the buyer, v.f. corp, saw its share price rally more than 10%. several analysts like how timberland could be folded into v.f.'s outdoor apparel business. other shoe makers were finding buyers. work boot maker wolverine jumped more than 5%. famous footwear retailer brown shoe bounced 2.5%. it was at a 52-week low last week. and crocs added just over 1%.

the biggest buyout today was between re-insurance firms transatlantic and allied world a $3.2 billion deal. morgan stanley thinks trans- atlantic may get a higher price than the $51-per-share offer. trans-atlantic was up 9.5%. closing oer $48. allied world fell 4.5%. graham packaging has a competing buyout offer. a new zealand private equity firm has offered $25 per share. that's over the price on the table from consumer packaging maker silgan. one to consider there. other companies receiving buyout offers? a $464 million deal for business services firm m&f worldwide. wireless technology firm e.m.s. technologies has been offered $33 per share by honeywell. info-tech firm ness will go private for $7.75 per share, and tech equipment maker gerber has agreed to an $11-per-share buyout offer.

ford stock saw volume double today as it dropped 1.6%. it's been trending lower lately. an ohio jury ruled ford should pay $2 billion to thousands of auto dealers in a fight over an incentive program for heavy trucks. ford pledged to appeal the verdict. and that's tonight's "market focus." >> tom: the nba finals between name and dallas some of the best t.v. ratings in more than a decade.

tonight's beyond the score board begins with an economic winner and loser from the business of baseball, rick harrow, harrow sports ventures. a couple winners has to be disney, did great in terms of the 6 games, numbers we hasn't seen in better than a decade, and american airlines. >> we got a team that everybody loves to hate, miami heat, and an emerging story line. so he makes 250 million dollars on his value deal. american airlines arena is miami, american airlines center in dallas, no matter who it is, they're playing at an american airlines sponsored building. >> very nice, mark cuban, the owner of the mavericks, used to having his mouth get him in trouble. instead it was lebron james, one of the big losers in all this, in part because this is what he said last night. take a listen. >> a lot of people rooting on me

to fail. at the end of the day they got to wake up, the same life they had before they woke up today. sake permanent problems they -- same personal problems they had today. i'm going to continue to live the way i want to live. me and my family and be happy with that. there you go. >> wow. 17 points in the 4th quarter, not bad. that's for 6 games! and by the way, personal problems. i'll tell you, c.e.o. of nike state farm and mcdonalds, paying him 42 1/2 million dollars a year. >> who downing their customers -- do you think their customers are? >> people with plenty of problems like all of us. still championship sports going on, the national hockey league. this is really a tale of 2 leagues. canadian teams make the money money for the league. the entire league profits are lower than that, $160 million. thank goodness canadiens are

playing. >> they have sun belt issues, thrashers moved up. the support of hockey from the corporate perspective really good. labor seems not to be a problem. 3 billion dollars. the commissioner says they seemed to be moving in the right direction. and a blockbuster deal with nbc. >> that direction has been moving north back to canada. nbc also big blockbuster deal with the olympics. now within the past week, $4.4 billion deal, 4 olympic games through 2020. comcast, olympic deal here. but nbc is not necessarily had a money maker the last couple of olympic games. what does it need to do? >> they spent an amount of mones domestic product of figi. it's huge. why? they lost 200 million in van cover, losing in london, 2 reasons. set up the prime time programming around those 2 weeks. and second, protected the brand. you think olympics? you think the nbc family of

networks. >> comcast verses the sports cable channel, this has to help with the cable fees which can be a nice avenue toward higher revenues. >> 2 system process. buy the program and lock it in. >> shareholders will respond. we always appreciate it, rick harrow. >> susie: here's what we're watching for tomorrow: may's producer prices are released, and we'll get a read on the nation's entrepreneurs. the national federation of independent business issues its small business optimism index for may. also tomorrow, a look at the consumer with best buy's latest results. we'll see how the electronics retailer is doing as the recovery slows down. federal prosecutors in manhattan can add three more convictions to their crackdown on insider trading. zvi goffer, a former trader at the galleon group, his brother, emmanuel goffer, and another trader named michael kimelman were each convicted today of conspiracy and securities fraud.

all plan to appeal. like the recent conviction of galleon founder raj rajaratnam, much of the trial was based on secretly recorded wiretaps. >> tom: the nation's highest court today blocked an investor lawsuit against janus capital. the suit claimed the company made false statements in some janus mutual fund prospectuses. writing for the u.s. supreme court, justice clarence thomas said while janus served as an advisor to the funds, the funds themselves were organized under a separate business trust, making that trust responsible for the statements. dissenting justices argued the suit should be allowed given the company's close relationship with the funds.

>> susie: in the commentary tonight? finding common ground on the nation's economic future. here's jared bernstein, senior fellow at the center on budget and policy priorities and former chief economist to vice president joe biden. >> the current debate over economic policy is generating a lot more heat than light. the debt ceiling, the budget, medicare, tax policy, stimulus. in each case, the stakes are high, both for the broad american middle class and for global investors. but beyond these specific policy disagreements, i fear that we're not getting to the common thread at the heart of these issues. what do we want the role of government to be in our lives?

what is it that government does best and markets do least well? we have the freest market economy in the world, but there are some key functions it cannot efficiently fulfill, like retirement security, protecting the vulnerable and investing in public goods such as infrastructure and education. there's a reason why medicare and social security are so popular, and why you see similar programs in every advanced economy. they are highly efficient systems that provide security to retirees at a cost well below that of the private sector. the safety net-- things like head start and child nutrition-- invest in poor families in ways that markets won't and push back against rampant inequities that have grown to staggering heights in recent years. and there are public investments, from infrastructure to basic research, that have unquestionably contributed to this nation's world-class productivity. these are common-sense insights with which most americans agree. there is deep historical evidence to support their fundamental truth.

yet our policymakers seem stuck in endless squabbles that somehow avoid recognizing them. perhaps now would be a good time to step back, take a deep breath, and get to the heart of it. i'm jared bernstein. >> tom: that's "nightly business report" for monday, june 13. i'm tom hudson. good night everyone, and good night to you too, susie. >> susie: good night tom. i'm susie gharib. good night everyone. we hope to see all of you again tomorrow night. this program was made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.

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