wall street, now careening toward the closing bell. and the word "panic" may not be a stretch to describe today's trading action. the dow dumping throughout the day, down well over 300 points at the moment. the nasdaq and s&p following suit. this mounting crisis is not just a domestic one. it's global. indeed policymakers at the european central bank are taking desperate measures to keep several economies, including those of italy and spain, alive. and not everyone believes they'll succeed. meanwhile, the tick-tock towards tomorrow's monthly jobs report creating more anxious shivers. the weekly report released today pointed to marginal improvemts, gains far to insignificant to make a dent in the 9.2% unemployment rate. the picture has millions of americans -- remains grim. the service sector expanded at its slowest pace in a year and a

half. and as congress recesses amid an faa funding showdown, some 74,000 jobs are in jeopardy tied to aviation projects the result? jittery investors on the street and a press corps demanding answers at the white house press briefing where jay carney insisted the president today, turning 50, is doing everything in his power to right the ship while acknowledging what a difficult road it's been. >> does he believe he's made all the right choices? i haven't asked him. but i'm sure that he would say that there are always things in hindsight you might have done a little differently. the simple fact of the matter is, as i know everyone in this room knows, that the recession that this country faced when this president took office was the worst since the great depression. >> the sound of panicked investors sell, sell, sell today

are competing to drown out the president's birthday. it's the last thing the president wished for, waking up to a new batch of disastrous headlines, anxious investors on one side, debt deal doubters on the other. and it's only gotten worse throughout the day. the dow jones industrial average plunging more than 400 points earlier this afternoon, erasing its gains for the year. a cold bucket of water from wall street today after the warmest of birthday celebrations in his hometown chicago last night. let's get right into the thick of it now with nbc's mike viqueira and luke russert. the president's hair color is beginning to resemble yours, mike. this is turning into a pretty bleak birthday present, isn't it? >> reporter: the president has a stressful job. i have no excuse. in keeping with the theme, white house spokesman jay carney when beset with questions about what

the president can do, what arrows are left in the policy quiver, jay carney said there is no silver bullet. he reiterated what the president wants out of congress in the coming months. he wants patent reform, free trade agreements ratified, tax cuts, unemployment benefits extended. congress is out of session until after labor day, september 6th. what can be done on the fiscal or monetary side from here at the white house? the answer is, there don't appear to be too many tools left in the toolbox. meanwhile over at the federal reserve, talk of quantitative easing 3 pretty much on the back burner and interest rates there set by the fed at near record lows, not a lot of room to maneuver there. so the president is going to be hitting the road. he's going to be continuing to talk about the economy. he's got a bus trip through the midwest planned.

he's got events over the course of the next week or eight days. he's got three separate events. he's going to be traveling to suburban virginia, to michigan. he's going to be talking about alternative energy and the new economy. but the question is, what can be done here with congress abseptember and unilateral action on the part of the president? and the answer seems to be, at least in the short term, not all that much, martin. >> luke, we've been following the faa shutdown leaving tens of thousands of airport workers furloughed. now it seems that house speaker boehner and the president have had words on the issue. what have you learned? >> reporter: yesterday speaker boehner is on a vacation in iowa. and president obama called him and essentially speaker boehner reiterated the point that republicans have said all along, that they passed a fair bill. it was a temporary extension that cuts funding airports. it was a political tactic by no doubt by republicans but something they feel is

important, to cut these subsidies. as to what's going to happen this week, there's been a lot of speculation as to whether or not congress would get this done through certain types of parliamentary procedure while both the house and senate are in a pro forma session, if you will. a congressman from ohio just had a press conference and he's on this transportation committee. and he essentially said the house was ready on monday to pass a clean extension. it was actually blocked by senator tom coburn. and that in fact for anything to happen in the united states senate, the house bill would have to essentially be voted down. and it's unclear whether or not that could happen this week. so for where it stands right now, while both sides are talking and both sides want to reach an agreement, while congress is out of town, it makes it that much more difficult to get those 74,000 construction workers back and working and also for the government not to lose $1.1 billion while the faa is

partially shut down till september 7th. >> extraordinary. mike and luke, hang on for a moment. i'd like to bring in for the latest news on the stock market, cnbc's "street signs" anchor brian sullivan. we've had a horrendous day in london with the ftse closing 3.4% down, wiping out something like $200 billion in a day. and in an hour, we'll know the full extent -- sorry, not in an hour, in just under an hour, we'll know the full extent of the damage on wall street with the dow already hovering just -- what is it? 300-plus down. what's going on? >> reporter: well, i want to address what mike was talking about. there's nothing that we can do. this is not our problem. what we're seeing today, the dow was down more than 400 points, so actually down 337. looks a little bit relatively better than 20 minutes ago. this crisis right now is coming from europe. we can fight all we want politically about, it's bush's fault, it's this, it's that. right now, you have the biggest

banks in europe down 30% and 40% in a matter of a couple of months. the second biggest bank in germany, the biggest economy in europe, commerce bank, is down 60% in a year. there is a financial crisis brewing in europe. they talk about these bailouts of greiss. there's no money in these bailout funds that they have talked about. it's been a lot of talk. and today you had the head of the ecb and another powerful ecb member say completely opposite things about what policy might work. could you imagine if ben bernanke and tim geithner came out and basically said different things about what we need to do? confidence would be crushed. that's what's happening. i'm not saying the u.s. economy doesn't have a lot of problems. we certainly do. but it's a culmination of all this nonsense going on in europe. and some people are saying it's sort of like their 2008. we're just ahead of it. >> mike, at the white house, not many people are very sympathetic towards the president on this issue. brian sullivan is saying the

problems originated from europe and it's lapping onto the shores of america and yet the president is not being given a break like that. everyone says it's his fault. >> reporter: as an economic matter, even at the white house, they say they're monitoring the situation in europe very closely. as a political matter, you're absolutely right. the president can't go to the american people and say it's all the europeans' fault. that's a matter of american publics. when you have an unemployment rate at 9.2% and 15 million americans out of work on a full-time basis and many more who have taken far fewer hours that they want to be working to pay their rent and their mortgages, which brings us to an important point, tomorrow, jobs friday. it's a big ritual here in washington. 8:30 tomorrow morning it comes out. it went the wrong direction last month, up to 9.1%. all eyes will be on the bureau

of labor statistics tomorrow when that number comes out. >> brian, do you think we're looking at an increase in unemployment? >> reporter: does it go up .10% or down .10%? i mean, 9% or 8.9% is still too high, right? >> indeed. >> reporter: i want to say something. we talk about europe. and i understand people look at greece and these tiny economies. a lot of people may not realize the euro zone collectively is larger than the united states. the gdp of the euro zone nations is bigger than the u.s. if they have a systemic financial crisis, a lot of our corporations, if we start to see a slowdown and a recession brew in europe, that's a big home to our exports which is probably why we're seeing the market come down. their problem creeping into fears about corporate america

here, being able to sell goods into europe. plus you've got a crisis of confidence as well. people, i think, have given up hope that a lot of the policymakers here and in europe know exactly what they're doing. >> but, brian, this is one nugget and that is that the price of gold has hit a new record high of $1,677 an ounce. >> reporter: you know what else is falling besides the dow is my microphone. it popped off. gold even selling as well. oil is down. pretty much a selloff across the board. the one last point i'd like to make, if you look at the data, one thing is happening in this economy. people are de-leveraging. i don't agree with everything the president's done politically or economically. but when you have people saving more than they're spending, which is probably a good trend long term, when you have a consumption economy, you can't stop that train. people are saving, not spending. doesn't matter -- there's nothing you can do to stop that. >> indeed, brian sullivan, luke

russert and mike viqueira, thanks, as always. you can see brian weekdays at 2:00 p.m. on his show "street signs" on cnbc. next, it's shark week. and this latest crisis has them circling for president obama's job. stay with us. emily's just starting out... and on a budget. like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. and saving money with allstate doesn't stop there... kim and james are what you might call overly protective. especially behind the wheel. nothing wrong with that. in fact, allstate gives them a bonus -- twice a year -- for being safe drivers. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. can be even more powerful, with precise pain relieving cream. it blocks pain signals fast

for relief precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol. precise. purina cat chow helps you well-being. we're all striving f it. nurture it in your cat with a full family of excellent nutrition and helpful resources. purina cat chow. share a better life. yes! ha ha! [ clicking ] ♪ what happened? power went out, want a hot dog? [ female announcer ] oscar mayer selects are made with 100% beef and have no artificial preservatives.

and started earning loads of points. you got a weather balloon with points? yes i did. [ man ] points i could use for just about anything. ♪ ♪ there it is. [ man ] so i used mine to get a whole new perspective. ♪ [ male announcer ] the new citi thankyou premier card gives you more ways to earn points. what's your story? citi can help you write it.

weeks of intrigue and cloakroom arm-twisting led to a deal on the debt that nobody liked, least of all wall street where the dow continues to collide with a brutal closing. right now it's 344.# 5 down on the day. is this down in the markets just the beginning of a fallout for

the leaders who failed to negotiate a serious deal? alex wagner and jonathan alter join us now. jonathan, do you think there's a relationship, a correlation between what we're seeing in wall street at the moment and the fact of what happened recently with regard to the debt ceiling? >> well, i'm not an economist, martin. i don't want to play one on tv. but the -- there's obviously some sort of political dynamic at work here that does affect not just american markets but global markets. and it sent a sign of uncertainty that we went right up to the edge. and so that does undermine confidence. so i think a combination of anticipation at these jobs numbers that are going to be released tomorrow will be depressing and a jolt to our

confidence is, at least in some ways, related to this market punch. >> you think in some ways, this is the reverberation of what happened in congress and all the arguing and rowing that occurred. >> these are multifaceted. you have all these underlying problems in europe. so teasing out what's affected what. but none of it helps. the good news is the underlying strength of corporate balance sheets is still there. so we're so traumatized by 2008 and 2009 that we sometimes kind of fear that we're going to plunge all the way back into that. and i don't really see that as a concern right now because the fundamentals of the system are much less highly leveraged and basically are in better shape than they were three years ago. >> i'm looking at the dow now. it's down 359, changing by the second. but it's a pretty horrendous day. these job numbers, what are you

hearing? what are we to expect? >> we're hearing they're not going to be good. it's not good news for the president who's been obviously -- not attacked but has been focused on jobs and at war with his position on jobs for a while now and said, after the debt deal was done, he was going to pivot back to the jobs question which is the umhteenth time the white house has said that. >> this is about policy. last night, the president was in chicago at a fund-raiser where -- the second one, it was 3,500 -- 35,000, i think there's this perception, you're going to pivot back to jobs but you're out there with fat cats and what kind of message does that send the country. >> you think there's disinenece

there? >> no, i don't. this is the kind of thing -- the attention of this kind of thing is what you get in a 24/7 cable news environment that we're in. but where al legislation is on point is that the basic messages is not in place for the obama campaign. if you were to ask, what is their economic message right now, they couldn't tell you. it's a work in progress. and they need to get there pretty soon -- >> get there? what about the rest of the economy? what about the people? alex? >> to that end, the president is going on this multi-day bus tour selling his ideas in the middle of august, which i think to some people is kind of like, too little too late. we're talking about -- it's one thing -- corporate profits are up. but small businesses are being affected by this. they're on the front lines. there's a real sense of disconnect, i think, between the white house and what's gone on and this continual sort of dais distraction with the political process and a messy -- the

re-litigating issues that we thought had been solved a long time ago and the sausage-making. the fact that we are so privy to the ins and outs of this battle. it collectively gives the sense that the president is distracted. >> this is not going to change. this is critical. all fall we're going to be focused on this super committee. leon panetta just indicated today that they're going to put big pressure on to come to a deal because if those triggers go off, he says it will jeopardize national security. >> jonathan and alex, thank you very much for joining us this afternoon. ahead, money matters, in an election cycle sure to be as we've just heard the most costly in u.s. history. stay with us. specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care.

we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. this is my band from the 80's, looker. hair and mascara, a lethal combo. i'm jon haber of alto music. my business is all about getting music into people's hands. and the plum card from american express open helps me do that. you name it, i can buy it. and the savings that we get from the early pay discount has given us money to reinvest back into our business and help quadruple our floor space. how can the plum card's trade terms get your business booming? booming is putting more music in more people's hands.

but i did. they said i couldn't fight above my weight class. but i did. they said i couldn't get elected to congress. but i did. now i'm trying to make it in music. ♪ sometimes when we touch ha ha! millions of hits! [ male announcer ] the new hp touchpad. get it now for $100 off, starting at $399.99. ♪ that's how it is with alzheimer's disease. she needs help from me. and her medication. the exelon patch -- it releases medication continuously for twenty-four hours. she uses one exelon patch daily for the treatment of mild to moderate alzheimer's symptoms. [ female announcer ] it cannot change the course of the disease. hospitalization and rarely death

have been reported in patients who wore more than one patch at a time. the most common side effects of exelon patch are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. the likelihood and severity of these side effects may increase as the dose increases. patients may experience loss of appetite or weight. patients who weigh less than 110 pounds may experience more side effects. people at risk for stomach ulcers who take certain other medicines should talk to their doctor because serious stomach problems such as bleeding may worsen. people with certain heart conditions may experience slow heart rate. [ woman ] whenever i needed her, she was there for me. now i'm here for her. [ female announcer ] ask the doctor about your loved one trying the exelon patch. visit exelonpatch.com to learn more. breaking news out of the virginia tech campus, there is a briefing going on right now. nbc news's justice correspondence pete williams joining us live from washington. pete, what is the latest on a situation earlier which appeared

that the campus was in lockdown? >> reporter: it was, in fact, in lockdown. that lockdown was lifted about half an hour ago, martin, after a thorough search of the campus failed to turn up either the man who was sighted or a gun that three young people said they thought they saw him carrying. they gave a very detailed description of the man. this was a composite sketch the police put together. but they never found him or what the young people thought was a weapon. so after thoroughly searching the campus, they've decided to lift this alert. the classes are still canceled for the rest of the day, but the campus will be getting pretty much back to normal late tonight and tomorrow. >> are the police assuming this may have been some kind of bizarre imaginary thing? what's their conclusion? was this guy there or wasn't he? >> reporter: i don't think they know the answer to that question. as of a few minutes ago, they just couldn't say.

there was some skepticism about this -- about whether the person really was in fact carrying a gun. they don't doubt that the young people thought that's what they saw. >> and there's the remarkable fact that the va tech campus allows people to carry guns across that particular area, is that right? >> reporter: well, it's really a matter of state law, not virginia tech itself. it's state law. about a month ago, the virginia attorney general was asked to opine about carrying guns on campus. and ken cuccinelli said under virginia law, a university by mere policy, which is what virginia tech has, cannot ban someone from carrying a gun on a college campus. they can bar carrying guns into campus buildings or at big campus events or sporting arenas. but what that means is under this attorney general's

interpretation in virginia, even if this person was, in fact, carrying a gun across the campus -- and we don't know that there was such a thing -- but even if it happened, under virginia law, it would not be illegal. >> remarkable. pete williams, thank you for joining us. next, 2012, a vulnerable president but a gop field that's leaving many republicans looking for more. [ male announcer ] in america, we believe anyone can be a hero. kraft singles. we're rich in calcium to help build 'em up strong. ooh, watch out, bad guys. kraft singles. the american cheese. handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service

doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal workers union. ♪

[ coughing continues ] [ gasping ] [ elevator bell dings, coughing continues ] [ female announcer ] congress can't ignore the facts: more air pollution means more childhood asthma attacks. [ coughing continues ] log on to lungusa.org and tell washington: don't weaken the clean air act. we're monitoring two breaking news stories at this moment. first, senate majority leader harry reid has reportedly announced an agreement to reopen the faa after a dispute between both sides of the house that had thrust tens of thousands of aviation jobs into jeopardy. we're also looking at the markets which at this hour are in danger of closing down some 400 points. look at that. 397 at this moment.

now to the iowa straw poll. just nine days away. the poll that tests the prevailing wins in iowa and the nation has been right before. it predicted the eventual republican nominees, bob dole in 1995 and george w. bush in 1999. if it was wildly off track in 2007, john mccain coming in tenth. let's bring in our ace political panel from washington, casey hunt and pat buchanan. pat, can i start with you. because even though mitt romney didn't get the nomination last time around, he's still the frontrunner in this race. and he even took a shot from one of the president's men, rahm emanuel, last night. let's take a listen. >> when he was governor, massachusetts was 47th out of 50 in job production. in case he forgot that, i'd like to remind him of that. >> that was an interesting comment. romney's expected to be in new hampshire the day of the poll.

he'll be in iowa just before. how do you think he'll fare? >> oh, he's not going to do very well in the iowa straw poll. he deliberately skipped it basically and downgraded it because he's made a wise decision, i think, martin, not to involve himself in these straw polls which since he's the frontrunner can only serve to elevate some outer candidate who targets one and beats him. so i think he's made the right decision there. i do think the iowa straw poll is critical, however, especially for tim pawlenty who's got to come in first or second. he's got to show a tremendous organization and a capacity to win there or he's out of the race. it's important to michele bachmann who's got all this fire and energy. i think she's got to come in first or second. it's important for ron paul who at this time says, i'm going to be organized, it's not just my friends. i think he has to come in in the top three. i think it's very important for a lot of folks out there. >> casey, jon huntsman has done

a meet and greet with a little bit of awkwardness. >> who? >> jon huntsman. >> politico has a lengthy piece that his campaign staff is in tatters. what is going on with mr. huntsman? >> well, that name id is causing some strife inside the campaign centered on jon weaver who has a history of running tumultuous campaigns. he resigned from john mccain's campaign in 2007. at the samtime during the campaign as this year. huntsman, however, up in new hampshire today did stand by jooefr saying he had the full confidence in him. >> the market is now down 447 points. is this economic disaster -- and

if things get worse, a double-dip recession -- is this going to define the 2012 campaign? >> it will, martin. just while you were just talking, after my answer, it's dropped 50 points. here's what's going to happen, i think. president obama has a terrible, terrible problem in this. despite the fact that we have practiced keynesian economics, easy money at 0% from the fed and the fed buying up all kinds of rotten paper from the banks, the economy is flat dead in the water. and with this blow that the market has delivered now probably more than 1,000 points in ten days and with the unemployment where it's at and with the fact that within the first two quarters of this year, we're growing at less than 1%, it's impossible, martin, to see how we have a real surge in 2012 which barack obama is going to need. >> but, pat, we were talking earlier to brian sullivan of cnbc. and he was explaining that this

disastrous performance by the dow today is provoked by european euro zone countries and the sovereign debt crisis that is now lapping up to the shores of america. >> you're exactly right. i don't believe this is a result of our debt ceiling battle at all. this is hitting italy. we know the greece, ireland, portugal situation and maybe spain. that imperils all the banks of europe. and it could jump the atlantic. but this fear -- the drop in the dow, martin, because it's a lead indicator, does tell you something about where the economy will be six or eight months from now. and the fear being induced by this and the pullback of people with money who are going to say, holy smoke, let's try to save what we've got, i think is going to have a constrictive effect on the economy. it can't be good news for the president or for america. >> thank you both for joining us. more on themake breaking

news on the faa deal. kel loi donnell joins us with details. >> reporter: we have learned how they're going to resolve this crisis and put 74,000 americans back to work. harry reid has struck a bob pisani deal that will allow the senate to pass the measure that was already passed by the house and then working with the transportation secretary ray lahood who will grant a waiver to the specific rural communities that would have seen cutbacks because of what was in the house bill. so the net effect is that jobs will be replaced. they will get people back to work and the services will continue. and it will have the effect of just putting an extension on this. it's a quick fix. it doesn't resolve the long-term issues. they'll have to battle that out later on. but it will get the pressure off of congress who have been widely criticized for not acting more quickly when it comes to jobs. so it is a bob pisani resolution, we expect it will happen tomorrow in the senate, passing it by unanimous consent.

after a lot of concern about jobs today, a lot of concern about federal taxes being collected by the airlines and put in their pocket, it appears there will be a resolution to this faa crisis tomorrow, martin. >> kelly o'donnell, thank you very much for joining us. while gop members duke it out for their chance to rival the president for the white house, candidate newt gingrich finds himself in the midst of yet another scandal. this time, though, one that's quite new to politics. newt hasn't been sending imappropriate images of himself dressed up in a tiger suit. he's being accused of hiring an agency whose sole purpose was to boost his twitter following by either buying followers or creating fake ones. this is the allegation. gingrich who is leaps and bounds ahead of his competition in terms of his followers flatly denies the allegations. yet some are still in some shock. for more on this, i'm joined by ceo of p.q., michael hussey. what's happened here.

has mr. gingrich been buying followers on his twitter account? >> it's our opinion that he has not been actually buying followers. but our methodology shows that roughly 8% of his followers are indeed real consumers, people that you can reach out to. >> only 8% are genuine individuals. what are the 82%? who are they? >> we believe it's a combination of business accounts, private, anonymous accounts that no one knows exactly who they are and a lot of them are clearly spam. however, we need to make clear that the reason we don't think this was newt gingrich's team buying the accounts is because we've -- since this story's broken, we've done a lot of research and started to notice that the same sort of issue relates to an old sort of -- what you would call a bug in twitter that started in 2009 and

2010. >> right. so actually the twitter organization is to blame? >> sort of and not really. they've since definitely corrected the issue. and it has to do with something that was called the suggested users list. it's a bit technical. i don't know if you need me to go into it. but it's related to -- there were a lot of spam botts that were signing up to twitter and continue to do so. two years ago when you would sign up for a new account, they would check off boxes and say, follow newt, follow so and so. >> yes. >> and through that, people who were creating fake accounts were just checking -- keeping the box checked. click, submit. creating a new account. and that seems to be what boosted up the raw numbers. so in our methodology, we go back and look at each one of those specific individual accounts, looks to see if they have a public online identity, do they exist elsewhere on the web. most of the people that follow newt certainly do not.

but i do think that we need to look again at newt in particular, at least at the accusation of him purchasing accounts. >> michael hussey, i'd love to know who the other 82% really are. thank you very much for joining us. while some may feel the need to pay for their twitter followers, i'm not much in that business. we invite you to follow the show or like the show on facebook. coming up, mitt romney and the mystery million as the market dive continues. stay with us. as a manager, my team counts on me to stay focused.

so i take one a day men's 50+ advantage. it's the only complete multivitamin with ginkgo to support memory and concentration. plus vitamin d to help maintain healthy blood pressure. [ bat cracks ] that's a hit. one a day men's. woman: day care can be so to save some money, i found one that uses robots instead of real people. 'cuz robots work for free. robot 1:good morning... robot 1:...female child. sfx: modem dial-up noise woman: flaws? yeah, um, maybe. anncr: there's an easier way to save. anncr: get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. after your dishcloth? bounty extra soft can help. in this lab test bounty extra soft

leaves this surface three times cleaner than a dishcloth. super clean. super soft. bounty extra soft. in the pink pack. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas.

stay with us on this somewhat dismal day on waushs. my doctor told me calcium

is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. for the efficient absorption my body needs. diabetes testing? what else is new? you get the blood, hope it's enough, it's-- what's this? freestyle lite® blood glucose test strip. sure, i'll try it, but--

[beep] wow. yep, that's the patented freestyle zipwik™ design. it's like it-- [both] targets the blood. yeah, draws it right in. the test starts fast. you need just a third the blood of one touch.® okay. freestyle test strips. i'll take 'em. sure. call or click-- we'll send you strips and a meter, free. can't i just have these? freestyle lite test strips. call or click today.

i'm hampton pearson with

your cnbc market wrap. here's a look at how stocks are doing so far today with 15 minutes left in the trading day. a major selloff under way. right now, the dow down 473 points. the s&p down 55. the nasdaq down almost 126 points. last week's snapshot of unemployment applications for benefits dipped by 1,000 to 400,000. that's the lowest it's been in four months. this comes ahead of friday's eagerly anticipated monthly report on jobs. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. martin, back to you. >> thank you, hampton. mitt romney received at least $1 million from a so-called mystery company that has since dissolved only months after it was formed. according to a story by msnbc's reporter, records obtained by nbc news reveal the million-dollar donation by w.-span, l.l.c. formed back in march by an attorney in boston who specialized in estate tax

planning for, quote, high net worth individuals. on july 129, that same attorney dissolved the company which made the donation to "restore our future," mitt romney's so-called super pack. confused? i am a bit. michael joins us live from washington. mike, how did you learn about this story and what exactly has been going on? >> reporter: well, this is a bit of a detective story, i have to say. what happened is "restore our future," which is the pro-romney super pack, just to be clear. romney doesn't formally run it. it's run by former aides to romney to boost his candidacy and supposedly independent. they reported their first filing of the year just last week that they had raised $12.2 million, including four $1 million donations. because it's a super pack, it's not restricted by these $2,500 limits for others.

so one of those million-dollar donations was from this company, w. span, l.l.c. listed at 590 madison avenue in new york, which is an office building. turns out that there's no such company listed at 590 madison avenue. i talked to the management company. they say they've never heard of it. i started looking around for corporate records, traced it to this boston lawyer filing in the state of delaware, but no indication who this was, who's behind it and the company has since dissolved, raising the question, was it created for the sole purpose of making this million-dollar donation to "restore our future". >> remarkable detective work as always. thank you for joining us. now we turn back to the markets where a rather panic-stricken selloff continues. look at that, 476.54 down and going further down. cnbc's chief white house

correspondent john harwood joins us now. john, how closely do you think the white house is following today's performance by the dow? >> reporter: extremely closely and it's not -- it's the last thing that they wanted to happen. we were all talking, martin, about the possibility that the market would tank if we did not have a debt ceiling deal, if the country either defaulted or was teetering on the brink of default. and now what's happened is we got the deal but we also got the tank. this is very bad news for the administration. it exacerbates the feeling of anxiousness in the country about the state of the economy. jay carney, the white house press secretary, was peppered with questions at his briefing about this. any white house doesn't want to talk about the day-to-day or hour-to-hour movements in the market because they can't control them. but he pointed back to the economic fundamentals and the things that he hopes and that the president hopes the congress will do when they come back, extend the payroll tax cut, approve pending trade deals. but of course, as you know, with the congress as bitterly divided

as it is, it's very difficult to get anything through even when the economy is in a very poor shape. >> and of course we know, john, that tomorrow come the job numbers. >> reporter: the job numbers are not going to be great, by any stretch. it won't take much for them to exceed what happened last month. 13,000 was a very poor performance. still have the government shedding jobs even as the private sector is adding them. but there's no scenario right now for this economy being thriving when the president runs for reelection in 2012. and the president is trying to figure out -- and he said that he's going to go back and try to develop more policy ideas. but nobody short of something additional by the federal reserve, some new quantitative easing, nobody's quite sure what can be effective in the short term. >> and of course we know that much of this trouble has been provoked and started in europe, not in america at all. >> reporter: the entire global economy is weak. the recovery is weak. so you have jitters about the united states.

those may have eased a little bit because of the deal. but then everybody refocuses on the difficulty in europe, the financial crisis in europe, which has not been resolved yet to look at. you know, in a best case for the united states, you get the economy growing at 3, 3.5% the rest of the year and maybe get unemployment down to around 8% by next fall of 2012, but there's no assurance that that scenario is going to materialize. >> john harwood, thank for joining us. long before the days of sexting, tweeting and sending inappropriate e-mails sex scandals still found their ways into the world of politics. a name you might not expect, grover cleveland, as detailed in "a secret life: the sex, lies and scandal of grover cleveland's presidency." let's bring in the author. and charles, something of a scandal, his life. how does it compare with some of the mother recent scandals that we know about? john edwards, for example?

>> well, it's close in that both fathered illegitimate children, and both at first denied responsibility for the kids, but, in my opinion, grover cleveland's scandal far surpassed anything that we are experiencing today, particularly with edwards and schwarzenegger, who both had illegitimate kids. >> was it not the case in that period, we're talking about the late 19th century, it was much easier to suppress and control the kind of information because of the influence of man? >> right. we didn't have the internet. it was the papers of a newspaper in buffalo, new york, but he dealt with this is interesting. he familiesly told ally, cronies, whatever you say, tell the truth, but my research shows it was quite the contrary.

>> isn't there a stray cultural conflict? as a society, much more per messive of certain behaviors in the past would have been described add wrong, yet as far it's a presidency goes, we really still expect perfection? >> we expect something more than -- >> the average joe. >> right. the schwarzenegger scandal is, you have to call it delicious. i mean, it's just -- even though people, innocent people have been, have experienced tragedy in the scandal, it still is a wonderful thing to report on, and same thing with spitzer. both of these guys are certainly going to make their way back. spitzer is successfully sort of semirehabilitated his image. schwarzenegger will do movies, go on leno. questions like hugh grant what are you thinking, you'll get a standing ovation. cleveland was a different situation. the historical record has been whitewashed mainly through the brilliant activity of his widow who supervised access to the

cleveland paper, and with it came a suppression of the truth. >> charles, "a secret life" you've exposed it. thank you for joining us. look at those numbers. the dow down 507. stay with us. oh, we call it the bundler. let's say you need home and auto insurance. you give us your information once, online... [ whirring and beeping ] [ ding! ] and we give you a discount on both. sort of like two in one. how did you guys think of that? it just came to us. what? bundling and saving made easy. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit... with all you need to enroll.

put their trust in aarp medicare supplement insurance. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. the prices are competitive. i can keep my own doctor. and i don't need a referral to see a specialist. call now to get a free information kit. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding medicare. and the advantages don't end there. choose from a range of medicare supplement plans... that are all competitively priced. we have a plan for almost everyone, so you can find one that fits your needs and budget. with all medicare supplement plans, there are virtually no claim forms to fill out. plus you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare. and best of all, these plans are... the only medicare supplement plans endorsed by aarp. when they told me these plans were endorsed by aarp... i had only one thing to say... sign me up. call the number on your screen now... and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan. you'll get this free information kit... and guide to understanding medicare,

to help you choose the plan that's right for you. as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. this is proving a xrr, very bad day. the dow is down 493 at this moment very close to the closing bell. it will be nine out of ten days when that figure has fallen and my colleague dylan ratigan will be picking things up after our broadcast, but he joins us early. dylan, i can remember watching you in 2008 when you breathlessly described that catastrophe on the markets. how does this compare? >> this is almost like an echo. think of it like a, a wave returning to you when the markets went into a cascade back

in 2008 there was a much greater degree of uncertainty. people truly did not know what was going to happen. they did not know whether the banks were going to function. they did not know eth whether, in fact, government would be able to handle it. that is not the problem today. >> no, but dylan, this is happening in europe. people are saying that about the banks in europe, and yet look at the dow in america on wall street today? >> what we're getting today is what we received in the past two weeks from our government, as basically, a piece of legislation. think of it like this. the debt ceiling debate was not a debate about spending. not a debate about jobs. it was not a debate about what to cut. the debt ceiling debate was the american lawmakers, the american president, the american republican congress, the american democratic congress, putting on an illustration for the world as to how they intend to go about solving problems as a group. they exposed their values. they exposed their lack of

integrity. they exposed their willingness to abandon arithmetic and fact in sharing a common goal to go towards prosperity e and that fundamental evidence is so repugnant to the investment community, not because they have a morality. they don't have a morality. repugnant because it's evidenced, martin, the problem-sochling required to overcome our energy, prosperity and job problems is not in place. what the market cares about is not moral judgment whether the government can work it out. they could care less. they care 5k about whether ef the inability doesn't result in what we're getting, increased expectations for a double dip, expectations for a terrible jobs number tomorrow, expectations for a continued decline in manufacturing and those are the by-product, that lack of prosperity through manufacturing, through job creation, through investment in this country is has the stock market seeing and instead of thinking to themselves, okay,

the americans are going toggggg this out and move in that direction and that prosperity they're saying, hang on. look how they're trying to solve this problem. the only thing going for them is that they're not italy. >> get what? the market is now down 503. there's the judgment. that's the judgment that you were describing just now. that's the market judgment of the politicians that you just so brilliantly explained. >> and at its core, i can sit on tv and analyze things. somebody else can. we can and kate policy. you do not get real change particularly with something incentive to keep in kang, the special interest, the congress and that sort of corrupt, the legislative body devoid of integrity, arithmetic and fact because it's prosperous for those in charge, until you are forced to change,