good morning. i'm chris jansing and stocks are tumbling. 30 minutes into the first full trading day since standard & poor's cut the u.s. credit rating. down almost 200 points. today's reaction following last week's worst selloff in two years. cnbc's steve liesman joins me live. good morning. is this about what you expected? >> yeah, it's in line. we were down a little bit more in the 250, 260 range. came back a little bit. but we had a poor open and close in asia, europe did not do well. the one asset that's doing well is the asset that was downgraded, u.s. sovereign debt, ten-year notes were right -- we're doing pretty well. that was the opposite of what you might think. but at the end of the day what you have is a flight to safety. the ricochets keep coming. s&p also downgraded some other financial institutions that they say are reliant upon the u.s. sovereign debt. >> they're not backing off on --

they said they would do it again, but treasury secretary tim gooet near over on cnbc, he is absolutely furious with standard & poor's. let me splay a clip of what he had to say. >> i think s&p's shown really terrible judgment. they handled themselves very poorly and showed a stunning lack of knowledge about u.s. fiscal math. i think they drew exactly the wrong conclusion from this budget agreement. >> is that politics talking or does he have some, do you think, real economic argument there? >> well, both sides say that s&p did in its initial press release make a $2 trillion mistake in the forecast deficit ten years down the road, the debt to gdp ten years down the road. they did make the fix some time in the afternoon on friday. and went ahead and did the same thing. one of the things treasury's really angry about is that it didn't take more time to consider if the numbers were, in fact, $2 trillion less, maybe that should have changed the

outcome or at least considered it changed the outcome. >> let me ask you you a question from a laymen's perspective. the $2 trillion mistake. s&p missed the boat on subprime mortgages. why does it have so much power over the markets? >> well, people look at -- they're afraid what the next guy is going to do. at the end of the day, s&p is not providing any information on u.s. government indebtedness that the markets are -- in fact, the public didn't have beforehand. what they're afraid is that in the markets, the next guy's going to think this is terrible so he's going to sell before that person and then pretty soon you have a cascade like you have throughout global markets. i think the biggest fear right now is not this downgrade, which is only one notch from aaa to aa-plus, but it's the threat. and as you said, s&p is not backing down. they're reiterating even this morning the possibility of a further downgrade if the select

committee in november doesn't come up with the promised cuts and they also want the united states government to go further. s&p said they wanted $4 trillion worth of cuts. as you know, the budget deal came up with between 2.1 and $2.4 trillion of cuts. it fell short there. the bottom line is the outlying budgets don't show the debt to gdp ratio ever falling. it goes up. the rate of growth slows but it never declines. that's the thing that s&p keeps coming back to, as its major concern. >> cnbc's steve liesman, thanks much. let me bring in msnbc policy analyst as well as columnist for "the washington post." good morning, ezra. >> good morning. >> s&p's basis, and steve talked about this, their reason for the downgrade was economic as well as political. let me read part of what they said. we see america's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective and less predictable than what we previously believed. the statutory debt ceiling and

the threat of default have become political bargaining chips. are they right? >> i think there's no doubt they're right. which is not to say s&p is a particularly good analytical shop. it's not to say, and this is very important, it is not to say what's going on in the markets today is a function of s&p as other people pointed out. for instance, what s&p did is downgraded treasuries, downgraded government debt. government debt is doing great today because everywhere else in the world is doing terrible. people are terrified what's happening in europe, italy and spain. people are very, very worried about growth in america. they're worried about a slowdown in china. there's a tendency to sort of take the big political economic news and then explain what's happening in the market as a direct function of that. in this case, i would be very, very careful of that. >> well, let's talk, though, about the political implications because democrats have been using this as a talking point. they are pointing the finger at the tea party. let me play a little sound for

you, ezra. >> this is the tea party downgrade because a minority of people in the house of representatives countered even the will of many republicans in the united states senate, who were prepared to do a bigger deal. >> the members of the house of representatives had a mandate, had a mandate last november, and it was jobs and the economy and it was spending. >> is it clear at this point what the political impact of this is going to be? >> what the political impact is completely unclear. it's clear there is something to this cry teak. i've spoken with david bears, and he's, you know, said all along that it was the debt ceiling deal that did this, the debt ceiling discussion where we went from s&p saying we didn't need a deficit deal for three to five years and, frankly, it wouldn't even be wise to die tye a deficit deal to the debt ceiling. that's what they were saying a couple months ago. then we yoked them together and so they downgraded us. we did not act like a country

you could be completely comfortable is going to continue to make wise financial decisions going forward. >> let me interrupt you there because i think it's crucial about who's going to be making those, quote/unquote, wise financial decisions. you just heard steve liesman saying one of the things that s&p and really investors around the world are going to look at is what this super committee in congress has to do. where is this going forward? >> so, the super committee could, of course, if it brings out an aggressive reduction deficit package, that will get us our aaa back. they said if we let some bush tax cuts expire we would get our aaa back, that would not require a large-scale agreement in congress. we could make these decisions again. that goes to the underlying point is the s&p downgrade in and of itself is not that impressive of a deal. eventually we are going to make some these decisions. the question is how smoothly we do it which is, why again i don't think the market's reaction here is primarily about

s&p. they knew all this. nothing s&p is saying and nothing they're saying about the road forward is different. so anybody that didn't have this in their head, they weren't paying attention. >> ezra klein, good to see you. a nato helicopter crash-landed in southeastern afghanistan today due to mechanical failure. no casualties but it does, of course, come on the heims els oe deadly chinook crash over the weekend. 30 american troops were killed, including 22 navy s.e.a.l.s from elite s.e.a.l. team 6. that's the same special ops team that took out osama bin laden. >> s.e.a.l. team 6 is around 300 people. this is a huge blow. but they are very tough, determined people. they'll replace rapidly out of the several thousand s.e.a.l.s in the navy, and it won't impact their operations at all. >> aaron was one of the navy

s.e.a.l.s who died in saturday's crash in afghanistan. she joins me along with erin's parents, billy and karen vaughn. first, i want to express our condolences to all of you and thanks for talking to us at this difficult time. good morning. >> good morning. >> kimberly, you have an amazing story with aaron that you met. you were on a uso tour as a washington redskins cheerleader. he was stationed in guam. tell us a little about the man you fell in love with. >> well, when i met him, 6'4", he's hard to miss. i mean, i won't get into all how we met, but the man i fell in love with is gentle and kind and a wonderful father and wonderful son. but he was strong and courageous and a warrior for christ and for his country. >> you said he was a wonderful

father. in fact, he was home just eight week ago for the birth of your second child, chamberlain. tell us about that visit. >> yes. as much as they're gone, i was very blessed to have him home for the birth of our daughter. she's 8 weeks old. i was a little curious as to how aaron would be raising a daughter as opposed to our son. but he just took her in his arms and he was ecstatic to have a little baby girl. to carry on his legacy and our son, reagan, is 23 months old. and i can already see aaron's qualities in him, so i'm glad they'll both get to carry out his legacy. >> tell us about that. what do you see in your son that remind you of aaron? >> oh, reagan is fearless. he is rambunctious and ready to

do and try anything, even at -- like aaron. >> and how wonderful that they have that time together just a couple of months ago. billy, i know your son joined the navy s.e.a.l.s after 9/11, that he served around the world. was an instructor for a while and then came back and became part of the most elite s.e.a.l. team 6. what was it about the s.e.a.l.s and what was it about wanting to serve his country that attracted your son to this very challenging career? >> i believe that's what it was, the challenging career. just like kimberly said, aaron was courageous and if he did anything, he was going to do it the best he could do it.

and it was a challenge to him to become a s.e.a.l. you know, i believe he saw the challenge as an opportunity to seven his country and to stand up for what he believed in. >> i think it has to be one of the most difficult things, as i've spent time with the families of s.e.a.l.s in the past, that they are doing extraordinary things at great risk to themselves, and yet because of the nature of the job, they can't talk about it and you can't talk about it. and often you aren't aware of exactly what their mission is. as an mom, let me give you an opportunity, if you would like, to brag a little bit about the extraordinary things that your son accomplished. >> well, you know, when he first said he wanted to become a navy

s.e.a.l., i knew he'd wanted to since he was a young child. when he decided to join, i just -- part of me wanted to be able to and part of me didn't. you know, as a mother, of course. and i remember, you know, he just -- when he actually started the training, he just -- he just went straight through. and it was just phenomenal. and my husband and i were just, you know, saying things the other day that aaron said. we were just laughing about stuff. and i remember when he got done with hell week, he called home and he couldn't talk because his -- you know, their mouths are actually swollen from the dehydration and just the exhaustion of hell week. and he said -- he was trying to say, i got my brown shirt, but i couldn't understand what he said because he was so out of breath. what that meant is he had finished hell week. they had a brown shirt with his name on it. his father has that shirt in our

closet. and you know, just every step of the way. every time he would achieve a greater position with his job, it brought a lot of fear as well as pride. you know, we were proud for him but we knew that he was -- you know, that he was always risking his life. i mean, in every day training their risk their lives every day in training. i just have to say as a mother, you know, you spend every minute knowing that that phone call can come any time. >> well, our thought are with the vaughn family this morning. these are the faces of some of the other service members who died saturday. navy s.e.a.l. kevin houston, for example, 36 years old, grew occupy cape cod in massachusetts. for each mission he tucked an american flag under his body armor next to his heart. it was a symbol of what he fought for. he received a purple heart and two bronze stars in his 16 years with the navy. 25-year-old michael strange of

pennsylvania joined the s.e.a.l.s just two years ago. his friends and family are remembering him as a friendly person with a wicked sense of humor who always sought out adventu adventure, snowboarding, scuba diving in his free time. he just recently became an uncle. my contacts are so annoying. they're itchy, dry and uncomfortable. i can't wait to take 'em out, throw 'em away and never see them again. [ male announcer ] know the feeling? get the contacts you've got to see to believe. acuvue® oasys brand contact lenses with hydraclear® plus technology, keeping your eyes exceptionally comfortable all day long. it feels like it disappeared on my eye. [ male announcer ] discover why it's the brand eye doctors trust most for comfort. if you have astigmatism, there's an acuvue® oasys lens for that too, realigning naturally with every blink. ask your doctor for acuvue® oasys brand. whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain.

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♪ ♪ 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. right now joe biden is in kenya. the vice president's wife is the highest profile person to visit the area 37 she'll tour the largest refugee camp, dadaab, where tens of thousands of somali refugees have arrived in recent weeks. tonight president obama speaks at two fund-raisers in washington, d.c. one at a private residence. the other at the st. regis

hotel. and check out senators john kerry and scott brown, both were in bike shorts yesterday with lance armstrong and thousands of others in the annual pan-mass challenge cancer fund-raiser. well, it's all about iowa this week for the republican presidential candidates. nine of their names will be on the ballot for the straw poll in ames. and the results could make or break campaign for 2012. michael is nbc's national investigative correspondent, and mike murray is nbc's deputy director. good morning. all technically skipping this competition, although their names are on the ballot. what's at stake here? who needs to make the strongest showing? >> first on that list is tim pawlenty, former governor of minnesota. he's had a bad string over the last several weeks, whether a tough fund-raising report or poor performance at a new hampshire debate in june. he need a good showing in the ames straw poll just to have

good news going into the fall. >> michele bachmann, too in. >> as well. she's the republican front-runner in iowa in a strong performance there, she'll be able to maintain that title. but if she does have some vulnerability, it could seem she has chink in her armor. >> it was interesting reading the papers over the weekend because it looks like ther campaign is closely calculating her appearance. "the new yorker" says she can't be photographed in casual close. the handlers want the crowd tight so it looks like she has big crowds. is that just smart politics or a little manipulative when you compare it to other campaigns? >> well, image is always important in presidential campaigns. as you mentioned the back bachmann campaign is taking special attention. when there's a tough story about her, she continues to stay on script. doesn't want to get down into stories that might be damaging

and just has -- her eyes on the prize. eventually she'll have tough questions that will need to be answered, but for now her campaign keeps marching forward to iowa. >> let's talk about mitt romney, nationally the front-runner, michael, and you've been really behind this story that he's had this million dollar sort of mystery donor, but he was revealed over the weekend, a guy named edward conard. did they have to do damage control? >> the romney campaign, one of the interesting things is this was a donation to the romney super pack, which independent of the romney campaign. their lines are getting increasingly blurry. romney has been appearing at fund-raising dinners for this fund-raiser, restoring future. it's unsure how much they knew

about this donation, but edward c conard a long-time associate of romney, he continues to list bane capital as his address. he has been a major donor to romney over the years. so, while i think that to some extent the controversy has been muted by him outingáaj do you think, mark? >> all indications are he's still not 100% in. of course, we'll see what he

ends up doing but all eyes are on the fact he might do something right after the ames straw poll. >> mike murray, michael, thank you, guys. >> thank you. gold surging past $1700 for the first time this morning. of course, investors have been looking for those safe investments. if you're keeping track, the price of gold has nearly doubled since 2009. we'll have much more on what's moving your money straight ahead. i probably feel about thirty. how is it that we don't act our age? [ marcie ] you keep us young. [ kurt ] we were having too much fun we weren't thinking about a will at that time. we have responsibilities to the kids and ourselves. we're the vargos and we created our wills on legalzoom. finally. [ laughter ] [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help you take care of the ones you love. go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. a network of possibilities. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience

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>> well, you know, when the president took office, these were really tough times. we're seeing them now again as we watch the stock market plummet, but there was a tom like that where the market was plummeting from 14,000 dow from 14,000 to 6,500. people are losing their jobs, 750,000 people a month. people are worried about -- we're skaerd they were worried about how they were going to feed their families and waiting for the president, from day one, from his inauguration speech, to say, look, let me explain to you what's just happened. let me tell you what i'm going to do about it. and let me restore your confidence that there's someone in the white house who can actually help you. >> you use a very interesting quote from a speech that fdr gave, when he announced the second new deal. i want to read it because i thought it was really instructive. quote, never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. they are unanimous in their hate

for me. and i welcome their hatred. so, do you think barack obama simply is trying to compromise too much, which has been one of the criticisms, even among some of his one-time strongest supporters? >> you know, one way to talk about it is exactly as you just have, is that he compromised too much. clearly, you know, on the stimulus -- the stimulus bill, people can rewrite history, but he didn't listen to his economic advisers. he didn't listen to the noble prize-winning economists who also told him, who were experts in the new deal when fdr was facing a similar crisis. he said, you know what, we've got to have a really big stimulus. you're looking at the private economy -- the private sector is not -- cannot do it right now. there's no money to spend and only the public sector can do it. instead of making the big deal that he needed to do, making that -- following the advice of the economists, he kind of split the deal and said, well, let me go halfway and put in some tax

breaks and maybe that will sweeten it for the republicans. of course, he got a half stimulus that half stimulated the economy. >> well, thank you so much, drew westen, good to talk to you. >> thanks for having me on. i want to pick up on breaking news. take a look at what's going on on the dow. almost down 320 points. we forecast this, our experts did at the top of the hour, that there could be other downgrades. well, we have just learned s&p now downgraded fannie mae, freddie mac, of course, the home loan folks. so, as predicted, the s&p continuing its downgrade after an official from s&p said this morning, absolutely no regrets about downgrading the u.s. credit rating. we're going to continue to follow the markets and the impact of all of this coming up. o nourish plus moisturize. active naturals wheat formulas target and help repair damage in just 3 washes. for softer, stronger... ... hair with life. [ female announcer ] nourish plus. only from aveeno.

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down almost 350 points. a bad day just keeps getting worse. the u.s. following what has been a sell-off around the world. a certified public accountant, ebong, and we've watched this come full circle. do you think this is direction reaction of the downgrade of fannie and freddie? >> it doesn't help. more importantly, it is part of that and it does hurt. as relates to fannie and freddie and recent downgrades, you can add that to the list of other problems in the mortgage industry. right now it will be a little more challenging to securitize mortgage-backed securities. but as it relates to the -- >> so, tell me that in sort of consumer speak. does that mean if i'm looking to get a mortgage or to refinance my mortgage, i'm going to have a tougher time? >> not necessarily. but people are still having problems -- people with perfect credit as well as collateral or money down options are still having problems getting mortgages for their loans. more importantly, the recent

lowering of the jumbo loan limit made it even more challenging for people to buy homes. >> well, let me ask you about the s&p in general. of course, the big action that was taken against the u.s. where are people likely to feel this the most? is it going to be in their 401(k)s? is it going to be in interest payments? >> it's going to be more in interest payments because there are a lot of consumer loans -- the interest rates on a lot of consumer loans are actually tied to treasury interest rates. so, the result of the downgrade, interest rates are most likely going to rise. people who have variable rate interest on certain consumer loans, whether it's cars or other credit card debt, they're going to be paying more out of pocket for interest payments. >> i'm looking at these numbers just staeadily going up heading toward 400 and i'm sure people are sitting back watching saying, i need to bail, get out of the stock market all together in favor of something else. i mean, we saw what gold is doing. it's at a record high. you know, it's doubled in price in just the last couple of years.

what is the smart move for the average investor, take action or stay put? >> well, the biggest thing you're hearing nowadays, especially in commercials, is go out and buy lots of gold. the problem, like you just said, gold is at a record high. that's the problem. the whole point is, you don't buy high and then sell low. what you want to do is, looking at the market now, there's a great opportunity to find great discounts and bargains in a lot of funds. especially if you're investing for the long term. if you want to go buy gold now, that's fine, and you may want to diversify your holdings, but the last thing you want to do is take all your money out of the market and then make a run for the gold stores. >> yeah, because i think a lot of people are looking and saying, you know, two years ago i thought it hit an all-time high or two months ago i thought it hit an all-time high. so, boy, the temptation's pretty strong. >> i completely agree. but the last thing you want to do is be reactionary. you can't be as fickle as the market. >> ebong, good to see you. we'll continue to watch the markets this morning. now about 260 points -- it's

jumping all around. it's been in the 300s now for the last 10 or 15 minutes since the downgrade of fannie and freddie. we'll keep you posted. in the meantime let's take a look at other stories people are talking about right now. a second night of violence in north london after a weekend of rioting and looting with buildings there burned to the ground. 35 police officers were injured. more than 160 people arrested. nbc's michelle kosinski is live in london. give us a little perspective. what's going on right now, what sparked all this? >> right now it seems to be calm. you go out to some neighborhoods where there was rioting for most of the weekend, the amount of damage is just staggering. it started in north london, the violence just exploded there saturday night after what started as a peaceful vigil for a man who had been shot dead by police last week. it spread from there. for now at least it seems the violence has finally ended. >> reporter: in a weekend-long explosion of fury, citizens battled police in the street.

at least 50 fires were set. looted and destroyed, more than 100 people arrested. >> this level of violence escalated beyond all proportion. what was a peaceful vigil by a grieving family was hijacked by mindless criminal thugs who set fire to police cars, who damaged local businesses, who destroyed people's homes. >> reporter: last week father of four mark duggan was shot dead by police after a traffic stop. they say he fired on officers but that's under investigation. the demonstration saturday turned ugly, sparking this. >> it's been boiling for a long time but i didn't expect it to be this much. >> reporter: just as london start to gear up for the 2012 olympics, it is cleaning up from the worst rioting in 30 years. >> there's a huge police

presence in these neighborhoods right now. so, for now it seems like the rioting is over, but the situation really isn't because the city want to know what exactly were the circumstances in that police-involved shooting last week and why this level of anger just beginning to surface in some of these parts of london? i mean, it really spread to several neighborhoods, not just that one. chris? >> michelle kosinski, thank you for that update. a small ohio tone is reeling this morning after a shooting rampage that killed seven people, including an 11-year-old boy. police say the gunman shot his girlfriend in one home, ran next door and shot her brother and then gunned down four neighbors. he then allegedly chased four more people before he was shot and killed in a gun fight with police. investigators believe it was all sparked by a domestic dispute. two brothers and a sister are on the run after an alleged crime spree and their mother is now begging them to surrender. this is who the fbi is looking for. ryan, dylan and lee grace d

daugherty. they are reportedly armed with an ak-47 and other weapons. more than 45,000 verizon workers are on strike for a second day now. contract negotiations broke down over the weekend over issues that include health care costs and pensions. the strike could affect land line operations and that includes the installation of consumer services like fios. a 61-year-old american swimmer is attempting to make history by swimming more than 100 miles from havana to key west. that's an estimated 60-hour swim in shark-infested waters without a cage. she famously tried to swim in 1978 input sea currents forced her off course and she was not able to finish. and tiger woods didn't just lose his first tournament back from injury. he lost another major sponsor. those details when we go down to the wire. new details emerging about this weekend's deadly helicopter crash in afghanistan that killed

30 american service members, including 22 navy s.e.a.l.s from the same unit that killed osama bin laden. eight afghans were also killed in the crash. it took place southwest of kabul. we're joined with the latest from kabul and what new thing are we learning about what exactly happened? >> reporter: good morning, chris. well, nato officials are finally saying today what exactly happened to that helicopter. they're saying the ch-47 chinook helicopter carrying the 38 people on board, including the 30 americans, were actually on their way to this village in wardak, a province southwest of kabul. they rn actually a reinforcement team there to help army rangers who were pinned down by the taliban. as their helicopter was approaching, the area where the battle was occurring, that's when the taliban decided to fire a rocket-propelled grenade, bringing that helicopter down and killing everyone on board. what's interesting here, chris, is the fact that the taliban actually had the story and

shared the story with the media back on saturday. why i call it interesting is because the taliban tend to exaggerate. today nato is actually confirming the same story we heard from the taliban. >> what do we know about if and how this might affect current plans for combat engagement and troop withdrawal? >> reporter: well, we went to a press conference here today in the capital of kabul and they say this will have no influence on the conduct of how this war will be operated. it will not influence troop withdrawal as well. we have to remember this was a devastating day for american troops on saturday, the deadliest day we've seen since the war began in 2001. but we see death on a daily basis here in afghanistan. not just american deaths, but other coalition countries as well. they're continuing to work together because they say they still want a positive future for afghanistan as well as their home countries. >> atia, thank you so much.

of course, navy s.e.a.l.s are the elite of the military. and they get that way with notoriously gruelling training. as i found out when i was given extraordinary access for a "today" show and "nightly news" series last year. >> reporter: navy s.e.a.l. training, kodiak, alaska, air temperature, 20. water temperature, numbing. and the s.e.a.l.s are in it up to their necks. >> there is a mental toughness. an ability to almost put yourself beyond the sensory sensation of that chill. it's something that every s.e.a.l. can account on later on when he's on a mission. >> reporter: and a navy s.e.a.l. is nothing if not the poster child for mental toughness. >> we really push the envelope. it's amazing how hard we push the envelope. >> reporter: with the intensity navy s.e.a.l.s are known for, david starts training every day at 3 a.m. right now it's for a 3,000-mile

bike race across america. he's already done a 135-mile run across the desert and the world's iron man competition. >> to see my limit, i don't think human beings have them. i think we put limits on ours. >> reporter: navy s.e.a.l.s call it extreme fitness, building endurance and strength for some of the military's most dangerous operations. >> we go to combat with each other all the time. if you don't have each other's back -- >> reporter: you're gone. >> -- it's a bad day. >> reporter: there are a lot of bad days in the three years of training to become a s.e.a.l. the core physical training in coronado, california s legendary for its intensity. months of lifting 200-pound logs, pulling 300-pound rafts. >> we like it when it hurts. >> reporter: cal this ens and an obstacle course. >> it's exhausting. there's no time to think about how i feel, how much it hurts or why the instructor is yelling at me. >> really amazing. i didn't find out until the end

the entire day i spent with david, he was doing all that training with cracked ribs. aaron vaughn, one of the members of s.e.a.l. team 6 who died on saturday tells me that his son got through s.e.a.l. training with no acl in one of his knees. >> he was done training, until he got way too far, and they discovered that he didn't -- in one day at home, one of the scurries worked its way up into his leg, he took a pocketknife and took the screw out of his leg. this is before he became a s.e.a.l. when he became a s.e.a.l., they discovered, you don't have an acl, but you've gone this far. my son didn't -- didn't lie, but he fibbed about -- he misled the he fibbed about -- he misled the navy a speciasts, 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.

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blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. make today the day you talk to your rheumatologist. and ask how you can defend against and help stop further joint damage with humira. hi, i'm thomas robertson. the next hour on msnbc, monday morning market reaction after the u.s. sufficients its first ever credit downgrade by s&p. is this more of a political statement than an economic one and how is it going to trickle

down to you, the consumer? they were sons, brothers, fathers, how 30 u.s. special ops troops are being honored and remembered after one of the deadliest chopper crashes in the afghan war. on a much lighter note for you, being bilingual, a super food for developing your child's brain? we have the answer coming up. we continue to follow that breaking news out of wall street. take a look at what is going on because it's been a down day from the very start. now 336 points in the red for the dow. really dropped after the s&p downgraded the credit ratings of fannie mae and freddie mac a little while ago. let me bring in cnbc scott cohen. for the average consumer, what does this mean? >> well, this is going to be maddening in uncertain times but it depends. it depends on whether the downgrades really lead to increased borrowing costs. not just for the federal government, which we've been talking about sort of in an abstract over the weekend, but any of these like fannie mae and

freddie mac that were downgraded and 10 of the 12 federal home loan banks, farm credit system, all downgraded as a ripple effect of the u.s. government they're so dependent upon being downgraded. the question is whether this is going to increase their borrowing costs. if it does, it does potentially mean higher interest rates for the consumer. that could be why you're seeing the big reaction in the stock market today. >> scott, thank you so much. of course, all this uncertainty can't be good for struggling job market. black lawmakers trying to tackle the daunting task of creating jobs starting today with nationwide jobs initiative that kicks off in cleveland. the unemployment rate monday african-americans is at 15.9% for july. that's a staggering 6 points higher than the national average. congresswoman maxine waters is a democrat from california, a member of the financial services committee and congressional black caucus. i want to ask you, congresswoman b your effort in the job fair but first let me get your reaction to what you're seeing in the markets right now and how worried are you about how much

more difficult this could make the job that you're there to do, which is to try to find a way to create jobs? >> well, it's very scary. and i'm not pleased to learn that fannie and freddie have been downgraded as of today. that means investors are going to be very shake y very worried. when investors, are not investing money in mortgages, that means less jobs, less opportunities. so, this is something we all have to be concerned about. we have to do everything that we possibly can to create jobs. you're absolutely correct. the unemployment situation is out of hand. >> in fact, you're going to start -- >> african-american community -- >> you're going to start this eveland, but have you efforts all over the country. the goal, as i understand it, is to get 10,000 people hired, but when you look at what's happening right now, is that really possible in this economy? >> well, we think so. we think that there are a lot of employers out there that are

looking for good people, a lot of good people are trying to get connected. so, we are all over the country. we start here in cleveland, but we're going to detroit and atlanta and miami and to los angeles, where the jobs -- unemployment numbers are off the scales. we believe we can make these connections. we believe some employers who have jobs, opportunities there that will come out and connect. over 100 -- 200 employers are here in cleveland today. we have over 7,000 people in line. the congressional black caucus decided to get out of washington, depuget on the grou connect with the people. not only demonstrate we feel their pain but we're going to do something concrete about it. connecting the employers with the employees. >> one of the questions i have is about the political atmosphere in washington, which led at least in part to the downgrade, because it's clear that s&p has some political concerns in mind when they made this decision. you're also looking at a time

when republicans are absolutely determined to continue to cut programs, to cut into the debt. you as a democrat are in the minority in the house. are you, in a sense, margin marginalized in terms of how much you can accomplish? >> well, no, we can never feel as if we can't do something about the crisis. one of the things we are hoping is going to happen is that the republicans, particularly led by the tea party group, will understand that they're undermining the economy rather than helping the economy. we should be stimulating the economy, not causing the economy to withdraw by taking government money out. if we stimulate the economy, we create jobs. people spend money. that way we can start to deal with the debt. so, i think that it is incumbent upon us to keep fighting, to keep fighting, trying to educate, and making them understand that they're not helping to reduce the debt.

asser baiting the problem. >> congresswoman waters, thank you and good luck to you. we'll have a lot more information and a stream, actually, of today's town hall meeting. you can watch it ngredients... i knowredients... you're gonna love. [ barks ] yes, it's new beneful healthy fiesta. made with wholesome grains, real chicken, even accents of tomato and avocado. yeah! come on! [ barking ] gotta love the protein for muscles-- whoo-hoo! and omega-rich nutrition for that shiny coat. ever think healthy could taste so good? [ woman announcing ] new beneful healthy fiesta. another healthful, flavorful beneful. discover aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. aveeno tinted moisturizers.

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today's fweet tweet of the day from ellen degeneres. thanks to everyone who voted me choice comedian for the teen choice awards. i'm honored. never realized y'all thought of me as a teen ijer. tiger woods loses upon soreship with watch maker tag. by the way, the big winner from the weekend may well be tiger's old kcaddie, joined up with scott, who won the bridgestone invitational and the caddie called it the best win of his life.

i'm chris jansing. join me tomorrow when congressman charlie rangel will be my guest to talk about the economy and your money.

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selectquote. we shop. you save. market freefall. stocks tumble both at home and overseas on the heels of the u.s. losing its aaa credit rating for the first time in history. ahead, the political blame game in washington and what it means for you, your 401(k), your mortgage, your student loan. faces of the fallen, husbands, boy frens and fathers. >> we were blessed we could be together for the birth of our children. and aaron was an amazing father. and i'm proud that i will get to carry on his legacy through our children. >> others were brothers, uncles and sons. all served their nation valiantly. we'll look at the navy s.e.a.l.s and other troops killed in the deadliest day of the afghan war. and epic journey. a 61-year-old woman embarks