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tv   Martin Bashir  MSNBC  August 8, 2011 12:00pm-1:00pm PDT

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courageous and warrior. >> and we learn more names of the silent warriors who were lost in the 10-year war in afghanistan. ahead, new details on the mission and the men who came from every corner of america. but this monday, we begin with the downgrading of the u.s. credit rating by standard & poor's, and a rating drop that is sending shock waves across the country and around the globe. the dow plunging throughout the afternoon and now off by some 500 points and the markets reacting for the first time in u.s. history as the u.s. was reduced from notch, from its aaa rating and taken down a peg now to a aa-plus, and an hour ago in response to the financial crisis, the president called on the country to ban together. take a listen. >> markets will rise and fall, but this is the united states of america.
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no matter what some agency may say, we have always been and always will be a aaa country. >> under fire, standard & poor's released this statement saying that the change had to be made, and the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of american policy making and political institutions have weakened a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges. this is a move that is spiking sharp criticism from the white house and beyond from the president challenging the analysis to what others call ta agency's less than stellar record in the financial crisis. >> they made a $2 trillion math error and forgot to check the work. so the rating agencies that didn't make a $2 trillion math error reaffirmed the aaa status. >> the s&p has shown terrible judgment and handled so poorly and showed a stunning lack of knowledge about the u.s. fiscal budget math and they drew exactly the wrong conclusion from this budget agreement.
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>> standard & poor's would have for fitted the good reputation if it had a good reputation to forfit these days. it is a half baked way to criticize the american politics, but their opinion is not entitled to any particular respect. >> the agency downgraded the credit ratings of housing giants fannie mae and freddie mac and other agencies related to the long-term debt. so what will this mean to the struggling u.s. economy. we are joined by brian sullivan, and today's closing bell will not sound from too long from now and tell us about what manic monday as it has progressed to the dow losing over 500 now? >> well, we are watching a lot of selling.
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selling from to get-go. 49 of the standard & poor's 500 companies are down and only newmont mining is higher, and that is a gold company given that gold is $1,700 an ounce, and we are seeing the fears of a slowdown. at the end of the day, a stock price is merely the future value of earnings, and take out the psychology and when you buy the stock, you are buying what that company will eventually earn, and the problem is that right now the investors are clearly saying that the u.s. economy is likely to slowdown and companies will earn less money and not only here, but in europe, and we know what is going on with banks there and the brazilian stock market is down 28% this year, and we were supposed to be saved by these emerging markets like brazil, and instead, there is a lot of concern where they are going. so, you name it, people are nervous about it today. >> and brian, when we look at it, this is so new to everyone in the u.s., because we have never suffered a downgrade before, but we have suffered
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through market plunging like this before, so how do people take the market analysis and reading of this to know what it takes to recover? >> well, to recover the credit rating takes years. s&p says an average of last night they said on the cnbc special nine years. and canada and australia lost theirs and got them back and they are commodity economies and gold and oil came back and they got a lift there. and to come back, you will hear the stability here. and from what you hear from the people on the show, invess or the -- investors and ceos alike, we don't know what the earnings are going to be like and the sales in three months or six months or one year. when people don't have visibility, they won't buy stocks. how do we get visibility? i'm not sure, but guest after guest after guest today in cnbc say we have to stop the squabbling right now.
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they can blame the messenger s, and p and they have made horrific calls, and horrific calls, but they are all we have got. and we so get down to work, and get down to work and solve the problems and fix the economy. >> we will keep with you, brian, throughout the hour, because we are watching the numbers and as we get to the psychological break of 10,000, we want to keep you on board. brian sullivan from cnbc, thank you. we are following everything coming today from the white house and the breaking news as it follows the markets closely and for more reaction from washington, we want to check in with kristen welker life from the white house, and it seemed that the president was speaking and the dow was dropping consistently and faster than before and is the white house facing a confidence problem? >> well, president obama trying to take a hopeful and confident tone today, thomas, and today, no doubt that this is an incredible difficult moment in
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president obama's presidency, and you have heard it say twice through the remarks and trying to tamp down some of the concern and the volatility that we have seen in the markets, but he made a couple of points in the speech, and one that we don't need a rating agency to tell us that we don't have a divided political system, and part of that is the white house plan of tamping down the criticism of getting that this downgrade happened under his watch. and so, trying to fight back against some of that criticism, and also a call to action to congress for that bipartisan and bi-cameral committee, the super committee that will be charged with identifying more deficit reductions and president obama saying he will come to the table with his own plan as he called on that committee to identify more deficit reductions as well as changing the tax code and entitlement reform, and really trying to have a hopeful tone today, thomas, in trying to restore some of the confidence shaken due to the downgrade. >> well, kristen, as we are saying that the president said
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that we are a aaa country, despite the rating dip of this s a &p, and how does this bring back congress early from the recess? >> well, i was just asked about that or i should say press secretary jay carney was asked about that and no plans to call the congress back from their recess, but he said i hope what happened friday will add more urgency to get something done. the president is arguing that there is progress done and we are in an incredibly difficult economic climate and we will face head wirndheadwinds and co
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make that argument, and he goes through the midwest on a three-day trip where he will definitely talk about his ideas to stimulate more job growth, and so they will be taking an aggressive approach to deal with the issue. >> kristen welker at the white house. thanks so much. so what does this if you are following closely mean for you right now, the consumer and then our country's economic recovery in the long-run? here to help us sort it out is diane swonk who is from mesereau financial. and diane, consumers don't know what to expect out of this, so are we on the verge of another financial crisis to what we saw in '08. >> we are getting closer and closer than i would like to admit to being on the brink of another financial crisis and too high for the double-dip recession, but it is a unlikely
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scenario, but more closer today than before. and before we hit the debt ceiling being so messy, and then the downward rescission revisi and the italians buying the wrong bonds, and this is all reminiscent of 2008. we are not there yet, but we had the fed and the other regulatory agencies snub their nose and say, it does not matter about the capital ratios and you don't have to downgrade it and devalue it, and this is important because you don't want the banks to raise more capital and lend less than they are lending and that is extremely important to european banks who have sovereign debt and treasuries on the balance sheet that have been already marked down, so that the reality is to muddle along, and muddling along is not enough in the economy and even if we avert a double-dip recession that is some comeback in the s&p over
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time, but with the lack of visibility, and brian making the point earlier that you need visibility, and it is cloudy for some time to kornlgscome, i thi the president should call back the congress and cut their vacations short. if the italians can, we can. >> and it is at 11,000, but when you see this going up and down and up and down, and calling back congress is all of the power we have and it will be time when we come back to vote and exert any power and any, i guess, intolerance to what we are seeing out of washington, d.c., however, this is going to affect mortgages, credit card rates and what does this mean ahead for the average consumer? >> well, we don't know. it is such unchartered territory, because the u.s. plays a unique role in the global economy and we are seeing the rates come down today, and i locked in on a new mortgage this morning which was lowered by ten basis points than friday and on
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a refinance, and at the moment, it does not mean higher rates, but over time, you could imagine some collateral damage here, and it has certainly meant much more difficulty for any large corporation raising equity and justify the companies with the trillion on the sidelines they have been hording and all of the sudden, that is a good strategy and not going to be redeploying the funds to hire people oar reinvest in the economy for some time soon and undermining the growth potential and making it harder for those who are out of work the find jobs down the road. >> and i know you said you refinanced this morn, but what about people jumping into the marketplace to buy a home, should they feel confident it is a right time? >> well, the issue of buying homes is interesting because there could be downward price, and there is a rental arbitrage happening, and we are running out of the places to rent, and there is an ability to buy a home for less than you could rent it out and many investors are jumping into the market to
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take advantage of that and so there is an investment opportunity in the housing market if you want to turn it around not to flip it, but to rent it out. not to best time to buy and live, but if you buy and live there for the next ten years, why not? >> and in your opinion, did s&p make the right call? >> no. s&p aimed to hit a bullet at the body politic of washington and instead hit the body blow to american public. i don't think they had the right expertise to make this call. and i think it certainly was preempti preemptive, and moody's saying aaa and on negative watch is appropriate and the politics are despicable, i agree, but to downgrade the united states and given the role that we play in the global economy and the repercussions if we go into the double-dip recession, i put the blood on the harnds of the s&p. >> thank you, diane swonk. >> thank you, thomas. we will keep a very watchful
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eye on the markets and coming up, michele bachmann, front-runner? we will explore that. 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. a living, breathing intelligence that's helping people rethink how they live. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. ♪ we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites...
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wellm coll back, everyone. keeping a close eye on the markets for you, which have spent the day in a severe sell-off and now down roughly 355 points and at worst we saw down by 600 points and this is as we get closer to the closing bell. we will keep an eye on it and keep you apprised. we have been learning details of the crash of the chinook helicopter that killed 22 navy s.e.a.l.s from the same unit that killed osama bin laden and eight afghans were killed in the same crash southwest of kabul. it was the single deadliest day in the war since it started
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almost ten years ago. today, president obama heralded the bravery of the u.s. troops and said that the mission will go on. >> i know that our troops will continue the hard work of transitioning to a stronger afghan government, and ensuring that afghanistan is not a safe haven for terrorists. we will press on, and we will succeed. >> for more on why this happened and what it means for the future of afghan efforts, we want to say good afternoon to retired colonel army jack jacobs who is a military analyst and recipient of the medal of honor. jack jack jack, it is good to see you and i was with my dad who is a vet from vietnam over the weekend and we were heart broken to hear this, and in the lead, it is the deadliest day that americans have felt, and what does it say to you about afghanistan? >> well, it punctuates the point that we will spend more time on
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special operation forces and unconventional things like raids and ambushes and so on, and the kinds of things that s.e.a.l.s and rangers do all of the time unless conventional forces, and this is going to do nothing but make the president redouble the efforts to get conventional forces out of afghanistan as soon as he can. >> but since we are winding down, do you expect to see more incidents like this? >> proportionately, this is the only game in town, finding information and converting into finished intelligence and identify the high-value targets and the villages of al qaeda and using them to have predator drones or unconventional forces like s.e.a.l.s. >> and how does this affect the moral for americans and taliban? >> well, the americans are not happy about this, and face it, the americans are not focusing a lot of attention on a war that is going on for ten years. for this s.e.a.l.s, this is terrible, because they all know
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each other, and their families know each other and this is very bad news indeed, but the s.e.a.l.s are the most professional military force you will ever see, and they like the president says will carry on to do their duty and what they are ordered to do. >> and how will this affect the withdrawals taking place next year through 2014, is the taliban waiting to take over where they have left off? >> yes, you see it already with the taliban moving into areas that are vacated from the american troops because we don't have enough to hold on to it, and yes, unfortunately the taliban is going to be waiting. in some areas we will have success like kandahar and kumar, but in those place where is we have a significant special forces presence and training the local militias, but the large built-up areas in the rest of afghanistan are all at the mercy of either the taliban or of
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kabul, and it is going to be interesting to see who winning that one. >> and in your military expertise, what does it say to you that it happened so close to kabul? >> well, that area has been bad news for a long, long time. i have been there and it is cross come parted and you can't get from one valley to another without a great deal of evident, and that is the terrain near kabul. the biggest problem with kabul is not kabul or the environs near it, but they can't control it or the outlying area, and they are under the control of the local tribal leaders, and to the extent that the u.s. can train them to keep the taliban out, they will be, and if not, they will take back, and none of afghanistan will be controlled. >> and can you talk about the toll of this war and the loss of men and women?
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will he stay the course? >> well, he would stay the conventional action and all that would do is to get the people out as quickly as they can, and conduct unconventional operations against unconventional means. >> what does that mean? >> assistance from nearby and continued operations particularly from the predator the drones into pakistan and over the border. >> all right. we will continue to send our best thoughts to all of the families suffering, and as you point out, the families of s.e.a.l.s are a tight-knit community. i have been in virginia beach for a while, and it is a fantastic community, but, yeah, that i know each other and love each other and love to work together. colonel mark jacobs, thank you very much. we will continue after this. [ male announcer ] these are volunteers...
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is she ready for a close-up? the latest edition of "newsweek" is the talk of the blogosphere thanks to michele bachmann and the wide-eyed expression. the minnesota congresswoman and presidential candidate who seems to have trouble making eye contacte cara in the president's rebuttal has problem making it with the photo for "newsweek." many people say it is outrageous and could invite comparisons like steve correl's character in "40-year-old virgin" or the "curb your enthusiasm" actor. and some are accusingis is ese saying it is queen of rage. and this afternoon bachmann's
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campaign said, we are focused on speaking to the people in iowa in straw poll. e news from the 2012 campaign trail, you can follow martin show on bashirlive on twitter or facebook/bashir. and so does michele bachmann have a new preacher problem? you will want to hear this. ♪ sweet talking woman ♪ you have me searching naturals from purina cat chow. delicious, real ingredients with no artificial flavors or preservatives. naturals from purina cat chow. share a better life.
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be when this is all said and done? >> well, we are going to be down, unless there is a miracle rally. there are not a lot of buyers out there. for every transaction, there has to be a buyer on the other side. you can't sell the stock into the vacuum, and the buyer is waiting, waiting, waiting to get to the price they want. and you will read the paper tomorrow saying that the downgrade caused us to be crushed, and maybe that is right, but i would take an issue with thas with that, because if you take a dow chart from july 14th, s&p put us on credit watch negative saying we are are warning you, will downgrade you and today's slide is more severe, but if you go back to july 14th, you will see that is when we started to have the pain, and the market in other words has been setting up for this. and by the way, you also had downgrades of fannie mae and freddie mac, the biggest
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mortgage insurers out there which is why you are seeing bank of america and other companies get hit. maybe harder to get a mortgage loan going forward here, and not what we need here. >> and brian, several straight weeks we are watching the weekly average decline, and when we look back on the time period, what are we going to say about how we got through this? i mean, the only way to get through this recession is to come out on the other side stronger, and it does not appear to be on that path. >> no. in fact, technically, we have been out of recession for a couple of years, but, you know, when you talk to the 15 million unemployed out there, they might argue that the recession never ended. we certainly didn't have a recession in corporate profits, but what you are seeing now is why a lot of companies said we are hording cashings because they feared that things would not get better and saving it for a rainy day, and what you get is this downward spiral. people see what they are seeing today, and i was going the buy a
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house or car and i shouldn't, because i am worried about the economy, and because we are the econo economy, we create the problem, so it is self-fulfilling downward spiral and it is not the fed to prevent this, but the only way to prevent this is growth. i have been doing this 15 years unfortunately, but growth solves a lot of problems. with need new ideas for growth. >> cnbc's brian sullivan. thanks so much. we want to point out that you can see more with brian at 2:00 p.m. on his cnbc show "street signs." thank you, brian. we are going to continue to monitor a volatile market, and so let's turn to the 2012 race, and in the iowa straw poll, michele bachmann attended a church service with the fateful and working in the economy in
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the prayers. >> i pray for this nation, lord, that you would bring new jobs into the nation, and we need jobs in this country, and would you bring them lord. >> and nothing too controversial, but the service was another story which incolluded remark s from a par who said that being homosexual was wrong. >> and i was a gay man and then i became a hard-core man for jesus, and i tell you that god has given me natural affection for a woman, and that is a miracle right there. >> and all of that amid reports that escape therapy was being
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done by her husband and a summary at polls at clear politics put bachmann in the lead in iowa ahead of mitt romney and tim pawlenty and ron paul. and this has also put her on the cover of "newsweek" and this photo has at lot of people talking. we want to talk about this with jonathan alter and with us from washington is michelle cottle from "newsweek" and the dai dailybeast. michelle, as we look at the cover of "newsweek" people will say this is not the most flattering picture of michele bachmann and some say it is a cheap shot, and how would you repond? >> well, no question, she has a wild-eyed look there, and what it is trying to convey is that she has the reputation of being and on-fire candidate. you know, i don't think that there is any question that she is not seen as kind of the uniter and low-key candidate in the party, but what they are
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going for there is illustrating that. >> and jonathan, when we look at more serious issues, michele bachmann is looking to be a real player in iowa and how much of the epb comy -- economy is goi to come out of of the talking points? >> well, all of the candidates are talking about the economy and especially mitt romney and he talks about that and almost nothing else when he campaigns, but the way that the campaign is shaping up, social issue, and issues not directly relayed to the economy are about to make a big comeback, because indications today are sources across the political landscape are indicating that rick perry, the governor of texas, will get into this race, and the odds are now very high, and unless there is a last-minute change, rick perry will be a candidate, and he will compete with michele bachmann for the social conservative vote in the republican party, and that means that they will be raising those issues, issues like
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homosexuality, and much more than we expected when we anticipated the economy to be the exclusive issue. >> and going after the evangelicals, and what the escape issue with michele bachmann trying to brush it off as silly, and it is not silly as they show the clip from the person who claims to be reformed and not gay any long ever, and what is going to happen as this continues to move forward, because journalists are going to press her about it. >> absolutely. i don't think that this is going to be a huge problem for her with her base. you were talking about rick perry getting into the race and one of the nice things for michele bachmann is that she has the social conservative credentials. they are strong, and they are not being questioned. so e shshe can do things like w asked about the gay marriage issue and reparative therapy, she can brush them back and say,
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i want to talk about the economy and focus on whatever issue she wants to, because unlike mitt romney, nobody is going to come in and ask her for not sticking to the credentials. >>, so with the new issue of michele bachmann in the "new yorker" it is written that she speaks passionately and off of the cuff, but she speaks before she thinks and garbles up words or mixes up history or says things that don't make sense. how can she play that off? we haveiticians like this, sarah palins and george bushs, and sometimes the issues are endearing and sometimes not. >> i don't think it will affect her campaign in iowa. rick perry might, but not her penchant for gaps, but down the road when you get into the big
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states that determine who is going to get this nomination, it is not iowa and not the social conservatives, but the republican party is a large political party, and it has a lot of people in it who are not nearly as radical as michele bachmann. you would not know that from the debate of the last few weeks in washington, but there are a lot of republicans out there who voted for john mccain in the primaries last time out, and john mccain had been a democrat two years before that, so i don't want to call them moderates, but they are conservatives, but people who will not favor michele bachmann, and to a certain extent, when it makes a gaffe, it does not hurt her in the early states like south carolina and iowa, but it will help mitt romney down the road. >> and we are talking about ames, but we are watching the market dropoff. and john nnathan alter and mich cottle, thank you both for jo
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joining us. and what is the administration's plans to help the economy coming up after this. designer lolita healy copyrighted her first cartoon character when she was just 12. 20 years later she did the same with hand-painted martini glasses. she had those glass take off and so she licensed the brand and now it is on everything from towels to jewelry. lcium 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. in one place. ♪ the race of your life you never ran. the trip around the world you never took.
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next a roller coaster day on wall street. much more coming up. ♪ roller coster i love that my daughter's part fish. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different.
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i'm amanda drury with the cnbc market wrap. wall street is reacting to the standard & poor's downgrade and the president's remarks a short time ago and slow growing growth. the numbers are dow jones is off now by 550 points and on track for the worst day since february of 2009, and the s&p is down 10% over the last ten days, and the nasdaq is off by 143 points as we stand right now. that is it from cnbc, first in business worldwide and, thomas, back over to you. >> amanda, we have been watching
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the stock market sell-off all day and many blame the downgrade by the standard & poor's rating agency, and tim geithner on sunday called s&p's move unwarranted and a terrible judgment. john harwood sat down with secretary geithner joining us from washington. we flow that, joknow, john, tha is angry about the downgrade, and how much of it has to do with the additional downgrade of fannie and freddie? >> well, both of those are implicated in the downgrade and as alan greenspan said, it is a blow to the american psyche and you see that reflected and you also see the troubles in europe with a full-blown debt crisis even though the central banning said they would intervene and try to prop up italy and other countries there under distress. this is a huge problem for the obama white house, for investors
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around the country, and for average americans who have to wonder right now whether this reflect reflects the headwinds in the economy that might affect them on job front, the unemployment front and also growth. >> john, as we get closer to the closing bell, we watch this systematically ticking down below 600 and since the beginning of talking the you, we have seen the market drop by 34 points already. investors are spooked to say the least. downright panicked would be more like it. did the president's remarks today in your opinion do the distance to calm the fears of what could be a rough week? >> no evidence of it now. but i think that what the administration hopes is that after you get the initial panic, moral blow that the united states has suffered that the markets will calm down a little bit and refocus on the fundamental and certainly the treasuries have been doing well and reflecting the continued confidence in the treasuries as
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a investment, and the economic fundamentals and while the economy is growing slowly, it is slow, and expected more rapid rate for the second half of the year and we added 54,000 private sector jobs which was a better than expected job report, and most economists believe the numbers to get better, but the more the churn and the lack of confidence the more the numbers are in doubt. >> and earlier we had diane swonk on who said that the blood is on the hands of the standard & poor's, and is that the view of the white house? >> partially the view of the white house. you saw from the democrats and david axelrod the president's adviser called this the tea party downgrade and even though the president didn't say so and the treasury geithner did not say it, they are pointing to the intransigence and resistance of republicans to a grand bargain to require tax increases as the
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reason behind the downgrade. there are multiple forces to blame, and of course, if you look at the longer view, democrats supported the many of the spending programs that have gotten into this place as well. so everybody has a stake in the problem, and everybody has a stake in the solution, and the president's hope today was to invoke that can-do spirit of american optimism and say, that we all got into this, and we can all get out of this. >> and any news, john, about calling back congress, because we talked to kristen welker earlier about a potential idea to kick off this august recess. >> well, a lot of talk, thomas, but i would not expect this, thomas, because you raise the stakes on a solution right now, and given what we have been through, i think that there's not a high probability that bringing back congress would produce the result that s&p or the markets would want and that could backfire and erode confidence further. there is a process in place and a special committee is about to be appointed and the president
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said he will provide more specific recommendations to them, and be more engaged in the committee and at least right now the administration is vesting hopes in the them to make a gran deal. >> john harwood add the white house for us. john, thanks. all right. so the president today aims to dismiss the s&p rating downgrade saying the u.s. only needs to show more common sense and compromises to fix its debt problem, but as we're watching here in the hours now after the president has given his speech, the martz just keep on falling as we approach the closing bell. e want to bring in daniel gross of yahoo! finance joining me in the studio to talk about what we're watching here. as we see this, what's your first reaction? to see markets hovering consistently below 600, the losses? >> panic, rush out and go sell, which you don't want to do. how strange is this? stp zp downgraded the credit of the u.s. government. s&p. you would expect the prices of bonds to fall and for interest rates to rise, because they're
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saying, that asset class isn't as good as we thought. today everyone rushed into that place that s&p said was dangerous. interest rates have fallen, people have been flooding into government bonds. they've been selling stocks. what that tells me is that, nots so much people are ignoring s&p. it's that the fear is over slow growth of the economy at home and abroad. >> when we look at what the s&p has done, do we give them too much political clout? >> well, the question of how much you pay attention to them. it's like saying, a columnist or pundit says something and then there's reaction. are we endowing them with too much power? it's with our power as a market, as investors, as media to ignore them, because they have been wrong on so many things in the past, including in the mortgage crisis stamping aaa ratings on bonds that were worthless in a matter of monthsens. >> notoriously mistakes in the past but helds ourselves accountable to the aaa rating
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and heralded it and now taking a swipe at the knees saying they're notoriously terrible anyway. which is it? >> i think politicians love to have it both ways. we had this aaa rating what a good job we're doing. lend us money at very low rates. oh, wait a second. these guy, the worst. they're terrible. said they wouldn't rate a cow. i think, though, this is a symptom of a larger problem. not that people don't believe the s&p 500 number. they don't have faith in the congress, the white house, the federal reserve, even exchanges to manage things in the way they did many years ago, and that's why you're seeing, i would attribute this not just to the what s&p said bought broader crisis in confidence from the leadership of our economy. >> what do you think if moody's had done it? >> moody's, of course, is owned by warren buffett. berkshire hathaway. a lot of credibility. he came out and said i think s&p
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was wrong. as far as i'm concerned, u.s. is still aaa, if you own $40 billion in bonds you might say that. >> we kept the aaa rating but said, we're watching you. think you're sketchy. >> fitch the third one. they have not followed them. at this point it's kind of a bad -- this proved bad for s&p brands. they have politicians of all sides attacking them. they're fighting back. i think for moody's and fitch, they are happy to sit on the sidelines and see all of these air res flung at their competitive. >> now the onus is on us, the u.s., to retain that aaa rating? get it back. >> two things. obama gave the speech about the need to compromise talking about process. we need declarative statements from s&p. what does it take to get that rating back? what number are we talking about divided between taxes and cuts by what date? president obama should come out and say, talked about i'm going to talk with my advisers.
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form this committee. they know what you can do to bring the deficit over control in ten year. come out way plan tomorrow. congressional republicans, passeded ryan budget. didn't go anywhere. they should declare, is this our plan for long-term goethe? if so how do the get the senate and white house to sign on to it or just wait until 2012. and the federal reserve, having a big meeting tomorrow, they should be declaring what, if anything, they are prepared to do in tcase this continues. >> we'll see what common sense comes out of d.c. stay with us as we continue to watch what's taking place with the markets today. at the closing bell, sounding off at the end of a manic monday. coming up with much more. there's another way to minimize litter box odor: purina tidy cats. tidy cats premium line of litters now works harder to help neutralize odors in multiple-cat homes.
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all right. we are still minutes away from the closing bell. for reaction we bring in dylan ratigan host of "the dylan ratigan show." all right, dylan, you've been
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watching the boards all day. what's your reaction? >> well, i late to say it, but i watch all of this with a little ironic amusement, thomas. not because of -- any particular pleasure in watching the economies deteriorate or the markets fall, but watching everybody blame the ratings agencies or blame the government when our own government made an explicit decision three years ago in a financial crisis to take all of these problems from the banks and put them in the government, and now three years later it's like, hey, you mean that decision that we made in the fall of 2008 whaig was gettg liquidated becausen accounting fraud and we bailed them out and put it into the government? oh, you mean doing that after the morphine of money printing wears out means the problem is still there? well, guess what?
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the problem is still there. and until we actually, thomas, deal with the root problem, which is we created a pile of debt that the banks didn't have to lend, that the consumers couldn't pay, and until you deal with that by restructuring the debt, like they de in 1945, like question after the civil war, like we've done countless times before, until you get that marshal plan mind-set on, i know it's crazy, but until you actually look at the problem you're going to have the problem continue. it's like, if this is like the equivalent of your alcoholic father who nobody knows is an alcoholic showing up drunk at your wedding. that's what today's stock market is like. oh, we do have problems after all. >> this hot potato and wedding is all yours, then. see you tomorrow at 11:00. thanks, dylan. take it away. >> thank you, thomas. indeed, the big story, aftershock. following breaking news at this