palestine going to the floor of the u.n. as a path to statehood was simply the wrong path. >> there is no shortcut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades. peace is hard work. peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the united nations. if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now. israelis must know that any agreements will provide asurety for their security. palestinians need to know the territorial basis of their state. >> from there obama went directly into a meeting with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu just a few blocks from here in midtown. the president plans to hold a similar meeting with palestinian president abbas in about two hours. right now abbas still plans on filing his request for statehood to the floor of the u.n. this friday. we're in the middle of a scramble right now, as you are

witnessing it, diplomatically to try to avert that. however, the u.s. knows abbas cannot walk back his pledge. he is facing tremendous pressure, politically back home. so the u.s. is left to try to slow walk this process in hopes that they can spark a direction negotiation between abbas and netanyahu. we start with nbc's mike viqueira at the white house. what, if anything, did the president accomplish with any constituency today? >> reporter: well, apparently he may have borne fruit on the international stage. there is an indication, dylan, they may be able to delay this, and it may spark another face-to-face sitting down across the table between the palestinian authority and benjamin netanyahu's israeli government. you know, it was a year ago in this same venue, dylan, where president obama expressed hope this a peace agreement could be reached this year, 2011, that there could be the outlines of a palestinian state. he wanted the two parties to sit

together. remember, he had a new initiative that started about a year ago and then benjamin netanyahu and his government lifted the moratorium on settlements in the west bank. one thing led to another. those talks -- the u.s.-brokered talks immediately collapsed, and now we have a spectacle of mahmoud abbas pushing this resolution on the united nations general assembly which would have put the united states in the position of vetoing this in front of the security council, a major international dustup was on the horizon, and they are still working at this hour to try to avert that. president obama today, a very busy day, dylan, a number of bilaterals, all the usual ones, he spoke at the clinton global initiative and he also, of course, met with netanyahu, but here's a little bit more of what he had to say about middle east peace before the general assembly. >> we believe so strongly in the aspirations of the palestinian people, that america has invested so much time and so much effort in the building of a palestinian state. america's commitment to israel's

security sun shakeable. our friendship with israel is deep and enduring. israel deserves recognition. it deserves normal relations with its neighbors. that is the project to which america is committed. there are no shortcuts. >> and the phrase the president kept coming back to today, dylan, peace is hard, as if anybody needed to be reminded that have when it comes to the middle east. dylan? >> war is harder, mike. war is harder. thank you very much. the mega panel join us. what is at stake for the president right now, jonathan, at this moment? >> well, what's at stake is, you know, preventing the united states from vetoing a resolution brought by the president of the palestinian people, mahmoud abbas, in an effort to avert what would end up being a diplomatic catastrophe. >> why? >> well, because, one, the

united states -- when you read the president's speech, particularly this. it was a very long speech, but particularly this question. the president -- he had to thread the needle. the united states has been on record as saying it believes in a two-state solution, that there should be a state for the palestinian people and that israel has a right to exist and that the united nations should respect that and the world should respect that. >> what's his risk though you? say it's a diplomatic disaster in the offing? >> if the united states veto, then absolutely it sparks off way too many problems in the arab world. anti-americanism is sparked off once again. it's an extremely dangerous line to walk. >> and the thing to remember this, exactly what jonathan was starting to say. this is a moment of tremendous promise but also tremendous danger in the middle east. the arab spring is a reality. arab people have thrown up -- thrown off their dictatorships. democracy is a real possibility. now, in that context though, israel is also in a more

precarious position. egypt, whose authoritarian ruler was a firm ally of israel is no longer there, and the israeli-turkish relation had is incredibly important and incredibly fraught right now. turkey, the hope for egypt in the muslim world so it's a very delicate time, and america can't be seen to be hypocritical. america can't be seen to say democracy is okay for egypt. it's okay for turkey but not for palestinians >> i understand, but maybe america can't be seen as hypocritical. >> but it is. >> yes. >> especially in the international community, whether it's our relationship with egypt, in support of mubarak and then the rollover. the saudi -- our support of saudi arabia and saudi arabia's support of bahrain's murder of its own people. there's all these things, so, in other words, hypocrisy is the american policy, but the middle east has asserted that they in some way are the pure victim of

american hypocrisy when they live in their own world of hypocrisy inside of those dictatorships and relationships. the layers of hypocrisy through each and every one of those relationships is intact. >> with the arab spring happening at the moment, with self-rule, with obama encouraging that to some countries, we saw that today with egypt, libya and syria and sort of avoiding what was going on with the palestinians and also with bahrain. >> or saudi arabia which they never talk about. >> obama was appearing somewhat hypocritical to many nations around the world with that speech today. it was not universally well received in that auditorium. >> backup perceptions. america, is by definition, through mathematical observation, a hypocrite when it comes to the middle east, support some, doesn't support others. that has been a fact of western diplomacy, by the way, since at least world war ii, if not prior, and america is not the only hypocrite in the room. >> in every region.

>> so all let's be honest. let's not pile on america's hypocrisy and how day they. let's be honest where we've come over the past 60 years which has been all of this type of diplomacy which now is revealing itself as misaligned. there's simply not an alignment of interest in the middle east with israel, with western europe and america for any variety of reasons and that creates all the hypocracies. the question is this president, bob mah, or any other world leader, netanyahu or abbas, i don't care who it is, in a position to lead us through the morass of hypocrisy? >> i think the most important conversations will be the private conversations, and those will be the private conversations that are happening between the united states and israel and the united states and the palestinian authority. i think for a truly creative, for a truly brave israeli leader, this could be a turning point. >> but the big problem is with all the leaders is what's going on domestically. obama sin secure. the israeli coalition government is insecure.

playing to their bases. having problems remaining in power. same for the palestinians. incredibly tricky at the moment. there's no secure leaders at the moment to lead. >> when it comes to the middle east, it's always been fraught and it's always been tricky, and, you know, you raise a very good point, dylan, about the layers of hypocrisy. that's what diplomacy is all about. >> that's why we have diplomats. >> yes. there's what's going on -- >> it's a very good point. what we see for show in the public and then there's what's happening behind the scenes, and this is especially true when it comes to middle east and middle east peace, that, you know, you've got to watch this and everything that's happening like you're watching like a game of chess. what you're seeing might not be what's actually happening. >> and what you're hearing and seeing is not what's happening when you start to look at who owns homes, how many people have fad and how many people are getting murdered. when you look of what's going on in the streets of cairo and streets of yemen and then you

see how big the gap is between the messaging and the media and political sphere. >> and in our kind of sort of bleak skrichgs all of this, let's not forget, things have gotten much, much better. >> and i would argue only if you acknowledge -- only if you acknowledge the hypocrisy and the bleakness, it's not to emphasize that. it's saying, okay. this exists. it's clear we can do better than that. i'm not sure what that is, but if we pretend that it's okay, we never even deal with how bad it is. quickly from you, imogen, you get the last word? >> we never thought we'd have the arab peace, there's a possibility. >> i agree. trading our future. new developments on capitol hill clearing the way for the dangerous trade pacts, plus another agreement being dubbed the nafta of the pacific. a congresswoman on her own crusade to stop rigged trade. and then inside lehman brothers, a trader there for the fall

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all right. we're back talking trade today. the u.s. senate debating a key issue on the path to passing those dangerous trade deals we've talked so much about on

this program. the trade adjustment assistance amendment. get a load of this, my friends. or taa, would authorize, you can't make it up, would authorize millions in federal money to be paid to u.s. workers displaced by free trade agreements being sold as job creators. it's not funny. senate democrats say they will not re-up those deals with colombia, panama and south korea without a plan to pay off the workers who would lead their jobs in the job-creating free trade agreements sold to us by our president and republicans. the debate is set to resume within the hour. thank god for that. is it me, or does the fact that they are considering an amendment to basically pay off workers losing their jobs for these trade deals acknowledge that they would kill at least some u.s. jobs and fail to acknowledge the banking secrecy, union murder rate and funding of north korea through south korean employers in these trade deals?

all of this is taking place as the obama administration is now also pushing for a little talked about free trade agreement with the entire transpacific region. no talk of dealing with currency or tax law, just trade deals. the u.s. has been in talks with world leaders for months over the structure of the deal. such a deal, by the way, could be spectacular for everybody. but the nature of the trade-rigging in our own legislature takes something that could be a great deal and makes it into a weapon of extraction from our own country. so far details are slim, but those familiar with these talks report that the general outline looks a lot like nafta, and that worked awfully well for job creation in our country, didn't it? joining us now, democratic congresswoman louise slaughter from new york who has stepped out on her own and is touting her own legislation. >> yes. >> to stop the rigged trade. congresswoman, it's a pleasure. let's be very clear. trade is a tool. it's not a good thing, it's not a bad thing. it's just a thing, a hammer.

you can make it good or bad. you seem to be one of the few people willing to step out. >> you bet. >> and acknowledge that trade can be good but only if it has rules. >> you know the tragedy and what's happened here is that the trade agreements that the united states has entered since the second world war have disadvantaged our workers and our country, and you know almost every innovative thing happening in the world now is happening by americans. we have the best work force in the world, but the government treats them very poorly. i think i've got the answer, dylan. i want to say any trade agreement we sign with any country has to open that country to american goods. it's tit for tat. they come in here and trade in the biggest market in the world, where they want to be, and we go in there and trade. it could prevent american corporations from having to go overseas to sell their goods, and the best part of it, it is enforcible, and we require that the trade representative look at

what we call the benign barriers, the things like the automobile manufacturers. they told me that oftentimes that they would told that the bumper was too low or that the light was in the wrong side and all kinds of artificial things that they through up to keep them from crying to keep selling american cars this. would all be gone. it is totally enforcible which is the best thing because we don't enforce anything. >> let me -- let moo ask you about a couple of my biggest concerns. >> okay. >> that exist in current trade. one in 1994, china rigged their currency at a 50% discount to the u.s. dollar. >> yes. >> we have been suffering the effects of that since 1994. >> right. >> and done nothing about it. >> secondarily, china taxes american imports to china at 25%. >> exactly. >> we tax chinese imports to america at 2.5 mis. how would your piece of proposed legislation address those two problems? >> well, they would have to stop that because that's an unfair practice. >> so how would that happen? >> either the corporations who

are agreed or congress could bring unfair practices against that country and stop trade until it is addressed. >> so here's -- i get that. >> the first time we've ever said that we are going to enforce this and the american worker is going to be benefited by the fact that their government is standing up for them. you know, we can't call ourselves a superpower when we don't make anything. if we have to depend on another country to provide everything we use, including everything in our military machines, we haven't made any electronic components in years. we need to get back to manufacturing here or we have no way to save this country. >> yeah. >> and i think it's absolutely -- we've got some corporations that are supporting this, i want you to know, and i can say something that not many of my colleagues can, i've got republican co-sponsors, bipartisan, and expect more. >> here's my question for you, congresswoman. >> okay. >> there's been a tremendous effort each year for the treasury department to classify china as a currency manipulator. >> yes. >> in order to open the door for

legislative engagement with china. >> yes. >> you talk about how your legislation will -- will somehow create an enforcement mechanism. >> yes. >> i'm curious what makes -- why should i believe that this legislative enforcement mechanism is any more likely to get invoked than any other mechanism when there is so much special interest money that is making so much money in the united states from caterpillar, to cummings and to john deere who are funding those who would seek to have you not enforce those rules? >> but i'm telling you, dylan, one of the things that's happened now, i talked to caterpillar today. i'm hoping they will join us on this bill. they don't have a whole lot of options, dylan >> i get it. >> don't have any way to get in there and trade. we level that field, that playing field so that the american producer and the american worker has the same chance that we're giving them to come into our country. >> i get that. i'm confused about enforcement. i understand the rationale, i've been yelling about it for years. i've been watching our legislature refuse to enforce it for as long as i've been

watching the extraction. >> of course. >> why should i believe yours will enforce it when so many other promises to enforce it have never happened? why does yours have teeth? >> because we have avenues to go. we're not going to wait for the treasury department to do something. congress can do it. members of congress can do something. >> this bypasses treasury. >> absolutely. >> got it. >> and i'll tell you that one of the most important things i think that we need to do is to understand here that we have been had and china, for example, i've been watching what they are doing with the -- with the new car, the volt. they subsidize that to the tune of $19,000. now that's against all trade agreements, to subsidize that, but i was disappointed to see in "the times" today. about a week ago "the times" wrote general motors would not give them the technology. they were going to stand up to them. >> yeah. >> but they have capitulated now, and they are going to have a chinese partner, just like all the companies from my district have, and the chinese partner calls all the shots and they will get the technology.

>> yeah. >> i mean, we just give ourselves away, and we've got to stop it. >> i got it. >> no more, no more. korea particularly bothers me because of 36,000 troops on the dmz that have been there for 60 years looking north while we can do that electronically, and we're obliged to protect them if anybody attacks them, but we can't go in there and trade? nonsense. >> i could not agree more. the only thing that i -- that -- obviously my skepticism is on enforcement, and you have my pledge to -- to certainly give you as much coverage as i can. >> good. >> i love it. >> wish you the best of luck with enforcement, specifically with the chinese currency rigging and the tax code, congresswoman. >> my name is slaughter because i don't give up. i'm staying with this. we're going to get this passed. this is going to become the law of the land. i've got the patience to get this done. i can't imagine anybody in the united states, in the congress of the united states, say they don't believe that we should for a change have fair trade, not

just free trade >> i hope they are quaking in their boots, and if they are not now, i hope so soon. >> thank you so much for the time. >> absolutely. thank you, congresswoman. louise slaughter out of new york. wonderful rhetoric from her on enforcement. we have watched this political rhetoric raft around in our media sphere and politicians' mouths for many years now and every year the treasury department has a chance to engage and enforce and every year the treasury department does not engage and enforce. that's not an indictment of tim geithner, a whole succession of treasury secretaries that never want to do that. at the end of the day, is a legislative threat like this going to be viable? >> so i'm actually going to go against the premise of the question, dylan. >> okay. >> because you know i love you. >> of course. >> but i'm a free trader. >> no, no, hold on there. you believe in free trade with rigged currency and tax code. >> i believe in free trade with fair rules of the game.

>> so does she. that's what she said as ale. >> i don't think the u.s. -- just hang on one minute. i don't think that the u.s. right now, the suffering in the u.s. economy and of the u.s. middle class is chiefly because the u.s. >> i never said that. >> on the wrong end of a trade deal. i think overall the u.s. has benefited hugely from the opening of global markets since the second world war. that's one of the reasons that -- >> to that end, how do you quantify the 50 million in poverty, 22% of our children who do not have food works do not have functionality, so, in other words -- >> the benefits of trade i would say -- >> the benefits have gom gone to some and anilation, 100 million people works needs them? is that the plan? >> i think it's more complicated. >> free trade has made goods cheaper for everybody. >> screw the poor people. >> that's not insignificant. >> it is significant if the way you got the cheaper goods was by indebting krur country by trillions of dollars while simultaneously destroying the

long-term viability of your production infrastructure while supplying the marketplace with crappy disposable product. >> i don't think the inflation of consumer credit in the u.s. is the fault of the countries with whom the u.s. trades, and i would point to germany which is a country that chiefs in trade and is an export-driven economy. what germany has done differently from u.s. isn't its attitude towards trade. it's its attitudes towards domestic manufacturing. >> got it. >> and towards education and workers. >> how does germany feel about -- >> germany exports to china, exports high-value goods to china. >> the u.s. could do that, too. >> you're not answering my question. how would germany feel, for the fun of it, if the u.s. discounted its dollar 50% below whatever germany's currency was and taxed its import at 25%. >> i'm with you on the chinese currency. >> what about the tax code? what about intellectual property? >> on the currency i'm with you. and we're seeing steady progress and the losers have been the euro countries are losing out

because the yuan has been appreciating about 10%. >> those who argue free trade while rigging the game behind. it pisses me off. i think it's a weasely move. >> hard to do anything about china, you have to admit, all the debt that china holds. >> china's debt was to finance american consumption of chinese imports. it's the dumbest scheme ever invented. >> it may be dumb, but that is the current situation, and bear in mind what's happening with inflation in china at the moment, then things are going towards america's favor with the currenty. >> remember when i said when we were talking about middle east peace and what the president was trying to do vis-a-vis israel and the palestinians and the layers of hypocrisy and you have to watch it like a chess game? >> yeah. >> same thing here. >> exactly. >> you can talk all you want ben forcement and opening markets and things like that, but there's a reason -- >> and free trade. >> but there's a reason why administration after administration after stragsz hasn -- administration hasn't done what you say they should do and

that's because if you turn the screws on china, it probably turns the screws on the united states in another area, so that's why, you know, i wish congresswoman slaughter a lot of luck. i love her -- we have known her for a long time, but let's also remember she's a democratch she's in the minority >> i get it. >> republicans runt house. i'm not sure where her bill is going to go. >> the biggest place the screws get turned if you do this is all the campaign fund-raising from all the beneficiaries of trade that people like louise slaughter will then be targeted about by super pacs and annihilated because money controls the political conversation because that's really what we're talking about. we pretend it's a democracy because we want to feel better. it's a pleasure to have you guys here. new this afternoon on the wednesday cast, a podcast conversation with senator tom coturn where he argues until the congress and our media recognize and address the order of magnitude of the challenges this country and this world faces, it is simply impossible to begin to solve them. how do you solve trillion dollar

problems that require tens of millions of jobs with million and billion dollar solutions that create hundreds of thousands of jobs? of course, after you listen to the podcast, can you always tweet us thoughts about that or anything else on your mind. we get a lot of ideas actually from your tweets and those conversations so i appreciate that community, and if -- and if you think our twitter page has a different look, it's because it does. as of yesterday, we offered a sneak peek of the cover of our upcoming book "greedy bastards." more to come on all the greedy bastards, of course, every single day here at 4:00. next up. collateral damage, a stock trader tied to the ticking time bomb of lehman brothers credit gambling with lessons for us all on how not to get annihilated by the big banks. i had a heart problem.

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today, even three years after the beginning of the

financial collapse, the american economy bears its scars. you know the drill. ramp ant foreclosures, lending bottoming out, stalled employment. a perillousily fragile financial market. no yield for retirees by the million. and yet so many of the banks responsible are not only surviving, they are thriving and bigger than ever. that is except for one. if the major banks had been on the tv show "survivor," lehman brothers was the one when it came down to it that was voted off the island. but why lehman? and why did they uniquely, when all the banks were wound out, hyper levered and out of cash did the fall? and what did those involved in that process learn that we can benefit from today as so little has been fixed? our next guest rode literally on the back of the beast on the derivatives side in the stock market side. you guys are having a fantastic

year and the whole thing went kaplooey. you're looking at jarred dylan, founder of the daily dirt nap and author of "street freak, money and madness at lehman brothers." a pleasure to meet you. before we get into it, people may understand the inside of a bank there's different divisions of the business that are doing completely different things, and in the case of lehman brothers and the other banks, it was one silo, a unique piece of the business, that basically took on so much risk that it could put everything else at play, and you basically went down with the ship, is that fair? >> i've actually heard from some of the folks that read my book who are not financial people and they said i didn't even really know it was possible to be in a part of the bank that was making money and thriving while this whole thing was going on, you know. so, you know, it was -- >> is it a fair characterization that all the banks got themselves over a period of, you

know, at least since 2000 with the swaps market, into an extremely risky position but for some reason that lehman brothers was the fall guy? that all the banks were at risk at that point? >> i think that lehman was the fall guy probably for two reasons. one, because of the personal dynamics between dick fuld and hank paulson which people right about, but, two, you know, when we came back after that weekend when lehman went bankrupt, bernanke said, you know, it was not possible to save lehman. there were really, really, really worried about the moral hazard, and the reason they were worried about it because a lot of investments and real estate and associated securities were so irresponsible, so reckless, that if they had used tax money to bail them out, then they would have to bail out everybody. >> i mean, isn't it also though a failure of leadership and a failure of the leadership of lehman. >> how so? >> we knew from the spring when bear stearns failed and had to be purchased, we knew that the banks were still shaky, and

everybody on the sehman was nex the firing line, and people were talking all through that summer. we reported, dylan, on some of those conversations. >> i remember. >> people were talking to dick fuld about possible deals to sell the bank, but he was not willing to give up control, and i would contrast that with a person who is rarely seen as a hero of the crisis, john thain. he then right after lehman was failing he did a deal. >> gave up power to preserve. >> he gave up power and merrill, sure, no longer independent, but merrill wasn't destroyed the way lehman was. >> the captain refused to take his hands off the stick? >> a huge failure of leadership. three years later, you know, they are kind of beyond the point where they are angry. i don't think anybody is angry anymore. it's a little late for that, but, you know, here's the thing though. it was a bull market, okay, and -- and in bull markets organizations do stupid things, and the people at top of organizations do stupid things. if dick fuld had said we're going to sell off and divest

ourselves of all our real estate businesses and going to invest in gold. >> you would have been fired. >> you would have been fired. everybody at lehman brothers would say we're going to work at morgan stanley because dick fuld has lost his mind. >> the question i have, one thing, you mentioned the bailout of bear stearns. the political environment that was at play, i mean, also one of the reasons why lehman was allowed to fall. you mentioned the moral hazard, but the moral was, you know, the administration and treasury took -- caught hell for doing what they did for bear, and so, i mean, no matter what. >> it was a lose, lose, lose. >> they had to let them go, and maybe the other banks figured, hey, lehman, go. >> that's my whole point. basically we're all screwed, but somebody is going to have to die, and it's not going to be goldman, and it's not going to be morgan. it will be dick fuld and those guys. he's been pissing me off for years. >> he was first in the firing line and had you not had that the brutal consequences of

lehman's failure, then you wouldn't have had the government stepping in. >> go ahead, quickly. >> could lehman happen again? do more regulations have to be put in place to stop it from happening again? >> i think it could happen again but probably not for another 70 or 80 years. these things happened over long-term cycles. it's no coincidence that something like the stock market crash and the depression happened 70 or 80 years later. everybody is dead so nobody remembers the mistakes so it could happen again, but not in our lifetimes. >> or what about next spring in europe? >> well, greece is the new lehman brothers. >> exactly. >> i'm going to up your ante for next spring in europe, but it's a pleasure. nice to meet you. congratulations on the book. thanks to our panel for a -- a boisterous conversation today. thank you very much, guys. thank you. coming up, a phrase we don't get to say too much around here. good news today out of iran. the two american hikers jailed for two years finally released. we'll have the very latest when we come back. labored breathing ]

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well, coming home after two years in prison, american hikers shaun bauer and josh fattal are out of iran. the pair just arrived at a royal airport in oman running off the plane to embrace their families. they were arrested on the iran-iraq bordner '90 and charged with espionage. the hikers were released earlier today after posting a $1 million bail. no word where the money came from. president obama at the u.n. said he's glad the americans are coming home, but they should have never been held in the first place. we are waiting to hear directly from the hikers and their families, including sarah shourd. she was the third hiker who was released last year and shane bauer's fiancee. they got engaged while in iranian prison using a string for an engagement ring. hopefully shane will be able to get her a real one when he gets her at home. hopefully someone at tiffany's is listening to the news today. next, while lisa simpson was the smart one, new research

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all right. now for our conversation sure to stoke some sibling rivalry, no secret growing up with brothers and sisters, each play a different role in the family. whether you're the smart one, the funny one or maybe even mom's favorite. here to tell us how it all comes and to birth order, jeffrey tor writer at "time" magazine and also author of "the sibling

effect, what the bonds among brothers and sisters reveal about us." it's a pleasure to welcome you. >> thank you for having me. >> before we get into all the relationship. everybody loves it. most people like this type of a conversation. why do i care? why does it matter that i understand? why is this relevant beyond explaining why my older brother or sister or whatever it is is mean to me or why i never liked them or why i did like them? >> one of the biggest reasons is scientists are now coming to realize that though we used to think that it was our parents who were the greatest influences on us and later in lives our spouses and own kids. in fact it's your siblings who are the most profoundly and intimately connected with you. your parents leave too early. your spouse and your kids come later. and your parents also, keep in mind, are like the doctors on grand rounds in your hope. they can sort of dip into what is going on in the play room and still have bills to pay and jobs to go to. the siblings are the people with whom you are immersed and with

whom you learn the socialization skills. >> give me some examples of behaviors or experiences someone might have that could be attributed positively to the strength of that relationship or could manifest negatively because of a breach or a weakness in that relationship. >> conflict resolution. battles are settled consistently and exclusively with physical combat in the play room, and researchers then look at the same kids two years later, four years later and even into their teen years in high school. those are the kids who are likely to get into brawls on playgrounds, who are also likelier later in life, when you can't just punch somebody, later in life to be shouters, to have poor conflict resolution skills. >> so conflict resolution, which really is at root of most every problem we have in the world right now. >> right. >> is largely influenced by the nature of the sibling and childhood experience. >> the wrestling that takes place in the play room is important. >> with no further ado, you

know, where shall we begin, the oldest? >> the oldest is, as everybody believes and of the reasons is, a concept businesses understand well. if you have a 2-year-old who has been alone in the house for two years and then the new one comes along, you've already invested two years of time, money, calories. >> capital. >> capital, love in this child. it's like a newer product. you're going to see this one further down the line and those things become self-fulfilling because that child continues to get the goodies. >> because they have the early investment -- the early exclusive investment is unique to them. >> that's right, that's right. and as a result first borns are -- do tend to be overrepresented in glamour jobs. in congress, we may argue about whether congress is a good job or bad job. >> prestige jobs seem to be overrepresented with first born. >> 21 of the first 23 american

astronauts were first born or only children. >> middle child. >> middle child, the one who is a little more lost, takes them more time to find their way. for the brief period they are the youngest. >> a little bit of the baby going. >> but then they lose it. quickly displaced again. like being stuck for the rest of your life in a center seat in a coast-to-coast flight. they do tend to have some self-esteem issues. the upside is they also tend to do bert at developing relationships and social networks outside of the home simply because they didn't get their needs met quite at fully in the home. >> and the baby. >> and the baby is the baby, and the baby, babies are likely to be comedians and likelier to be rebels. babies tend to have more charm, more charisma, sharper senses of humor, and they tend to be more intuitive. these are called low power central artery jimpts you're the smallest one in the play room. >> like the cute puppy. >> exactly. >> and if you can make people laugh you've disarmed them

immediately. >> and what about variables like gender bias. for instance, if you are the middle child and you're the only son, an older sister and younger sister but while you're the middle child you're also the only boy or i can flip that and have a younger brother and older brother and be the middle child and you're the only girl. does that dynamic change things? >> yes, it does. i specify it in the become and specify it in "time" magazine which is doing something on this. the boy, girl, boy or girl, boy, girl arrangement does give the middle child a break. as one of the researchers i talked to said if you're different for any reason, a reason as primal as gender. >> gets the middle child an identity. >> right. >> an identity that's not the middle child. >> and it gives you a crack at being the favorite which is great. >> all right. the only child, which would be me. >> right. >> which we've saved for last. somebody told me in the 1800s it was considered a disease to be

an only child. >> psychiatrist said being an only child is a disease in itself. >> might explain a lot of my behavior up to this point. we'll have to look into this. >> luckily he's been discredited. what we've found are a few things. not only are only children not disadvantaged but particularly in this era, many more dual-income households. >> i had a single parent. >> so then it was a little bit harder for you. >> thank you. >> because you didn't get that total immersion in day care at five months. >> i look okay. i didn't look that bad there. i seem like i survived it. >> you look good. >> sounds like the only and the first born sounds like they can have similar characteristics. >> that's right. >> and they can, and keep in mind one more thing about the only. only children tend to skew higher in terms of vocabulary, in terms of social sophistication, in terms of sense of humor, in terms of taste and books and music because you're outnumbered 2-1

by your parents. it's golden. >> it's beautiful. i feel -- no wonder i like to talk. >> exactly. exactly. >> it's a pleasure to meet you, sir. >> pleasure to meet you. >> congratulations on the book. we'll look for your stuff again, jeffrey kluger in "time" magazine this week with a piece expanding on what we were just discussion and i'm sure summarizing a little bit of what is fully explained in that book. coming up on "hardball," turning the issue of the palestinian state into presidential politics. chris matthews asks whether romney's and perry's swipe are justified but first a minute to blast the d.c. media. what fun, and for what else, spin, spin, spin. i habe a cohd. yeah, i toog nyguil bud i'm stild stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ] thank you! that's the cold truth!

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well, as you can see, you don't need me to see it but ari joins us for the daily rant on the political spin machine and what the people really want. >> thanks, dylan. today i want to talk about the current political dance in washington. if you've watched "dylan ratigan show" for more than two minutes, you know this is what he calls professional wrestling which substitutes for tackling real issues. i think the beltway press is so obsessed with left-right partisanship that they have totally blown coverage of this current tax debate so, yeah, let's talk about that buffet rule for a minute. you've heard the president propose a new millionaire's tax which help cut the deficit. it was first billionaire buffet who said the current system is broken since he pays a lower tax rate than his employees. now what does the public think?

polls actually show that most of us are with buffet. look at these numbers. 81% say millionaires can pony up more for the deficit. that is more popular than any other deficit proposal out there. and now the politics here are obvious. the president anchors his deficit plan with a very popular, very populist tax. now either he gets the whole thing passed, which is unlikely, or he gets to use this against republicans who have to reject their own constituents when they oppose the plan. since many independents and republicans support, it this is going to help obama, even if it doesn't become law. now, if we know that, let's keep moving forward, we've got to say okay, is the motivation here just political? probably. but if you look at washington's media coverage, would you think the president is way out there on some liberal hippie crusade. ben smith, the influential political reporter, covered this plan by saying, and i'm quoting. obama chooses the left. other headlines hit the same note. now i think this is nuts.

most voters support taxing millionaires and protecting social security, yet the d.c. agenda has been so far right for so long that a plan which moves us back to the broad popular center is depicted as a liberal bonanza. let me tell you. if you talk to the people involved in these battles, they already know there's no such thing as a left wing deficit plan, just like on the other side there's no such thing as a right wing universal health care plan. folks, right wingers don't want universal health care and left wingers don't want to cut the deficit right now. liberals want that money going towards jobs. so if you're keeping score, and i am, the current obsession with the deficits reveals a fundamental conservative victory. they are setting the d.c. agenda, and only in washington can the pursuit of a conservative agenda with centrist policies be depicted as a liberal reform. dylan? >> very well said and very well presented. let us dig a little deeper too, it shall we?

i talked earlier about the podcast that we published today with senator tom coburn. one of the biggest reasons that i respect senator coburn is this. i find him to be one of the only politicians in washington, d.c. works will address what i call the delta or the order of magnitude of the problem. he's not saying do what i think tom coburn wants. he says we have tense of millions of jobs to create that's going to cost trillions of dollars, we have trillions of dollars in taxing and things that need to be debated. i, tom coburn, don't have all the answers. i have proposals and the balance of d.c. and the media refuse to even acknowledge the scale and size of the project because they are so lost in whether obama is a liberal or whether rick perry is a nut job. >> if obama sat down with coburn can we get back to the grand bargain. >> or how do you just change the delta? how do you change the conversation to talking about

solutions that can actually address the scale of our problems? >> right. a piece of that is the narrateors. >> 100%. >> here it is. >> this is the plan. >> this is the coburn strategy, to win over the coburn voters and here's how they split in the last election. i don't think that's what's going on. there's a right wing program that focuses on deficits only when democrats are in change. >> a well-funded apparatus. >> that's disingenuous, a group of people who want to shrink government and shrinking the military. >> ron paul and all these types of people which is a valid basies. >> we don't get there if all we say is look who is on the super bowl. >> when the nfl is riddled with steroids in in matter. >> yes. >> a pleasure to see you. see you sooner than later. i'm dylan ratigan and "hardball" with chris mass thuts starts right now. united nations, divided voices. let's play "hardball."