less than economists projected, but it was enough for the jobless rate to tick down to 9%. and the unemployment rate for african-americans, check out these numbers, fell nearly a full percentage month next month. the new number come a day after senate republicans helped defeat the obama infrastructure bill. i'm joined by former labor secretary robert reich. mr. secretary, good to see you. good morning. >> good morning. >> we're showing your book "aftershock" let me get your reaction to the new jobs numbers? >> i wish there were light at the end of this long jobless tunnel, but chris, there's not much light. this 80,000 figure looks pretty good if you don't put it in context. we need 125,000 new jobs per month just to keep up with population growth. we are so far behind the eight

ball right now that 80,000 new jobs just is actually a little bit better, but we're so -- it's not really an improvement. i mean, you've got to bend and twist and look at this in very distorted ways to assume that this is good news. this is not good news. >> there's so much frustration out there obviously, especially among people who having unemployed for such a long time. still a horrifying number. when you watch what happened last night and the vote on the infrastructure bill and see what's going on in washington, d.c., tell me how that makes you feel? it's hard to be hopeful for a lot of americans. >> washington is on another planet, particularly house and senate republicans, who continue to say no to every aspect of the president's jobs bill. this is the worst economy since the great depression, the worst

amount of human suffering we've seen in 50, 60 years and the republicans refuse, absolutely refuse to do anything about it. the president's jobs bills, remember there are 14 million americans out of work, another 10 million americans who are working part time and would rather by working full time. the president's jobs bill is in a step in the right direction, in fact the president's own white house, if passed in entirety only generates 2 milli million. 2 million jobs from that jobs bill. we need something really large, and the republicans will not even go along with the tiny jobs bill the president is proposing. washington is not only on another planet, it's in another galaxy. >> well, let me ask you about something. we've had some members of

congress, democratic members of congress on this program. they not only say the republicans are being obstructionist, but they say they're deliberately doing it for political reasons. i want to play a montage of sound for you and get your reaction from it. let me play this. >> their goal is to everything they can to drag down this economy, to do anything they can to focus attention negative on the president of the united states. >> they're willing to kick the middle class in the stomach in order to give a leg up to oil company executives. >> i've heard my own colleagues say we just want to make obama look so bad, we don't care how bad the economy gets. >> do you believe there is a general feeling in washington morning republicans to make obama look bad, don't give him any wins? >> i don't want to think, chris, that is the view shared by most

republican members of congress. i really don't want to believe that, but every month that goes by, the employment report does not improve, in fact in many respects gets worse, and gets more and more recalcitrant. i begin to think that most republicans are saying no to everything, because they would like on election day for the unemployment rate to be very high, for americans to be frustrated and upset for the economy to be so bad that barack obama doesn't get a second term. after all, that is what mitch mcconnell said, help of the republicans in the senate, last year he said his number one goal is to make sure there is not a second obama term. and look it, if you have unemployment still this high. i mean, going from 9.1% last month to 9% this month, chris, is constituently insignificant. it's outrageously high. the republicans will not go along with anything. it's very likely we are going to

have very high unemployment come election day. if the republicans put up a decent candidate, somebody who has some credibility, then i think that obama's chances of being reeeked become slimmer and slimmer. >> though there are a number of republicans more and more worried these days about who their candidate will be. second tear robert reich, always a pleasure to have you on the program. thank you so much. >> thank you very much, chris. so americans, as he just said, stuck with this high unemployment rate and democrats are pointing at the -- and salon.com's news editor steve core knacki. new suffolk university poll, nearly half of voters in florida say republicans are, quote, intentionally stalling efforts to make sure that president obama doesn't get reelected. do you believe it? and can it work? >> you know what? i, like robert reich, would not like to believe that people who are elected officials would

actually intentionally want to do things to sabotage the economy just for politics, but to robert reich's point, they've said at much. mitch mcconnell very bluntly said that was his number one goal. you would think his goals would be to improve prospects for the united states. that's not what they're saying. they're saying no to everything. you do begin to wonder. >> steve, as you well know, the republicans say the senate democrats need to get off the dime and start voting. is there a fair argument there? >> not really. you're talking about generally 1, 2, 3, it ends of being a bit of a public relations problem for democrats, and sort of testifies to there's more ideological diversity on the democrat side, as opposed to the republican side, you haven't

found anybody since the stimulus bill that's been willing to work with the democrats on anything. it has been pure obstructionism. the psychology is always fascinating to me. are they sitting there saying consciously let's not do it because it will hurt obama, or is it more complicated where they had somehow have convinced themselves necessarily by obama proposing it, it could be good for the country. he's philosophically out of whack. there's some kind of justification there. i don't think it's pure we know this is good, but we still want to saeb stage obama. >> i have to say the political context of that always fascinates me when we have this sort of negativity. at what point do you reach a line where people say enough already, and i wonder if this does translate to something positive. we saw in the quinnipiac poll yesterday that his numbers are

starting to go up. you wonder if there's a point at which it becomes negative returns, and you also still have consistently that more plerns blame george w. bush that this obama you combine it with the obama message that jobs, jobs, jobs. then you have the president doing these excepty orders. i think that the republicans do have a messaging problem. they do appear to just want to stop barack obama from getting reelected more than they want to help the country. the other people, because members, these tend tore very wealthy people. they don't seem in touch with the suffering of ordinary people while rhetorically, at least, the president is putting himself on the side of being more in touch. >> in fact we reported in the

last couple days that their income has gone up as americans' income has gone down. to robert reich's point, who will the republicans put up against barack obama. let's just say a bad week for herman cain, but a brand-new poll saying his support is not wavering. this was done after this controversy broke, but the front page story in politico today las a lo lot of details about the nature of the sexual harassment allegations, so let's bring in alex burn. tell us what the learned about these sexual harassmentments the

other things reported was that a second accuser, contrary to herman cain's recollection of what went on between him and her, had told members of the nra board at the time that he made an unwanted sexual advance that resulted ultimately in her also getting a settlement and her leaving the organization. these are damaging details, because they do clash pretty dramatically with what he's been telling this week. >> i didn't realize he left the national restaurant association before his three years were up, though it's not 100% clear why. >> that's right. people who were there at the time say there were many reasons why he might have decided to leave early, but certainly he did not stay thus his entire expected term there. >> steve, imto talk about --

don't think this is a serious matter. 69% said it wouldn't make a difference. i don't know whether they mean this in particular, the way you read the question or they don't think sectionium harassment is a big deal. what do you make of the numbers? >> one is we do have new details. my sense of watching the momentum is we will ultimately get a bigger picture. we know there were settlements, fair liver substantial amounts of money. we don't have damning, devastating specifics. so i think there's still wiggle room if people want to believe him. the other thing, when you look at the partisan divide in media in this country, if you're on the republican side and you watch fox news and listen to rush limbaugh, sean hannity, you haven't heard about herman cain's terrible week.

you've heard how he's the victim of a liberal media conspiracy, because they're intimidated by the presence of a black conservative. >> to that message, i want to play a chunk of a new ad that's running. you led me perfectly into it. >> now we're getting the high-tech lynching of a beautiful man, herman cain. >> this is a circus. it's a national disgrace. it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves. it's ha message unless you kowtow to an old order, you will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured, rather than hung from the tree. >> the comparisons to clarence thomas here, joy-ann. >> it's amazing. without a clarence thomas existing, herman cain would have already been finished, but you have a set the people on the right that are the product of those culture wars of that era,

and who came out of that thomas hearing ready to fight the left on behalf of any black person that decided to become a republican and immediately a2567d them to clarence tom malls. you have people idea logically deciding this is exactly like clarence thomas and we're going to defend herman cain no matter what. i see a split on the right, the are you familiar limbaughs, the laura ingrahams, the people on the cultural right, and sort of younger conservatives, like on redstate.com, saying wait a minute, it's herman cain stopping these women from coming out, because he will not allow them to be released and the association will not allow them to talk. there was cain that had behavior fact -- there is a small split, i think, generationally on the right. >> joy-ann, steve, thanks to

both of you, and alex, thank you as well. >> thank you. president obama is about to hold a 30-minus conference and of course he'll almost certainly talk about the jobs numbers, debt situation in greece and the impact on america's economy. we will have that for you when it happens. many of the occupy protesters in oakland, california are disavowing the violence that broke out saying it hurts the cause. meantime, film maker michael moore got the crowd of about 1,000 fired up in denver last night. he suggests that people trying to incite violence inside the movement could be working undercover for the government. what they pull up here. oh, this is a good one. ♪ grandma got run over by a reindeer ♪ really? ken? ♪ walking home from our house christmas eve ♪ ♪ you can say... i had the right of way. oh, man. i...

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with the storm raging around

herman cain over sexual harassment allegations, "new york times" reports that his seldom seen wife gloria has backed out of an interview that was supposed to air tonight. on the "today" show michele bachmann would not comment directly, but she did say this. >> you won't find any surprises with me on my record. i have a very consistent, conservative background and record on policy. there won't be any surprises. >> jon corzine just resigned as ceo of mf global. he ran the securities firm that collapsed and filed for bankruptcy monday. "new york times" reports he's hired a big-shot white collar criminal defense lawyer, though not accused of any crimes. it sounded a bit like speaker of the house boehner was giving a dig yesterday when he asked about grover nor quist. >> speaker boehner, grover nor quist was on the hill this

morning. is he a positive influence on your conference? >> listen, our focus here is on job. we're doing everything we can to get our economy moving and get people back to work. it's not often i'm asked about some random person in america and what i think. >> is he a random person, though? to your conference is grover nor quist a random person? >> our focus on creating jobs, not talking about someone's personality. >> we want to remind you that any minute now president obama will be holding a live conference from cannes where he's attending the g-20 summit. the european debt crisis and possible greek default has dominated the talks so far. a lot of these are not consequential, but a lot of theater. but they've been important over the last 48 hours. we'll have his remarks as soon

as he begins. we'll have more where talk of a unity government. and that's the big relief for marx here and in europe. michelle kosinski is in athens with the latest. >> reporter: some are calling this greek drama at its extreme. prime minister george papandreou says he's willing to form a -- talk of the greek government being on the verge of collapse over this referendum issue. the prime minister said, okay, that massive and crucial european bailout of greece last week under harsh austerity measures, i'm going to put that to a public vote, causing other european powers are saying, are you kidding? if people voted no, that might mean economic meltdown. a default on huge debt or

running out of money, and greece abandoning the injuro. have world markets been reacting? absolutely. could this kind of economic instability resonate bedowneurope and into the u.s.? absolutely. now the prime minister says no referendum at long as all opposition parties work together and accepts the bailout with austerity. however, tonight at midnight, he faces this confidence vote in parliament. everybody is hoping things will settle out by then. they're finding it hard to believe that anyone would want to shake up this government at such a critical time. >> michelle, thank you so much. again the president will soon by taking questions. and he'll take questions. we would love to hear from you both during and after we hear from the president, so send me your reaction and i'll summoned to as many as possible. time for the your business

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the jury is expect to do begin dplibting in just about an hour from now in the trial of michael jackson's personal physician. they've got to decide whether dr. conrad murray is guilty by administration that powerful anesthetic propofol in june of 2009. kristen dahlgren is outside the courthouse. good morning. they could come back with the verdict as early as today, or they could take longer to deliberate. this is a seven-man, five-woman jury, they'll get the case this morning, go into the jury room and begin their deliberations. yesterday the judge read 26 pages of jury instructions, what they can and can't consider in this case, and there is a lot for them to consider. more than 330 pieces of evidence

49 witnesses, yesterday they heard the spirited closing arguments, saying that prince, paris and blanket were left without a father because of the actions of dr. conrad murray, he said that he was essentially experimenting on michael jackson. the defense, of course, arguing that it was michael jackson that took that final fatal dose. they have to find that he was substantially responsible for michael jackson's death. we'll all by waiting, we'll get a two-hour notice, so a lot of people are standing by. michael jackson's family has been in court every single day. they are expected back when the verdict is finally read. >> thank you, kristen dahlgren. we are waiting for president

obama, run being 15 minutes behind, but we should say the first session this morning at the g-20 was running behind, too, expected to take questions. we'll have it right here on msnbc. [ rattling ] jason... really buddy, wow. samantha jane. ♪ guys, christmas dinner and you're bringing toys to the table? ♪ that, that's not a toy... let's eat! [ male announcer ] get low prices on the gifts they love. and layaway is back, so you can pay a little at a time. save money. live better. walmart. and layaway is back, so you can pay a little at a time. like, keep one of these over your head. well, i wasn't "supposed" to need flood insurance, but i have it. fred over here chose not to have it. ♪ me, i've got a plan.

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it's me? alright emma, i know it's not your favorite but it's time for your medicine, okay? you ready? one, two, three.

[ both ] ♪ emma, emma bo-bemma ♪ banana-fana-fo-femma ♪ fee-fi-fo-femma ♪ em-ma very good sweety, how do you feel? good. yeah? you did a really good job, okay? let's go back to drawing. welcome back. i'm carl parker. we're watching a pretty quiet day across a lot of the country, but we'll see some big changes over the weekend. here you see just one storm along the east coast, another along the west coast. very quiet in the middle of the nation. beautiful day in, right around average in new york city. in the south we're watching a potent area of low pressure. with that it will be rainy and getting windier in eastern north carolina. that moving away tomorrow.

great weather across the southeast. then increasing easterly flow coming into florida. that will raise that rip current threat, bring high waves in there as well. midwest looking great, a lot of sunshine, seasonably cool weather. a few more clouds on sunday, windy as well, nearly 70 in st. louis, finally westward, a storm coming into the west, looks worse than it is, spotty showers across the interior west and heavy snow into colorado, could be a foot in the san juans, and a second storm coming in on sunday, so pretty active time for a good part of the west. back to you. >> carl parker, have a great weekened. i should remind people fall back. we get an extra hour of sleep saturday night. thank you so much, carl. we are waiting for that press conference with president obama starting any moment now at the g-20 summit in france. when they turn the lights on

you'll probably see something there. he'll take questions. adrian mong is live there, and tell us what the president was doing today while most of us were still asleep. >> reporter: good morning, chris. it's been a very full day, of course, the second final day of the two-day g-20 summit. this morning he continued to participate in a couple working sessions, and a working lunch before a meeting with the argentinian president. now the headline is they agreed that maybe one of the solutions is to expands 9 role of is the monetary fund. they would rather challenge investments rather than given more money directly to any sort of bailout fund. the u.s. is resisting this a bit. president obama has continued to

repeat that europe needs to solve this problem and not rerely on the imf. >> tell us what else is on his agenda. besides that news conference, he's doing a joint interview with sarkozy? >> yes, that's right. that's actually been a bit of the chatter in town here. a lot of the french are wondering why this is happening. basically president sarkozy is enjoying pretty all-time low ratings ahead of an election due next spring. there's been special lace why president obama has agreed to do this. he remains popular in france. the u.s. administration officials have said this isn't any electoral gift to sarkozy, instead just underscores the healthyness and strength of the fra fracno-american alliance. this has never happened that a sitting american president is conducting a joint interview

with a french head of state. >> adrienne mong, thank you so much. a secret location in virginia. there the cia is following all types of social media from all over the world, even up to 5 million tweets the name. the group is nicknamed the vengeful librarians, and watch for possible uprisings. they track information from rebels, militants or activists, and anything they might broadcast online. texas police still searching for a serial rapist. police believe this man is targeting the sorority, but critics saying knowing sooner could have prevented an attack. a man who lied to authorities saying he was an illegal immigrant to avoid prison is now wanted by police. he returned to the u.s. earlier this year using his american

passport and was arrested. the case was turned over to u.s. immigration who determined he was a legal citizens and released him. there's now a warrant for his arrest. players and owners will get back at it tomorrow to try to find a compromise to end the lockout. about 50 players are discussing dessert filling the union if they're not happy with what the reps agree to. with the holiday travel rush approaching, u.s. airways and delta are raising fares. united and continental are also raising minimum prices. 2% fewer travelers are expected to fly this thanksgiving, and airlines are cutting back schedules to keep flights full. for the first time, justin bieber talking publicly about the paternity lawsuit filed against him by a woman who says he's the father of her baby boy. we'll have it for you when we go down to the wire in 20. you can own a piece of the steels and deals site groupen.

today it's the first day as a publicly traded company. mandy, people who subscribe to the daily deals pliable wondering whether buying its stock is a deal. what's the word on wall street? >> in absolutely five minutes' time, groupen is offering stock that apparently would value it at a total seen only once before in history for a ticker ipo, 35 million shares about 5.5% of the company, so only a small percentage, at $20 apiece. it sets the market value at 12.7 billion, the second highest total in tech history, to google, which of course went public back in 2004. it depends on who you ask. there's lots of questions about the business model, and the company has been grappling with concerns about its accounting practices. what i can say at $20 it's above the $16 to $18 range. it could be there's a lack of

ipos recently and underwriters are looking for a first-day price gay somewhere north of 15, but maybe below 40. >> have a great weekend, mandy. >> thank you. today could be the day we finally hear from one of the women accusing herman cain of sexual harassment. politico is reporting new details about what happened. lisa meyers has more. >> hey, chris, he ace comparing his deal to clarence thomas. >> the message was not subtle. he showed up on a conservative website being interviewed by

ginny thomas. >> that is the culture. >> this is a circus. >> he was accused of sexual harassment by anita hill during his confirmation hearings. cain supporters use that as a rallying cry in a new web video that features thomas himself. >> it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, you will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured rather than hung from a tree. >> in the eyes of many conservatives, cain like thomas, is a victim of the media. >> now we're getting the high-tech lynching of a beautiful man, herman cain. >> clearly some of cain's supporters are rallying round. his distributions have soared, more than $1.2 million this week. on thursday cain took a brief break from the controversy to meet with former secretary of state henry kissinger. later he was back to telling

sean hannity that all of the allegations are false. >> sean, this is absolutely fabrication, man. i don't floe what else to say? how many more ways can i say this stuff is totally fabricated? >> politico, which first broke the story, is now reporting that the incident with one of cain's accusers was overtly sexual, and serious enough she complained that same night to top officials of the national restaurant association, where cain was then ceo. cain emphatically denies he ever did anything inappropriate. >> did you tell a woman she looked good? that that dress looks hot? >> nope. >> anything. >> nope. >> any flirtation that you can think of? >> nope. >> today the other woman that formally accused cain and received a settlement hopes to release a written statement of her account, while maintaining her anonymity. >> she had nothing to do with this becoming public, and is anxious for it to go away.

>> the national restaurant association has promised an answer this afternoon on whether the statement would violate her confidentiality agreement. meanwhile, cain says his wife gloria is still 200% supportive of him as a candidate and 200% supportive of him as her husband. chris? >> thanks very much, lisa myers. let's go back to cannes, francis. the president has taken to the podium. let's listen. >> over the past two years, those of us in the g-20 have worked together to rescues the global economy, and put us on the path to the, but we came with no illusions. the recovery has been frajed. since our last meeting in seoul we've experienced a number of new shocks -- disruptions in oil supplies, the tragic tsunami in japan, and the financial crisis in europe.

as a result advanced economies, including the united states, are growing and creating jobs, but not nearly fast enough. emerging economies have started to slow. global demand is weakening. around the world, hundreds of millions of people are unemployed or underemployed. put simply, the world faces challenges that put our economic recovery at risk. so the central question coming into cannes was this -- could the world's largest economies confront this challenge squarely? understanding that these problem will not be solved overnight, could we make progress? after two days, i can say we've come together and made important progress to put our economies on firmer footing. with regard to europe we came to discuss how they move forward and build on the plan they

agreed to last week. events in greece in the past 24 hours have underscored the importance of implementing the plan, fully and as quickly as possible. having heard from our european partners over the past two days, i am confident that europe has the capacity to meet this challenge. i know it isn't easy, but what is absolutely critical and what the world looks for in moments such as this, is action. that's how we confronted our financial crisis in the united states, having our banks submit to stress tests that were rigorous, increasing capital buffers, and passing the strongest financial reforms since the great depression. none of that was easy, and it certainly wasn't always popular, but we did what was necessary to address the crisis, put ourselves on a stronger footing and help rescue the global economy. that's the challenge that europe now faces. make no mistake, there is more hard work ahead and more different choices to make, but

our european partners have laid a foundation on which to build. it has the elements needed for success, a credibility firewall, strengthening european banks, charting a sustainable path for greece, and confronting the structural issues at the heart. at cannes, we've moved the ball forward. europe remains on track to implement a sustainable path for greece. italy has agreed to a monitoring program with the imf, in fact invited it. tools have been identified that will better enable the world to support european action, and european finance ministers will carry this work forward next week. all of us have an enormous interest in europe's success, and you will of us will be affected if europe is not growing. that certainly including the united states that counts europe as our largest trading partner.

if you're business isn't growing, it's harder for us to put our fiscal house in order. that's why i made it clear that the united states will continue to do our part to support the europeans partners as they continue to work to solve this crisis. more broadly, we continued to stay focused on jobs and growth, with an action plan in which each nation does its part. in the united states, we recognize as the world's largest economy, the most important thing we can do is to get our own economy growing faster. back home we're fighting for the american jobs act, which will put people back to work, even as we meet our response to reduce our deficit in the comes years. we also made progress here in cannes on our rebalancing agenda. an important step forward, countries with large surpluses and export-oriented countries agreed to take additional steps to support growth and boost demand in their own countries.

in addition we welcome china's determination to increase the flexibility of the rnb. this is somebody we've been calling for for some time, and it will be a critical step in boosting growth. finally we also made progress across a range of challenges to our shared prosperity. following our reforming in the united states, the g20 adopted an unprecedented september of high-level financial reforming to prevent a crisis in the future. we agreed to keep phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, perhaps the single-most important step we can take in the near term to fight climate change and create clean-energy economies. even as our countries work to save lives from the drought and terrible famine in the horn of africa, we agreed on the need to mobilize new resources to support the development that lifted nations out of poverty. again i want to thank president sarkozy and our french hosts for a productive summit.

i want to thank my fellow leaders for their partnership. with that, let me take a few questions. i'll start with jim kuhnen of a.p. >> reporter: new jobless numbers today back in the states. you're on a pace to face the voters with the highest unemployment rate of any post-war president. does that make -- on a message of change -- and if i may add, given that you have just witnessed the difficulties of averting economic problems beyond your control, what state do you think the economy will be in when you face reelection next year. >> jim, i have to tell you, the least of my concerns at the moment is the politics of a year

from now i'm worried about putting people back to work right now, because those folks are hurting and the u.s. economy is underperforming. so everything we're doing here in -- here at the g20 mirrors our efforts back home. that is, how do we boost growth. how do we make sure that our workers are getting the skills and the training they need to compete in a global economy not only does the jobs act answer the needs for jobs now, but will also lay the foundation for future growth.

so my hope is that the folks back home, including those in the united states senate and house of representatives, when they look at today's job numbers, which were pop but indicate once again that the economy is growing way too slow, that they think twice before they vote no again on a proposal that economists say would actually make a dent in unemployment. there's no excuse for in. that's true globally, and certainly true back at home, and i'm going to keep on pushing it, regardless of what the politics are. chuck todd? >> reporter: thank you, mr. president. clearly there was some sort of dispute between you and the european leaders about how to fund this bailout, and you in your remarks emphasized the fact that t.a.r.p. was done with u.s. funds, it wasn't any

international involvement here. are you confident now that the european leaders are going to fund this firewall or bailout fund themselves, not looking for handouts from other countries? and the second part of my question is how hard was it to convince these folks to do stimulus measures, when your own stimulus measures, you've mentioned it twice now, is not going anywhere on capitol hill. >> first of all, we didn't have a long conversation about stimulus measures, so that was maybe two or three g20s ago. we had a discussion about what steps to be taken to continue to spur economic growth. that may not always involve government spending. for example, the rebalancing agenda that i talked about is one way in which we can make a big difference in spurring on global demand it requires some adjustmenting, some changes in behavior on the part of countries, but it doesn't

necessarily involve classic stimulus. there wasn't a dispute with the europeans. i think the europeans agree with us that it's important to send a clear signal that the european project is alive and bell, and that they are committed to the euro. and that they are committed to resolving this crisis. if you talk to european leaders, they are the first to say that that begins with european leaders arriving at a common course of action. so essentially what we have seen is all the elements of dealing with the crisis put in place, and we think those are the right elements. the first is having a solution to the specific problem of greece, and although the actions of papandreou and the referendum issue over the last couple days

i think got a lot of people nervous, the truth is that the general approach which involved a voluntary reduction on the part of those who hold greek debt, reducing the obligations of the greek government, greece continuing with reforms and structural change, that's the right recipe. it just has to be carried out. i was encouraged by the fact that despite all the turmoil in greece, even the opposition leader in greece indicated that it's important to move forward on the proposal. the second component is recapitalization of europe's banks. they have idaho filled that need and they are resourcing that need. and, you know, i think that will be critical to further instill confidence in the markets. the third part of it is creating this firewall, essentially sending a signal to the markets

that europe is going to stand behind the euro, and all the details, the structure, how it operates are still being worked out. what we were able to do is give them some ideas, some options in terms of how they would put that together. and what we have said -- and i'm speaking for the whole of the g20, what we have said is the international community will stand ready to assist and make sure that the overall global economy is cushioned by the gyrations in the market and the shocks that arise as europe is working these issues through. and so they're going to have a strong partner in us, but european leaders understand that ultimate ultimately what the markets are looking for is a strong signal

from europe that they're standing behind -- >> no. what we were saying, and this is reflected in the communique, that for example, creating additional tools for the imf is an important component of providing markets overall confidence in global growth and stability, but that is a supplement to the work that is being done here in europe. and based on my conversations with president sarkozy, chancellor merkel, and all the other european leaders, i believe they have that strong commitment to the euro and the european project. david muirer. >> thank you, mr. president, i would be curious what you would

say to americans back home, who saw themselves lose essential what they had gained back in the 401(k)s, are you confident this will happen? and if so, will it work? >> first of all, if you're talking about the movements of the u.s. stock market the stock market was down when i took office and the first few months i was in office about 3,000 points lower than it is now. so nothing has happened in the last two weeks that would suggest that somehow people's 401(k)s have been affected as you describe. am i confident this will work? i think there's more work to do. i think there will be ups and downs along theway, but i am

confident that the keep players in europe, the europeans political leadership understands how much of a stake they have in making sure this crisis is resolved. thatted usable the euro zone remains in tact and they will do what is necessary to make that happen. let's recognize how difficult this is. i have sympathy for my european counterparts. we saw how difficult it was for us to save the financial system back in the united states it did not do wonders for anyone's reply ka cal standing, because people's attitude is, you know what? if the financial sector is behaving recklessly and not making good decisions, other folks shouldn't have to suffer

for it. you layer on top of that the fact that you're negotiating with multiple parliaments, a european parliament, a european commission there are a lot of institutions here in europe. i think several -- i'm not sure whether service sarkozy or merkel or somebody, they joked with me that i had gotten a crash course in european politics over the last several days and there are a lot of meetings here in europe as well. so trying to coordinate those different interests is laborious. it's time-consuming. but i think they're going to get there. what is also positive is -- if there's a silver lining in this whole process, it's the fact that i think european leaders

recognize there are some structural forms, institutional modifications they need to make if europe and the euro zone is to be as effective as they want it to be. i think that what this has exposed is that if you have a single currency, but you haven't worked out all the institutional coordinate and relationships between countries on the fiscal side, on the monetary side, that that creates additional vulnerabilities, and there's a commitment on the part of european leaders i think to examine those issues, but those are long term. in the short term, what they've been to do is make sure they're sending a signal to the markets that they stand behind the euro. and if that message is sent, then i think this crisis is

averted, because some of this crisis is psychological. i mean, italy is a big country with an enormous industrial base great wealth, great assets, and has substantial debt for confide some time. it's just the market is feeling skittish right now. that's why i think prime minister berlusconi's invitation to the imf to certify that the reform plan they have put in place is one they will in fact follow is an example of the steady confidence-building measures that need to take place in order for us to get back on track. >> norah o'donnell.

>> growth back at home has been anemic, the new jobs report showing just 88,000 jobs added. the republicans in congress have made it clear they're going to block your jobs bill, because they believe the tax hikes in it hurt small businesses. at what point do you feel that you declare stalemate to try to reach common ground? and do you feel like you've been an effective leader when it comes to the economy? >> well, first of all, wherever republicans indicate an interest in doing things that would actually grow the economy, i'm right there with them. they've said that passing trade bills with south korea and panama and colombia would help spur growth. those got done. with significant bipartisan support. they have su