many at a weekend party. my gout is flaring up and i can't sleep. >> is red wine bad for the gout? is it really? i didn't know that. maybe try white, like a light pinot grigo. i don't know. >> ginger in vermont, i'm up to watch the bats come home. we have a bat house outside of our bedroom window, and i decided to watch. we love the bats. >> i want you to know, i'm going to say this with all due respect, but i think you might be a witch. and we welcome you -- and thank you for watching. "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ silva. >> scores! >> balotelli. staggering! just staggering!

won the league with 90 seconds in stoppage time to play! >> on his feet. does he get his reward? >> ok. good morning, everybody. it's monday. may 14. with us on set, we have msnbc and "time" magazine senior political analyst mark halperin. and former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattner. >> good morning, mika. >> good morning. >> mark, did you see the match yesterday? >> it was smashing, brilliant. >> does that mean you did not see it? >> i watched the highlights. >> is this where your friend went? >> yes. >> oh, that's exciting. >> yes. so man city has lost for 50 years. >> generations. >> i mean, people have grown up -- you see this? >> yeah, i did. >> so people of manchester have grown up with manchester city letting them down every time.

and so yesterday they had a chance to win the league for the first time in almost 50 years. man u has won it 19 times. >> they're the yankees. >> yeah, man u is the yankees. these guys are more like the mets except the mets win a lot more world series than these guys win championships. so they had qpr coming in, a team at the bottom of the table. qpr was down to 10 men, and yet man city lost. i mean, they were losing 2-1. through 90 minutes. they added four extra minutes, and they scored two goals in the final four minutes. it was the greatest soccer game i ever saw. >> people are going nuts about this. not just overseas, in america. bars were exploding. twitter was exploding. it was a big deal. >> it was unbelievable. i had friends down in pensacola who are from manchester. and they called me after the game and said that they were in tears, when they were down 2-1. they were sobbing. everybody in the house. including the kids. and then after this -- i mean

this is somewhere between the yankees-red sox rivalry. that's on one end of the spectrum. the other is the warfare in kosovo, going back to the 14th century. so the continuum, it's right in the middle. roger is going to be here, right? >> yeah. >> and of course gary will be here as well. >> i can't believe he's sober enough to come and join us this morning. >> and these games, i didn't even realize it this year. when man city played man u a couple of weeks back, 650 million people watched worldwide. more than the super bowl. this is a regular season game. that's all-i've got to say. >> that's good because we've got a lot of news to cover. >> ok. >> it sounds like it was fun. i was following your tweets. >> yeah. it was the greatest soccer game i've ever seen. we've got to get to the jp morgan story. but first, new this morning,

president obama's campaign for re-election is out with a new series of video ads aimed at, quote, looking at mitt romney's business philosophy, and what it will mean for the american economy. the video focuses on the story of gst steel, which was purchased by bain capital -- >> wait a second. hold on. they are not going to talk about hope and change and all the amazing things they've done over the past four years? why, if i had the record to run on that barack obama had to run on, i wouldn't even notice the other guy, right? he's got the best -- i mean, why -- so they're going to start with a negative attack instead of talking about the bank bailout, and talking about the detroit bailout? what about the detroit bailout? the stimulus package, and all the great things the stimulus package has brought. >> why don't you talk about how great this president is. >> and health care. >> how about saving the automobile industry? >> this is an historic health care plan. their first ad is going to be negative?

why, jeepers. willie, i don't understand. >> well, we can talk -- should we talk about detroit? we can talk about detroit. steve is here. rattner is here. the financier. >> they have the new ad out. >> we'll play the ad then. >> they are focusing on the negative instead of all the positive things that aif done. >> and i'd like to go to mark halperin after this, because i believe i was a little bit shrill with him last week. i apologize. the "time" magazine cover thing. i'm sorry. we never got to your veep map. i'm sorry. so gst steel -- >> what did you think of the 11-year-old breast feeding with his model mother? >> he wasn't 11. >> well, he wasn't 3. >> i thought seth myers did a nice job with it on "snl." a good photo shop of it. >> we'll hear about that later. all right. here is the new ad about gst steel, which was purchased by bain capital, and then closed down after 100 years of business. take a look at part of it.

>> i was a steel worker for 30 years. we had a reputation for quality products. it was something that was american made. and we weren't rich. but i was able to put my daughter through college. >> having a good paying job that you can support and raise a family on is hugely important. >> that stopped with the sale of the plant to bain capital. >> i know how business works. i know why jobs come and they go. >> bain capital was the majority owner. they were responsible. mitt romney was deeply involved in the influence he exercised over these companies. >> those guys were all rich. they had all had more money than they'll ever spend. yet they didn't have the money to take care of the very people that made the money for them. >> bain capital walked away with a lot of money that they made off of this plant. we view mitt romney as a job destroyer. >> to get up on national tv and brag about making jobs when he has destroyed thousands of people's careers, lifetimes,

just destroying people. >> he's running for president, and if he's going to run the country the way he ran our business, i wouldn't want him there. he would be so out of touch with the average person in this country, how could you care? how could you care for the average working person if you feel that way? >> the ad is paired with a companion site, romneyeconomics.com. mark halperin, your take. >> well, there's a lot going on here. this is where the obama campaign wants to join the battle. they see one path for mitt romney to get elected president, which is presenting his business credentials. and this is their attempt to undermine him. interesting they are going with it. they did run a positive spot last week for a few days. but this is where they -- this is the example that they want to start with, to say mitt romney may have the type of capitalism to create wealth for him and his investors. but eliminate jobs when that was the right thing to do for the bottom line. >> steve rattner, are you embarrassed by this ad, knowing what you know?

are you embarrassed by this ad by the obama campaign? >> i think the ad is unfair. i think -- look, mitt romney made a mistake ever talking about the fact that he created 100,000 jobs. bain capital's responsibility was not to create 100,000 jobs or some other number. it was to make profits for his investors. most of whom were pension funds, endowments, and foundations. and it did it superbly, acting within the rules and very responsibly and was a leading firm. so i do think to pick out an example of somebody who lost their job unfortunately, this is part of capitalism. this is part of life. and i don't think there's anything bain capital did that they need to be embarrassed about. >> and, willie, you hurt for the guys that are being filmed there. but they are being used on a commercial that certainly just -- it's demagogic, to suggest that mitt romney created unemployment and that, you know, you do anything for as long as

he worked at bain capital, there are going to be successes and some failures. but here, i just don't think america is going to buy that nonsense. >> they have heard the other side too, the romney campaign trying to point out sports authority at staples. there are a couple of other examples that people can relate to immediately in businesses they helped to turn around. but this is politics. this is part of the caricature they are trying to create of romney. they have been doing it for months. and his opponents do the same thing. he is the big rich guy that has no feeling for the little guy, and will make a buck and step on whoever he has to in the process. that's the picture they are trying to paint. >> here is the problem with the obama team. they don't have anybody around them that has worked in free enterprise and really gotten beaten up, and understand how free enterprise works. my father, i have said it time and again, unemployed for a year and a half. my father saw this type of ad he'd go, oh, you lost your job? you work in a castless society?

well, you don't want to ever lose your job, move to russia. and guess what, that's not so far off how a lot of working class and middle class people believe. they're not stupid. this is a paternalistic ad, made by some very intelligent people that went to harvard and yale, and are elites who have never worked in the free market who think that middle class americans are stupid. and this is a -- and now to prove that i'm wrong, why don't we go to a guy that went to a southern state school and hangs out with people like that and goes to staten island on weekends. mark halperin. >> hook 'em horns. i have to take up for the david axelrod, rick perry issue on this. this is not the only way to do capitalism. bain capital chose to do it this way. that's the business they were in. but if you're going to say you're a job creator, you have to take the totality of the record, and you could imagine a situation where there was a community that would be so

adversely affected this is one of many examples, where the people would come in and try to figure out a better solution than shutting down a company. >> and also, we're trying to look at who mitt romney is. because even you say you still don't know. and you still can't figure it out. >> right. >> and this is the type of business that he did. this is the type of business he ran. and how does that shape his thinking and one thing i -- >> listen, there are those of us who believe that the free market exists for a reason. and the free market needs to be regulated, but if this company were a vibrant company, or if this company -- if there were opportunities to turn this company around, i would guarantee you that there would be hundreds of steve rattners in line looking to make those investments. but, steve, to suggest, again, because mitt romney engaged in the practice of capitalism that somehow this suggests something more deeply about him and that he is a job killer, i think that's silly. again, i only -- i only speak

from knowledge from people like yourself and others who aren't even republicans who saw his rise at bain capital and said their success rate was remarkable. were there a few failures? yes. but their success rate was historic. and his ability to pick out winners was second to none. >> again, i think the mistake that romney made, which i mentioned and mark just mentioned, again, is letting himself get drawn into a debate about how many jobs bayne created. they weren't in that business. they were in the business of making money for important investors and did it very well. he should have framed it that way. including pension funds. instead of getting caught up in this issue, 100,000 jobs or something. but having said that, i don't think that taking that off the table takes off the table the point that willie made or the question of whether mitt romney is connected and whether he does have a feeling for the average american.

and i think that's a key part of trying to understand mitt romney. i would just come at it a different way if i were calling the shots. >> what you're calling a mistake is the central argument of his campaign, that he knows how to create jobs. >> well, he said it slightly differently. what i think is a mistake is his saying he created 100,000 jobs at bain capital. and getting into a debate over that. i don't think he -- i think he could have avoided that and still said everything else he said, which is i'm a business guy. i know how to make the economy work. i know how to enable free enterprise and private enterprise to create jobs. i think he still could have gone down that road. >> scores of people lose their jobs but bain capital and mitt romney get rich, is that a success or a failure? >> you're conflating several things that were happening. he invested in many companies. a few of them failed. a few of those people lost jobs. there are a couple of cases where bain didn't make money. but all the money they made was when the company was successful. >> in this case, they made money, and people lost their

jobs. is that a success or failure? >> that's a failure in one case. but, mark, you don't understand apparently that bain capital made money when the companies they invested in made money. and the idea was to take underperforming companies, turn them around. and by the way, when i first walked into msnbc eight years ago, i saw thousands of people sitting around doing nothing. and i looked around and i said, what are all these people doing? no. i'm dead serious. >> so you fired them all? >> and over the years, we have nbc 2.0 and all of this other stuff. and i love the people. but you know what? msnbc now is cut down to bare bones. and you compare what they do with what networks do -- >> ok, look. >> hold on a second. i want to finish here. it's more efficient. it's more -- it functions better. it turns a better profit than ever before. that is capitalism. and do people lose jobs? yeah, they do. but the idea is to turn a

company around, and make money for unions that invest, for our teachers who invest. i mean, this is -- i think this is an overly simplistic debate. i would put him in a yachtsman hat before i did something like this. this suggests that the people doing commercials don't understand capitalism, and that concerns me a lot more than them putting mitt romney in a yacht with his yachtsman's hat and his car garage and make the argument he is out of touch with middle class people. that's what disturbs me about this ad. whoever is putting it together does not understand capitalism, therefore they don't understand how to create jobs in america. >> i have heard that several times now. and i think the ad actually does key in on something that's really, really a problem for mitt romney. and that is he knows how to make money. he knows how to make money in ways that are completely legal. and hurt a lot of people. but maybe are necessary for this economy. but maybe he doesn't have any clue what people who are jobless feel like and what they face ahead.

and i think it does add to that tin ear that he has. i think that commercial keys right in on that, steve. >> hey, mika, i agree with you there. >> no, you don't. >> no, i do. >> but that's the point. mika is making the right point. >> you're making my point, which is prove that he's disconnected from people who are hurt. you know, i remember when my dad was unemployed. i went to college later on. and there was some kid in the front row that says, well, you know, anybody that wants a job can get a job, and i felt like, you know, crawling over three desks and punching him in the face because that's not the case. you get the sense that mitt romney is that guy that thinks well, if you just work hard enough, et cetera. so there is a disconnect. i think we're making the same point. there is a disconnect. but i don't think this is the way you do it. i think this scares a lot of independent voters. i think you do it by doing the quotes of him saying, i want the market to go to the bottom, and what are some of the other

things he said? i like firing people. >> yeah. i just want to put one asterisk on something mark said, because it is an important point worth making. there are a few cases, i think it's about four, where bain capital went in and made an investment and did a dividend to themselves. they took a lot of money out and made a profit. and then the company went bankrupt. it's something that goes on in the private equity industry. it's not something that private equity should be proud of. it's a mistake. but it did happen in a few cases. if the obama administration want to focus on those few cases, they can. >> why would you do that? is that just a quick kill, take the money out of the company and let it die? >> no. they didn't think the company was going to die. they bought a company. it did well for a while. they had a chance to take money out, because banks would lend them the money to take it out. and then later something happened. they didn't do it knowing the company would go bankrupt. >> i was going to ask, if you took money out of a company knowing that it was going to go bankrupt, isn't that illegal? >> it's called fraudulent conveyance. and the judge would -- a

bankruptcy judge would make you give it back. it is not a good thing to do. >> and you might have trouble making the payment on your car elevator. >> exactly. see, there you go. i think that's more of an argument there. ok. >> all right. >> we've got a lot to talk about today. >> we do. >> with steve rattner. hey, did we end up agreeing at the end or not? >> yeah, no, sort of. >> not at all? >> we did in the -- yes, yes, we did. >> i'm over here. she only wants to look at the financier. we've got to get to the jp morgan story. jamie dimon on the cover of almost every newspaper. coming up, david walker will be with us. >> i think he may be running for president. >> really? i don't know. >> or vice president. >> oh, my goodness. >> americans elect. also, delaware governor jack markell. kerry kennedy. and "the washington post's" ezra

klein. up next, an exclusive first look at politico's morning playbook. but first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill? after a beautiful, beautiful mother's day from washington, d.c., to boston, get ready for a rainy start to your week. it's going to continue probably through at least tuesday, maybe even into wednesday in new england. right now, we are focusing in on washington, d.c. just some light showers. it will be wet on the beltway as you take out the car this morning. also we'll be watching showers throughout the day. keep the umbrella handy. here is a wider picture of the east coast. clouds, the green is rain. now we even have light rain moving up into central portions of new england. so it pretty much covers a good chunk of the mid-atlantic and the northeast. how much rain can we expect over the next 48 hours? could be significant from the roanoke area up to d.c., possibly two to three inches. in new england, one to two inches for you. so the forecast today, there is the rain in the east. but i tell you what, the rest of the country on this monday, picture perfect from the middle of the country all the way to the west.

enjoy early summer weather. cloudy today in new york city. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ morgan ] when you cheer, they fly just a liiiiittle bit higher... [ man ] he hits it! [ morgan ] ...go just a liiiiittle bit further... [ woman ] a perfect 10! [ morgan ] they can even be perfect. and when we come together... to cheer...as one... [ chuckles ] ...we know what happens. [ crowd cheering ] visa. proud sponsor of the olympic games for 25 years. join our global cheer.

visa. proud sponsor of the olympic games for 25 years. morning, boys. so, i'm working on a cistern intake valve, and the guy hands me a locknut wrench. no way! i'm like, what is this, a drainpipe slipknot? wherever your business takes you, nobody keeps you on the road like progressive commercial auto. [ flo speaking japanese ] [ shouting in japanese ] we work wherever you work. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

time now to take a look at the morning papers at 24 past the hour. all right. "the new york times" -- >> gold cuff links or something? the obama administration is taking new steps to shore up ties with yemen's government in the fight against al qaeda. the president's counterterrorism adviser john brennan met with yemen's president yesterday in that country's capital. it came just a day after an american air strike reportedly killed 11 militants there. >> boy, you read that stuff in "the times" yesterday? those yemeni people are sticking bombs inside of themselves. it's scary.

scary, scary, scary. >>y the "wall street journal." california governor jerry brown will be releasing his revised budget for the coming year as the state's projected deficit balloons to $16 billion. >> good lord. >> come on, jerry. >> that's not right. >> the governor is pushing a measure -- this is a shock -- to raise taxes. and says if it doesn't pass, funding for schools and public safety agencies will face even deeper cuts. who would have ever guessed? jerry brown were elected governor of california, that their taxes would rise even more. i never saw that coming. from "the new york post," after 12 years, a janitor at colombia university can now say he has graduated from the ivy league school with honors. the 52-year-old fled yugoslavia in 1992 as the country slipped into civil war. he took a job as a custodian at columbia, where as an employee his classes were free. now with his degree in classics,

he hopes to become a teacher. isn't that the greatest story? >> how great is that story? >> the greatest story ever. >> what a great story. >> i love it. i love it. >> fantastic. and in today's parade of papers, "the miami herald," a growing number of u.s. citizens living abroad are giving up their citizenship to avoid paying taxes. facebook co-founder eduardo saf rin, one of the first americans to renounce their citizenship to keep the irs from seizing their account information. a low-cal line of slurpies now by 7-eleven. let me tell you something. there's a 7 eleven in mclean, virginia, and i used to go there every day. and those slurpees were humongous and so full of sugar.

i'm not sure what splenda will do to help the situation. the move comes at a time when companies have been marketing everything from spam lite to skinny cocktails. remember the big gulp? >> do you remember it? >> they still have it. >> it's still with us. >> really? the big gulp should be banned. >> we disagree. >> it's like a gallon of soda. a gallon of poison is what it is. >> i get some mountain dew, put it in my slurpee, chase it with a little bit of hot sauce. so good. >> and drink it down with a pixie stick. >> dissolves halfway down. >> pizza in a pocket. >> i got one right now on me. >> oh, yeah. >> all right. >> diet slurpee is like the onion. it's self parody at some point. >> how about just not having these foods in our diet so we don't desire them? >> you're going too far now. let's go to mike allen, the chief white house correspondent for politico. a look at his world famous playbook.

good morning. >> this is america. don't forget the super big gulp. >> yes. how many ounces are we talk beiing about? >> they put a handle on the top of it. >> it comes like a milk carton. >> i have a very bad super big gulp story. it's sad. >> i don't want to hear it. >> i'm just saying, people are drinking themselves and eating themselves -- >> i don't love it because of the bodegas. >> that's not good. but can i ask you a question? somebody told me that chick-fil-a is coming to this area. have you heard this? >> i have not. >> i hope you're right. i really do. >> i hope so. would that not be great? >> maybe they can do it without frying the chicken. >> come on. >> they've got grilled chicken. >> good. >> they don't grill the waffle fries, however. >> baked. >> all we need is chick-fil-a and a crystal up here, and i'd be set. >> pop those by the dozen. let's talk some business,

mike. you and jim vandehei got some inside reporting from the romney campaign. it's your big story this morning. seeking to avoid the mistakes of the mccain campaign four years ago. what are some of those? >> that's right. as mitt romney plans his general election race, he is looking at the mccain campaign for a lot of things not to do. so one of the places that this starts is with the vp selection process. now the mccain people will tell you that for months and months, they had a normal selection process for the vice president. you vet people. you do a long list. you do a short list. but at the end, of course, they went with the hail mary. that has made an unorthodox surprise choice by mitt romney impossible. the sarah palin experience means that mitt romney is going to wind up with what we've agreed around the table here is going to be a boring white guy. but they have learned other lessons from mccain, including being the anti-maverick. they want to show mitt romney as a stable, competent, mature

adult alternative to obama. also they're going to make sure to embrace the economy, not get -- that's why you have seen mitt romney talking soing t lit about gay marriage and will talk even less about it in the future. >> it mains me to quote donny deutsch. but he said vanilla is the new black. he said mitt romney should be vanilla. >> well, he is. >> and it sounds like that's what he's going for right here. taking the advice of donny deutsch. >> well, you get rob portman together with mitt romney. >> that's electric. >> it's the opposite, actually, physicists tell me of a black hole. that is a vanilla hole. and it takes everything exciting and it sucks it in -- >> and it kills it. >> what it does is squeezes out all of the excitement. >> replaces it with a big awkward moment. >> but then jobs spit out, mika. millions and millions of jobs.

an economic recovery unlike any we've seen since -- >> really? >> so it works. >> they are going to use that, the vanilla hole. >> i think the 1% will flourish under that team. >> i hope so. it's a joke. so that is, though, actually if you have the right type of a campaign team together, you could really say it's -- you know, we're not flashy. but we get things done. i mean, it's -- >> here to fix it. >> and the mccain campaign got kicked around a lot. but there was a space between obama's berlin speech and september 15 where schmidt had them on the run constantly with those celebrity ads, the most famous guy in the world, all that other stuff. they could do a derivation on that, and could help. >> do you like that, safe, competent, down the middle?

>> i think that's the right thing to do for him. >> is there a chance, mike allen, that if we all know it's rob portman they announce him early and try to avoid all surprises and maybe they campaign together a good bit for a while before the convention? >> you know, they have kicked that around. they talked about the idea of if you have an asset, why wait? they decided, though, that for now they are going to go with the more traditional timing right before the convention. they figure they need the pop. they need the excitement when the most people are tuned in. the most people are watching. so it looks like we're going to have to wait until shortly before tampa. >> ok. >> mike allen with a look at the politico playbook. thanks, mike. coming up, will ferrell back upstairs at studio 8-h hosting "snl." and, yes, president bush was back. counseling joe biden on the finer points of diplomacy. four kids,

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time for sports. if you missed the top of the show, joe tells us it was one of the biggest games in the history of soccer. yes or no? >> yes. english soccer. no doubt about it. >> man city taking on epl.

the queen's park rangers. >> just called up. >> but they upon trailing 1-0. >> the best against the worst. >> extra time, off the corner kick, heads it in. that ties the game. >> now they are down 2-1. they've got to win to win it all. >> they need a win here. in the final seconds of extra time, sergio aguero fires it home. that is the game-winner. man city, after 44 years, wins. an epl championship. >> and what made this so incredible is they beat the crosstown rivals, man united, who thought they were going to win their 20th championship. and look how excited mika? i guess you had to be there. >> two goals in extra time, mika. >> i'm just so glad the game had like a goal. >> the 60 minutes. >> the game is over, and then they win. >> 60 minutes in, and i mean this, men were weeping in the stands. >> oh, my god. >> they live with this 24 hours a day. 365 days out of the year.

and for 50 years, they've been suffering. and after they went down 2-1, young men were crying in the crowd. it was -- >> the crazy thing for me as a novice about extra time is you don't quite know when it's going to end. so it's like this frantic push, because only the referee is keeping the time. >> it's injury time. >> nba playoffs. miami heat-pacers. lebron james got the mvp before the game. his third mvp trophy. still a young man to have three mvps. joins only eight other players in history to win it three times. backing it up, here on the fast break lebron finishes with the big dunk. he had 32 and 15. heat win 95-86. clippers and grizzlies, game seven. clippers bench came alive scoring 25 of their final 27 points. they advance to play the sfur

spurs in round two. >> that was a surprise? >> not a huge surprise, no. >> do they have any shot against the spurs? >> yes. >> really? >> they have a great point guard in chris paul. san antonio is a little old. >> the clippers against the lakers in the finals? that would be crazy. >> it could happen. absolutely. >> wow. baseball, reds and nationals. watch this. joey votto. solo home run in the first inning. to left field. another solo home run in the fourth, this time to straightaway center. the bottom of the ninth is when the real fun happened. reds down a run, two outs, bases loaded. votto, already two home runs on the day, comes to the plate. >> the 2-2 to votto. hit deep, center field. and ankiel is going back. at the warning track. it's going to be gone! it's gone! joey votto has delivered! make it v for victory! >> look at that. third home run of the game. >> no people there. >> walk-off grand slam. the reds win. he wasn't only the ninth inning

hero, though. yesterday, the marlins giancarlo stanton, ninth inning walk-off grand slam of his own. and that means that dolphin thing and the fountain in the outfield will go off. they beat the mets 8-4. stanton's seventh home run of the season. first time since '98 major league baseball had two walk-off grand slams in the same day. >> that ends a five-game winning streak for the mets? >> yeah, they have been hot lately. basketball, overseas this is just so strange. stefan marbury. remember him? >> oh, yeah. >> he's had a big comeback career -- >> he plays with the baig ducks, right? >> yes. >> you follow the ducks closely. >> i love chinese basketball. stefan marbury has a bronze statue erected -- >> as well he should. >> as a tribute to him. he is immortalized there. unveiled yesterday. things get really weird here. dennis rodman gave the dedication speech. there's dennis with the mike in his hand. it was a sign of appreciation

from fans to marbury. not eligible for the mvp because he is not a chinese citizen. stefan marbury, bronze statue. coming up, heads roll today as three top executives, including the woman who oversaw the unit whose gamble set off the $2 billion loss, announced last week. will this moment on wall street change the way it is regulated? you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. >> as smooth as butter, willie. ♪ how are things on the west coast? ♪

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great businesses deserve the most rewards! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? here's your invoice. what's in your wallet? havi ng a's your invoice. n irregular heartbeat? havputs you at 5 times calgreater risk of stroke. don't wait. go to afibstroke.com for a free discussion guide to help you talk to your doctor about reducing your risk. that's afibstroke.com. we know we were sloppy. we know we were stupid. we know it was bad judgment. we don't know if any of that is true yet. of course, regulators should look at this. that's their job. but we intend to fix it, learn from it, and be a better company when it's done. >> 44 past the hour. that was jp morgan chase ceo

jamie dimon on "meet the press" on sunday, apologizing for the bank's stunning $2 billion loss on risky bets. ina drew is expected to resign in the coming days. she is one of the three top executives being held accountable for the financial blunder, which cost the company about $14 billion in stock market value when investors learned about it last week. >> so, steve, $2 billion. they lose $2 billion. trying to actually save money. hedge against a bigger loss. why for jp morgan chase, that $2 billion, i guess they are just a couple of days away from bankruptcy, right? oh, wait, no, they have $375 billion on their sheets. >> so we're going to take you through that. i want to just make sort of three quick points about this. the first, i think there's a point, joe, you've made on the show before, which is that these banks are actually been getting bigger, not smaller. so if you look at the three biggest banks, what you see is that jp morgan's total assets, all their assets, in fact, are a

lot more than $375 billion. they are $2.3 trillion, relative to $1.5 trillion in 2007. part of this is because of acquisitions. they bought wamu and bear stearns. bang of america bought merrill lynch. the only one that's smaller is citigroup, which has been shrinking the balance sheet. >> so they are worth -- >> not worth. this is assets on the books. >> $2.3 trillion. and they lose $2 billion. what is that, 1%? >> it's a 10th of 1%. >> and this is a crisis? >> well, that's an important point. but the point i want to make here for a second is your point, that these are still big complicated banks, hard for even somebody like jamie dimon to have his hand on everything that's going on there. but if you go to the next slide, you'll see your point illustrated in a different way. this is the profit ability of jp morgan. $19 billion of net profit in 2011. $5.4 billion in the first

quarter alone of this year. so the way to think about this is their $2 billion is that fraction of $9.2 billion of pretax profit. so we're talking about something like 20% of a quarter's pretax profit. i'm agreeing with you. this is not life threatening. they have lost a lot more money than this on other things. it just comes in an opportune way and an opportune form. the fact is they -- >> you say it's opportune. >> inopportune. sorry. >> but it's inopportune mainly because of timing. this has more to do with politics, doesn't it, than economics? >> well, that's the key thing looking forward. if you look at the last chart, what you'll see is that on friday, wall street took down jp morgan's market capitalization by $14 billion. so you say to yourself, they lost $2 billion. why is the market taking $14 billion off? and by the way, all the other financial services stocks were down anyway. and the reason is because jp morgan was the one effective voice pushing back on some of

what the most ardent proponents of the vocal rule in dodd frank were trying to do. and now jamie dimon is muted. he can't make that case now. >> if you believe in jamie dimon's effectiveness, it seems to me that jp morgan might be a good stock to invest in, if you believe that jamie dimon knows what the hell he is doing. >> he knows what he's doing. >> of course he does. >> but what the market is worried about at the moment is that washington is going to constrain their business so much that it's going to be harder for them to make money. that's the concern. your friend elizabeth warren will have her way. >> ok. so let me ask a question on the other side of that. because obviously doesn't this make one wonder what other risky bets are happening out there, beyond this? that's number one. and number two, reading over the weekend that had some facets of dodd frank actually been in place instead of put off as pending that these bets would not have happened and this money would not have been lost. and what does that do for jamie

dimon's credibility as it pertains to all the complaints about the vocal rule? >> jamie dimon has not yet disclosed all the details of what the position is, because they have to unwind it so they have to stay quiet for a bit. i think it does probably violate what the vocal rule would do when it is put in place. if the vocal rule was there, probably this trade wouldn't have occurred. >> what about dodd frank, all the facets of it? >> well, the vocal rule is part of it. it would have resulted in more transparency as to what they were doing along the way. it probably would have kept this from happening. there's a good possibility of that. but remember, banking is a risky business. you make loans to people. jp morgan and other banks have lost a lot more money than this, simply by making loans in the normal course of their business. and then the economy turns down. banking is a risky business. you lose money in banking. this was a mistake. it was a mistake of oversight. jamie said that clearly. but this is $2 billion in an industry that has trillions and trillions of assets.

>> and how much money did they make last year? >> well -- >> what was their profit last year? $39 billion. so they make a $39 billion profit last year. again, this is the insanity. it's kind of like the obama ad where you take one part out of a much bigger story. well, if you're going to make $39 billion, you don't make $39 billion without going into the marketplace and taking risks. and sometimes those risks fail. here is an example of one time it did. but if your profit is $39 billion per year, and you lose $2 billion -- >> mika, you could eliminate -- >> and they are going to make that money back. >> you can eliminate deaths from highway driving by telling people they can't drive anymore. you can put guard rails around any activity that creates risk and creates danger. but then you're going to prevent things from functioning. if we constrain these banks so much that they won't make loans

because they can't, then you're going to do more damage to the economy than the situation we're in now. >> so are you two telling me there is nothing to see here? >> no. i think this is an important reminder that the principle of the vocal rule that banks should not be taking bets -- and this was not a hedge. i think this was a bet, with deposit depositors' money is a good rule. but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. make sure that what we do is thoughtful and not simply an overreaction to what joe correctly described as a manageable loss. >> yeah. let's not turn this $2 billion into something that it's not. this is an embarrassment for the bank. but they're taking care of it. >> wasn't, though, steve, september of 2008 supposed to be the teachable moment? and if we didn't learn it then, why are we going to learn it now, in terms of tightening up restrictions on banks? >> did you only go to college

for one year? no. several years. >> my point is, if we didn't make sweeping changes in september of 2008 after what happened then, why would we make them now? >> i think that we did make sweeping change. i think the banks have changed. and by the way, one of the reasons why this $2 billion is a very manageable loss for jp morgan is because of post 2008, they dramatically increased like all banks their capital position. they were required to. and they brought their capital up. so they are now in a position where $2 billion is manageable. look, these are huge complicated organizations. there is always going to be the risk of somebody going off and doing something that doesn't work out. and that's what happened here. this isn't criminal. this was stupidity. and it's just part of life. and you're not going to take -- you can't have a zero tolerance. you're not go -- these banks can't function with a zero tolerance for risk. all right. coming up next, this is going to be exciting, will ferrell

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oh, is it time? thank god. >> "news you can't use." will ferrell back upstairs at "snl" hosting the program, and he brought with him george w. bush in a step that saw joe

biden as a teenager angry at president obama for stealing his thund or gay rights. >> joe, come on. you should be proud of what you did on "meet the press." you're a great vice president. >> well, some people say i'd make a great president, all right? better than you even. >> who says that, joe? >> george. >> you are going to talk about your imaginary friend george again? >> he's not imaginary. he's real. >> all right. he's gone. you can come out, george. . >> whoo, that was close. now, what's wrong? you seem down. >> everybody says i have like a big mouth. >> yeah. >> well, it's my big mouth that got things done this time, ok? not his careful weighing of options. >> those smarty pants types are never going to understand speak first guys like us. >> yeah. i'm just so sick of the way presidents are always riding me. i mean, i'm an adult. >> hey, i've been there. i've been there. i used to catch grief all the time for president cheney. uh-huh.

i'd be in the oval office hooking up the slurpee machine, settling into a "charles in charge" marathon, and then that penguin will come waddling in and say, get your damn pants on, we're about to bomb blah blah blah. well, mission accomplished. >> what is that supposed to mean? >> it's just something i like to say when a problem isn't solved but i don't want to talk about it anymore. [ laughter ] >> will ferrell hosting. >> i like it. >> and hosting this week, to close the season, mick jagger. >> well. >> jeff beck is going to be there. it's going to be crazy. >> huge. >> incredible. coming up next on "morning joe," the ceo of the comeback america initiative and former u.s. comptroller general and the next president of the united states of america -- >> let's just call him mr. president. >> david walker. he'll be with us when we which back. which a

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that some of the democrats behave anti-business. the sentiment, the attacks on work ethic and successful people. and i think it's very counterproductive. so it doesn't mean i don't have their values. i want jobs. i want a more equitable society. i don't mind paying higher taxes. i don't mind lifting up our -- i do think we are our brother's keeper. but attacking that which creates all things is not the right way to go about it. welcome back to "morning joe."

a live look at a rainy washington, d.c. good morning, everyone. mark halperin and steve rattner are still with us. joining the table, co-anchor of "squawk on the street" david faber. and in washington, from "the washington post" and bloomberg news and policy analyst ezra klein. good to have you both onboard this morning. >> david, what's your take on the jp morgan chase dustup over the past week? what impact will it have on the street? what impact do you think it will have in washington? >> i think we've already seen the impact on the street to the extent that jp morgan stock was up about 9% and other stocks came down. it certainly was a stain against mr. dimon, who by far is our most esteemed banker, if you will. and somebody who has always paid such close attention to risk. and known more than any other ceo every single almost trade that's going on in the institution. >> what happened here? >> well, he said, you know, we

didn't pay close enough attention. he sort of lost sight of it to a certain extent, at least. didn't understand fully what they were doing. in london at this chief investment office. and has said as much. he's always been the most outspoken of our ceos out there as well. for good and for bad. give him credit. he is out there talking about it. and they are doing things about it. of course, ina drew, the lady who has run the office, is leaving the bank. but it will be with us for a while. and to the extent there are longer term ramifications just goes back to reminding people the risk in the banking business, in the trading part of that business, and in this lack of transparency. if you had gone to the financial filings with the s.e.c. and looked up chief investment office, and every one of their quarterly reports or their 10 ks, their annual reports, you barely would have found a reference to it. a year ago you wouldn't have. and even what references you

would have seen you would never have understood there was real risk being taken. >> what's the political impact, ezra? does the president have more cover for what he's been trying to do on wall street for the past three years? >> possibly. remember at this point the vocal rule is happening in the regulatory process. what you're having is a process where they are trying to write a rule, the banks are weighing in. but a lot of it is happening behind closed doors. and this creates a new sort of public dimension to it. the reason that jp morgan and jamie dimon are so important is because they are seen with how to make these big trades without the risk. and a lot of dimon's reputation is that he managed to guide jp morgan through the housing bubble without the magnificent losses that other banks seemed to take during that period. but i take this a bit more seriously than some on the panel here. because what i think you see here is not that jp morgan chase is imperiled in any sort of

short-term sense. but what this is a reminder of only two or three years after the financial crisis at a time when people's risk tolerance should already be low, and that this is not a safe industry. and just by making mistakes in complicated trades can blow up and impose massive costs on the rest of society. that is what the regulation is about. >> let's listen to jamie dimon talking about the issue of regulation, and then on the other side, david, i've got a question for you. here he is. >> we want the government to be able to take down a big bank like jp morgan, and it can be done. we think dodd frank, which we supported parts of, give the s.e.c. to take down a big bank. and when it happens, i think the board should be fired. the equity be wiped out. and the bank should be dismantled and the name should be buried in disgrace. that's what i believe. >> have you given regulators new ammunition against the banks? >> absolutely. this is a very unfortunate and inopportune time for this kind

of mistake. >> david, i'll ask you a similar question to what i asked steve rattner. there are portions of dodd frank, had they been in place there, are arguments this trade would not have happened. is this more of an argument for dodd frank and what the president has been trying to do? or as these guys have been trying to point out, not this? >> it would have led to it not happening. you would have derivatives which were part of this trade. these credential swaps that were used would be more transparent, which it's supposed to be. it's just that the delay has been very long in terms of getting a real exchange up and running and allowing that transparency there. that might have been one part of it. but it's still unclear whether this hedging activity would have been allowed or not under the vocal rule. even when we finally get it, the interpretation of the vocal rule is going to be left largely to the federal reserve. you know this, steve. at the end of the day, it's not

clear they would have disallowed this kind of trading, especially if you're saying we're hedging for the overall bank. instead of actually making proprietary trades, as we know they really seem to be. >> my key point is that i think whatever happens now, as we finish the vocal rule, as we finish implementing dodd frank, we should be using a scalpel, not a meat ax. what i worry about here is that with jamie's loss of credibility, with his inability to push back, there will be a meat ax. if you follow comments this weekend of carl levyn and barney frank, their guns are loaded. shotguns are ready. and they are coming after the banks. and i think we have to be careful about that. you can strain the banks too much. you can put them in a position of taking more risk if you don't allow certain kinds of hedging that reduce risk. sore th or they cut back on lending, and that's not good for the economy. and i do disagree with ezra in the sense that of course banks can fail. of course we can have another systematic failure about. you this is not an example of

that. this is a modest, modest loss from a group, by the way, that has made billions of profits for this bank over the past several years. which is part of why this problem happened, because this group was allowed to keep going. >> but isn't -- aren't they cutting back on lending? >> no. loans are going up at the moment. >> the number of loans are going up? >> the number of loans are going up. >> not as much as we might hope, though. >> let's move forward. president obama's campaign for re-election is obviously kicking up. the story about bain capital. a couple of new video ads that are aimed at looking at mitt romney's business philosophy and what it will mean for the american economy. and let's show one of those ads that focuses on gst steel, which was purchased by bain and then closed down after 100 years in business. >> i was a steel worker for 30 years. we had a reputation for quality products. it was something that was american made. and we weren't rich. but i was able to put my

daughter through college. >> having a good paying job that you can support and raise a family on is hugely important. >> that stopped with the sale of the plant to bain capital. >> i know how business works. i know why jobs come and why they go. >> bain capital was the majority owner. they were responsible. mitt romney was deeply involved in the influence that he exercised over these companies. >> those guys were all rich. they all had more money than they'll ever spend. yet they didn't have the money to take care of the very people that made the money for them. >> bain capital walked away with a lot of money that they made off of this plant. we view mitt romney as a job destroyer. >> to get up on national tv and brag about making jobs when he has destroyed thousands of people's careers, lifetimes, just destroying people. >> he's running for president, and if he's going to run the country the way he ran our business, i wouldn't want him there. he would be so out of touch with the average person in this country.

how could you care? how could you care for the average working person if you feel that way? >> all right. you know, we did pick up mark halperin, there was a montgomery burns shot where his head is down. almost like you see a pile of scrap behind him. a very daunting image, i'm sure. >> it doesn't ring a bell. >> exactly. >> ezra klein, should we expect to see much more of this through november? >> yeah. tons of it. i mean, every person in ohio is going to know every company that mitt romney has ever closed in his entire life. this is going to be central to the democrats' attack on him. and in some ways, it's going to be interesting to see if it plays differently. because there was a -- the way the romney campaign dealt with it during the republican primary was to say how can you attack what i did in bain capital? i was running a private business. are you against private business? that attack won't work against democrats in a general election. you just can't say this is out of balance for a republican to say. they'll really need a new response. i don't think we've seen what the more general reply to these

kinds of ads will actually be. >> david, what's your take on that ad? >> i agree we'll probably see more of it. it paints a one-sided picture of the private equity industry, which i have plenty of problems with. we have i'm sure somebody who would be happy to defend it having worked in it a number of years. but it cuts both ways. the president will use it one way. and romney will use it another. they do use a capital structure, meaning a lot of debt to their advantage, but it's not as so often is the case black and white. it's a lot of gray when it comes to private equity. >> where do you see the future going as far as the economy goes? because obviously, you lived this day in and day out. jp morgan lost money because they were betting on a continued economic resurgence. the economy slowed down. europe right now is in crisis. "the new york times" suggesting that china is slowing down. we may be grinding to a halt by mid to late summer.

what is your take on that? >> i think it's possible. i think it's unlikely that we'll grind to a halt. but we're certainly not going great guns in terms of the economy. there had been a hope during the first quarter especially that things were really starting to go, especially with given very strong job growth we saw in the first quarter. that has slowed down. gasoline prices have come down a bit. that can always be a help. the consumer has been ok. europe continues to be a real concern. joe, they are having such problems there. we have focused on it at cnbc as i woothink we need to. imagine being in spain. 50% unemployment, 24% youth unemployment. it is really incredible. >> the depression level of unemployment, mark halperin, especially for young people in spain, and you see what's happening in greece. the greeks just cannot pull themselves together to save their country. and you look at france. and as neal ferguson wrote this

past weekend, they elected a champagne socialist. i'm not sure what that is. but promising lower hours of working, and a lower retirement age, and 75% taxes. europe is in trouble. >> prime minister merkel may play a bigger role in influencing the president's chances of re-election than dav david axelrod. the politics of the bain attack are so interesting. do they plan to sustain this argument? i think in some political observers they would say why do this now, in may, when you want to have this argument be fresh and relevant for the press and for the public in september and october? the other thing is, there's a two-minute version of this ad. that's not the one that's going on tv. they are doing sort of a full-court flood zone of conference calls and local

events and different versions of this to try to get this in the conversation. to try to stop mitt romney now. but, again, they may be burning out the argument too soon. >> ezra, you say ohio, we're going to see this in ohio. i take it this is going to be played in most of the swing states. but are they going to focus mainly in the industrial midwest from minnesota to wisconsin to indiana to ohio? is that mainly where this message is driven home? >> i should say i don't know exactly. i don't know the campaign strategy to that level of detail. but i would imagine so. the particular kind of economic crisis they're talking about there, the closing of steel factories, the closing of manufacturing, the sort of taking over or buying out and redistributing of companies that used to exist and used to provide as of the speaker in that ad said good middle class jobs, people may not have had that much in terms of high skills, that's largely a midwest

story. that's primarily what we are seeing in florida or a swing state maybe like new mexico. i would imagine that's going to be sort of the ohio-wisconsin strategy. >> hey, let me ask, did you guys see wall stre"wall street journ editorial this weekend about how the president's re-election team is mining information for contributors to mitt romney, and then doing personal hits against them? >> yes. >> did you see that? >> i did see that. >> and there's an example of a guy that contributed to a super pac, a republican super pac. they are digging into his personal background. >> divorce records. >> got his divorce recording. and then posting crap about him online. i wonder if they understand that the second they start doing that, republicans, a third party republican outfit, is going to do the same thing. do they really want to take politics there? that is just sleazy, sleazy, sleazy.

sleazy politicking. and maybe you get away with that in the chicago city council race. but, man, you talk about the law of unintended consequences, mark halperin, that could get really nasty fast. >> they plan to go after anyone who stands in the president's way of re-election. if the supreme court rules on health care in an adverse way to them, they'll go after supreme court justices. if people give money to the super pacs going after the president, they plan to make those people pay a price for exercising their first amendment right by going after them in any way they can to paint them in a negative way. >> that reminds me of sort of a newt gingrich logic in the 1990s where he always assumes he is the only one that's going to do something, and there's not going to be a response from bill clinton. the president is going to be hearing from a lot of his donors saying, listen, here is the deal. i got a divorce. or i got, you know, in trouble here or there, does that mean if i contribute to you, i'm going to have to be shredded by the republicans? >> the president's people think they are better at it.

>> stupid. >> what do you think? >> and there's a lot more contributors to the republican super pacs than to the democratic super pacs. >> so you're fine with this? >> no, i'm not fine with it. but politics is a contact sport. and i think these guys are playing to win. >> so we do all realize we are taking it to a completely new level now, right? >> well, look -- >> no, no, no. >> this is not hope and change. to go back and ding a guy and do a personal attack against a guy and a divorce because he's contributing to somebody that is running against you. that's fair game? >> unless i made a mistake and they didn't use that information, they looked for it, but it's not directly connected, even in that journal editorial to the president's re-election campaign. nor was it used. it was simply searched for. >> just accessed. >> it's just a third party doing it? >> well, there can be things in divorce records that have to do with your financial background that happen to be personal.

>> let's mark this date down. mark this date down. that's fine. if this is -- if the obama team wants to play this game, things are going to get ugly. and at the end of the day, it's going to be both sides that are going to be lamenting the fact that this bridge was crossed. so much for hope and change, right? >> anyone who gives a lot of money to beat the president is going to have their lives if filleted in public to try and send the message that it's dirty money. >> and contributors that are giving money to barack obama, by this new standard, your lives could be filleted by republicans. >> i'm not sure it's a new standard. would you like to chime in? >> really? have there been private investigators that are going out and digging up information and creating an enemies list that you then put up on a website and as you say, quote, fillet contributors? when has this happened?

>> it was on a website? >> yes, on the website. >> there have been many examples in the past of campaigns identifying contributors to another campaign of questionable integrity or something. >> just like having gambling in the casinos. >> and that's why shelley edelson gave $15 million to newt gingrich, right? >> you may be right in questioning that, joe. but in looking through other candidates' campaign records to see if people -- >> well, of course, if they are felons. if they are not americans ises. >> if they are dead beats, bankrupted a company. >> moved jobs overseas. >> go through divorce records. ok. >> david faber, thank you very much. happy to be here. still ahead, we'll talk to jack markell. also, kerry kennedy breaking down the exciting items up for grabs in the annual rsk auction.

and up next, what's behind the push to "keep america great." you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. the push to "keep america (female announcer) most life insurance companies look at you and just see a policy.

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23 past the hour. joining us now, the ceo of the comeback america initiative and the former comptroller general of the u.s., david walker. and he gave us a trillion dollars. >> i need it. >> you need a trillion dollar bill. there you go. >> now, why are you passing out trillions, dave? >> unfortunately, that won't cover the deficit this year. but the problem is not this year. it's where we are headed, going into the future. and i want to commend both you and mika for having the vision and understanding that we need

to talk about facts and solutions. so far, this campaign has been very negative, and it's been about the past. we need to be more positive and talk about how we're going to create a better future. >> well, you've got some charts. this is the place to go if you have nerdy charts. thank you, steve rattner, for that. >> you started a trend. >> our fiscal future. and i'd love to get ezra klein in on this as well. >> the first chart, it's based on the congressional budget office's latest long-range simulation which shows that in 2055, the only thing the federal government can pay based on historical level of revenues is interest. and what do you get for interest? nothing. absolutely nothing. so our fastest-growing cost is interest. our second fastest-growing cost is health care. we need to recognize reality that we have to get the economy going now. but if we don't deal with our structural problems, no matter what gains we get in the short-term, it won't be sustained over time. so we need to act on both. >> and how would you grade those

in washington in terms of being able to act? literally, having the capability at this point of acting on both. >> an f. >> yeah. >> i mean, people talk about do nothing congress. this is less than a do nothing congress. and that's not a partisan statement. because the democrats control the senate, and the republicans control the house. the do nothing congress among other things passed the marshall plan, which was pretty significant. they actually got some other things done. so, you know, we need to recognize the reality of this presidential re-election has to focus on this issue. >> how does that happen? if you give them an f, and they can't do it -- >> well, first, we have to recognize it's not only what we need to do from a policy standpoint but from a political standpoint. we need integrated and open primaries. we ought to get rid of republican and democratic primaries as they have in california. have an integrated and open primary where everybody can vote. the top two vote getters run off

for re-election. there was a lot of outside money that came in. and why don't we have transparency with regard to the super pacs? the supreme court didn't say you couldn't have transparency. why can't we have transparency? >> putting some of that aside, because i think we all know the problem with gridlock politics. but we are where we are. and we now have a presidential election coming. it seems unlikely there will be any real movement on this before the election, just being realistic about it. but give us a plausible, achievable way forward that you think can happen after the election. how does this happen to get some kind of a deal? >> steve, you're exactly right. we're not going to get any meaningful progress before the election. but here's how it will happen. we need to make sure that this presidential election is about substance and solutions. we need to make sure that at least one of the presidential debates focuses on economic issues. short-term and structural. and how are candidates going to direct this issue -- address this issue so that the american people can make a meaningful decision about who to support,

and so that whoever wins has a mandate for action. it takes presidential leadership. the congress is dysfunctional now. it will be dysfunctional next year. the congress has to be led, and the american people, by the president, and the american people have to put pressure on the congress to act in the nation's interest, rather than the personal politicians or partisan interest. >> ezra klein, you look at this first chart that dave walker showed us. and it shows that federal revenues at 18%, federal expenditures much higher. i think both sides recognize that there is a huge gap between those two. and i wonder, do we expect any more serious talk about how to bring those numbers closer together during this campaign, or is it past 2013? >> well, you know, i think we are getting more serious talk on that particular issue than people sometimes say. one thing i admire about mr. walker, he does talk a lot about the cyclical unemployment issues

we are facing and the way in which if we don't deal with the crisis it could become a long-term structural crisis that will make any type of future deficit reduction nearly impossible. so that's where i think we're not hearing anything serious right now. in terms of the deficit, what i think people don't give enough credit for is the way we tend to get through these issues is we muddle through. in the '90s, we had four separate deficit reduction deals. not one that did the whole thing. and right now, mitt romney and barack obama for better or for worse, you may or may not like the plans, but both plans have trillions of dollars of deficit reduction. that doesn't solve the problem between 2020 and 2050. that problem is a lot of extrapolation of long-term health care costs and current revenues. but in the short-term, it gets us sort of on the path to where our debt begins to stabilize and get us where we need to go. i don't think we have seen as little discussion on that as people seem to think. i think we are having a substantial argument in the country between whether we should have the democratic plan

which includes much higher taxes on the rich or the ryan plan which includes lower taxes and obviously much lower spending going forward. >> if you want to be slightly optimist optimistic, what i find as i talk to people is there a growing awareness of the problem. jamie dimon on "meet the press" yesterday said, i'll pay higher taxes but in context of a deal to get this problem under control once and for all. and i think sensible people are starting to say that. and maybe eventually it will get to congress. >> i think so. i think we have to recognize this will be the mother of all lame duck sessions this year. >> oh, my gosh. >> because the difference between doing nothing and extending a bunch of the existing expiring provisions is $7.8 trillion. >> and explain, if you will, there are two things coming up a lot of people have called a fiscal bomb. >> well, among other things, you have to decide whether to extend some or all of the so-called bush-obama tax cuts.

>> so the bush he-obama tax cut expire at the end of the year. >> and you have to decide whether or not you're going to allow this sequester to deal with defense and other spending to take place, which is supposed to take place starting the beginning of next year. you have to sdooit decide, you know, whether or not you're going to extend the medicare fix, the relief on cuts that would otherwise happen for medicare. in reality, they are not going to decide that in the lame dug session. they are not prepared to do comprehensive tax reform. steve's right. we need to do dramatic and comprehensive reform as a package. and ezra is right that we need to stimulate the economy and deal with underemployment and unemployment. but it has to be coupled with a concrete and enforceable plan to deal with it long-term. >> so basically we have two huge things coming at the same time. you've got the possibility of much larger tax increases coming up. at the same time, you're talking

about significant spending cuts. that is enough to slow down any economy on the planet. >> and we could do this where we have short-term help to the economy and put in smart long-term packages that. is what simpson bowles is. it is still a smart way to go. if we don't deal with the fiscal cliff in a smart way, it will deal a body blow to the economy. unemployment will go up by 1.1 percentage points or even more. we could destroy the recovery just by doing nothing. >> we can actually do two things at once. you can have short-term stimulus, even allowing the deficits to go up for the next year or two, if you tackle long-term debt. >> coupled. >> but it's got to be coupled, and everybody has to hold hands and jump off the cliff at the same time. >> all right. ezra klein, by the way, thank you very much. dave walker, thank you as well. still ahead, the mayor of

jerusalem nir barkat will join us on the set. keep it here on "morning joe." i love cash back. with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, we earn more cash back for the things we buy most. 1% cash back everywhere, every time.

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do you agree with me that the obama team is creating an online enemies list, mark halperin? >> sure. >> and that's fine with you. you think that's all a matter of course? >> i think they are going to give heavy scrutiny to anyone who gives millions of dollars to try to beat the president. >> so an online enemies list is fine, and of course it's also fine when republicans start doing that to democratic donors? >> and they have in the past. >> digging through divorce records as the "wall street journal" is reporting they are doing? >> if they are looking at divorce records for financial data, i think people would think that's fair game. >> i am just saying you create an online enemies list like the obama team is admitting they are doing, as you just admitted they are doing. imagine if karl rove were caught nosing through a democratic contributor's divorce records. i mean, what would "the new york times" do? >> there would be a lot of investigating.

>> yes, there would be a lot of investigating. >> put aside divorce records and put aside calling it an enemies list. >> it is an enemies list. >> but you can imagine a campaign of either party saying, here are the top 10 donors to my opposition. here are people funding my opposition. draw your own conclusion. >> i don't think these eight people are even the top eight. i think they are just -- >> but the american people might see an election that's disproportionately influenced by people giving tens of millions of dollars, that impacts that outcome. >> ok. >> the obama campaign wants to make sure those people are scrutinized and intimidated. >> well, intimidated. that's the goal. they want to intimidate them. >> and vice versa. >> again, i'm sure there are some people out there that aren't the swiftest in the world listening to me thinking that i'm making this statement to protect mitt romney contributors. i'm not. i'm worried for democratic contributors in the future, independent contributors in the future. republican contributors. we are crossing a line here where the obama campaign is

producing, as you said, an online enemies list, and what they do will be followed by the republicans and by other third party groups. and it gets ugly very quickly. >> the republicans have done it since 2004 in scrutinizing -- there's no doubt that there are wealthy democrats that -- >> did george w. bush have anonline enemies list? >> i don't know if they put it online. no doubt that democrats are not giving to the president because they feel intimidated because of what republicans have done in the past. put aside divorce records and calling it an enemies list, both sides have engaged in it. the president's people will be very aggressive. they made it clear. if you give tens of millions of dollars to defeat the president, you will be filleted in public. >> it's total intimidation. >> do you think if you give tens of millions of dollars to a candidate that you should be scrutinized, maybe by the media? >> i do. i think there's a line. i don't think it's a question of whether people got divorced or

didn't get divorced is relevant. but if somebody gave tens of millions to one of these candidates, it's fair game to look into his records and the way he has conducted himself and his ethics, integrity, philosophy. i don't see why that's not fair game. >> i think i want to know. >> i'm not sure that the enemies list that the obama team has put up are all people that have given tens of millions of dollars. i know the one who had his divorce records being rummaged through by obama supporters gave $1 million. but we'll have to check into it a little more. i think had is fascinating. mika, you do understand what i'm saying here? >> i do. >> this is going to happen to democrats now. and i don't think that's a good thing. i think the politics is ugly enough. but if everybody believes that divorce records should be rummaged through and a lot of other personal data, next it's going to be children's educational records. it's just going to get more and more personal. if that's the world that we all want to enter politically, then, again, we're going to -- we have been asking for years why good

people don't get involved in politics anymore. >> right. >> well, the answer is very clear, because of this sort of nonsense. those are people that aren't running. now we are extending that to try to make sure that people will be intimidated to not contribute to candidates. so that's fine. you get the political system that you pay for. >> or maybe they'll be vetted correctly. there's two ways of looking at it. >> no. it's not. >> i'd like to know everything about these people who can hand over tens of millions of dollars to fuel campaigns. >> it's not just tens of millions of dollars. so don't generalize. that's not the case. it's not tens of millions of dollars. >> in this one case, it was $1 million, and you're taking huge offense to divorce records being scrutinized. >> i'm not taking huge offense. i'm saying i know a lot of great people that don't get involved in politics that we need in washington, d.c. and we sit around and bitch and moan every day about why good people are no longer involved in politics. this is a great example. but you guys can just go ahead

and defend it, because it's barack obama, without any kind of -- >> i'm not defending it. >> without any concerns about the consequences on all parties in the future. >> let's go down to rock center and play some bean bag. >> let's do that. up next, is the fiscal crisis in europe spilling over to the middle east? we'll be bringing in the mayor of jerusalem. >> nir barkat joining us live when we return. sometimes, i feel like it's me against my hair.

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but some real concerns about the rurp an economy and the drurope the drag it may have on your country. >> israel did not have a dip in its economy. we have been growing on average over 4.5% year over year. this year expected to do maybe 3.5% growth. the economy is very flexible. we know how to go to europe, main to america, the far east. and the fact that we are very flexible economy mainly intellectual property, high tech, lots of export, enables us to maneuver when times are tough. >> so you were recessionproof this past time. you didn't take the dip the rest of the world. >> no. jerusalem has been growing 8% for the last three years. >> oh, my gosh. >> it's very bullish for investors. >> and what's fuelling that growth? >> mainly, jerusalem is a brand second to none in the world. and we are working through

tourism and culture, and we have very, very good results. tourism went up almost 80% in the last three years. and jerusalem is very, very open for people to come and visit. so our local economy and tourism is picking up very, very nicely. so the economy is relatively very, very strong. and israeli export business is about -- other opportunities throughout the world. therefore, israel's economy is doing very well. we are very well financially disciplined. and there are no negative budgets. >> steve, that sounds like a success story. >> sounds perfect. sounds like there's no problems at all. >> so just to switch gears slightly, there's a feeling, i think, in this country that the iranian situation is calmer, that sanctions are having an effect. oil prices are coming down on world markets. the risk premium seems to be coming out. what's the mood in jerusalem about this? how do your people feel about the situation with iran? >> well, we all prefer that

indeed the talks and all of the pressure put on iran will do its job. however, i wouldn't bank on it. and we're talking about a very, very aggressive hateful regime. and they are declaring that -- well, we may be first on the list, but the western world in general is the enemy. so i would not bank on enabling them to have nuclear power. they will attack with it. and so another thing i wouldn't trust is what they tell us. so i wouldn't trust the talks. they will tell you what you want to hear. a regime that is willing to send their kids to commit suicide, it's very easy for them to cheat and to lie for the goal. so it's not about what they say in the talks. it's about what they are doing, what they aim, and what their motivation is. and unfortunately, there's no good news on that front yet. >> so when you talk about the strength of the economy and given the contrast that you're seeing happening around the

world, what do you make of the protests that are being seen in jerusalem and around the country that are similar to the occupy wall street protests? they must be there for a reason. there must be some challenges. >> well, of course. first of all, we are a democracy. and we have people challenging the government and the municipal government practically on a weekly basis. i see this as a good thing, to enable people to protest peacefully. nobody's hurt. it's part and -- and we are very proud about that form of democracy. what they are protesting against, housing, quality of life, the cost of living, it's a very fair and honest thing to protest about. so they are right, and i identify with many of the things they are requesting. not only i, but the israeli government as a whole. and the challenge is how do you keep financial discipline in the government and not overextend like some countries that are overextended in their expenditures. so the challenge is how to balance the budget wisely from

the government perspective, listening to the people. it's a very, very healthy democracy that we have. and i'm very happy that indeed they are able to have the dem-sprague stragz -- demonstrations and have a voice. it will continue this way, i'm sure. >> nir, thank you very much. >> we're going to come. we're going to push it. >> we'll be happy to show you around. >> and congratulations on your continued success there. up next, the futbol frenzy. we'll be right back. if there was a pill to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye-care experts at bausch + lomb. as you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients.

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and they go ahead 1-0, roger, but after that, things go crazy. >> they needed to win to win the first time in 44 years. they have a history of calamity. this is it. bill buckner-esque collapse. this pathetic team are suddenly back in the game. if the score stayed the same, man chuchester united would havn the title. >> and they only have 10 men on the field. and he's going to knee someone. >> less a red card and more a psychotic ram pain.

1993 world series. they said they were crying uncontrollably. here's the best part not only for man city fans, but sir alex is on another field. they are celebrating and a word comes that lightning has struck

across town. man city scores two goals in extra time. gary hopkins, seriesly have you ever seen anything like this in soccer. there is the gallaghers. >> this is the only way city could have done this. they try to figure this out and we were on the way down and we managed to get it. this was one of the greatest last five five minutes in any sport. we were in despair. we thought we had blown it. to score two goals in five minutes. >> i wasn't joking. the kids were weeping. mothers were weeping when they were down 2-1. americans can't understand the tribalism involved in this sport. >> this is 44 years of just despair. to be in manchester and lost this game from manchester city,

would have been inbearable. to win like this is -- no one expected it. you don't win games like this. it's fantastic. >> you have a continuum with alabama and auburn and somewhere in the middle is man city and you. it is much more tribal than sports in america. being able to live and die by this. >> nine months of sporting challenge comes down to the last kick. manchester united for them not to win at all, the blazers, 2005 was the last season and that was shocking. this is incredibly shocking. will united come back? this is great for soccer. >> i was talking about it and another team charging. that's your team.

>> this ball with the title-winning team for the "morning joe" show. >> this is huge. don't touch it. sell it for a lot of money. congratulations. our friend, yusef. bouncing off the walls yesterday. >> thank you. we'll be right back. we asked the furlow family to bring in their favorite dvds cause we want to show them something new. you ready? let's go. walmart can now convert your favorite dvds from disc to digital. no way. if hulk smash disc... it's no big deal. now you'll never break them, scratch them or lose them. we can use that. you'll never break them. so what do you guys think? we love it. it's only two bucks per disc. that's cool. that's the walmart entertainment disc to digital service. bring in your favorite dvds to your local walmart photo center to get started. don't go in there. don't go in there. they don't listen.

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good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast and 5:00 on the west coast. we have mark halprin and steve rattner. we have to get to the jpmorgan story, but first new this morning, president obama's campaign for reelection is out with a new series of video ads aimed at "looking at mitt romney's business philosophy " and what it will mean for the american economy. they focus on gst steel. >> you are not going to talk about hope and change and all the amazing things they have done over the past four years? barack obama had the run on. i didn't even notice the other guy, right? he starts with a negative attack instead of talking about the

bank bailout and the detroit bailout? >> we could. >> the stimulus package. >> want to do that first? >> the cap and trade. >> health care. >> this health care. this is an historic health care plan and their first ad will be negative? >> we could talk about it. we can talk about detroit. steve's here. rattner's here. >> they have the new ad and you want to play the ad. >> all right. we will play the ad. >> instead of the positive things. >> i would like to go to mark halprin. a little time cover thing. >> she caught up on the 11-year-old. >> we never got to your map. i'm sorry. >> what do you think of the

11-year-old breast-feeding with his model mother. >> he wasn't 11. i thought seth did a nice job with it on snl and a good photo shop of it. >> here's a duet about gst steel performed by bean cane capital. >> i was a steelworker for 30 years and we have a reputation for quality. it was american-made. we were not rich, but i was able to put my daughter through college. >> i had a paying job that you can support and raise a family on is hugely important. >> i know how business works. >> bane capital was the owner. mitt romney was involved in the influence that he exercised. >> those guys were all rich.

they will have more money than they ever spend, but they don't have the money to take care of the people who made the money for them. >> they had a lot of money. we view mitt romney as a job destroyer. >> to brag about making jobs, he has destroyed thousands of people's careers, lifetimes, just people. >> he is running for period and he would be so out of touch with the average person in this country. how you can care for the average working person if you feel that way. >> it's paired with a companion site, romneyeconomics.com. your take? >> there is a lot going on here. this is where the campaign wants to join the battle facing one path. that is presenting the business and their attempt to undermine

him. interesting they are going with it. this is a positive spot for the few days. this is the example that they want to start with to say mitt romney had the type of capitalism to create wealth for him and eliminate jobs. >> you were embarrassed by this ad, knowing what you know, were you embarrassed by this? >> i think the ad is unfair. mitt romney made a mistake and talk about the fact that he created 100,000 jobs. bane capital was to make profits for his investors and most were pension funds and it did it well, acting within the rules and acting responsibly and was a leading firm. i do think to pick out an example of somebody who lost their job unfortunately is part of capitalism and part of life. i don't think there is anything that they need to be embarrassed

about. >> willie, you hurt for the guys being filmed there, but they are being used in a commercial that -- it's demagoguic to suggest mitt romney created unemployment. you do anything as long as he worked at bain capital. americans won't buy that nonsense. >> they are trying to point out sports authority and staples. other businesses they helped turn around, but it's politics and they have been doing it for months and his republican opponents in the primary did the same. he's the big rich guy who has no feeling for the little guy who will make a buck and step on whoever he can in the process.

>> here's the problem with the obama team. they don't have anybody around them who worked in free enterprise and got beat up and understand how free enterprise works. my father, unemployed for a year and a half. he saw this type of ad. you lost your job? you work in a capital society? you don't want to lose your job, move to russia. guess what, that's not so far off how a lot of working and middle class people believe they are not stupid. this is a paternalistic ad made by intelegent people who have never worked in the free market who think that middle class americans are stupid. and this is a main ad. to prove i am wrong, let's go to a guy who hangs out with people like that and goes to staten

island on the weekends. >> i have to take up for the david axelrod like this. this was not the only way to do capitalism. they chose to do it this way. if you are going to say you are a job creator, you have to take the record and you could imagine a situation where there was a community going to be so adve e adversely affected, this is one of many examples to try to figure out a better solution than shutting down a company. >> even you say you don't know who mitt romney is and you can't figure it out. this is the type of business he did and the type of business he ran. how does that shape his thinking? >> those of us who believe that the free market exists for a reason. the free market needs to be regulated, but if this company were a vibrant company and

opportunities to turn this company around, i would guarantee there would be hundreds of steve rattners looking to make the suggestions. to suggest that he engaged in the practice of capitalism that is now that this suggests something more deeply about him and he is a job killer? i only speak from knowledge and people like yourself and others who are not even republicans who saw his rise at bain capital and said the success rate is rackable. were there failures? yes. but his ability to pick out winners was second to none. >> the mistake romney made is letting himself get sgrun how many jobs bain created. they were in business of making money for investors and they did it very, very well.

>> investors including -- >> pension funds. instead of getting caught up in the issue of people who lost their jobs and so on. i don't think that takes off the table the question whether mitt romney is connect and whether he had the feeling for the average american. that's a part of trying to understand. i would come at it a different way. >> you are calling them the central argument of this campaign that he knows how to create jobs. >> what i think is a mistake is saying 100,000 jobs and the debate over that. i think he could have avoided that and said everything else. i'm a business guy and i know how to make the economy work. i think he did. >> there was a case like this

wher where scores of people lose their jobs. >> he invested in many, many companies. a few lost jobs. there were a couple of cases where bain didn't make the case. that was when the company was successful. >> in this case, people lost their jobs. was it a success or a failure? >> a failure in one case, but you don't understand that bain capital made money when the companies they invested in made money. the idea was to take under performing companies and turn them around. when i first walked into msnbc years ago, i saw thousands of people sitting around and doing nothing. i said what are all these people doing? i'm dead serious. >> so you fired them all? >> now we have nbc 2.0 and all this other stuff. i love the people, but you know

what, msnbc cut down to bare bones and you compare they do with what networks do? >> okay. >> i want to finish here. it's more efficient and it functions better and turns a better profit than ever before. that is capitalism. do people lose jobs, but the idea is to turn a company around and make money for unions that invest and teacher who is invest. i think this is an overly simplistic debate. this suggests that the people doing the commercials don't understand capitalism and that concerns me a lot more than putting mitt romney on a yacht with his car garage and you make that argue thamt he is out of touch with middle class people. that's what disturbs me. whoever is putting it together does not understand capitalism

and how to create jobs. >> i put that together several times and the ad does key in on snag is really, really a problem for mitt romney. he knows how to make money and make money in ways that are pleadly legal and hurt a lot of people and maybe are necessary. maybe he doesn't have any clue what people who are jobless feel like and what they face. i think it adds that tin ear. the commercial. >> i agree with you there. >> no, you don't. >> no, i do. >> she is making the point. >> you are making my point which is prove he is disconnected to people who are hurt. i remember when my dad was unemployed. i went to college late or and there was a kid in the front row he said anyone who wants a job can get a job and i felt like crawling over the desks and punching him in the face. that's not the case.

you get the sense that mitt romney is that guy. there is a disconnect. we are making the same point. there is a disconnect, but i don't think this is the way you do it. this scares a lot of independent voters off. you do the quotes by saying i want the market going to the bottom and i like firing people. >> i want to put an asterisk on something mark said. there a few cases where bain capital took a lot of money out and made a profit and the company went bankrupt. it's snag goes on and not something they should be proud of. it's a mistake. if the obama administration wants to focus on, you can. >> is that a quick kill? you take the money out and let it die?

>> they didn't think it was going to die. they had a chance to take money out. banks would lend them in the money. they didn't did it knowing, that would create a lot of legal problems. >> if you took money out knowing it was going to go bankrupt, jnt that illegal? >> the bankruptcy judge would make you give it back. it is not a good thing to do. >> you may have trouble making a payment on your car elevator. >> that's more of an argument. >> coming up, would you pay $2,000 for a private meeting with jimmy carter? >> of course i would. i would pay $10,000 for that. >> would you behave? >> no. >> you would pay to play back gammon? kerry kennedy takes us through the top items. first, delaware governor jack

markel will join us and we will go through the headlines on the west coast including california's massive $16 billion budget shortfall. here's a check on the forecast. >> that's a massive iq shortage. >> what's going to happen is we continue with beautiful weather in so many areas of the country. the east is the exception. yesterday was 69 in atlanta and that will be clouds and rain to the ohio valley. look out west. 103 in phoenix and warm again today. the travel spots will be from the appalachians up through washington, d.c. pennsylvania and central new york and rain heading your way. light showers around today. the heavy rain will come tonight and tomorrow. this is the gloomy area. so many other spots are picture

perfect. 82, sunny and low humidity. still very hot around phoenix. fast forward and we have slow-moving and gloomy weather, but the west continues to be warm. this pattern is set right now. we are not seeing any tornado outbreaks. this is may. no fatalities so far. knock on wood. so far, so good. what a beautiful day it will be. we are brewed by starbucks. look, every day we're using more and more energy. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet?

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i'm disturbed at the democrats's behavior and anti-business behavior and sentiment and the attacks on work ethic and successful people. it's counterproductive. it doesn't mean i don't have their values. i want jobs and i don't mind payer higher taxes, but i think attacking that which creates all things is not the way to go about it. >> welcome back to "morning joe." the govern nor of the great state of delaware. good to see you. >> we are talking on the break. the jpmorgan story. does that resonate? >> it probably resonates and we have a lot of employees and they are great people. i think the bottom line and in

this case we mess this up. there a number of steps. banks to have to have a lot more capital. that say shock absorber when the problems happen. i was watching of the last hour. steve rattner talking about using a scalpel. it's right because if you think about the things that got us into trouble, mortgages and credit cars, we continue to have credit cards and we learn something and banks need to be able to minimize their risks through hedging. >> you don't believe the restrictions have been implemented yet. do you think we need to go further or stay where we are? >> be careful.

the scalpel versus the meat ax, what i read over the week and we had smart people on that said some of the additions may not have affected this particular action by jpmorgan chase. >> a lot of people think it would have helped. let's talk about what's happen negligence your state. 6.9% unemployment. that's more than a percentage point behind the national average. what are you doing right and what do you need to work on? >> what we are doing right is we ask businesses what we can do to facilitate the success. it's a short list, but more than ever, having access to great talent is what it's all about. they wrote a book about it and talks about the fact that there three billion people in the world looking for jobs and 1.2 million jobs available. we are in a global war for

talent because the job guess where the talent is. >> how are you a tracking the strategies? >> we have to have a story to tell and tell it well. we just broke ground two weeks ago for a new factory that is a company called bloom energy and make fuel cells based in northern california. wal-mart and fedex and a doeby and a bunch others. first factory in delaware. they understand they have access to a phenomenal workforce. that's a number one thing. we continue to make sure we are teaching the kinds of things in the career and technical schools. that's what companies care about more than anything else. >> the other leading democrat in america, the president is here in new york and raising money from wall street from the banking community. what do you see to people who

say how can we expect the president to be aggressive and bouncing the power between citizens in wall street given that he is raising money? >> you can listen to what jamie dimonsaid. the president has been forceful and demonstrated and he takes on whoever he thinks he needs to take on. the fund raising will take care of itself. >> for you look at romney's record as a business person. what would you say? >> i would start with how he did as governor of massachusetts. in terms of job creation, it was less than stellar. i think he ranked 47th out of the 50 states. massachusetts did in terms of job creation. the other issue with respect to bain, private equity can be helpful.

it reopened thanks in large part, but in our case that is leading to job creation and that's what private equity is supposed to do and as you were talking about with steve rattner, sometimes it doesn't work that way. companies leverage and are taking the money out and leaving them in a worse position. that's fair game. >> what's wrong with that? he is trying to maximize value and make smart decisions guided by the market. why is that a negative? >> when these companies end up going out of business, they get ravaged. in the contact of a candidate saying i have a strong record of creating jobs, you have examples of the ones like you talked about earlier, that's fair game. >> let's talk about the difficult choices that you and other governors are having to make right now. we read the story early in the

show about what's happening in the state of california. jerry brown pushing the measure to boost income taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year. the deficit is $16 billion or something like that. what is the most difficult choice you had to make looking at the balance sheet and something you had to eliminate. >> the last few years, we had to cut pay in the first year and had to reduce head count and we are down by over 1,000 positions. that may not sound like a lot, but it's at the moment in time when the revenues are challenged and the demand for government services goes up. when you think of all the people who are dealing with medicate and unemployment applications, people have to do more with less. what we have to recognize is we won't be able to go to a future and tax our way to a prosperous future. that's why we are so focused on job creation. >> you are not raising revenues?

>> we are not. my very first year we did a lot of cutting when we did rev news. last year we took a few and cut a few taxes when it relates to businesses, but no new revenue on the table. >> why not people reaching for maryland. we will keep an eye on it. >> there is a lot of revenue. we made it huge. now that we have the high speed and it's popular. >> there you go, thanks for being with us. coming up, $10,000 and $20,000 to play tennis. those are a few things up for bid in the center auction. kerry kennedy is up next when "morning joe" comes back.

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easy label, right?

but that label can lead to prejudice and discrimination, and we don't want to go there. so let's try to see people for who they really are. you can help create a more united states. the more you know. >> this is the image you went for manager's day? it's a mom breast-feeding her kid? did the kid from modern family

sexually assault the yoga instructor. you have to do what it takes to sell magazines. it's a good cover. if you want a great cover, you would have photo shopped out the chair. really. >> we want to talk about the time cover again. >> that's okay. >> here is the president of the robert f kennedy center for human rights, kerry kennedy. she is back with the spring online auction. let's have fun with this. always such good things being auctioned off. good to have you back on the show. >> great to be here. >> what are the items you are excited about? >> the best is right here to your show. free round trip tickets. >> i love it. >> that's neat and a lot of political opportunities to see president obama do the acceptance speech at the dnc.

the meet and greet with president clinton seeing carter down in georgia. >> that's interesting. >> you go on a plane to see jimmy cart sner. >> >> i put in a bid for jimmy carter for $2,000. i moved it up $500. would you like to play back gammon? >> the on one interaction with woody. it's not just the back gammon, but the refreshments. >> refreshments as well. you get to meet the mad men cast. >> that's a neat and come back to the building and see alec baldwin on the set. >> do you that as well and that may be dangerous if he is in the middle of the words with friends game.

>> don't go near him. >> i'm staying away. all this money, where does it go? >> it goes to the work of the center. we do a lost human rights education work with the power and education program. a lot of work on bling now. we are working on the ground with human rights defenders from around the world and haiti and the dominican republic and mexico and beyond. making the world more just and peaceful as my father worked for so hard during his life. >> give the web address. wwwrfk center.org. >> charity buzz? >> rfk center. >> any viewer of this program would find tons of bids on there. >> you mentioned the things. how do you get all of these things? >> this is 100% my mother.

she is unbelievable as you know. they say yes. i don't think she -- i think she has a 100% record. do you have a goal with fund-raising? >> it is usually about 600 to $800,000. it really bolsters the programs and one of my favorite auction item this is year is the signed copy from governor cuomo of the marriage equality act that is really a historic document. an important piece of civil rights legislation here. >> you can play football with bret favre in mississippi. that's a great one. >> tennis with john mcenroe. >> that's a concern a little bit more. what do you think? >> i would love it. mississippi. that would be correct.

>> and the golf lesson with tiger woods's golf coach. how about that? >> really? interesting. >> it might have been more -- >> you ought to try to play tennis with john mcenroe. which one of you would break the record and curse first? >> i would curse before i got on it. john mellowed out a bit over the years. >> i think they got it. >> you can videotape that. >> the public feels like it knows his father, but what is his legacy to you as a father? >> he believed that one person could make a difference. that's the way he tried to teach all of his children. my brothers and sisters. that's how he saw the world. i think that that's an important message for all of us. you don't have to bend history or be a president or a king. but you can in your own way

create change and make the world more just and peaceful. >> all right. always. in china, they have a lot of focus. how do you appraise our government and balance human rights with the overall relationship? >> you know, i think hillary clinton did a masterful job and a tough situation. she is on her way into beijing on a completely different agenda. when chen was in the embassy, i have to say what is missed in the headlines is the substance of what he was decenting over. china's one-child policy. they have 35,000 abortions per day in china. it is insane. 38% of the women of child bearing age of sterilized. they can do a forced a boringe -

abortion at 8 1/2 months. they will take hostage family members to put pressure on people who are against the government or having another child. that's now exactly what they are doing to him with arresting his nephew on a murder charming. we don't know anything about that. he has a son or another band member under house arrest now. imagine if they said to the 1.3 billion problem we have a problem with population, what doudo you think the solutions are instead of shutting people up. >> kerry kennedy, thank you so much. the website is rfkcenter.org. >> we are going to bid on some of these things.

have you been down there? i'm going to make the bid. >> what are you bidding? >> 1500 right now? >> that i don't know. >> i'm going to jump up to 5. >> all right, thank you very much. >> cnbc's brian sullivan joins us as the european stocks drop over fears coming out of greece. coming back in a moment. ♪

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this is the pursuit of perfection. i knew it'd be tough on our retirement savings, especially in this economy. but with three kids, being home more really helped. man: so we went to fidelity.

we talked about where we were and what we could do. we changed our plan and did something about our economy. now we know where to go for help if things change again. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get free one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. it is 45 past the hour and time now for a check on business before the bell. let's go straight to brian sullivan. >> he's crazy. >> seriously just not right. there, i did it again. >> crazy for business. so brian, europe has decided to take a couple more months from

history and the greeks just decided we are not going to be responsible. we are not going to push through a deal to guarantee our survival and the french elected a champagne socialist. this has to be royaling the markets over there. >> they're are down open from the average to the tune of 100 points. i understand when we get down to the nitty-gritty about what they are doing. it can be the bottom line. there 30 political pears in greece that cannot form a coalition government. they will have yet another round of elections next month. the people i am hearing from are saying those elections will be a direct call as to whether or not greece wants to remain in the euro zone or whether they want to bailout and go back to the old currency. over the weekend, saying if greece leaves, why should italy

and spain remain? here's the bottom line. i know people get frustrated here and we hear about the bickering. be thankful they are not in europe. they make us look normal. >> really? great. >> they are crazy. i'm only mildly insane. >> you have the green tie. >> i tried. there is a lot of on the cream and not a lot of green. >> it's looking pretty good. warning to dimon, leave new york fed now. it looks like elizabeth warren is going to use jamie dimon's problems in massachusetts. i guess they are going to have shock waves not only across wall street, but in washington over this story that keeps developing. >> it is and it's interesting because jpmorgan is not going to cost taxpayers any money this

time. this is their own money and they are not going for handouts or help, but if the loss was larger and some have suggested they might have needed help. that outrage factor like they are going to the government with their hands open now. how could this have happened? you have the senator calling for an investigation and they said this shows that the rule is need and we need to heavily regulate the banks. jpmorgan chase has been the lightning rod because they allowed the one guy in london to build up a $100 billion and you have to do this, it's a trading position that went bad. that's the bottom line. the story is nowhere near being done. >> you are talking about $2 billion in losses. that is not 1% of the assets.

that is .1%. the politics is driving this story in a big way. >> you know it's maybe more this time the optics and the optics stink. i am happy to be crazy because my hometown is winchester, virginia. there is quite a good singer who graduated the same year as my dad. patsy kline. i will shout out to high school in winchester, virginia. in which they never heard of me. >> i love patsy kline. one of my favorites. >> we went to the rival school, but what do you think? >> okay, brian. >> thank you, brian sullivan. >> up next, we have a check of the biggest headlines. tape his ears. >> his ears are big and he should tape them. you talk about that being a problem.

i said if he tapes them. >> we have will ferrell back to snl. keep it here on "morning joe." i look at her, and i just want to give her everything. yeah, you -- you know, everything can cost upwards of...[ whistles ] i did not want to think about that. relax, relax, relax. look at me, look at me. three words, dad -- e-trade financial consultants. so i can just go talk to 'em? just walk right in and talk to 'em. dude, those guys are pros. they'll hook you up with a solid plan. they'll -- wa-- wa-- wait a minute. bobby? bobby! what are you doing, man? i'm speed dating! [ male announcer ] get investing advice for your family at e-trade.

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>> joe, come on. be proud of what you did on "meet the press." >> some people say i make a

great president. better than you even. >> who says that, joe? >> george. >> we are going to talk about your imaginary friend? >> he's not imaginary, he's real. >> he's gone. you can come out, george. >> what's wrong, com padre. he's down. >> everyone said i have a big mouth. it's high big mouth that got things done and not his careful weighing of options. >> those smarty pants guys are never going to understand. i'm sick of the way they are riding me. i'm an adult. >> i've been there. i used to catch grief all the time from president cheney. i will be in the oval office hooking up the slurpee machine settling into a charles in charge marathon and that penguin

would yell get your damn pants are, we are about to bomb blah blah blah blah blah. mission accomplished. >> what's that supposed to mean? >> something i like to say when a problem is not solved, but i don't want to talk about it anymore. >> let's take a lock at the west coast papers from the "los angeles times." a horrific discovery on a mexican highway underscores the brutal fight for control of the roots of rival gangs. a tip led police to nearly 50 bodies. oh, my god. more than 50,000 people have been killed in the six years since the government launched an assault on powerful cartel s. >> and the "san francisco chronicle," the l.a. clippers are heading to the western conference sem finals for the game seven win. only the third time in 41 years that the teams won a postseason

skpee spurs. what if the clippers were able to face the lakers in the west. >> they have been the little brother as long as they have been there. >> up next, what if anything did we learn today? uncer) most life insurance companies look at you and just see a policy. at aviva, we do things differently. our wellness for life program rewards you with savings just for getting a check-up, and it's only from aviva.

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welcome back. time to talk about what we learned and really i'm looking into my magic mirror and i see you. what have you learned? >> that mark zuckerberg is 28 years old today and for his birthday he gets what we all wish for. $100 billion and an ipo. he is 28. i'm depressed. >> what have you learned? >> anything can happen in extra time. >> exactly. >> i can be his mother. that's just -- i gotta go. wrap it up. >> i learned something about barack obama by looking at the new cover of "newsweek" magazine. they proclaimed barack obama the first gay president. all right, very good. >> it's "morning joe." see you tomorrow. stick around for chuck. >> i pro