in maryland and d.c. since last week's severe storms there. the utility companies are urging people to report their outages once again. and the drought is killing trees in arkansas. the leaves are turning brown and falling to the ground. stephanie abrams is here with the nation's forecast. good hot morning to you, st stephan stephanie. >> let's talk about the heat on friday. it was a scorcher across the country. triple digit readings into places again like chicago and also into minneapolis. kansas city, wichita, st. louis, you all saw triple digit readings. the reason why, we have our jet stream very far to the north. that allows for the warm air to get as far north as that jet stream is and then you have the high pressure, which is bringing us nothing but sunshine. so of course, with no clouds to cool us off, it is going to be excessively warm. we do have heat advisories from the plains to the midwest and mid-atlantic and northeast as well.

here's a look at our current heat indexes across the board, mainly into the 80s, some people still hanging into the 70s, triple digit readings, st. louis, into louisville. chicago, 96 degrees on saturday. on sunday, down to 84 degrees. so we will see a big change there for the windy city. otherwise across the country, seattle even getting in on that heat. 82 degrees for our forecast on saturday. everything is relative, isn't it? you can see the heat along the east coast as well. washington, d.c., 103. new york, you're still into the upper 90s, boston, 81 degrees. then for the second half of the weekend, again, we're still going to be on the warm side but some cooler spots around the great lakes. alex, back to you. >> stef, thank you so much for that. we'll have a live report from new york central park on how people are coping with the deadly heat coming up in five minutes or so from now.

let's go to front page politics and president obama fresh from a bus tour signing into law a transportation bill he says will create much needed jobs. >> first of all, this bill will keep thousands of construction workers on the job, rebuilding our nation's infrastructure. second, this bill will keep interest rates on federal student loans from doubling this year, which would have hit nearly 7.5 million students with an average of $1,000 more on their loan payments. >> this comes on the heels of the new jobs report showing the economy created 80,000 jobs in june with the unemployment rate at 8.2%. republicans seized on those numbers in their weekly address this morning. >> just look at yesterday's job report, the latest in a string of bad news about the economy, unemployment is stuck at 8.2%. higher than it was when president obama took office and much higher than his

administration promised it would be with the stimulus in effect. >> and the so-called super saturday, the romney camp is actings if today is the day before the general election. they will call on hundreds of swing state voters. joining me now, political reporter for the "washington post," felicia somez and alex werty. >> the narrative has not changed on the jobs number from the last time. should we really expect it to really change and the dynamic in the presidential campaign to change as well? >> as you mentioned alex, things are at a stand still with unemployment remaining at 8.2%. not welcome news for the obama campaign and doesn't look like it will have a major effect one way or the other or major change. the romney campaign will continue to hammer on this and just look at some of the polling from last month when you look at

a range of metrics about eight different areas surveyed by pugh last month. president obama meets mitt romney in personal qualities but one where he's behind is the handle of the economy. the romney campaign will focus in on that. the obama campaign, there's not much they can do to turn things around between now and november. they'll try to take a bigger approach to say we're not actually shedding as many jobs as we were when obama first took office. >> do you agree with that, alex? is that the best approach and do you think the transportation bill holds potential for real boost on jobs? >> i think the transportation bill's impact is going to be pretty limited at this point. i think the president -- maybe his best strategy is to ignore the jobs report and do what he's been doing, taking the long view on this. he suggests it took -- this

wasn't a problem created overnight, it kind of started even ten years ago, maybe at the start of the bush administration. and it's going to take a long time to dig out of it, even if they've made progress, it's going to take a while. his best bet is to focus on middle class, he has the agenda and policies that's going to rebuild the middle class, whereas mitt romney, his agenda is focused on helping the rich. >> felicia, let's look at the meter which has not moved much in the swing states, either in the latest polls as well. the president is hitting mitt romney in ads as an outsourcer of jobs in the key states. what do you think has more impact, the actual job numbers or the constant barrage of ads in that presence? >> it's not really an either/or question. both of those things do play a rge role in helping voters make up their minds come the fall but the bain ads president

obama has been running against mitt romney in these states have had an impact. look no further than the romney's response to those a in order to see how forcefully they are pushing back. they are clearly concerned about who is is we'ving the narrative about mitt romney's tenure at bain. one thing to remember, it is july, a lot of people heading out to vacation or other places and around this time in the campaign in 2008, you had john mccain running ads slamming president obama then senator obama as a celebrity. we saw at that time those ads didn't have the kind of impact the mccain campaign was hoping they might. those bain ads in the same day, starting out now early and it might take a couple more months to really see whether those -- that message has taken root in voters' minds. >> the romney camp seems to have a hard time getting its message straight. we the question over whether health care is a tax or penalty. do you think it's a temporary

blip or suggests a deeper problem? >> deeper problem for health care on romney. he basically passed a bill in massachusetts which has the same elements, including the controversial mandate, whether or not it's a penalty or tax. that put him in a box. it seemed like they decided they were going to move on and change the subject to the economy. the problem was the conservative movement wasn't happy with that answer and pressured mitt romney to go on the offensive on health care. a few days later instead of calling it a penalty, romney said the supreme court labeled it a tax and that's what it is. romney he still isn't mr. popular with a lot of conservatives, it's one that shadows him in the general election. he's got to be mindful and keep the conservative base of his party happy. >> and felicia, some of the big voices in the republican camp have suggested that mr. romney should shake up his staff, add more seasoned op eed operatives.

>> we heard some rumblings they are bringing on other members of their staff, communication operatives. it doesn't look like it's at the crisis moment where the campaign would need to take a second look at who their main stop staffers are and bring in new people. i think it hasn't quite reached that moment and we haven't heard anything from the campaign that would signal they are heading in that direction. >> good to see you both, thanks for joining us. now to more on the dangerous weather hitting much of this country. michelle franzen is in new york's central park where temperatures could reach triple digits today. with a good morning to you, despite the heat, you look great. is it bad out there already or not so much yet? >> reporter: you know, it's starting to build. it's okay here right now but there are a lot of people taking advantage of it. a lot of people running and cycling and trying to beat the heat before the temperatures get

in the triple digits in new york city and elsewhere all along the east coast. washington, d.c. could hit an all time high today, dangerous, 106. and they are taking precautions there, closing down some of the pas and ball fields. and in all, nearly half of the states in the country falling and dealing with excessive heat warnings and advisories today and all of the dangers that go along with it. mother nature turned up the heat another notch with the midwest once again feeling the burn. not since the 1940s has the windy city sizzled like this, with temperatures above 100 degrees for three straight days and count gs. >> free water. >> reporter: on chicago's south side, volunteers offered free water to help battle the effects. in heat zapped areas, cities extended hours at swimming pools. >> it feels like 115 degrees out

here today. >> reporter: and opened cooling centers for senior citizens. the killer heat wave is already blamed for at least 45 deaths nationwide in the past two weeks. at emergency rooms visits are up along with the concerns of heat related health problems. >> it causes swelling and weakness and a lot of stress on the heart and lungs. >> reporter: in maryland, residents like carl ton davis are still waiting for electricity to be restored one week after a storm knocked out power. >> it has been miserable. that's the truth. >> reporter: in the past month alone, the tore rid heat has left its mark in the books, setting 4500 daily record highs and 781 monthly record highs and breaking 238 all time record highs. it's not just the strength of the high pressure system parked over the middle of the country, we've had ongoing drought, dry land and basically heat the air up more quickly and more

efficiently. that's why we're suffering so much in places like chicago and st. louis. >> reporter: according to government estimates, the drought now affects more than half the country and farm experts say is quickly burning up the nation's crops. >> we had a good start to the crop and then in a matter of three weeks, this crop has just gone south. >> reporter: farmers along with everyone else trying to gauge and ride out this latest heat wave. and back here at central park, this is the third heat wave this year so far in new york city. cooling centers will be open of course but the biggest advice health officials are saying, stay hydrated and stay inside if you ca alex? >> michelle franzen, thanks for that live report. what are you doing to stay safe? you can talk to me on twitter, i'll be reading your tweets throughout the day. as michelle said, stay safe. your grocery bill is about to go

up. we'll tell you when and why. walmart turns 50. a new report suggests it has changed america but how and has it changed the value of your home? it's about time we made our homes work for us. so let's make our dryers do the ironing. have our fridges cater our parties. and tell our ranges to whip up dinner. let's plug in to summer savings before they're gone... ...without wasting an ounce of energy with smart machines that turn housework into house play. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. right now, save $600 on this maytag french door refrigerator, just $1,598. diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day

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we even reward you for the time you spent there. genius. yeah, genius. you guys must have your own loyalty program, right? well, we have something. show her, tom. huh? you should see november! oh, yeah? giving you more. now that's progressive. call or click today. now to our big money headlines, stuck in neutral, price hike and we're so vain. good saturday morning to you. >> thanks, alex. >> let's start with the jobs report because do you see any silver linings for june when you look deep in the numbers?

>> i wish i could say i do. as you know, 80,000 jobs were added, 84,000 in the private sector with 4,000 falling off in government. private sector growth is a plus and job creation but it's not even keeping up with demographic growth at this point which is concerning also, that deeper dive reveals most of the jobs were in the service sector and they include temporary workers. it's tough to put a positive spin on numbers which is the worst quarter in the last three years. >> i'm going to pick up with that then, we a bit more bad news, drought conditions are likely to raise the prices at the grocery store. what kind of impact should we expect? >> impact on almost everything you buy in the grocery ste. where the drought is affects corn production and soybean production. needless to say, that is a staple ingredient, we're looking at price hikes 3.5% kicking in later this year and going into

2013. the item most affected is meat. that predicted increase, 10%. as ranchers look to either lose some of their cattle to heat stress or sell off portions of their herd to avoid the high cost of feed, which of course gets you right back to corn as the culprit. >> yeah. >> what about the hard times taking their toll on pretty much all products everywhere, except in the beauty aisle. why is vanity recession proof? >> not only is it recession proof, it thrives during recession. some the united states some market researchers have 11% growth for skin care, fragrance and there was a university study that shows it's not just that we want something that's an affordable feel good. there actually may be an instinct on behalf of women to want to be more attractive to attract mates. that we literally have a survival instinct. they cued people to men, times

are going to get really tough, interestingly men said i don't want to buy anything. women said i don't want to buy anything other than what's going to make me more attractive. >> i guess it makes sense. thank you very much. good to see you. justin bieber has some explaining to do after being cid for reckless dring of the bieber says he was trying to get away from the paparazzi, the police estimate the cars were going at least 100 miles per hour. police are still looking for another motorist. ♪ [ male announcer ] we believe small things can make a big difference. like how a little oil from here can be such a big thing in an old friend's life. purina one discovered

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politics now, more reaction to the latest jobs data, joining

me is "me" senior analyst, mark halperin. good morning, mark. >> good morning, alex. >> let's get to the big picture sense of the numbers. they haven't changed since last month in any appreciable way. hasn't the president weathered this storm before? >> well, he is defying political gravity. if you look what's going on in europe, slow growth around the world and still troubled and the job numbers, you say the president shouldn't be in the race to some extent. people like the president and buy the argument he's making about the dangers are going back to republican policies and about the fact he inherited big problems. but there's also no doubt that az governor romney gets more in focus, there's a real chance the president could be turned out of office simply based on the fact people don't want to go four more years without a sen we've got a different direction to go into. >> mark, it's july, it's vacation season. how much do you think what

happens today will matter in november? are people paying attention yet? and the point was made earlier in the show, at this point in the mccain campaign they were putting out those ads on barack obama being a celebrity. that didn't stick. are we at that kind of timing situation here? >> i think for a lot of voters who will decide this election, the swing voters and swing states, they are not paying particular attention right now. this is laying the foundation that the question of whether the country wants four more years of the same economic policies or four years of governor romney's policies, it's starting to be adjudicated and be debated out there. this is somewhat preliminary. it lays a foundation and what we do matters what the press starts to think about the race and says about the race matters a lot. there's not that much more days between now and election day. but this period matters too. >> what about figuring out what the undecides want to hear more.

can you figure out if it's the president's message, you don't want to hand the country to an outsourcer of jobs or mitt romney's message that the policies have failed on jobs? >> they want the candidate who makes the most plausible claim that there will be free root beer in the water fountains. just kidding. the president wants to focus on what he says is wrong is governor romney's background and plans and governor romney wants to hammer on the latest economic news and the president's economic record performance. i still think or at least i hope that the debate becomes more about what will each of them do over four more years. the president is on his bus tour and governor romney is off this week but doing a lot of campaigning. they are still talking about what the other guy has done in the past rather than what they do in the future. i have some expectation, when we dw get to the debates and more

rigorous examination as people are paying attention in the fall, there will be a contest of who will come in the office in january and do something to try to fix the short and medium term problems? >> we've been seeing snap shots and there's a report suggesting the president is not going to vacation at martha's vineyard this year. does any of this matter? >> the symbolism matters. the president is pretty well known. i'm surprised he's given up his beloved martha's vineyard vacation, my guess is there's some politics there, governor romney is still defining himself. in a chattering class debate, people looked at the pictures of his vacation on jet skis, doing the kind of leisure things that are pretty common. these are incredible pictures, like kennediesque, defining him in a positive way and others looked at them and this is a rich guy having a rich lakeside

vacation when a lot of americans can't afford it. the president seemed to take a shot at governor romney's vacation talking about his humble childhood vacations. a big part of who will win this election is the definition, the battle to define governor romney, defined as someone who people are comfortable with. people like the president and are comfortable. i don't think the governor will get to that level of likability. he needs to be likeable enough and defined enoh that people are comfortable with him. i think the vacation is part of that. if he's president, people are going to see him vacation. they have to have some sense that he's -- someone they can relate to and want to be led by. >> okay. >> short of finding a drinking fountain that serves up root beer, i suggest a root better float today. it's so hot out there. >> i will go directly for a breakfast root beer float. >> perfect. sounds good. >> with a little bacon crumble. >> yummy, not.

>> good to see you. the third man, gary johnson on whether he's playing spoiler in the race for president. dangerous heat tightens its grip on the map. look at the pink. yikes. how bad will it get? mid grade dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback signup for 5% cashback at gas stations through september. it pays to discover.

it's time to live wider awake. only the beautyrest recharge sleep system combines the comfort of aircool memory foam layered on top of beautyrest pocketed coils to promote proper sleeping posture all night long. the revolutionary recharge sleep system... from beautyrest. it's you, fully charged. welcome back, approaching 32 past the hour. a serious weather threat developing this morning, the relentless heat wave scorching much of the country. record breaking temperatures are expected again today and weather channel stephanie abrams is here with the nation's forecast. good morning. >> the heat goes on here and main reason, our jet stream is far to the north. we have a big high pressure which mean the air is being suppressed and in order to get

clouds, you need lift but we're not seeing that. we don't have the cloud cover to cool us off. big high pressure in the center of the country. that means more advisories posted anywhere from kansas to the show me state, all the way to the south mid-atlantic and into the northeast as well. as we head through the day today, we'll see more triple digit readings. the heat indices in the 80s for so many across the country. as we head into the afternoon hours, the heat indices will be above 100 because our temperatures will be above 100. from washington down to raleigh, over into st. louis, kansas city and down into oklahoma city as well, dallas, you're not escaping the heat either, 98 degrees. then we'll get a little reprieve in the midwest as we head into our sunday. >> thank you very ch. and you can monitor the latest heat warnings and advisories and also track the records as they are broken, all there for you on weather.com.

time now for your fast five headlines, in libya, the vote has begun to see the new parliament since the overthrow and murder of moammar gadhafi. they are guarding polling stations and searching voters amid fears of violence. hillary clinton made an unannounced visit to afghanistan and met with hamid karzai. the obama administration meanwhile named afghanistan a major nonnato aal lie signaling new partnership. an attorney for george zimmerman says his client is happy to be out of jail. he has a curfew and being electronically monitored and not allowed to open a bank account or go to an airport. in central illinois, a one year old boy is recovering after being bitten about a python. the father heard commotion and found the snake wrapped around the baby's foot.

no one knows how the snake got in the apartment. in this year's running of the bulls, one person gored in the leg and many more bumps and bruises likely over the last several days. in britain, a new wave of arrests on the anniversary of a deadly act of terrorism and weeks before the start of the summer olympics. good morning to you, anna bell, what's this all about? >> good morning, alex. today is the seventh anniversary of 7/7, the day 52 were killed and hundreds more injured when a series of bombs ripped through three subways and a bus in the heart of london. with three weeks until the start of the olympics, organizers are determined to show there's no chance of anything like that happening. there, a number of terror related arrests, six people arrested following secret events, the door of a house

blown off its hinges by officers. but police insist the target of the three brothers who were arrested at the house, that target was nothing to do with the olympics. another group were arrested in the midlands, their car was impounded because it was not insured after a routine check. searching it, police found several weapons and ammunition hidden in the car, led to fears that a group could plan a mumbai style terror attack. there are also signs of nerves, traffic on one of the busiest roads came to a halt. police evacuated passengers on a bus after one reported seeing smoke rising from a bag on a fellow travelers lap. a huge operation followed and for what? the passenger had simply been smoking an electronic cigarette and his neighbor panicked. lice insist this was a proportionate response but there's no question that the security is going to be very, very tight during those games. here's an example. for first time since the second world war, the military will

take control of london's air space. >> that is extraordinary. it will be a tight security in that time in the run-up too. more fallut from the june employment report out yesterday. joining me now, nbc news white house correspondent mike viquei viqueira. >> after the jobs report, both candidates are out of sight. the president went to camp david and mitt romney continues on vacation with his family. but it was really another lackluster jobs report and both sides were quick to react, trying to find a political edge in the numbers. >> the new numbers were out four months to the day before the elections and mitt romney was quit to pounce. >> america can do better. and this kick in the gut has got to end. >> after a rough week that saw him take fire from conservatives on the state of his campaign,

romney was back on message, hitting the president on the economy. >> his policies have not worked. that's over a four-year period of time almost. >> reporter: the june numbers fell short of expectations and jobless rate, 8.2%, unchanged from may with just 84,000 jobs created. it was the third straight no of slow job growth. >> the unemployment numbers were disappointing because they do suggest the economy is growing at a very slow pace and generating only a modest amount of jobs in the economy. >> good to see you. >> on the second day of his bus tour, mr. obama assured supporters he's ready for a hard fought campaign. >> i'm skinny but i'm tough. >> responding to the jobs numbers, the president focused oen the economic positives. >> created 82,000 new jobs last month and that overall means businesses have created 4.4 million new jobs over the past 28 months. that's a step in the right

direction. >> he again argued it will take more time to fully recover from the downturn he inherited. >> we can't be satisfied because our goal was never to just keep on working to get back to where we were back in 2007. >> with many forecasting slow growth and little change in the jobs picture, many see growing political peril for president obama. >> never been able to win an election since world war ii, with the unemployment rate higher than 7.4%. to do so, he would have to make history. >> reporter: alex, the economy is back front and center. everybody expects it to stay that way with a few side roads here and there. one of these super pacs aligned with affiliates, crossroads gps, announced yesterday they are going to have a $25 million ad buy in swing states attacking the president on those jobs numbers. >> okay, mike, thank you.

big nuds here at msnbc, nbc latino.com launched this week. this week's office politics, i talked to the man in charge of it all, chris pena. >> latinos are some of the most optimistic folks and it's one of the areas that we aim to capture on nbc latno.com, that as spirational side. when you think about immigrant like my parents who came to the united states, they came here not looking just for a better life for themselves but thinking they would create a better life for myself and for my brothers and sisters. we put a lot of time and energy into building a property that would be reflective of the hispanic american experience. and we -- what we see is latinos are part of the fabric of america. who is going to tell that story? and we want to tell it in

english. 90% of the children of immigrants in this country speak english. we default to reading the news and watching the news and watching television and listening to the radio and listening to music and watching youtube in english, whereas the perception is that latinos do that in spanish. >> much more with chris today at 1:00 p.m. we'll talk about the effect of president ama's announcement on immigration, his predictions for the latino vote in california and texas. we'll talk about, yes, my obsession with margaritas, better served in the midday hours instead of breakfast. to see more about our new website here at msnbc, go to nbclatino.com. check it out. he's a candidate for president, but you rarely see his name mentioned, not even in the polls. why is gary johnson still running? we're going to ask him next here on "weekends with alex witt." have our fridges cater our parties.

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libertarian candidate gary johnson received welcome news, johnson's campaign will receive 130,000 in new federal matching funds, that is on top of the 100,000 the campaign received in may after first becoming eligible for funding. where are those dollars coming from? you the taxpayer, courtesy of the $3 checkoff on your income tax return. joining me now, gary johnson. thank you for joining me. >> alex, thank you for having me on. >> i'm glad you're here. it's no doubt here this money will come in handy for you. when you compare this to the mitt romney vast sums of money, gop's $100 million take in june, you simply can't put up a real fight. is your goal here to act as a spoiler of sorts looking back to the ross perot era, 20 years ago and trying to take votes from president obama or mitt romney.

>> the goal is to actually win and offer a third choice and that third choice is the candidate who will promise to submit a balanced budget to congress. that would be me. look, i'm the guy when it comes to civil liberties, i'm the guy who wants to end our military interventions. i think that's a clear third choice. so alex, i'm in this to win and i'm heartened by the fact with our fractions of a penny relative to their dollars, you know what, this is turning out to be credible. i think it will turn out to be credible. >> okay and i'm glad to hear you say that. it doesn't surprise me as i've gotten to know you over the past months talking about this. how disheartened are you that people like me come in and state what may be on the minds of many, that this is a third party candidate but that you don't have a shot at winning? >> not disheartened at all. for you to say anything other

than you have no shot at winning, you would be looking at history and what you think the reality is. but i do think that americans are hungry for a real live choice. we look at this jobs data report, i'm the guy -- >> which you call anemic. >> you know what, i don't even want to label it. i think we need to throw out the income tax, corporate tax, replace it with a national consumption tax, in this case the fair tax, which abolishes the irs. i think if in a zero corporate tax rate environment, the private sector doesn't create tens of millions of jobs, i don't know what it will take to create tens of million of jobs there's a third choice and it's me. it's not a compromise and it's voting your conscience and real future for america. that's my pitch. >> do you think president obama

or any president really has the power to single handedly turn around the economy, or is that just election year noise? >> no, i think the president of united states has the opportunity to lead. anything that the president leads with, of course, congress has to go along with. but in this case, i'm advocating throwing out the irs. i'm advocating throwing out income tax, corporate tax. no more tax withholdings from your payroll check. replace it with the fair tax. for those watching, check out fairtax.org. i think it reboots the american economy. i think what the president can and needs to provide is leadership, the whole notion that here are my beliefs and i'm running for president of the united states, elect me and you can count on somebody that's doggedly going to pursue this agenda i'm talking about. in this case, balance the federal budget, civil liberties, civil liberties are really important and let's stop with

our military interventions. >> how about health care? you've not been on the show since the supreme court announced it was upholding the health care law. you called it an incredible blow to our bedrock principles of freedom and liberty. as you know -- this is a nation with millions of uninsured people, isn't it acknowledgement that something had to be done? >> sure, these issues could have been addressed. i think they could have been addressed in a real free market way. i would like to point out, health care in this country is about as far removed from free market as it possibly can be. and who's the brunt of -- where's the brunt of this going to fall on, whose shoulders financially? i think it's going to be young people. the notion this is a plan that relies on healthy people, basically paying or subsidizing those who aren't so healthy, where does that burden fall? as a group it falls on young

people and right now young people are also being given the burden of the fact that hey, i'm going to retire and i've got health care but by the way, you as a young person, you're never going to retire. you'll have to pay this back and never be able to stop working because you'll never be able to pay it back. >> when we get to the individual mandate, there are those who will suggest if you pay into it, you're going to be more respsible of it. to that end i put this example. what about those who go to the emergency room at the hospital. they don't pay anything. emergency room and don't pay anything and now they're going to pay via their individual responsibility to it. doesn't that make sense? >> tt absolutely makes sense. this is in the whole notion of free market. and in a free market system for health care, i would not have insurance to cover myself for ongoing needs. i would pay as you go in a system that was really competitive, that had advertised spending. i would have insurance for

catastrophic injury or illness. when you look forward at what can be done at this point, there are reforms to this legislation that could say -- mandate insurance, not what kind of insurance you have to have. and that would open this up, like i say, to me being able to have catastrophic injury and illness insurance as opposed to insurance that i haven't been to a doctor in five years, and yet i pay $600 a month for insurance. >> well, let's hope that's because you're very healthy in terms of not going to a doctor. >> it is. that's the reason. >> very good. all right. i'll look forward to more conversations with you in the future. in the meantime, libertarian presidential kaent. good to see you. why has walmart had such a huge impact and changed america? that's coming up next. [ male announcer ] fighting pepperoni heartburn and pepperoni breath?

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this week marks the 50th anniversary of walmart. in that half century, the retail giant has gone from one store in rogers, arkansas, to become the nation's largest employer with over 2 million employees worldwide. they've also had a major effect on the economy, for better or for worse. and joining me is charles. welcome back to the show. nice to see you. >> good morning. nice to see you. >> how has walmart changed the economy and how people shop. >> if you think about your own life on this saturday morning, what you're going do, you wake up, get dressed, have breakfast, maybe you have friends over. the clothing you wear, your underwear, your socks, your blue jeans, your tooth brush, your

tooth paste, the blender, the microwave oven, all of that stuff, the quality of that merchandise has been dramatically transformed, the price has, and also the quality in part because of pressure by walmart. that's why you can walk in and get a $39 microwave oven and a dozens pair of sweat socks for $8. and behind that, of course, not just price and pressure on quality, but where all the products have been made has been transformed by walmart, the circumstances of the workers who make them, the quality of life in those factoriefactories, whe michigan or ohio or iowa or more recently in mexico or china has been dictated by walmart. so walmart has really touched every element of the economy. >> but, charles, not always in a good way because the mom and pop small town shops, did it drive

those out of business. >> well, there's no question, you know, walmart started in rural arkansas, and in the first 10 or 15 years most of the stores walmart opened were in rural areas of america, and so for the folks in those communities, it was great to have shopping, but itiped out -- it was like a tsunami. it wiped out the local businesses. >> hmm. >> so there's always been a balance with walmart. >> right. >> which is that customers enjoy it. competitors end up on the ropes. >> and that is the way to success. charles, thank you. we appreciate that. that is a wrap-up of this hour with alex witt. be sure on assure to gin me at 2:00 eastern. that's all up next on msnbc. up next, there's my friend chris hayes. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics...

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good morning from new york. i'm chris hayes. libyans are voting for their first free election since the falling of moammar gadhafi. they'll form a two-tier leslature cl will replace the military commanders in lick ya. and record heat is expected again today across central and much of the eastern u.s. we'll have details about the new records and what they mean for the politics of global warming on tomorrow's program. right now i'm joined by jared bernstein. former economic policy adviser to vice president biden. joseph sanglatando, former employment counselor who's now been out o work himself for 18 months. and john phillis, own ore of a small business, a diner here in new york called the lexington candy shop,