bantamweight weight and heavyweight and female tournament bout. thanks for watching "bellator fighting championships." hi, everybody, welcome to the "wall street journal report." i'm maria bartiromo. the jobs report, earnings season underway. what is left to interest government to boost the economy, and what it all means to your portfolio. the battle over high speed rail. is it coming to a neighborhood near you? is it worth the price tag? what it could mean to the nation's economy. plus, what it is like to be the son of one of the world's richest men, and to give away zillions of dollars. my interview with peter buffett. >> i never thought we were wealthy. >> "the wall street journal report" begins right now. >> this is america's number one

financial news program, "the wall street journal report." now maria bartiromo. >> here is a look at what is making news as we head into a new week on wall street. it is a closely watched barometer of the strength of the economy, and friday we got the final unemployment report before the midterm elections. it was disappointing. the economy lost 95,000 jobs in the last month, although the unemployment rate was steady at 9.6%. 159,000 government jobs were cut between census workers and state and local layoffs, though the private sector created 64,000 jobs. the dow industrials brushed the 11,000 mark during the week, climbing nearly 200 points on tuesday on strong news about the services sector of the economy. it inched up on wednesday, but fell on thursday. on friday, the dow rose and went past 11,000. shoppers were busy in september. same store sales last month was stronger than expected, growing 2.8% over the same period last year. that's better than analysts' expectations, and important because consumers make up about 70% of the economy.

third quarter earnings season is just getting started. food giant pepsico met expectations while alcoa passed analysts' estimates. if you've been waiting verizon to ring up the iphone, your wait may soon be over. apple will have a new version of iphone ready for verizon customers at the end of the year, ending its exclusive deal with at&t. so is there anything left for government to do when it comes to stimulating the economy and creating jobs? or are we out of bullets, if you will. joining me now is the economics professor at princeton university and former federal reserve vice chairman. allen, good to see you. thanks for joining us. >> good to be here, maria. >> the big story of the week was the september jobs report. were you surprised by the number? 95,000 jobs lost in the last month. >> i think these days everybody is looking at private sector. and we had plus 64,000? not good. neither number is good. i don't think it was very surprising. people are looking for a low, a

poor number, and we got a poor number. it was not a good report. >> what should be done about job creation at this point, both on the fiscal and monetary side. what can be done? >> well, if you were to drop political constraints, which of course we cannot, there is lots of things fiscal policy can do, ranging from tax cuts of various sorts to direct hiring of people on to public sector jobs, and lots of other things in between. all of those require political agreement because the democrats can't force things through on a one-party vote. and they require that we get over what i guess i might call short-term deficit phobia. we should have long-term deficit phobia because the long-term budgets are just horrible shape. but there is no real constraint on running bigger deficits right now. i'm not talking about titanically bigger, but somewhat

bigger. realistically, we're not going to do any of those things. to the extent that we're going to do anything, it's going to be from the federal reserve. and i've said and as many people have said, the federal reserve is down to pretty weak weapons. now it's not defenseless, but it's down to pretty weak weapons. >> and those weak weapons i guess is quantitative easing, which everyone is talking about. do you expect the fed to be purchasing certain securities and doing that so-called quantitative easing? >> i do. >> obviously they can't take rates any lower. >> they cannot take rate nice lower, with one exception, though there is the interest rate we pay in bank reserves, which i urged the fed to lower. you can even go negative on that one. charge banks to keep the money on deposit at the fed, the idea being to force them out to break the logjam and push this idle money out somewhere, where it might do some good. the fed has not made a lot of noises that it's going to do that. it has made a lot of noises about quantitative easing.

and i think at this point it would be surprise if they don't announce more quantitative easing, and probably at their next meeting, which is coming up in november. >> meanwhile, the markets have been doing well. the dow flirting with 11,000 this week. do you think that's an important psychological barrier for the average investor? is the average investor actually feeling bergevin given that the market is rising? >> yes, it does make some people feel better. we should remember a lot of people don't have anything to do with the stock market. >> right. >> but quite a few do, and it does make them feel better. these even thousands, it's weird, tend to be psychological barriers. you see sometimes markets, what do they say, tested and so on. they get up there and they don't quite make it. and then they finally break through, and everybody, you know, blows out the candle on the birthday cake and claps and they're happy. >> what about earnings season? here we are in the third quarter earnings season, the last

several quarters, companies have improved their earnings by cutting costs rather than increasing their revenue. and of course that would indicate end market demand. do you see that continuing? will we finally see top-line growth, or is the demand weak? >> well, the demand is definitely weak. we are seeing some top line growth. but it's weak, as you say. and the basic story of these burgeoning profits, which by the way is the reason for the stock market going up, i think, is that firms are selling more. so that's the top line, although it's not going up as fast as it needs to. and they've been doing it without hiring more workers. that's the jobs problem. so you keep your labor costs in check. and you do have some top-line growth. and that just widens the profit gap. so, you know, as you look around the economy, corporate profits are doing very nicely. and not much else is, frankly. >> what is the impact going to

be from the midterm elections in your view? do you think that will impact the economy? what are you expecting in the midterms? is this a big event? >> i'm not expecting anything good. now remember, i'm a democrat. if i was a republican, i'd be more cheered by the electoral prospects. it looks to me that the midterm elections are going to lead to even more policy paralysis than we've had at late. >> well, paralysis? would that be -- i mean businesses see paralysis in government as a positive because they say okay, maybe we won't see, you know, more onerous regulation. >> right. >> and bigger government. so maybe that would be a positive for the corporate sector so the corporate sector could start spending its money? >> i think many of them do have that attitude and will have that attitude, and it will stop further regulation. on the other hand, i'm not sure where the further regulation would be other than fleshing out the details of the the things that have already passed congress. >> allen, good to have you on the program. thank you so much. >> thank you, maria. >> we'll see you soon.

allen blinder joining us. up on the "wall street journal report," a train that travels 250 miles per hour is pulling up in the south. will it soon be coming to your community. and giving away billions of dad's money. philanthropist peter buffett joins us, son of the world's third richest man. as we take a look, here interest numbers. let's do some little things... that help us save big. add some insulation here. a little weather stripping there. maybe an energy star-rated appliance, or two. let's save money on the things that keep saving money. that way, we can turn a little energy into a lot of savings. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. we're lowering the cost of staying at room temperature with owens corning insulation -- just $10.44 per roll.

welcome back. is train travel about to get whole lot faster? the obama administration's planned infrastructure investment includes significant investment to build an international network of high speed rail. florida is first in line with plans to construct a 168 miles per hour train between tampa and orlando. joining me now is oliver hawk. he is president and ceo of seaman's mobility. he is at the tampa museum of science and industry with a

sneak peek at high speed rail. oliver, nice to have you on the program. >> hello, maria. nice to be on the program. thank you so much. >> behind you is the world's fastest train, the valero e. it can go up to 250 miles per hour and currently runs in europe and china as well. what is the rider experience like, for example? >> well, it is the most sophisticated train there is today. euro goes up to 250 miles per hour. we normally don't speed with it. we normally only run at 220 miles per hour. it is very energy efficient. you can go about 700 miles per gallon per passenger on this train. very quiet, and very safe. and of course it's really one of the most economically efficient ways to move people today. and we're very proud of that train. it goes to many other places in the world. it goes in russia.

it runs in china. it runs in spain. it runs in germany, and pretty soon in the future it will run between paris and london. >> that's fascinating. so where else in america might we see this train? >> here in florida, of course, we want to see the train going from tampa to orlando, and from there to miami. we also want to see this train in california going from san francisco to los angeles, and from there down to san diego. and amtrak just turned out a new vision for putting up a new high-speed track that goes on the northeast corridor that will go from boston to washington and to new york. so those three places are the most likely places. and then there are some other stretches where with some additional lines, there could be a high speed connection maybe from chicago to st. louis. >> so $8 billion from the u.s. 2009 stimulus was earmarked to fund high speed rail.

the florida project has received $1.25 billion for construction of this route as you mentioned between tampa and orlando. how competitive is this project among transportation companies? >> it is very competitive for the reason that it will be the first high-speed train in the u.s., and therefore many companies are very interested in bidding on in and competing for this project because the first one that will come in here will literally set the standard, and the first company that will build those trains will make the experience, will adapt their equipment to u.s. regulations. and we feel very good about that. that we can -- that we can compete in that arena here. >> i think everyone wants to compete in that arena. and certainly thinks this is a great idea. but what about the expense? it has certainly become a hot-button issue in the midterm elections. some republicans running for office are opposed to increase in government spending. the expected cost for a proposed

800 mile project in california has swelled to $65 billion. can we afford it? >> we cannot afford to not do it because it is not an expense, it is an investment. we are not an economy. we are competing globally. we are competing against cities like shanghai, singapore, hong kong. and we need an infrastructure that can keep up with it. for that we need a modern transportation infrastructure. so for us in the u.s., it is an absolute required investment to be competitive in the future and the rest of the world. >> so seamans has acquired additional land near your light rail that employees one thousand people. in california, what kind of jobs might you create, and how sustainable would those jobs be? >> well, we looked at several different cities, and we actually worked on the report in the study for the concept that

looked orlando and for the high-speed line here in florida. and the biggest part of the job creation will initially be throughout the construction, but that is not all. there will be 10,000s of jobs being created on transit-related developments. when you put a line like this in, you will get -- you will attract commercial, industrial, and other developments along that line that will then create jobs, long-running jobs, and that is the biggest impact. so about 27,000 jobs we consider for the line here in florida, directly related to the construction and the operation of the line. and then we will -- we expect that about 60,000 additional jobs that are created through the opportunity of that development along that line. >> oliver, thank you so much. we appreciate your time today. >> thank you very much, maria. up next on "the wall street

journal report," living success. whether dad is a billionaire or not. my next guest discovers life is what you make it, even when you're the son of warren buffett. buffett. th

and get live thursday and sunday night nfl games and nfl redzone. now everything football is everywhere. get the nfl with nfl mobile. rule the air. verizon. sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready foreal business. warren buffett, the legendary oracle of omaha long ago promised to give his children enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing.

when warren is your dad, just what does anything mean? peter buffett is the author of "life is what you make it." peter, it is great to have you on the program. >> thanks. great to be here. >> thank you so much for joining us. >> sure. >> so your dad is warren buffett? >> yes. >> the third wealthiest person in the world, worth $47 billion. >> but who is counting. >> but who is counting, right. forbes and fortune. he is still lives in the house in omaha where you grew up. >> that's right. when i go home i sleep in my bedroom. >> oh my goodness. what was your life like? >> incredibly normal. i live two blocks from where my mother grew up. i would walk down to see my grandparents. i walked to public school. i had the same english teacher my mother had. it just goes on and on. the house still doesn't have a fence around it. so it was a very typical american upbringing. >> but was there a moment in time when you figured out wow, my dad is a very wealthy man. we're a wealthy family. did that change you?

how did that impact you? it's got to be hard to absorb that as a kid. >> the funny thing is and i'm telling you the truth, i probably didn't know that until i was about 25, because we never lived that way. and i never thought we wore wealthy. it's a middle class neighborhood. and it just never came up. we didn't have extra cars. we didn't have extra houses or boats or things like that. so it is strange to say hard to believe, but it just wasn't around us. i didn't see it. >> isn't that a wonderful thing, though, that's what warren encouraged? >> absolutely, yeah. and both my parents. they really had this common feeling of look, everybody's worth the same value. you don't live a life thinking that you're better than anybody else. and you don't behave that way. and yeah, it's pretty amazing. >> so when you were 19, you received an inheritance of about $90,000 in berkshire hathaway stock. >> yes. >> what did you plan to do with it? >> i kid around and say my dad

had strong feelings about two things -- inherited wealth. he didn't believe in it. but he also didn't believe in the misallocation of capital. my grandfather had left all of us a farm, and that was clearly a misallocation of capital. but he knew if he sold it, we would get more inherited wealth. but that's what he did. we get $90,000 of berkshire hathaway stock. i had been in college for about a year and a half and really wasn't sure what i wanted to do, but had loved music all my life. and my dad and my parents really encouraged me to take some time off and buy time. use the money to buy time. and that's what i did. >> but isn't it wonderful you knew what you loved? >> right. >> because you have to do what you love. >> totally. and that's of course what led into there book, which i have recently written. really, if you do what you love, and you follow that, everything else comes into play to help you do that. and it was very surprising to me that sure enough, if i really set my goals, and i was serious about it, and pragmatic about

it, i just can't go off and say gee, i want to be a famous rock musician. how am i going to make a living writing music, and got into commercials and film and television, and built a career. but critical point is i was doing what i loved. >> since warren's pledge in 2006 to give away 99% of his wealth to charity. >> right. >> unbelievable. it turned your novo foundation into a billion dollar charity. >> it did. overnight. >> literally. tell me about the specifics of the work you're doing. >> well, it was extraordinary. and my wife jennifer and i really said now we have to take this responsibility on in a whole new way. and we spent a couple of years, because we lived in new york, really listening and learning from a lot of people. and we really came down to the world is out of balance. i don't think anyone disagrees with that particular fact. we happen to believe it's the social environment that has been built a lot on domination and

exploitation, which i consider to be sort of masculine dominating characteristics. and we found through a lot of conversations that when you support women and girls, you shift the equation tremendously in favor of balance ultimately. and so when you give them economic and educational opportunities, it ripples out in a way that it just doesn't do when you give the dollars to a man. i hate to say it. but that's the way it goes. >> many women will become mothers, lead families. >> right, right. >> lead communities. >> and that's the point i like to make. only a girl will be the mother of every child. that's a fact. so if you support a girl, you end up changing the lives of generations. and it's pretty extraordinary what can happen. >> thank you for doing that. >> absolutely. >> do you think your definition of success is different than your father's definition of success? >> no. i think it's exactly the same. and that can be surprising. some people will say gee, isn't he a little disappointed?

you went into music, or something like that. the truth is we both love getting up every day and doing what we do. and that, as far as i'm concerned, and i know as far as my dad is concerned is success. >> my thanks to peter buffett. for more including peter on piano, check out our website, swjr.cnbc.com. you can see the full video with all of our guest there's each monday. up next on "the wall street journal report," a look at the news this upcoming week that will have an impact on your money. and some say christopher columbus was the first italian american centuries after this voyage. how itiano contributes to the business from the boardrooms to your bunch break. , 245, proceedr next cleared altitude. [ sighs ] [ male announcer ] today, truecourse flight management systems from ge allow for fuel savings, lower emissions and less noise... ♪ ...making the old way of doing things... [ air traffic controller ] 245, you are cleared to land. [ male announcer ] ...seem less than graceful.

♪ sure ii just wish that all of the important information was gathered together in one place. [ printer whirs ] done. ♪ thanks. do you work here? not yet. from tax info to debunking myths, the field guide to evolving your workforce has everything you need. download it now at thinkbeyondthelabel.com.

become a fan on facebook. you'll find us on facebook at wsjr with maria. now a look at the stories that may impact your money this week. intel, jpmorgan chase, general and electric reporting earnings. ge is the parent of the company that produces this program. on tuesday, the federal reserve releases the minutes from the last open market committee meeting. on thursday the trade balance will tell us if the u.s. is import organize exporting more good news. also the consumer price index will be released. the ppi tracks inflation at the wholesale level. on friday inflation at the consumer level. we'll also get last month's total retail sales on friday as well. finally today, while italians' love of food and family is no secret, we're pretty hard workers too. to kick off italian heritage

month, i rang the closing bell. mario gabelli joined in advance of columbus day. we're well-known voyagers in the business world. italian americans founded bank of america, barnes & noble, tropicana and the bumpyie and subway sandwich change. manga! i'm honored to be the grand marshall of the parade this year on monday. happy columbus day, everybody. that's the show for today. thanks so much for joining. next week one of america's most successful restaurateurs going national. keep it right here where wall street meets main street. have a great week, everybody.