fed chairman ben bernanke is asked to stick around another four years...how he has answered the challenges of the credit crunch..and what may be ahead. new white house numbers on the government's growing red ink... and what americans are doing now.. to brace for a potential crisis in the future. and...ma bell is accused of not hiring back older workers...a look at age and unemployment...it's all ahead on this edition of first business. ba ahead of monday market action glad you're along proprietor market still trading like it's already in a labor day holiday well before the holiday break to come and more than a week if we assume eyeballing but the market still remain near to have ties with less bad news and perhaps the market may give a

boost or a lift peru housing data new home sales on top form and states than in recent weeks the headlines and housing have been positively remember we still have star clouds regarding increasing foreclosure that are still looming above all said and with the unemployment rate still go and hire people content to boost their jobs is still a big problem to consider absolutely the mortgage rate remains tareq historic low standing standards may be tied will take a look and home- building stocks and with and maybe telling us feel about the housing market in the future. uncle sam is so deep in red ink... that even the white house is re-figuring its projections for the out-of-control federal budget deficit. the past year's stimulus efforts to save the failing economy... have added mountains of more debt onto the government's balance sheet.. new goverment figures indicate this year's budget deficit will climb to 1.6 trillion dollars.. which would be a new record.... that's 3 times the size of last year's budget deficit

and the white house projects over the next 10 years.. between 2010 and 2019 - the cumulative deficit over that decade would reach 9 trillion dollars... that's 2 trillion dollars more than originally forecast earlier this year. another government report issued by the congressional budget office says.. these large deficits will hurt economic growth in the future. large deficits are also sure to hit american's pocketbooks in a big way.. especially if it comes finding new sources of revenue such as raising payroll and other taxes to close these large gaps. let's now take a look at the overall national debt.. which stands at 11.7 trillion dollars... that's how much money the united states owes to its creditors.. which include foreign countries.. like china. adding up all the previous budget deficits, the total debt approaches $12 trillion. that comes to more than 38-thousand dollars per american. government officials say in order to bring the united

states back to fiscal stability - ..."lower spending and higher revenues than the amounts now projected." it will require a combination of - quote- lower spending and higher revenues... than the amounts now projected. as you can imagine.. there are some strong opinions about the government's handling of taxpayer money.... and how the pool of red ink keeps growing larger. if you or i ran our household in the way congress and our administration has.. been running federal budget.. we'd be destitute i think it's obscene.. bad for future.. we'll go bankrupt and those people we talked to say they are thinking about the consequences now... and bracing themselves.. for a potential crisis in the future... as a

result of the looming federal budget deficit. just have to be conservative about spending.. have money set aside for rainy day and those rainy days are coming i think standard of living in us will decline personally save money.. i don't take vacations.. don't do anything out of norm.. feed kids.. and pay bills and... we did not come across anyone who was actually in favor of all the government spending... in fact most people we tried to ask about the issue... simply didn't care. president obama wants ben bernanke to stick around and continue to head up the federal reserve for another four years. obama has re-nominated bernanke for another term as chairman of the federal reserve. we have been bold or deliberate as the circumstances demanded, but our objective remains constant - to restore a more stable financial environment in

which opportunity can again flourish and which americans' hard work and creativity can achieve their proper reward. now it's up to the senate to re-confirm bernanke. he has come under some criticism for acting both too quickly...and some say too slowly during the credit crunch. he's also taken heat for not doing enough to curtail bad lending practices during the house bubble. since taking over from alan greenspan in february of 2006, the federal reserve's balance sheet as more than doubled as bernanke has tried several strategies to keep the financial system operating. we have to go back and look at the historical situation that bernanke found himself in a year or so ago and pumping up the balance sheet this way was actually a wonderful thing. in may, 2007, bernanke said - quote - we see no serious broader spillover to banks or thift institutions from the problems in the subprime market. but just three months later, the fed and bernanke took their first action to try to ease the credit crunch...

eventually lowering rates to almost zero and launching a variety of programs with the hope of thawing the frozen financial system. if ben bernanke returns next year as federal reserve chairman in addition to trying to re- ignite the economy he'll be in a leading role to fulfill white house plans to redraw financial regulations. president obama's efforts to bring new rules to finance and help protect consumers would expand the role of the federal reserve. we cannot go back to an economy based on overleveraged banks, inflated profits, and maxed out credit cards. for even as we've taken steps to rescue our financial system and our economy we must now work to rebuild a new foundation for growth and prosperity among the president's proposals that would likely expand the federal reserve - more oversight of financial companies and responsibility as the systemic risk watchdog.

budget deficits and been becky nomination in before ground we have met it's been something else it's a bear market ec buyers coming in on the path of least resistance is still higher. it's been a case for oil last several sessions the dollar meantime still close to these lows the we've seen recently is that gathering attention at all? the dollar is something of traders are watching closely we have some comments this past week about future dollar weakness so far the dollar has been able to hold the bottom of the range until proven otherwise of looks like it's going to contain a blend of the time being with us the dollar to you about the stock market i think a weak dollar we are going to see higher commodity prices and weaker dollar is going to be when higher stock market. are you

helping fundamentals and the market or just the psychology? i think is both i and the psychology certainly plays a huge role in basically were having to spend our way of the mess that we got ourselves and. weaker dollar means more and higher commodity prices as you mentioned support the soil becomes a drive quick remark oil is interesting story if the market is well supplied to i have a hard time fundamentally cent will go a lot higher if we do see the dollar me drop like a rock one can see that the hundred and 40 a barrel again as you look across the class in terms of, the ideas the folks starting to clarify for gold with the dollar store you're hearing? we heard a little bit of gold and gold is one of those things getting back (thousand been off to races in it so far hasn't been able to muster. the more time goes by gold is not able to put together a an impressive rally. it's been flaring around 9 or 954 weeks

unable to sustain a rally. - looks like people are expecting that the dollar is going to stay range bound like it has been for some time unless we get a break to their brains to the downside of look for gold to stay range bound as well. taking a look at many different classes of commodities and other assets we have met the man from south to group at the cme. reebok bibs still to come some signs home prices are starting to inch up. plus... a-t-and-t accused of age discrimination...a look at how the recession is impacting older workers...that's coming up after the break.

ma bell is accused of age discrimination. the equal employment opportunity commission has filed a lawsuit against at&t claiming the company has a policy of not rehiring workers who have retired. at&t says discrimination of any sort is not tolerated but the lawsuit argues some of the 50-thousand at&t workers who have retired in recent years have not be eligible to be hired back. jack heyden runs gray hair management and john challenger is with challenger gray and christmas, two job placement pros. nice to see both of you here. it will star when he was an ira and the job market for old derrick guessed? increase the level of preparation as the economy worsens. people filled and that there certainly is age discrimination now there of the survey in the fourth quarter of last year believe indicated that over 80 percent of people that responded felt that there were some where between moderate and high-level of age discrimination people. how they think the draft itself? how is manifest the last follow-up

interviews. more hesitation in terms of getting comments. overqualified is a the environment for those old workers push marginal question. by yes and an environment like this where there is mean more people want jobs of many companies have to offer is out there is certainly not disappeared despite the loss and older workers face even more in this tough competition in the recession. despite the numbers don't show was this woman but that the unemployment rate old you are the higher chance i u. the you may be employed assume you want to be employed you take a look at the unemployment rate is under 7%. you can see those numbers and draw conclusions the question that comes up is having people

have given the partake in part- time jobs or have been beyond the period of time that they can get unemployment so they get lost in the shuffle. that number can be pretty frightening. how about right perspective b.c. old workers drop out? that is why you see those numbers look different and what we know to be the case. people haven't been looking a last month as a lot of older workers just say to themselves as well thank to stop the practice court pension rate goes down and still given all that there are where people feel less said today i'm going to work much lower among life will pass the early '60s and may be used to be what people thought of as read tire man and the rest and the market is more receptive and many ways to bring in people and there are many more

opportunities to do projects not part-time work to redress the wrongs they used to occur. take a look at the gender split when it comes to all working americans you take a look and basically there's not a big difference between an older man in the unemployment rate lb stan the government numbers prospective who began their space the same challenges? they faced the same challenges as it relates to age discrimination. there is discrimination now there in your but have to deal with it. it is simply coming after going to have to be better and competing against other people to get those jobs and remember number one reason why you're gonna get higher is gonna be because he convinced somebody did your the best solution to their problem. work will allow institutions to help place limits and looking at bad pierrot or whether or not they need to it your sense that they're looking to cut costs there saying all the work of the apparel as a cost-saving sports card market can happen every time there's a of a

company just goes to those people the whole list very carefully to make for there is no particular class is being discriminated against in terms of any kind category and yet what happens is companies put together early retirement plans by alps the only make those available to workers but have a contender over 60 so that as one way they do that pair of older workers and have to get a day per balance between the government old because people voluntarily give up their right to sue the company by taking these early retirement packages. they take a look at those numbers the number of those people will take in those early lp it packages have every intention of going back to work so me take a look at that at&t suit there's a lot of people who took those jobs out with the intention of bowing back to

work someplace. early retirement is just a mess package to ease to be the amount for a long time exceeded the early retirement and which is an early retirement it is a voluntarily leaving the company knowing that you are going to go back to work almost everybody go back and look for other work. certainly the case to watch with big part profile and john challenger and christmas on and decade in which breyer management. online items after the show, head to our website to see why one homeowner is accusing wells fargo of illegally lowering a home equity line of credit... and why he's taking the banking giant to court. plus, are the government's stimulus efforts paying off?...we talk with two experts with very different opinions. and....what's next for the auto industry now that the "cash for clunkers" program is over..these stories and more on

our website, first businessx.com. and straight ahead on the show... a look at home prices....signs things may be turning around in the housing industry....it's ahead after the break.

home prices may finally be digging themselves out of the cellar. while activity in the housing market has picked up from rock bottom lows earlier this year, prices, have remained under pressure but there are a few signs of prices beginning to inch higher this year. the s-and-p case shiller home price index shows prices climbed between the first and

second quarters....increasing almost three percent. that's the first quarterly increase since early 2006. gains of almost four percent were seen in san francisco and over four percent in cleveland. the slow growth also pops up in numbers from the federal housing finance agency, which finds the price of homes with conforming loans...those $417-thousand or less...were slowly climbing in the second quarter, up a little more than a half percent from the first quarter. using this agency's measuring stick, only three states register positive for home price changes over the past year: north and south dakota and oklahoma. the latest new home sales figures are out wednesday. the cash for clunkers idea may not be over yet. while it's too late to trade in a gas guzzling car, this fall you may be able to put some stimulus cash toward a new refrigerator. the department of energy is putting the final touches on a policy

that will use almost $300 million of stimulus money, to offer consumers rebates of $50 to $200 dollars if they buy energy efficient appliances like washers and dryers. states have until october 15th to apply for the federal dollars. consumers won't have to actually trade in an old appliance to quality for the rebates. but you'll have to look for the energy star logo on appliances to get the deal. so are big news on new home sales do a and stay in the meantime the home-building index has been gaining ground will take a closer look in chart talk next.

home builders to really be moving on wednesday when a new home sales data out team x h p exchange traded fund attracts these pick homebuilders flight tv homes up of 30% year-to-date said jerry it has already been made to look at the start of this x h b it tells you that the market is anticipating the market bottomed with the timing may be poured new home construction. this thing is rocketed higher with the last session back to some technical resistance and back over renowned all were printing dollars a share. taking a look at what the concerns may lie ahead increasing job losses appraisal issues as well as was going to build the housing market after november 8th thousand home buyer tax credit and have until the end of the

november to close to sell on a new home or else you don't get a thousand of higher tax. of the race is one of home builders balk at this point we had to hear from you, first business x. c o m. we'll see you online back her next time. and watching.