funding for "washington week" is provided by boeing, exxon mobil, the epics in excellence in journalism, annanburg foundation and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. we got a surprise announcement, the palestinian president and israeli prime minister will come to washington in two weeks to begin face-to face peace talks without pre-conditions. >> i don't think that it should be an option for us now. i would view this as the last shot. >> we want to make sure there are iron-clad arrangements that there will be peace and security because you can't have one without the other. >> former senator george mitchell has been pushing president obama has been asked why these negotiations will work when previous talks haven't. >> we believe that there is a basis for proceeding and achieving a successful result and we are going to pursue that. we do not take the position that if you don't get everything you want the first time you ask for it, you pack up your bags and go home. gwen: or the s

rising oil prices also helped exxon mobil. the company recently topped off its stock repurchasing program, $3 billion for the third quarter. two of the biggest names on the dow-- g.e. and intel-- are forming a joint-venture health care firm. both firms saw gains today. the new company will look at how the elderly and others manage and live with chronic disease. the venture will combine g.e.'s home health division and intel's digital health group. today, alcoa led the s&p materials sector higher. alcoa completed the buyout of traco, a maker of windows for commercial buildings. on the nasdaq, guess what company is now the top seller of mobile phone operating systems? according to research firm canalys, it wasn't apple. it was google and its free android operating system. both stocks getting a lift today. and what about research in motion? saudi arabia and united arab emirates see the blackberry as a national-security threat, and want to suspend blackberry service later this year. closer to home, rimm is readying a new blackberry

exxon mobile fell fractionally, but with this drop, its market value has fallen just below $300 billion. tonight's close is a one-month low. fellow oil company conoco- phillips lost more than 1%, down to a five-week low. and schlumberger fell to a six- week low with its 2% drop today. leading the dow lower was h.p. investors were not impressed with its earnings after the close, and instead seem focused on leadership. here's how h.p. stock has traded in the two weeks since mark hurd's surprise exit as c.e.o. was announced. pulling out to a 12-month chart, this selling has taken shares to a new 52-week low today. the company tried to re-assure investors during its earnings report last night, saying there are no issues with its top customers despite hurd's departure. other tech standouts today include semiconductor company marvell technology. shares were up 8%. earnings were better than expected. it also announced a big stock buyback plan, helping out shares. business software maker salesforce.com followed through with the after-hours action we reported last night. strong earnings and an o

corporate profits strong and exxon mobil, visa, merck ask dupont. fedex beat expectations as well and it upped its guidance for the rest of the year. the federal reserve survey of economic activity throughout the country showed growth slowed slightly or held stead ney most locations. the fed's beige book also showed labor conditions were slowly improving. encouraging news on the housing front as well. home prices rose for the month of may. according to the kay shiller home price index. that index measures the prices of homes actually sold and was boosted by seasonal factors. the corporate earnings news was mostly positive, but the economic news has been telling a different story. which one should we be believing in and what does the economy look like for the rest of the year? joining me with some answers is david heal, founder of david hale global economics. good to have you on the program. >> good morning. >> let's talk about the economic recovery. the gdp numbers came out on friday. growth in the second quarter showing a pace of 2.4%. that was dow

not a god it's a tool now i'm fired i apply for jobs you know programmer but at nasa work with exxon mobil. he can't find a job anywhere and stocking shelves of the dollar store. through it. so i think i'm not getting a real good recommendation from yang in the o.t. so now you are going to dollar store come to dollar store stocking shelves and let me shows up remember just comes in some time and he's staring at me over the top of these little you know potato chip dipolar and i walk and say can i help you know he said no i'm just shop and he leaves and then he comes in again tells me he's been working on the case on the side he's looking into this on his own on his own for fun i don't know why i was going to do with this information if you can if you do it and i guess if he gets enough of it he thinks he can pop it somewhere i don't know so he keeps coming in and ask me questions about boat rigging and spies and i don't know so what he wants so i just answer whatever he asked this was a big case that he was making headway on it was an official case because officially he was going to do noth

were you working forty hours a week and all that in close we're going to nasa contracts and the exxon mobile contracts and but you're working forty hour weeks essentially and all of that time was being billed to yang even though you were not doing all your own work for they've been billed for a couple of days after i had left them and was working out after so i told maybe george alice and she said well we need to go to the attorney general's office you it was jealous yes she went up with me and told a story and i told my part of it and the inspector general was whom right let me what complaints were made with raymond let me and proper and voicing on the part of the gang enterprises improper political influence because coming down from tom feeney i see. through my immediate supervisor now it's until the half of yang enterprises and the use by yang enterprises of unauthorized alien labor i tell them everything that went on and yet you don't buy the vote rigging software yes you sure yes in their report it looks like you complained about the things that had to do with specifically that's the th

tek a van wants to sell part of the consolidated stake to foreign partners these could include exxon mobile conoco phillips and francis total the project on the yamaha peninsula aims to exploit one of the largest gas fields in siberia but progress has told as the government decides what incentives it's prepared to offer companies working in the region. and that sort of business use for now but i'll be back with more for you in about an hour's time and you can always find will stories on our website that's r t dot com slash business. some. absurd . the beyond the enemy. this is true still keeps its secrets but now it's time to move feel up to the soviet forms and r.t. some. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada from china the corporations are on the day. come up.

most of them asked if their energy -- engineering degree would be good enough when exxon mobile comes? i hope that democracy will spawn an interestn political activity. it is encouraging the government went ahead with an ngo law. in many of these democracies, -- protoplasm of democratic structures. in the middle east sometimes those have not than positive structures. with this law and i see it as very positive. i hope we will see these political parties get some fresh blood. maybe you will say some great leaders emerge. it is easy to be critical of the current crop of lears. you can't complain they spend too much time out of the country. this is easy to criticize find a lot of these guys risk their lives they take a lot of criticism. it is not an easy job and somehow i do believe ty country is going in the right direction. we need to have the iraqis blazing the trail. it is easy to be critical, but we ought to cut them some slack and encourage a new generation of leaders. >> the last question will be here. i have two online. >> i am a grad student at texas a&m university. my question

this year, exxon mobil had a bad year, only $19 billion in profits. they did not pay many taxes and they've received a tax refund of $156 million. shouldn't we be focusing on creating jobs in infrastructure, stopping the absurdity of importing $350 billion of imported oil, move to energy independence, and at the same time, go forward with deficit-reduction, in a fair way that does not unjustly affect middle-class families? dr. johnson? >> yes, of course, we can put more money into infrastructure. it is not that easy, given the way the spending is set up. it is an acceptable proposition. but in terms of tax reform, what is intriguing about the bell you add it tax, it is coming from people from the right and left. depending on how progressive or regressive your system is, what exactly you are taxing, it is a relatively hard tax to avoid. it focuses on consumption, rather than income, which has a sensible affects. i am somewhat encouraged, if people at the technical level are thinking hard about those proposals -- obviously, the political decision is ano

most of them asked if their energy -- engineering degree would be good enough when exxon mobile comes? i hope that democracy will spawn an interest in political activity. it is encouraging the government went ahead with an ngo law. in many of these democracies, -- protoplasm of democratic structures. in the middle east sometimes those have not than positive structures. with this law and i see it as very positive. i hope we will see these political parties get some fresh blood. maybe you will say some great leaders emerge. it is easy to be critical of the current crop of leaders. you can't complain they spend too much time out of the country. this is easy to criticize find a lot of these guys risk their lives they take a lot of criticism. it is not an easy job and somehow i do believe they country is going in the right direction. we need to have the iraqis blazing the trail. it is easy to be critical, but we ought to cut them some slack and encourage a new generation of leaders. >> the last question will be here. i have two online. >> i am a grad student at texas a&m university. my que

this year, exxon mobil had a bad year, only $19 billion in profits. they did not pay many taxes and they've received a tax refund of $156 million. shouldn't we be focusing on creating jobs in infrastructure, stopping the absurdity of importing $350 billion of imported oil, move to energy independence, and at the same time, go forward with deficit-reduction, in a fair way that does not unjustly affect middle-class families? dr. johnson? >> yes, of course, we can put more money into infrastructure. it is not that easy, given the way the spending is set up. it is an acceptable proposition. but in terms of tax reform, what is intriguing about the bell you add it tax, it is coming from people from the right and left. depending on how progressive or regressive your system is, what exactly you are taxing, it is a relatively hard tax to avoid. it focuses on consumption, rather than income, which has a sensible affects. i am somewhat encouraged, if people at the technical level are thinking hard about those proposals -- obviously, the political decision is ano

most of them asked if their energy -- engineering degree would be good enough when exxon mobile comes? i hope that democracy will spawn an interest in political activity. it is encouraging the government went ahead with an ngo law. in many of these democracies, -- protoplasm of democratic structures. in the middle east sometimes those have not than positive structures. with this law and i see it as very positive. i hope we will see these political parties get some fresh blood. maybe you will say some great leaders emerge. it is easy to be critical of the current crop of leaders. you can't complain they spend too much time out of the country. this is easy to criticize find a lot of these guys risk their lives they take a lot of criticism. it is not an easy job and somehow i do believe they country is going in the right direction. we need to have the iraqis blazing the trail. it is easy to be critical, but we ought to cut them some slack and encourage a new generation of leaders. >> the last question will be here. i have two online. >> i am a grad student at texas a&m university. my que

this year, exxon mobil had a bad year, only $19 billion in profits. they did not pay many taxes and they've received a tax refund of $156 million. shouldn't we be focusing on creating jobs in infrastructure, stopping the absurdity of importing $350 billion of imported oil, move to energy independence, and at the same time, go forward with deficit-reduction, in a fair way that does not unjustly affect middle-class families? dr. johnson? >> yes, of course, we can put more money into infrastructure. it is not that easy, given the way the spending is set up. it is an acceptable proposition. but in terms of tax reform, what is intriguing about the bell you add it tax, it is coming from people from the right and left. depending on how progressive or regressive your system is, what exactly you are taxing, it is a relatively hard tax to avoid. it focuses on consumption, rather than income, which has a sensible affects. i am somewhat encouraged, if people at the technical level are thinking hard about those proposals -- obviously, the political decision is ano