so let's bring in editor in chief and our own ali velshi joining us from new york. i wonder from the two of you, who is the most excited about this? >> larry said it last night. >> you're both chomping at the bit. facebook, you know, it's getting valued at $100 billion. what is the rationale here? >> here's what is happening. people are talking about whether or not facebook is going to be -- something sounds weird here. i'm not sure what it is. >> i'm hearing you okay. >> i'm going to take this ear peace out. an ipo is an initial public offering. it means that the first time that a company is going to sell stock to the public. there are secondary offerings later on. you would think that the stock can can be valued at $30 but that doesn't take into account all of the emotion and hype that we're going to talk about. we're thinking that the lowest it's going to be is 45 bucks. history says these things get priced higher than what you would think. google is the logical comparison. lots of people are saying it's going to end up like zynga or groupon. that's nonsense. thi

and that also means ali velshi gets on the site to talk to me. i don't get it.ll i hear is doom and gloom and then there is this. >> there has been a disconnect for consumers feeling more energized about the economy than the numbers would indicate. whether it's jobs or things like industrial production, all of it is looking much better than some people would have you think. just look at what has happened under this presidency. first of all, this is what we added in january. 243,000 jobs. i don't want to say forget the unemployment rate -- forget it. let's talk about how many jobs have been lost since president obama took office. 4.6 million jobs. 3.5 million jobs are now back. if we gain 130,000 jobs a month from now to election day, which is substantially under his presidency has been gained. that's the good news for the democrats. here's the bad news. 16.3 million people are still unemployed. >> you can't say it's a badge of honor i had unemployment office here because it was nasty. >> sure. it's hard to spin this positively but for republicans it's going to b

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nina and i will be back joined by ali velshi.e'll be looking at the impact of the ever rising gas prices on the economy and the u.s. indeed around the world the next few days. join us, wbt, for more on that. we have the opening bell from wall street in a few hours from now. bye. ask me. [ male announcer ] even if you think you can live with your old mattress... ask me how i've never slept better. [ male announcer ] ...why not talk to one of the 6 million people who've switched to the most highly recommended bed in america? it's not a sealy, a simmons, or a serta. ask me about my tempur-pedic. ask me how i can finally sleep all night. ask me how great my back feels every morning. [ male announcer ] did you know there's a tempur-pedic for everybody? tempur-pedic beds now come in soft, firm, and everything in between. ask me how i don't wake up anymore when he comes to bed. [ male announcer ] these are real tempur-pedic owners. ask someone you know. check out twitter or your friends on facebook. you'll hear it all, unedited. ask me

our chief correspondent ali velshi.rices are higher is because we buy a lot of it. oil has just settled again today so i haven't updated the numbers. these are magnetic numbers so i can change them. >> we're talking funny numbers. ali velshi is next. >>> ah, gas prices. yep, we're all feeling the squeeze these days, but what exactly are we paying for? what's keeping the gas prices so high? ali velshi breaks it down. >> reporter: the price of a barrel of oil accounts for about three-quarters of a gallon of gas. so a significant move up or down in oil prices should, within days, be reflected in prices at gas pumps worldwide. u.s. crude has been getting more expensive, going from about $80 a barrel last october to about $110 a barrel now. that's an increase of 40% in just five months. but what americans may be seeing at the pump right now is gasoline catching up with the price of oil. gas prices are actually up only 9% since october, from $3.40 a gallon then to $3.70 a gallon now. if they had really tracked the price of oi

ali velshi and i speak two different languages.e thankfully we're not married to each other, we just work together and wrote a book together called "how to speak money." couples in debt is one of the topics, a big strain in our relationship. i want to look at this data from jeff do. he said wives who have no debt were 12% more likely to be very happy in marriage than wives who had between $10,000 and $20,000 debt. husbands if you look at that, they're happy no matter what. one thing we have talked about and we wrote about in our book is that a lot of couples aren't honest to each other when it comes to debt. is it okay to hide spending or debt? >> is anybody listening to my answer? >> your wife is watching the program as we speak? >> it is not. there are two issues. when you said men don't care there are two issues. do you care about your habits on spending? a lot of guys don't care. are you completely honest about what your debt situation is. both of those are important. you can't just know about your partner's debt. you to know a

christine romans and ali velshi show you how to have the money talk with your significant other in this week's "smart is the new rich." >> when it comes to money, my friend ali velshi and i speak two different languages and that's okay, because thankfully we're not married to each other, we just work together and wrote a book together called "how to speak munonemoney." i want to take a look at some of the data from jeff over at you state university. he said wives with no debt were 12% more likely to be happy in marriage than wives who had 10 to $20,000 in debt. husbands are happy no matter what. one thing we have talked about and wrote about in our book is a lot of couples aren't honest to each other when it comes to debt. i wanted to ask you, is it ever okay to hide spending or to hide debt? >> is anybody listening to my answer? >> your wife is watching the program as we speak. >> no, it's not. there's two issues. one is do you care about your habits on spending? a lot of guys don't care. and then it's the are you completely honest about what your debt situation is. both of those are i

i'm ali velshi with this week's "fortune brainstorm." ♪ my sunglasses. [ tires screech ] ♪ oh, it was time i fell in love ♪ ♪ the first time i felt my heart ♪ [ man ] people say i'm forgetful. [ horn honking ] ♪ ...all through the night [ man ] maybe that's why we go to so many memorable places. ♪ [ male announcer ] the subaru outback. love the road you're on. ♪ let the sun shine, let the sun shine ♪ >>> we're looking for the sunshine in atlanta. a little bit foggy this morning. 21 minutes past the hour. good morning to you, atlanta, as we gear up for the big day, super bowl sunday. >>> meanwhile it is time to check stories across the country for you. utah's governor was recently put on lockdown after his life was threatened. police arrested brian biff baker after learning the 52-year-old allegedly plotted to assassinate governor gary herbert. according to a probable cause statement baker said we firearms and other fireworks in his car and hidden behind bushes to kill the governor and police say baker threatened to use explosives to blow up the governor's mansion. the governor's offic

i'm ali velshi with this week's fortune brain form. i love that my daughter's part fish.uld do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. >>> video is surfacing of what is being called whitney houston's last performance. it is from just last thursday night. just two days before her death. houston showed up at singer kelly price's pregrammy celebration and sang a duet of "yes, jesus loves me." ♪ >> so after the duet, price told mtv the reports of houston being, quote, anything but okay were erroneous. >>> joining us on the phone now is christopher farley who followed houston's career as a music critic for "time" magazine, now with "the wall street journal." you followed her for a long time. a

i'm ali velshi and that's "mastering your money."nnounc] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles, like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering, web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. >>> it was a little more than a week ago when we got word that whitney houston had died in a beverly hills hotel. she was buried next to her father today at a cemetery in west field, new jersey, bringing an end to a week full of pain, grief, inspiration and at times even joy. i covered this story from start to finish from this newsroom to los angeles and then new jersey. it's a week that none of us will likely ever forget. >> this is cnn, breaking news. >> you know, every once in a while you have to

i'm ali velshi. the reasons for optimism are clear. led by private sector hiring, we've added more than 200,000 jobs a month, more than two million jobs in the year 2011. the unemployment rate has been steadily declining. stocks are soaring so far this year. the dow hitting its highest level in four years. so how do we keep the recovery going? president obama pleaded with congress not to get in the way. >> now is not the time for self-inflicted wounds to our economy. now is the time for action. so i want to send a clear message for congress. do not slow down the recovery that we're on. don't muck it up. keep it moving in the right direction. >> steven moore is an editorial writer with the "wall street journal." steven, the president's message don't muck it up. your message is to the voters and you're saying the worst thing they could do for the economy is four more years of president obama. why do you see president obama as a particular threat to this recovery? >> well, first of all, i agree with you the economy is picking up. we're ju

ali velshi how would this work?porter: the president can't admit these things out of whole cloth. it has to go through congress. here's how it works. in the past the programs to refinance your mortgage have depended on you having a mortgage through fannie or freddie, one that is backed by fannie or freddie. a lot of americans have mortgages that are just with a private bank. this now allows them if they are underwater, meaning if your mortgage is bigger than -- if your mortgage is bigger than the value of your home, to refinance from rates that might be well in excess of 6% to prevailing rates which are around 4.25%. that is going to save the average household the administration says about $3,000 a year. and here's the point of this, john. if you save them 3,000 a dopp$3 they spend that money. it's going to cost them 5 or $10 billion. the question where the money will come from, a bit of a levy on the banks because they were responsible for this whole thing the president said. we have to figure out where the money c

in this week's mastering your money, cnn's ali velshi looks at improving the job market with a creative idea that focuses tweaking the skills of minimum-wage workers. >> the u.s. lost 8.7 million jobs as a result of the recession. when it comes to jobs, we get the problem. we need more of them. richard florid is a professor and also senior editor at "the atlantic." you say the only solution is to turn low-wage jobs into higher wage jobs which sounds like a great solution. how do you do such a thing? >> well, if you look at what makes a good job in america -- and we did this -- my research team at the university of toronto and me -- we dug into the numbers that the bureau of labor and statistics provide, and we looked at what are the skills, what are the basic skills that a worker needs to do to get those wages up? so for those knowledge jobs that we talk about, those professional jobs, those technical jobs that pay $70,000 or more a year, the good jobs, we know if you add more knowledge skill, cognitive skill, analytical skill, wages go up. if you add more what we call social intelligen

my handle is@ali velshi, the show@cnn your money. have a great weekend. >>> you're in the cnn news room. i'm richelle carey. in afghanistan, two high ranking american officers are shot and killed. the taliban say the americans were killed in retaliation for the burning of korans earlier this week. protesters have been out on the streets for five days now furious over the koran burning. we go live to afghanistan in a couple minutes. >>> former south african president nelson mandela is in the hospital. he had a hernia operation today and resting pretty comfortably. . he's 93 years old. the government official reassured everyone that the surgery was not an emergency. mandela will likely be released in the mebs two days. >>> and a prosecutor said a former rutgers university student acted purposely. ravi faces charges that include hate crimes. the roommate killed himself just days later. ravi faces up to ten years in prison. >>> a judge has dismissed the corruption case against silvio berlusconi. he was charged with bribery, but the judge

when it comes to money, my friend ali velshi and i speak two different languages.y because thankfully we're not married to each other. we just work together and wrote a book together called "how to speak money." couples, it's a big strain on our relationships. ali is here to talk about it. i want to talk about jeff due. he said whiives who had no doub were likely to be more happy than those who were in debt. husbands, they're happy no matter what. >> they don't care. >> look. one thing we've talked about is that a lot of couples aren't honest to each other. i want to ask you. is it ever okay to hide spending, ali, or to hide debt? >> is northbouanybody listening answer? >> when you said men don't care, there's two issues. one is do you care about your habits on spending? a lot of guys don't care. and then are you completely honest about what your debt situation is? and both of those are important. you can't just know about your partner's debt. have to know about how they answer that question, how comfortable very r you with debt? one of the issues is people pay off

let's get right to cnn's senior business correspondent ali velshi. up and the gas prices haven't caught up. people have talked also about iran and speculation and fear and others have said it is the fault of the white house. what is it? >> probably with the exception of the last one it's all of the above. i brought my prop, will cain. behind will cain, my prob, my oil barrel which shows the price of oil selling at $108.56 yesterday. four months ago, five months ago the beginning of october oil was 80 bucks a gallon. $79.20 exactly. this week $108.56. that's an increase of 40%. now go back to october 1st. gasoline was $3.40 a gallon. it's now $3.70 a gallon, roughly that's an increase of 10%. if gas had done what oil had done, and most of the price of a gallon of gasoline comes from the oil that goes into it, that's the most expensive part, gas would be at $4.76 right now. >> are you saying we're going to get to $4.76. >> it's entirely possible. that's the part to worry about. the second part is what fuels it. you said, speculation. there are two kind

our own ali velshi is crunching the numbers. in louisiana. they came to see us in florida...hey came to hang out with us in alabama... once folks heard mississippi had the welcome sign out, they couldn't wait to get here. this year was great but next year's gonna be even better. and anyone who knows the gulf knows that winter is primetime fun time. the sun's out and the water's beautiful. you can go deep sea fishing for amberjack, grouper and mackerel. our golf courses are open. our bed and breakfast have special rates. and migrating waterfowl from all over make this a bird watcher's paradise. so if you missed it earlier this year, come on down. if you've already been here come on back... to mississippi... florida... louisiana... alabama. the gulf's america's get-a-way spot no matter where you go. so come on down and help make 2012 an even better year for tourism on the gulf. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. >>> there's clearly a new urgency that israel might bomb iran's nuclear sites. we're joined by representative mike rogers, republican of michiga

@ali velshi,@cnn your money. >>> you're in the cnn newsroom. this saturday, february 11th. every republican running for president wants the backing of cpac and before the day is over, we will know which candidate the influential conservative group will be supporting. the group's annual conference is under way right now in washington, d.c. live pictures right now. peter, polls are showing republicans are less than excited about this batch of gop candidates. so does this mean that some are struggling to throw their support behind any one of the four candidates? >> somewhat. there is certainly enthusiasm here for defeating barack obama and hear that from the candidates. that's their mission here. the problem is that republicans are not generally fired up about the field. polling bears that out. electability is obviously also a concern. the states that mitt romney won, for example, exit polls show that had electability was a american concern. but romney got a pretty good reception. rick santorum got a far better reception. but still, it wasn't a raucous bring the house down kin

according to chief business correspondent ali velshi, it could be recovered by election day.resident is stressing, though, cautious optimism. >> these numbers will go up and down in the coming months, and there are still far too many americans who need a job or need a job that pays better than the one they have now. but the economy is growing stronger. the recovery is speeding up. and we've got to do everything in our power to keep it going. >> here are the groups that saw the biggest gains. we're going to break it down for you. african-american unemployment still the highest of any ethnic group, but it came down more than two full percentage points in january. hispanics dropped a half a percent and white men over 20 dropped 0.3%. those jobs numbers had a profound impact on the market. take a look. the dow jumped more than 150 points to finish at its highest level since the economy started to tank in 2008. the nasdaq soared hitting it highest in more than a decade. >>> i hate to spoil all the news but i want to talk taxes for a moment. it's that time of year and before you kn

we'll be back with ali velshi later in the day. hopefully we'll see you then.

charles and i will be back later in the day, joined by ali velshi for the next round of wbt. lot more analysis of what's going on in the eurozone now the greek debt deal has been signed. good-bye for now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit... with all you need to enroll. put their trust in aarp medicare supplement insurance. plus you'll get this free guide to understanding m

aly velshi, wow.his is pretty shocking. >> what it is, it's got more to do with communities trying to keep spending in the communities. there are these different communities. one is the berkshire, the bay bucks in seattle, washington. they're meant to say spend in the neighborhood. only good with retailers who accept it. sometimes they trade at a discount. it's a neat concept and it's spreading into people saying well, at least i know what this is worth. >> is this a real alternative to the dollar? >> not on a grand scale. it is on a local scale. we went into brooklyn to talk to an artist trying to start something called the brooklyn torch. >> business owners are entrepreneurs and this speaks to an entrepreneurial spirit of trying something new, just trying, you know, experimenting. it's an idea that i think business owners respond so. hopefully, it does stimulate the local economy by getting people to come out to their local shops where the money is available to trade with. >> so, that's how it works

i think there's a resinating affect going on. >> our chief business correspondent ali velshi knows allabout money. hey, good to see you. first of all, we talk to a lot of folks here in arizona. i mean the people who are driving the rvs, their family across the country, the retired couple. even this guy who is running a hot air balloon business and says propane is going up, as well. tell us what's going on here. >> yeah, arizona, new mexico, texas, those are all places where people drive a lot, they like their big vehicles. and the problem here isn't that gas isn't likely to get to $2.50 any time soon, it's at $3.72, it's likely to go higher. here's why. >> the price of a barrel of oil accounts for about 3/4 of the price for a gallon of gas. so a significant move up and down should be within days be reflected within prices at gas pumps worldwide. u.s. crude has been getting more expensive, going from about $80 a barrel last october to about $110 now. that's an increase of 40% in just five months. but what americans may be seeing at the pump right now is gasoline catching up with the pri

let's bring ali velshi. what will this mean for homeowners? >> citi group, bank of america, wells fargo and -- it's $26 billion and it's going to spread out the pot this way. first of all no more robo signing home foreclosure. if you were foreclosed on you may get $2,000. if your home is underwater you could get an average of $20,000 in principal reductions as long as your loan is not with fannie or freddie or backed by them. these are private loans. the lenders get immunity from future state claims. they don't get immunity from criminal investigations. homeowners can still pursue claims against the banks even if they take either the $2000 or the $20,000 in reduction. and states still have the right to pursue criminal investigations. missouri, they've indicted one of the mortgage servicers. we just spoke to attorney general bo bide enin delaware who said he is still pursuing investigations. those attorneys general who didn't sign on initially were convince today do so because they retained the right to sue. oklahoma by the the way didn't sign