i'm allan chernoff after the new york stock exchange. >>> now, a tax break on airline tickets?ming up on "world business today," we'll find out how some u.s. airlines are pocketing a savings instead of passing it along. that story and more in just a few moments. ♪ sing polly wolly doodle all the day ♪ ♪ hah >>> welcome back. you're watching "world business today" today on cnn. >> from billing for blankets to putting a price on peanuts, who would have thought, so it may come as absolutely no surprise that most airlines now getting a break from some taxes are not passing the savie inings on to customers. jeanne meserve finds out why. >> reporter: what might not have been a windfall for airlines is a gold mine for airlines. the failure of congress to reauthorize the federal aviation administration has left the agency unable to collect about $200 million a week in taxes. that could reduce the price of an airline ticket by about $25 to $50, but most consumers are not seeing the savings because airlines have seized an opening to increase fares. >> they're charging the public for a ta

. >>> allan chernoff is at the new york stock exchange where investors are getting a pretty big reportentire economy is doing. allan, good? bad? kind of in between? >> reporter: not too good, kyra. we are slowing down. a lot of people suspected this was happening, but we got a terrible revision, in fact, first quarter. let's break it down. let's have a look at a graphic. the economy grew at a 1.3% annual in the second quarter of the year. that is slower than expected and it's also way slower than normal growth for the economy and much, much slower than we need to grow jobs significantly. even worse, have a look at that first quarter revision. down to a growth rate of just 0.4%. that is a major revision, because the prior estimate had been growth of nearly 2%, so that's a big pull-back and shows that things were not very good during the first quarter at all and what happened there is that consumer spending really pulled back, gas prices were high, the japanese earthquake hit, that also hit the auto sector. so we had a lot of trouble during the first quarter. not looking too good right n

there's a lot you don't know about going on behind the scenes. >> allan chernoff will take a look at summer weekends especially. hi, allan. >> reporter: good morning, christine. a lot of people wonder, how is it possible for man to consume so many hot dogs in only ten minutes? joey chestnut holds the world record of 68. we were talking about this a bit last hour. the secret is in the dunk. what you have to do is take that dry bun, dunk it in water and then it goes right down. it's very simple. now, this may not be your idea of breakfast in the morning. you know what? for the sponsor here, nathan's famous, it is a miracle of marketing. you're watching all-american marketing magic. nathan's hot dog eating contest is a bonanza as eaters have expanded their gastric capabilities, nathan's has soared. >> one of the greatest marketing stunts ever put forth in the united states. >> reporter: it's a natural for nathan's, which first opened at the fun-filled amusement park 96 years ago. in the late 1970s, contest was just another coney island side show, thought up by pr stunt man max rosie. max

he doesn't understand the word defeat. >> allan chernoff joins me live now from new york. what can we expect in the next few days in terms of this? >> reporter: well, rupert murdoch would love nothing more than for this to fade away, but that doesn't seem what's going to be happening. next week we do have a hearing in parliament. rebekah brooks, the head of news international, is scheduled to appear, and we have word that the murdochs themselves, rupert and his son james, also will appear. this story is going to remain in the headlines with investigations continuing in britain and calls for investigations here. it's still going to be a big problem for the murdochs, at least for some time to come. >> allan chernoff, appreciate it. thank you very much. >>> and new jersey senator frank lautenberg has called on the u.s. attorney general to investigate whether this phone-hacking scandal has reached the united states. democrat lawmaker joins me now from washington. thank you so much, senator, for coming on the program today. i want to ask you, first, why call for this investigat

allan chernoff in new york. allan, thank you. >>> coming up next, the man says he's the one that slaughtered people in norway. does the manifesto give clues to the question of why. >>> plus -- ♪ >> listen to her. she had the voice. she had the stardom. but amy winehouse also had a deadly addiction. is that what killed her? back in a moment. naturals from delicious, real ingredients with no artificial flavors or preservatives. naturals from purina cat chow. share a better life. i've tried it. but nothing's helped me beat my back pain. then i tried this. it's salonpas. this is the relief i've been looking for. salonpas has 2 powerful pain fighting ingredients that work for up to 12 hours. and my pharmacist told me it's the only otc pain patch approved for sale using the same rigorous clinical testing that's required for prescription pain medications. proven. powerful. safe. salonpas. -why? -why? -why? [ female announcer ] we all age differently. roc® multi-correxion 4 zone moisturizer with roc®retinol and antioxida

poor senior correspondent allan chernoff has been given the assignment!s of the day! >> it's going to be fantastic! i already have my all-access press pass for major league eating right here, going it happen at coney island on july fourth. this year, lots of excitement. number one, the women are going to finally, finally have a quality. for the first time, there will be a women's division and a men's division. two separate competitions. this sets the stage for sonya thomas to finally gain a mustard yellow belt! she holds the world's record for mem. 41 hot dogs in only ten minutes. america hero joey chestnut who holds the record of 68 hot dogs in ten minutes, wow. he is saying he is going to hit 70 dogs this year. let's see if he can do it. lots of excitement. his old rival, kobayashi, he is going to be eating alone at a manhattan bar challenging all the other competitors. he was banned last year from the competition due to a contractual dispute. he was arrested when he tried to jump on to the stage. this year, he'll be in manhattan just trying to show he

. >>> allan chernoff is at the new york stock exchange. a new boarding policy at american airlines. . so how is it going to work? >> reporter: that's right. no longer the back-to-front boarding at american airlines. if you have an economy ticket you will board randomly but a few tricks how this works. if you want to eninsure you're one of the first people on the plane the "the wall street journal" has advice. they say check in as soon as you can because it basically is first come, first served, unless you're willing to pay more. yes, the airline is more than willing to accept money from you to be in that first boarding group. so, kyra, yet another way that an airline is tacking on a fee, raising its revenues. these guys are doing whatever they can to maximize those revenues. >> they want to get their money. you know, allan, we fly all the time. you know how certain people will do anything to board that plane first. for some reason, they just think they are going to get there faster if they are the first ones to be seated! >> reporter: that's right. what they are also trying to do the

cnn's senior correspondent allan chernoff is at the new york stock exchange.ng taxes on ticket nous? >> they haven't been doing that since friday you would think we are saving money but most cases it isn't happening. even though the government isn't collecting taxes, many carriers respect passing on the savings. they have raised fares by the aim same amount of the tax, add that to the baggage fees, fuel surcharges and airlines are doing whatever they can to boost their revenues. randy? >> so what about people who bought their tickets week he is ago and they paid the taxes will they get a refund on these taxes? >> in theory, yes, that's according to the treasury department and this would be about $30 on a $300 domestic ticket. the government is still working out the details of how a refund process would actually work the money should come from the airlines but we should also point out that not all the carriers raised their fares. virgin america and alaska airlines are touting the savings as a tax holiday. in fact, virgin has a very pretty promotion called evade

allan chernoff is here with tips to help you save money that is me.y these tickets at the last minute. help me out. help a sister out. >> well it is going to cost you, but we have got a few ideas here. >> okay. >> we checked with the travel site fair compare.com. they tell us there have been 13 fare hikes this year but there is some good news here. most of those fare hikes came earlier in the year and many of the recent ones have been withdrawn. rick seenny at fare compare says the summer travel tips are these. first of all, when you fly it really matters. many airlines will add surcharges on the busy days, so what you want to do is be flexible. here you go tuesday, wednesday and saturday are the cheapest days for domestic flights. friday and sunday, the most expensive days. so suzanne, if you have some flexibility, i don't think you do, but if you do have -- >> not that much. >> could you save a little bit. what about times to buy the tickets? is there a best time to shop, maybe? >> yeah, of course, you will need to shop while you're working, but thi

our correspondent brian todd and allan chernoff are standing by. first to london and our senior correspondent don rivers is standing by. are people in london, dan, still as shocked as they were over these past few days? >> reporter: i think so, yeah. i mean, this has been a seismic week in british politics. a week that will be written about for decades to come, i think. just having all of the main political parties that are normally squabbling at each other's throats suddenly united, but they're united because of their contempt and outrage at what rupert murdoch's papers are alleged to have done, whereas they spent the last 20 years assiduously trying to get as close as possible to murdoch and court favor with his newspapers. it is a sort of tectonic shift, if i can put it that way, in the way politics and the medimmedia media operate and it will be studied for decades to come. >> this coming week what do we expect to happen? give us a few things to look forward to? >> reporter: well, the sort of box office daydiary is tuesday, wolf, when rebekah b

senior correspondent allan chernoff joining us from the festivities. we understand you're actually going to show us the dunk, right? this is the secret to the hot dog eating supremacy? >> reporter: absolutely, kyra. i'll tell you the mystery of exactly how joey chestnut was able to consume 68 of these in only ten minutes two years ago to set a world championship record. that secret may never be unraveled. it's beyond man's comprehension. i can tell you the secret to competitive eating of hot dogs. it's dry, right? the bun is really dry. that's the problem. how do you resolve that? dunk it in water. and then it goes right down. it's very, very easy. you'll see these competitors dunking their buns, eating the buns separately from the hot dogs in many cases. in some cases, dunking them all together. it's all in the dunk. that's the secret. >> allan, nothing like seeing you dunk your bun. big thing to talk about, of course, the women finally getting their own table, right? they've broken the hot dog glass ceiling. this is serious stuff for the women now. >

allan chernoff, good reporting. >>> another encouraging sign in the sluggish economy, cnnmoney.com saysirement savings are nearing record highs now so that may suggest that more of us are learning to plan ahead. alison kosik joins us from new york. how much are we actually talking about here? is this a big number? >> reporter: it is a big number. we have saved $18 trillion for retirement, trillion with a "t." this all counts iras, 401(k)s and pension plans. this has been in the works for a couple years. retirement savings have actually been growing since 2009 after our savings were really hit hard during the recession. everybody wants to know what's changed, why are retirement accounts growing. for one, we are benefiting from a stronger stock market. we have learned some lessons from the recession as well. we kind of got scared into saving after we were -- after we saw our nest eggs take a hit during the recession. also, the sad reality, people are delaying retirement and using the extra years in the work force to build up their nest eggs that once again took a hit during the recession.

allan chernoff has more. >> reporter: absolutely stunning developments in britain. murdoch has gone from the ultimate power broker to a pa rye yeah. he's considered to be an absolutely brilliant and ruthless businessman and pushing his media journalists to find stories. his great love has always been the newspaper business. he demands dramatic stories, telling reporter, we will never be boring and frequently checks in with his top editors, one of whom used to be lou colasuonno. >> there is a passion and involvement in the day to day newspapers. >> reporter: his native australia, inheriting his father's newspaper business. media properties across the country, even started the australian, a nationwide paper. and aggressively used them to support politicians he favored. overseas, murdoch's first purchase was a british tabloid "news of the world" followed by "the sun" both of which he pushed to sensationalism. he became the central figure in britain's competitive newspaper market. martin dunn says he was as tough as his headlines. >> he tamed the print unions so that ne

allan chernoff is joining from us the new york stock exchange. what's the biggest concern now? it seems to be the gdp report, is that right? >> well, it if we look in the rear view mirror, certainly the gdp report confirms to us that things were not good during the first half of the year. in fact, worse than we had thought as yyou just mentioned. during the second quarter, fr t growth of only 1.3%. normal growth is closer to 3%. that's what the economy should be growing at to increase jobs for the economy to seriously move forward, so we were only at 1.3%, less than half of that anticipated expected normal growth rate. and during the first quarter, even worse. only 0.4 of oone-fourth of 1%. that's add in what's going on in washington. corporations around the country and the world depend very much on government spending, right? so if the government is stuck in gridlock, that means government won't be spending money. when government spends money, they hire contractor, they hire companies to do their building, on to do their projects. it money is not coming out of washington, why