pretty much ben stein makes in a day. and that would be a 55% drop off in tax returns for those making over 10 million dollars, so ben stein, that's not is a good trend. >> well, it's not a good trend, but there is he' still plenty of rich people. we desperately need government revenue. where else except rich people if they have the money to buy bentleys, and they have the money to buy jet airplanes and money to pay more taxes. >> you're saying 200, 250,000 jet airplanes and-- >> no, i'm talking about people like you, have incomes of 10 million a year or more. >> you know, well, by the way, in issue of fairness, no one leaves into the 50% who aren't paying any income taxes that are credited. >> brenda: on pay income tax, too. >> neil: before we get to-- >> you have to take, you have to take away half of their net would worth to get what the bush tax cuts took away from the richest 1% of americans. >> and the entire-- >> and before we say in the issue of fairness the rich have to pay more, i am saying and let's address nif

is economist ben stein. ben, it's great to see you as always. >> always a pleasure. >> laura: can buffet just cut the treasury a bigger check on april 15th if he wants to? i think the answer to that is yes. why doesn't he just get it with and start giving more of his billions to the federal government to solve all of our problems for us? >> well, that's a kind of a superficial question from a very brilliant woman. >> laura: no, that's a condescending answer. it's a real question. why won't he give more money to the federal government. >> people pay taxes that are required of them by the law. that's the standard way people pay taxes. he gives an enormous amount to charity in any event. but, look. >> laura: the government is not a charity, is it? >> no, no. but it's similar to a charity at this point. a way of transferring money from well-to-do people to less well-to-do people. something president obama said was silly. saying most of you pay more than that actually about 50% of americans don't pay any taxes. >>

let's give ben stein the last word. >> it's a points drop, not a percentage drop. we had a fantastic recovery for the lows. may be having a double-dip recession. so far things are not that terrible. >> the nasdaq, dow, and s&p were down yesterday. these are the stock futures for today. the nasdaq is down. the dow is down. this stuff changes a lot. we'll keep you posted on it. global markets for you all night for a clue as to what's going to hatch when markets open. live team coverage, knee know dos santos is in london. andrew stevens is in hong kong. the markets closed lower, they open lower. may have had momentum in the day. tell us what you know. >> if you look at where the market closed, the momentum was working against the asian markets. there was a link to the u.s. economy. asia is the exporting capital of the world, taiwan, china, all of these markets taking a hit. hong kong on the back of -- let's see what happens in china takes those hits. so you do have the fundamental issue, this linkage with the u.s. so, we're seeing a selloff across the board. australia

comils ben stein who is also an actor at times. all right mr. stein.ow, you know that you know that everything i said in that memo was true, correct? >> absolutely not. i would say almost every part of it is wrong except for the fact that he is on vacation. he needs a vacation. >> bill: you think is he a positive force. >> i don't think he has caused the recession. >> bill: no. is he a positive force, mr. stein? >> yes, i think he is. >> bill: he is? >> his stimulus program. >> bill: in what way? >> the stimulus program was too much and the money was not well spent but it's probably better than if he hadn't done it at all. did he not cause this recession. he did not cause the prolongation of the recession. is he not the one causing the enormously problematic issue of debt. that was set up for him teed up for him by george bush 43. yes, he has spent too much money. no doubt about that. why are you against tax raising on the rich? there is no harm. >> bill: you think is he a positive force for the economy because even though you admit he misspent the sti

now, we like wayne rogers and ben stein. they are smart and honest guys. they are missing the big picture here. the president of the united states sets the agenda. mr. obama's party tried to get out of the recession by spending tax dollars the nation didn't have. not only did unemployment get worse, but the massive debt is now a crisis. so how on earth can you not hold president obama accountable? and, of course, americans are, as his poll numbers continue to drop. one big problem mr. obama is selecting bad advisors, shear a great example of what i'm talking about. the ceo of general electric, jeffrey immelt was appointed by mr. obama to chair, to chair the president's council on jobs and competitiveness. as vice president biden might say a big f.ing deal. now we find out that g.e. is launching a joint venture with china worth $2 billion to build jet airliners which will compete against boeing. and other american companies. g.e. says it's quote all in on the deal. proud of it. g.e. executive lorain is quoted as saying we don't sell bananas. we can't afford

our house economist ben stein stakes a broad view of this no good, very bad day on wall street. ben, thanks for being here. >> my pleasure. >> there's talk from some people. i heard a lot of people saying this is the market reaction to the debt deal. it's 1937 all over again. washington cut spending then and the country spiralled back into the great depression. do you buy that? >> not at all. the 1937 recession was caused by monetary policy and not fiscal policy. part of the reason the markets lost so much is traders can make money by selling. they see we can sell the cash against the futures, we can sell the future against the cash. and that's technical, but it just means it's a phenomenon confined to wall street and traders. there's front-runners going on. and that's confined to traders. but that being said, there's bad news about the economy, that being said, let me ask you this, my friend, if someone had said to you on march 6, 200, when the market was in the mid 6000s, that by august -- early august of 2011, it would be up almost 80%, you would been a very happy da guy. >> y

. >> bill: had you me in the book and dennis miller and ben stein under the banner of p.q., politicalt is that? >> right, right. it's a device that i have constructed just to measure political views knew new member knew member rickly. 50 is perfectly centrist. that's the p.q. of the average voter. and as you said this was more kind of casual observation. but i said my observation, it looks like, bill o'reilly, denel miss miller, ben stein looked like a 25, which, if i'm right. puts you midpoint between perfectly centrist which by the way would be something like an arlen specter when he was a republican. arlen specter and michele bachmann. >> basically saying that the factor and me we tend to be a little bit more conservative traditional. but we are not in the ideological territory that, a nancy pelosi or michele bachmann would be in. >> right. right. the other media would be in one of the other camps. >> right. exactly your political quotient, your slant actually is not as far right on that because you have liberal guests on sometimes. >> all the time. i'm an independent. i have alway

ben stein. as a result ferris never went to that class. >> good point. >> creationism is not a science. what will we teach in an economics class? >> you are insulting -- it is simple. the first time i read -- i got it. i am not the smartest tool in the shed. >> the way you teach this basic economics to kids, it is called getting a summer job. you learn you have made this much money, and you cannot spend more than you have brought in. it seems to be the economic lesson the people who are running our country were aware. >> because they haven't had a private job. >> they never had to deal with the consequences. if you take out more than you put in, it falls apart. >> that's the basic principal they have forgotten. >> then we should teach kids that businesses and small businesses require credit. you need credit. you need to borrow money to make money. >> that's why ferris left. >> tonight on devore and devito, iny, miny, manslaughter after mcgiver. coming up, do pretty girls expect you to buy them a

i talked to ben stein about this last night. we had a dust up about this whole issue.ok, people have done really well. what's the big deal? if you are making $10 billion. what's the big deal of raising those taxes? and so forth. and my point was, look, ben, since when do we think money going to washington is going to be used to pay down the debt? what happens when washington gets a bigger pot of money. >> i saw that you are exactly right. more taxes mean a bigger government. ben should have said he is higher taxes do. been a long time. bringing it back. >> 1950s. 90% on the richest americans. >> i'm all for that top tax rate when reagan left office 28%. i think what he was referring to percent of the economy rough economic times. -- >> laura: is obama going to win this argument? we need to share the sacrifice. going to continue to make that argument tax reform. have you noticed that little change? now it's tax reform. just to hike people's taxes. how is that tax reform? >> brought broaden the tax base. simplified too perhaps? >> make more efficient and promote incentiv

to our ben stein it doesn't add up. >> reporter: i was going to leave you alone for this month and justel at peace but governor rick perry of texas possibly the nation's next president has shocked me out of my mountain refuse re. >> i'll take a pass on the federal reserve right at the moment to be real honest with you. >> a few days ago governor perry said in campaigning in iowa there would be something akin to treason for the head of the federal reserve board professor ben bernanke to print more money between now and election day. that said governor perry would only reduce the purchasing power of americans. now i like governor perry. i agree with him on almost every social issue. but may i respectfully offer him a lesson in economics. this economy is stuck in a cruelly slow recovery from a recession that started on bush 43's watch. mr. obama, a likable man, is trying to get the economy moving again. chairman bernanke who has made many mistakes at the fed is also trying desperate measures to get the economy moving again. one of the measures that the fed is using is to increase the money

here is what author and economist ben stein had to say on cnn's in the arena. >>>. >> it's a large point drop, not a particularly enormous percentage drop. we've had a fantastic stock market recovery from the lows. we may very well be heading for 00 a. doub a. double dip recess, but so far things are not that terrible. >> so what should you do to ride out the wild swings in the market? joining us again clyde anderson. good to see you. people are a little nervous right now. what kind of advice would you give them about their 401(k)s and what to do and what to move? >> the first thing is not to react. don't just react to the things that you hear in the market and the news. people react from the headline. so don't react. look and know what you have. what's in your portfolio? diversification is the key. so make sure you're spread out a little bit. >> so you really need to have your financial house in order. >> in order. exactly. so the next part of that is having a plan. most of us don't have a plan. we allow someone else to do it, so we don't know what's in the plan. we just know it's a 401

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