to my left we have ben white. it is a good way to get a round up on the news. ben is based in new york city so we thank him for making the trip. >> next on the panel is greg hipp. he is the u.s. economics editor for the economist. we covers financial and monetary policy commissions and financial services and greg will take all of the questions about how to create a proper banking system. and then last but certainly not least is jim mctague. kro correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe you have seen many administrations including bush one? >> since bush one. i was a stock broker former rill lynch in the 1980s and have been in the private sector as well. will you join me in welcoming them. [ applause ] i will be asking questions and then i will turn the microphone over to you. when your time comes, hold it close to your mouth, speak clearly, state your name and please make sure that you state your question and not as a statement, that would be great. so, the economy is getting harder to identify. we see culprits like gas prices, gdp and job growth, is there going to

let us bring in ben white for walt political. give us your grade on the congressional monologue or dimon testimony today? >> he was not shaken at all. the questions were much tougher, very significant issues. and mary hit on one, how much did jamie dimon know about the increas increase? >> did they draw blood? >> there wasn't a lot of blood on the streets but questions asked of him and why he's opposed to transparency. if they're so transparent, how come he didn't know about the size of the risk taken and shouldn't he support more regulations. >> what did you think about his comments regards to do big to fail. he totally agrees no taxpayer should bail out a big bank. kind of ironic considering t.a.r.p. was forced on them. >> forced on them in a sen sense -- the whole system was bailed out by taxpayers. it's been bailed out. there's still an open question whether too big to fail banks would require a taxpayer bailout under the rules in place now and probably would. jamie's bank probably too big to fail wouldn't be allowed to fail

my colleague had a piece ben white -- >> i know ben white, long-time colleague of mine at the hotlinee economic data is going to be a little bit better by the time we get to election day and that will have a bit to do with mood. i think we are reaching a point where the real field issue is not going to change. >> bob, when you look at our battleground map, i made this contentio contention, if this is a state-by-state fight, president obama wins. romney can only win a landslide. he has to win the large argument. >> i'm not sure i agree with that. even if you look at the battleground states where obama has the advantage, he still has to worry about turn out. >>> hang around, we'll go to the white house to get their reaction. according to washington, d.c., building code, no building can be taller than what? "a" the golden ratio, "b" the height of the capitol dome or "c" the width of the street it faces plus 20 feet. alex, you were wrong, it is "c." in 1899 the congress passed limiting buildings to the height of the capitol, but amended in 1910 to restrict width of the street it faces plu

ben white. "rolling stone" executive editor, eric bates. the "new york times" jodi kantor, author of "the obamas" and the always buzzy ben smith. president obama is set to arrive in orlando in just a moment, where he will deliver a speech to the national association of latino elected and appointed officials. it comes a day after governor romney delivered his speech, where he kept mum on whether he would repeal the president's new policy on immigration. meanwhile, the romney campaign released four new television ads today, each individually geared towards separate swing states. the ads much like the governor's speech, are short on specifics and set vague goals. >> president romney's first 100 days, what will they mean for iowa? day one, president romney moves to repeal obamacare and attacks the deficit, starting with $20 billion in savings. by day 100, president romney is working towards a balanced budget. >> that was romney's pitch to iowans. in his north carolina ad, romney vows to cut taxes and spur growth in the high tech sector. romney t

ben white, morning money gilli gillian tett. thank you. has barack obama become captain of the kill list. more "viewpoint" ahead. >>the dominoes are starting to fall. (vo) former two term governor, politically direct on current tv >> what should women be doing? >> electing women to office. >> eliot: who really won the wisconsin recall election? well, governor scott walker kept his job, of course, so he didn't "lose." but the people who won were the campaign professionals which brings us to the number of the day, $8 million. that's a rough estimate of how much was spent on wisconsin's recall elections. that's not even including last year's senate recalls. several sources are still compiling data for an exact number but so far they've already accounted for at least $63 million spent. that alone makes it the most expensive election in the state's history. obliterating the old record of $37.4 million spent on wisconsin wisconsin's last gubernatorial race. with everything at stake in wisconsin it's no surprise that so much money flooded into th

. >> let me bring in ben white and ben, i lost track of how many democrats have come on this program and said what we just heard is this president has a lot of akoccomplishments that h can be out there touting and he's not doing it. what's going on there? >> well, he could talk more about the stimulus and particularly states like ohio and the auto bailout where that may have helped. michigan, obviously, that was a big factor. >> let mitt romney get away with the facts saying i actually was the person who really helped brang back the auto industry? >> if you start touting your accomplish ms, it doesn't ring true to people who don't feel confident. it's a very tough thing for him to do and that's why you see the obama campaign running all these ads against mitt romney saying his record in massachusetts was bad. people aren't going to dig down to the details. the whole point is to say this guy's an unacceptable alternative. if you turn to this guy, it's going to get a whole lot worse. >> and everything's got an idea about how the president should be running his campaign because that's w

ben white, morning money gilli gillian tett. thank you. has barack obama become captain of the kil don't miss this week's "the gavin newsom show" with special guest: hollywood icon oliver stone. >> i'm not an activist, i'm outspoken. i'm a dramatist. the chill of peppermint. the rich dark chocolate. york peppermint pattie get the sensation. and everyone likes 50% more cash -- well, except her. no! but, i'm about to change that. ♪ every little baby wants 50% more cash... ♪ phhht! fine, you try. [ strings breaking wood splintering ] ha ha. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. ♪ what's in your wallet? ♪ ♪ what's in your...your... ♪ >>the dominoes are starting to fall. (vo) former two term governor, jennifer granholm, is politically direct on current tv >> what should women be doing? >> electing women to office. >> eliot: who really won the wisconsin recall election? well, governor scott walker kept his job, of course, so he didn't "lose." but the people who won were the campaign pro

immediately to my left we have ben white who is wall street columnist for "politico." previously he was with "new york times" and the f.t. and our local rag "the washington post" and he writes the morning monty column which everyone should sign up for and it's a great way to get an early round-up on the news. ben is based out of new york so we thank him for make the trip out for this event. greg yip is our u.s. economics editor for "the economist" and greg covers topics such as financial and monetary policy economics and financial services, and greg will take all of the questions about how to create a proper banking system and last, but certainly not least is jim mctague who is washington editor for barons. correct me if i'm wrong, but you've held that position since 1984 which is you've seen many administrations since bush i. >> and i was stockbroker for merrill lynch ntsb since the '80s so i've been in the private sector as well. >> we'll definitely learn a lot from all three of these gentlemen. join me in giving them a welcoming round of applause for joining us. [ a

thank you to you, ben white for joining us. >>> coming up, from middle class to homeless.t worth of the average american family plummets, time to take stock of the american dream. we'll talk hard times next. ] du know the average person smiles more than 50 times a day? so brighten your smile a healthy way with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only rinse that makes your teeth two shades whiter and two times stronger. ♪ listerine® whitening... power to your mouth. you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you wanted a firm bed you can lie on one of those. we provide the exact individualization that your body needs. wow, that feels really good! once you experience it, there's no going back. hurry in now for our lowest prices of the season. save $300 to $1000 on selected sleep number bed sets. sale ends july 8th. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. wanted to provide better employee benefits while balancing the company's bottom line, their very first word was... [ to the

joining us now jeff sonnenfeld, ben white, mark martier, he owns nearly 10,000 shares of jpmorgan and also joined by our own herb and mary. to all of you, thank you very much for joining us. i'll get to you first of all. to what extent do you feel it's a softball hearing? i guess no real surprise considering jp morgan is one of the biggest political contributors to congress? >> they could have been much tougher on volcker rules. would a stronger volcker rule have mitigated this loss? people say was he on the hot seat? this is a soft, looeather recli. we beat it back very easily and i think you can't say that he didn't do anything but knock it out of the park. a huge win for him and jp morgan. >> you are a shareholder here, mark. do you feel you have more trust in the share holdings you have at the end of this? >> indeed. it was important for jamie dimon to show the senate committee that, in fact, he understands what's going on and may not have been the case in particular with the risk management and the processes in place at jp morgan chase. >> jeff, you're a management expert here. i

the "washington post" where dana milbank wrote about it or over the weekend in "politico" where ben white about it or read it on my blog today where i brought together some of the people writing about it. if fact, if you tuned into the "rachel maddow show" eight months ago you could have heard me say it here, too. if europe doesn't get its act together we're likely to have a global recession next year and going to make it very hard for barack obama to get re-elected. good point, past ezra. that's one very important caveat that handsome fellow didn't emphasize as much as he could have. that is this. europe will decide the american election if and only if we let it. if we fail. if we have done a bad job. by we i mean economic policymakers of which i'm actually not one. what an economic policymaker does for a living is make sure when something bad happens on the other side of the world it doesn't crash our economy. that is their jump. we don't knee economic policymakers when things are going great. you need them when things are not going great. right now there are things we can do. europe is

joining me today, editor of politico's morning money blog, ben white. the "new york times" jodi kantor, author of "the obamas" and the always buzzy ben smith. president obama is set to arrive in orlando in just a moment, where he will deliver a speech to the national association of latino elected and appointed officials. it comes a day after governor romney delivered his speech, where he kept mum on whether he would repeal the president's new policy on immigration. meanwhile, the romney campaign released four new television ads today, each individually geared towards separate swing states. the ads much like the governor's speech, are short on specifics and set vague goals. >> president romney's first 100 days, what will they mean for iowa? day one, president romney moves to repeal obamacare and attacks the deficit, starting with $20 billion in savings. by day 100, president romney is working towards a balanced budget. >> that was romney's pitch to iowans. in his north carolina ad, romney vows to cut taxes and spur growth in the high tech sector. romney

ben white joins us with the morning money. y. [ male announcer ] at scottrade, we believe the more you know, the better you trade. so we have ongoing webinars and interactive learning, plus, in-branch seminars at over 500 locations, where our dedicated support teams help you know more so your money can do more. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our teams have the information you want when you need it. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. >>> the >>> the dow looks like it would open up higher with the nasdaq and s&p 500. also a couple of interesting op-eds in the paper this morning. in the "ft" a conversation we've had around this table and we've had this gentleman on the set. this morning writing controversially that the u.s. worked hard to create the american dream of opportunity, but today that dream is a myth. he argues that unequality is greater in the u.s. han ever before and president obama plans to preserve and increase funding in programs that help

ben feller is the white house correspondent for the associated press.oth that i think is bigger than the nbc booth. you do pack more people into it. first let's start with immigration, robert. yesterday, are we being totally crass here. any day he is not talking about romney is a good day for him. >> if you take a listen to what he said yesterday off camera about immigration, he does not want to talk about immigration. the main reason is he doesn't have a good why. he has a deportation comment in the primary. he knows from mccain and bush, other people that are talking about immigration as a republican is a bad thing. >> sorry there an effective hit on immigration? >> not now, but we will see if in fact -- exactly. >> when you saw this yesterday and saw the way the obama folks reacted, they were just as muted it seemed for a while and the president came out and criticized the one part. >> it was a split decision and it set up perfectly so everyone can pick what they wanted. the president was talking not just about the parts he liked, but he spent a lot

i want to find out whether my panel thinks they're trying to put ben bernanke in the white house right after this. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. in here, great food demands a great presentation. so at&t showed corporate caterers how to better collaborate by using a mobile solution, in a whole new way. using real-time photo sharing abilities, they can create and maintain high standards, from kitchen to table. this technology allows us to collaborate with our drivers to make a better experience for our customers. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. i was worried it would be hard to install. but it's really easy. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. yeah. you're not... filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. plug into the savin

chief national correspondent jim angle tells us what fed chairman ben bernanke says he can and cannot do. we begin with the chief white house correspondent ed henry on massive debt in europe and concern for the president. >> federal reserve chairman ben bernanke said the debt crisis continues to pose major risk. >> it's affecte affected the u.s. economy acting like a drag on the export. weighing on consumer confidence and pressuring the market and institution. >> troubles across the bond are being honored closely inside the white house. it poses risk to the obama election. biden suggesting while he is confident of victory, he put the crisis in europe on par with the nuclear threat from iran as dangerous to the re-election. saying, "i think we l be beaten if we, are by something happening in the euro zone or something happening in the gulf. which could be difficult for us." since then, the debt crisis got more troubling. >> anything bad for the economy is not helpful to the president. at the same time, the fact is the administration has been very active behind the scenes for a long time. urging europe to resolve this.

ben labolt will talk about targeting key voters. the day-to-day political operations, and we will look inside the chicago headquarters. "wrote to the white house" today at 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on c- span. >> how to approach book interview's differently than news reporting interviews? >> book interview this are gathering -- interviews are gathering history. i think of interviewing when i'm working for the news side as gathering contemporary information. >> how difficult is it to remain impartial in your reporting and not get caught up in one campaign? >> i am going to try to give people it is full understanding of what is happening in this campaign. it is not that difficult to put your biases to the side. >> has social media changed work? >> twitter is not a primary new source for anybody who covers politics and anybody who pays attention to politics. twitter did not exist four years ago. the >> tonight, students interviewed dan balz. tonight at 8:00 p.m. on c-span. >> house republicans say they will vote on whether to cite attorney general eric holder with contempt of congress. the house oversight committee passed a citation last week

white spots and purple fruit. you could have a lot of fun. >> i just want to look at ben. >> on the center of your picnic table outside beautiful. >> let's start with the japanese beetles. starting to choose some of the roses and perennials. what are control options? >> some people love just filling up the soap and water and going out and putting them in there. i do not like that. there is a product of the captain jack -- natural substance that they found in a rum distillery that had been abandoned. cool that they found budget -- a use, it kills the beatles and it is natural. >> petunias -- they are looking a low scraggly in hanging baskets. can they be replanted or can they be revived? >> what you can do is just a handful of leaves and cut them back and they will do fine. back before we had nice greenhouses', a couple of days of rain and petunias would look horrible -- we would chop them all back but lawn mower. >> too late to plant squash and tomatoes? >> tomatoes, you're getting there. squash, you are still ok. i would say by the fourth of july if you could get your tomatoes in, you would have a decent harvest. squ

. >>> president obama had a private lunch today at the white house with abu dhabi's crown prince mohammed ben the world's third largest oil exporter and that man sits on 10% of the world's oil. i'm told the president and crowned prince talked about syria, egypt and iran. >>> secretary of state hillary clinton is on the eve of hitting 100, countries that is. she is ahead of me. she will be the first secretary of state to hit triple digits when she lands in latvia tomorrow, making her the most traveled secretary in u.s. history. she's traveled 833,194 miles, not enough to pass condoleezza rice who logged more than one million 59,000 miles but secretary clinton has six months to go to get the difference. i'd be waiting with great excitement until i get to 100. i'm still at 76. >>> it's been 328 days since the u.s. lost its top credit rating. what are we doing to get it back? good news today, the third positive housing report we've gotten this week. pending home sales rose to their highest level in two years. >>> now our fourth story "outfront," kicking the can. congressman become mckeon the chai

mitt romney's message is working with the white voters, men and suburban women. vice president joe bener remarks in the key battle ground state of iowa. we're going to keep an eye on that event taking place where the psident is about to be introduced. let's go to chuck todd. is the headline out of this, the more things change, the more things stay the same? >> i think that's fair to say. under the surface, it's like watching a duck. on the surface it seems like everything is the same. go underneath and you see the duck's feet peddling away. parts of the elector that was pro obama have become lead obama. his leads among hispanics went up. for mitt romney, same thing, though. where he was already fairly strong, he's gotten stronger among white independents. it had been more of a 50/50 split. his numbers have gone up. and among other groups that have been strong for him already, his leads have expanded. what you're seeing is a hardening of the base. but i have to tell you, thomas, there's a couple numbers i want to point out. where you see the polarization seeping into the answers to big

ben mankiewicz will be back with me. and we'll be back with the "who done it" at the white house. >> obama: the notion that my white house would purposely release classified national security information is offensive. sir... excuse me, excuse me... can i get you to sign off on the johnson case... ♪ we built this city! ♪ don't let food hang around. ♪ on rock & roll! ♪ [ orbit trumpet plays ] clean it up with orbit! [ ding! ] fabulous! for a good clean feeling... she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. see how much you could save with allstate. are you in good hands? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the jeep grand cherokee has won more than just respect. ♪ ♪ and everyone likes 50% more cash -- well, except her. no! but, i'm about to change that. ♪ every little baby wants 50% more cash... ♪ phhht! fine, you try. [ strings breaking wood splintering ] ha ha. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. ♪ what's in your wallet? ♪ ♪ what's in your...your... ♪ [ music ] >> a panel does not get more powerful than this one

ben's hair blowing there which was a very hot day. perhaps these are indeed winds of change. >>> all right, the white house is reacting to egypt's election. it just released this statement, saying, in farther, "we look forward to working together with president-elect morsi and the government he forms on the basis of mutual respect to advance the many shared interests between egypt and the united states." >>> back here, in the u.s., tropical storm debby is strengthening off the gulf of mexico. the storm's path is uncertain but people living along the texas coast to the florida panhandle are all getting ready. louisiana is so concerned about the flooding, the governor has already declared a state of emergency. southeast of new orleans, plaquemines parish president said they can't take any chances. >> if this thing hangs out there, we've never seen a storm with such different forecasts. one track hag has ing has it go florida, one has it going to texas and here we sit right in the middle. we're really concerned about it sitting out there and graaining strength so we're reepg for tpr the worst. >> alexandra steele, the vast is map with all p

white, unaffiliated. i wonder if you all would talk a little bit more about europe. ben mentioned -- listed the bilbig things that have to happen to stabilize the crisis. i wonder if you would talk about them a little more, like the deposit insurance, how hard they are to do and get done. >> i should also disclose that ann white is my mother. maybe it's a good place to end. >> you should have asked a harder question. >> putting me on the spot here. i mean, those are things that people a lot smarter than me have mentioned as potential steps that could be taken to mitigate the crisis. i mean, one thing that the federal government did in our crisis in 2008, 2009, was more than double the fdic insurance on deposits, guarantee all, you know, money market funds. to, at that point, make sure there were not runs on banks. we were at a point in late 2008, early 2009 where there was real concern that we were going to have massive bank failures and there's the famous hank pahlsson moment where he's talking to his wife on the phone saying i'm worried people are not going to be able

ben mankiewicz will be back with me. and we'll be back with the "who done it" at the white house. >> obama: the notion that my white house release classified national security information is offensive. gaeme inc. thank gaemezilinsky, thank you for joining "stephanie miller show." [ music ] >> a panel does not get more powerful than this one. i'm the only person whose name when lengthened does not come out to benjamin. we have ben mankiewicz and benjamin of talking points. eric holder has appointed two top prosecutors. i don't know what makes them top prosecutors, but they're top prosecutors to investigate the disclosure of leak of information from the white house. there are two main leaks, the double agent who foiled the al-qaeda plot. and the secret terrorist kill list that we talked about. this is john mccain talking about the pattern of leaks from the white house. >> leak-classified or highly sensitive information in what appears to be a broader administration effort to paint a portrait of the president of the united states as a strong leader on the national security issues. regardless of how politically useful these

thank you, ben. [ applause ] >> benjamin la troeb worked closely with president james madison to refine the look and function of the early white house. mr. latrobe position is subject of a talk by leslie jones, collection manager at the white house historical association which is headquartered in lafayette square. this program is 45 minutes. >> good evening, folks. if i could urge you to find some seats. we may get more chairs if we need. to i think there are some empty seats around f you'll all try to get a seat, that will be great and we can start. we are excited to celebrate the bicentennial or war of 1812. this is the first program in that long celebration. this evening's talk, oh, the terrible velvet curtains and the madisons decorate the president's house is being presented by leslie jones of the white house historical association. before i introduce our speaker, i want to point out the items we have pulled for tonight's presentation. in the library cases you can see the bound letters to mrs. madison dating to 1809 regarding the decoration as well as another letter dated the following year to the finley brother who is ma

. >> the same white chapel foundry cast big ben, cast these bells.he next boat behind it will be the glorianna, which is the royal road barge. what's unique is it has about 16 -- or18. >> 18. >> horsemen led by olympic champions led by some competitors as well. also, people who have served in afghanistan and iraq and the british armed forces, and they are rowing in front of the spirit of chartwell, the royal barge. >> absolutely. it was the spirit of chartwell. one quick fact. made partly from wood from prince charles' own estates. >> we are just getting going here live in london. the diamond jubilee. quick break. we're back with the first floating belfry ever. ♪ we're here at walmart with the burtons, who love movies. let me show you something new. come on. walmart can now convert your favorite dvds from disc to digital. so you can watch them on your laptop, tablet, phone... anytime, anywhere. cool, huh? yea! yea! what'd you guys think that it would cost? i thought it'd be around $10. it's only $2 per disc. that's a great price. bring in your favori

ben labolt. we'll talk about the day-to-day obama operations and we will look inside the chicago headquarters. "wrote to the white house," tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. eastern here on c-span. on tuesday at the heritage foundation, a former alabama congressmen artur davis. he seconded the nomination of barack obama at the democratic national convention. other speakers included ohio congressman jim jordan and tea party pay to co-founder jenny that martin. this is one hour. >> ok, we will go ahead and get started. i hear we are out of food. sorry. i guess it pays to show up early, right? [laughter] todd will like that. thank you, everybody, for joining us to the bloggers meeting. welcome. welcome to our viewers on c- span. thank you for attending in today. for those of you who are new, basically, we will have three speakers. we will give them an opportunity to make some remarks and then we will take your questions. we will begin with artur davis. his the former member of congress from alabama. he represented the seventh congressional district in alabama for eight years. as a democrat, he held leadership posit

. >> the race for the white house today is all about dollars, campaign contributions and taxes. fed chairman ben bernanke warned of failure to make a deal on rates -- the rally in stocks mostly evaporated on wall street today. we have the latest from steve handelsman in washington. >> mitt romney went to missouri to blame president obama for letting down american families. >> it is moral failure of tragic proportions when there are over 23 million americans who are unemployed, and tempore projects under employed, or have stopped looking for work, and yet the president tells us he is doing a great job. >> president obama, heading to nevada, blames republicans. >> is paid for asking the wealthiest americans to pay a little more, but congress refuses to act. >> hiking taxes for everyone else, but for everyone else, renewing the bush tax cuts that expire in december is the obama plan. republicans want all the brackets to say the same for another year. fed chairman ben bernanke warner if there is no deal by the end of the year, everyone's taxes go up, and the economy could go off a cliff. >> the pote

rock stars of their time from jon meacham's thomas jefferson and his $10,000 wine bill at the white house, to bence on choosing a mistress. we should also mention next week on "morning joe," we're bringing all of jon meacham's mistresses out. i'm sorry. we're bringing together an all-star panel of historians, i'm sorry, keith, a look at the lasting legacy of the american president. that is -- and we've taped some of that stuff already -- those are -- again, i'm a historian, i'm a nerd. those were great even though meacham was involved in it. >> despite that. >> talking about the presidents and we have bob karo on lbj and you and doris kearns goodwin and evan thomas. >> they're all stars. >> all stars. >> never actually been called th. $10,000 bottle of wine or wine bill at the white house? >> he came out -- he spent $10,000 entertaining. >> yeah. >> really? >> ice cream. >> what's coming up? >> what do we have, willie? >> still ahead, tom brokaw is here, chuck todd and davi axelrod. >> that is murderer's road, gehrig, ruth -- >> mantle. >> the third guy, theç '27 yankees. >> plus, a stunning ups

white wood. it is very difficult to read from my book or talk about ben bradlee without using curse words. i hope to give you ben in full color. those of you who have read the review of the book in the post this sunday, those who came to hear about my book, you will be disappointed. this book is about ben and what bradlee was saying about it being a 500 page book about who this person is is true and my goal tonight is to convey some of who ben is and hope that you find him as captivating as i did and enjoy reading about him. as a quick word i started working with ben. an ended up writing a book with his son but before that happened i was working with ben and he gave me access to his archives. it wasn't the whole thing at first. it was a big set of boxes with a bunch of letters. he was sitting in his office but i was petrified. the way i got to know him was through his letters. i thought i would read a few of the ones i love that first and quote you get a sense of how i came to know him. the first letter is one of my favorites from 1977. a man had written to the publisher of the post and ow

negative political story for the white house, whether it has an immediate impact on the economy and job creation, my guess is no. >> yeah, i completely agree with what ben was just saying. with one small exception that one part -- this depends partly on whether the entire act is struck down or just the individual mandate. but if the entire act is struck down, one of the provisions is a medicare and investment tax that's to come into effect next year. and that's one of the pieces that makes the fiscal cliff so steep. so if that is invalidated, it won't hurt quite as much when we go over that cliff. >> i think it will be very good news for the economy if the whole wall was struck doub. now, the conventional wisdom is that the wall will stand. the con vingsal wisdom among attorneys is that the wall will stand. i'm on a capitalist. i grew up in an era when there was no health insurance and i was the oldest of six and we always had the doctor at the house. we managed to survive. we were not rich. i think a spend more out of pocket and you have maybe catastrophic insurance for the big stuff and you negotiate with the doctor for your treatments and you don't g

ben tracy will introduce us to the kind of person who fits the bill, but, first, we'll go to norah o'donnell at the white house tonight. norah? >> reporter: scott, the president had promised to pass an immigration bill but he failed to deliver in part because he faced republican opposition. well, today he figured out a way to get some of it done without them-- but not without questions about his own political motivation. >> these are young people who study in our schools, they play in our neighborhoods, they're friends with our kids, they pledge allegiance to our flag. they are americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one-- on paper. >> reporter: his executive order will take effect immediately and bypasses congress which did not pass the dream act to give the children of illegal immigrants the chance to become citizens. >> let's be clear: this is not amnesty, this is not immunity. this is not a path to citizenship. it's not a permanent fix. >> reporter: the timing, in the midst of a heated election year, is significant. hispanics are the fastest-growing minority in the country a

ben bernanke, that is. >> does that mean extending the tax cuts? >>> my controversial interview with bill clinton about tax cuts, private equity and why the white house wasn't happy about it. >>> secrets to a successful start-up. my conversation with the founder of luxury e-tailor, guilt group. >>> and what went right? the "wall street journal" begins right now. >>> here's look at what's making news as we head into a new week on wall street. we're ready but we're not doing anything yet. that was the word from federal reserve chairman ben bernanke this week testifying before a congressional committee. he said if the economy needs help, if europe worse rns, the fed is prepared to step in and europe is still a concern. >> the situation in europe poses significant risks to the u.s. financial system and economy and must be monitors closely. as always, the federal reserve remains prepared to take action as needed to protect the u.s. financial system in an economy in the event of financial stresses escalate. >> the fed chairman's testimony helped cool off the markets on thursday which had been hoping for a clear he sign of easing. the dow had its best day o