that's next with bill moller. home sales, home prices home construction - all three of these lagging indicators now are markedly improving, and that's a sure sign that the overall economy is doing the same, though it still has a long way to go. in fact, more homes could be sold this spring than in years. earl lee is president of prudential real estate affiliates. mr. lee, i know your company has done a little survey about all this. what did you find? > > one of the things we found was that home ownership is still a very important part of the american dream. in fact, 96% of our respondents replied it is a very essential part of what they are looking for in their lives. i think one of the reasons why that is really important is i think if we go back several years, there was a lot of information out there that we were going to become a nation of renters. and that obviously is not true based on our survey. > people certainly want to buy but economically, is buying a home still affordable? i know interest rates are dow

that's next with bill moller. now this is surprising. when a late teen to early-20-year olds whip out plastic these days, chances are it's not a credit card they're using. debit card, maybe, but certainly not a credit card. a sallie mae ipsos survey found about 50% of 18- to 24-year-olds own a credit card in 2010, and last year it was down to about 40%. let's talk with chicago tribune business reporter becky yerak. i know that it wasn't that many years ago that college kids would go to orientation day, and they'd be thrown t-shirts and credit cards. credit card companies knew to get them early, and they were aggressively pursuing them on college campuses. > > there was a big change because of a 2009 law, and it affected everybody who really has a credit card, regarding fees, interest rates... but two of the things that it did, it really curbed marketing to kids - for example, credit card companies can no longer go to a campus and give out little gifts to try to entice students to sign up for credit cards -; also, credit card companies an

that's next with bill moller. the recession hasn't just been tough on all of us, it's also been hard on charities that depend on our generosity. stacey stewart knows this. she is the u.s. president of the united way, the national organization overseeing more than 1200 local organizations. let's first talk about the giving side - high unemployment, the recession that we're still recovering from. what has that done to charitable giving in this country? > > in many cases it has devastated some parts of the charitable sector. we saw giving decline as much as 10% or more - some organizations experienced even greater declines. and we haven't seen a complete recovery from the worst of the economy in 2008. > i assume exacerbating all of this is the fact that there have been cuts in state budgets and in the federal budget as well. > > we are all living through a disaster of a federal fiscal situation, and that is also showing up at the state and local levels. not only is that impacting some nonprofit organizations that rel

thoughts on that and more next with bill moller, after this "in the know" message. you remember the old virginia slims cigarette ad, "you've come along way baby?" women have made strides, and it's important to take stock of those advances during women's history month - this is that month - but also to recognize they haven't yet arrived to a point of parity with men. hedy ratner is the co-founder and co-president of the women's business development center, the largest, oldest such center in the country. so, virginia slims, there is another song of that era that you are more interested in. > > helen reddy: "i am woman, hear me roar." and women are roaring. women are empowered, women have their own table, rather than a seat at the table, and i am very impressed with the progress we have made, but there is much to be done. > let me ask you about two women who do have a seat at the table, if not their own table: of yahoo, it's marissa mayer, and sheryl sandberg of facebook. they have made some rather controversial comments of late as to the role of women and where women

a shocker from the housing sector is next with bill moller. this might surprise you: there is really a booming number of boomers who are becoming first- time home-buyers. it's a fact. what's behind this? let's talk with ryan gable. he is the founder of a realty that for almost 10 years has been focusing solely on the first- time homebuyer. now, we typically think of the first- timers as being a young couple, some people in their 20s. > > yes. all we deal with are first-time home-buyers, and what we have noticed over the past few years is that the group over 40-years-old takes up about 20% of our market. > who are these people? were they previously renters? > > pretty much all of them. what has happened is that they have gone through some sort of a lifestyle change. a big one is maybe somebody that has gone through a divorce, and the wife has never bought a place, and she is coming into some money, they are selling the house, and she has never gone through the process. we have that, or somebody else that, they inherit money, or they get a job p

that's next with bill moller after this in the know message well this is more like it. a 1- month's report does not a trend make but you can't deny, employment - that ol' lagging indicator suddenly is moving in the right direction. here are the numbers again. the economy created 236- thousand jobs and the rate of unemployment dropped to 7.7% - it hasn't been that low in more than 4 years. brian battle is director of trading at performance trust capital partners. brian, break it down for us. > >overall good numbers. it beats the alternative. it's going in the right direction. so directionally, it's positive we're adding more jobs. but the devil's in the details. so, we've added more part time jobs and we had a big correction in last month's numbers so a pretty good number but looking within---the trend is great, details a little soft. we need more full-time, full-pay engineering type jobs. > > as you look into these numbers do you see any hint that that migh be---those more substantive jobs---might be picking up as well? > >it will. we're gonna find out in the longer ter

that's next with bill moller. did you hear the story about how target used customers' discreet buying habits to determine if a woman is pregnant even before anyone in her family even knew? or how amazon can determine what book you're next likely to read. it's through analytics my friend. or as the title of a new book states, it's all about, "big data: a revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think." viktor mayer-schonberger is one of the authors, and i immediately see wonderful potential here, but also some worrisome trends. companies are doing deep dives into my personal data. that's fine for marketing. i'll allow that. but there are some concerns, don't you think? > > there are some concerns, but there are a lot of upsides as well, and big data is not just a marketing tool. with big data analytics, we really can peek into a lot of the areas that were hidden from our view. take predictive maintenance. we now know with cars and with airplane engines when an engine in the car will break before it act

i'm bill moller. angie's off for a couple of days. in our first look for tuesday, march 5th: wasn't sequestration supposed to bring widespread suffering & chaos? we're beginning day 3 of trading and the markets seem to have hardly noticed. what they're worried about is china. more on that in a moment with our trader. and about that china thing. it has all the makings of a bubble. china's runaway growth may soon run into a wall - a construction wall from the biggest building boom in history. dozens of new cities & thousands of gleaming towers, all empty. there's talk there may be economic ruin for investors. and, when the employment numbers come out this friday, if at least 175,000 jobs are added to the economy, get this - the number of working americans will be the same as it was just after lehman brothers failed 4- and-half years ago. it was lehman's collapse that accelerated the recession, costing millions of jobs. the senior market strategist for trading advantage is scott bauer. let's talk with him. so scott, we were just talking

find out more next with bill moller. there's nothing like giving a teenager a new perspective about the world by having them actually live abroad. i'm not talking about just breezing through and seeing museums and historic sites on a vacation, but a multi-week stay can really immerse them in the culture and the history. american collegiate adventures specializes in arranging such stays for families. jason lubar is the founder. and nikki bredt, you actually went, we're going to talk to you in a second. but jason, how'd you come up with this idea? were you a frustrated teen wanting to go to europe and nobody would send you? > > not exactly. i just, interestingly, was studying at the university of wisconsin when i was in college, and i had this incredible idea, i guess, one day that you could marry the concept of culture and travel and education all together for teenagers in a very structured and safe environment, and that is what we have been doing. > nikki, i want to ask you, a lot of parents would think, "hey, this is ju

more on that next with bill moller. this neighborhood sure has changed a lot over the years. you know there was a time when people like me couldn't live here. i'll never forget being told i wasn't welcome in this neighborhood. well i own this building now, the fair housing act made a difference for someone like me. so i can choose where i want to live, free from discrimination. glad you could make it, right this way... the 1990 cunningly executed thefts of 13 works of art from the isabella stewart gardner museum in boston. works by degas, vermeer, manet, rembrandt - the value? they say around a half a billion dollars & the fbi doesn't forget they say they know who did it & expect the case to soon be resolved. let's talk with jonathan sazonoff, you consult on art thefts & have 1 of the largest data bases on the planet associated with stolen art. 500 thousand dollars, you say nowhere near that much. > >people always inflate the figures on these. i've seen figures as high as 2 billion dollars but if you really run some numbers its about 135 million. > >the statute of limitaions

cities under pressure next with bill moller, after this "in the know" message. now we have the future and the fortunes of detroit, michigan, handed over to a bankruptcy lawyer. detroit may be in the worst shape financially, but plenty of other cities are in serious financial stress too. is detroit just the first domino to fall? let's talk with brian battle. he is the director of trading performance at trust capital partners. you are involved for 25+ years in looking at the bond market, municipal credits. let me ask you, is detroit unique here? > > unique is a word for it. what is wrong with detroit is two things: one, they had bad management, and that is not unique across the country. but what is wrong with detroit specifically is they have a declining population and declining assessed values. so, when you have less stuff to tax and fewer people, that means your government has to get smaller. so detroit, by not dealing with these problems, has made them worse. so the governor of michigan has appointed an emergency manager to take over and straighten things out.

that's next with bill moller. the engine of the american economy is driven by the small business, and every month we take the measure of the attitude of small business owners across the country. we do this through what's called the surepayroll small business scorecard. they poll 10s of thousands of their members. michael alter is the ceo of surepayroll. michael, the sequester kicked in a few hours ago. i know you have been saying for months that that is one of the key elements of uncertainty that is kind of driving small business owners nuts. > > it certainly is, and i think one of the challenges while it's kicked in is, there's still uncertainty as to what the real impact is going to be. so i think we will see that over the next week to month in terms of what the real impact of this is. this is one of those strange things where you can put two very educated, very credible economists in the same room, one arguing one side and one arguing the other, and you will get a completely different answer. > what are we supp

i'm bill moller in for angela miles, and this is first business for thursday, march 7th. in our first look, disagreement over electrical problems on boeing's 787's. japan's all nippon airways says there were 3 incidents of problems with electric distribution panels. japan's aviation workers' union said yesterday there were 5 incidents. the airline says they were all minor. after firing the man who founded the company, groupon is on the hunt for its next ceo. bloomberg is reporting that the board has decided to look outside the company. sources say a search firm could be given the task within two weeks and will be expected to find a new chief executive within six months. some say it cannot be done without a lot of pain, but congressman paul ryan says the budget he will reveal next week will essentially be what the house approved last year. but the house plan would balance the budget in 30 years. he says his can do it in 10. let's make some sense as to what we can see in trading today. let's talk with todd horwtiz. he is the chief strategist for the adam mesh trading group.

good morning, i'm bill moller. angie's off this friday morning, march 22nd. in our first look: it's fear of the unknown. what's going to happen in cypress? that's what sent the value of the euro and global stocks lower. the dow, nasdaq and the s&p 500 all pulled back in yesterday's session. and stocks were also rattled by oracle's numbers miss for profits and sales and a cisco downgrade which sent its share several points lower, taking with it ibm and intel. so how bad are things for google in europe? it's in anti- trust hot water. listen to this public letter from the eu's antitrust chief: "google's search manipulation practices lay waste to entire classes of competitors in every sector where google chooses to deploy them." negotiations are on-going. a new poll finds nearly 2/3 of americans favor giving illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. the senate is within a week of hammering out an immigration reform bill, one designed to win enough bi- partisan votes to pass. let's make some sense of the big sell-off yesterday with ben lichtenstein. he is the pres

i'm bill moller in for angela miles. this is first business for wednesday, march 6th. in our first look: how 'bout that dow? wow! trading begins this morning with the main indexes above or within a hiccup of their all-time highs. it's the dow that's the star. its last record close was october 9th, 2007. it took nearly 5-and-a-half years to claw its way back to a new record high. analysis is coming up with our trader. venezuelan president hugo chavez has died. he had been ill for a number of months. there is no word as to a successor or what the opporition plans. venezuela is an opec country and sells oil to the united states. and with president obama's cabinet nominations adding up, senate confirmation hearings are underway. yesterday the senate intelligence committee approved john brennan as head of the cia. the banking committee holds its first hearing next tuesday for mary jo white to be head of the sec. our trader today is jared levy with zacks.com. jared, where is your party hat? it's big news today. congratulations! you are part of this historical moment. let me

that's next, with bill moller. the local pizza parlor, the shoe repair shop, they cater to customers within a pretty tight radius, maybe a few miles around. but you know, more and more small- & medium-sized businesses - that is, those that are between 10 and 250 employees - are seeking their profits internationally. dhl express just completed research that underscores why this is happening. raoul sreenivasan is an executive with dhl, and i guess in a nutshell, it's simply because they are finding more profits and success by doing business overseas. > > that is exactly right bill. we conducted this research in q4 last year across all g7 countries as well as the brick and mexico countries, and we have found that sme's that operate internationally- > small- and medium-sized enterprises. > > yes. they are twice as likely to be considered high- performers as those that just ship or operate within their boundaries. > are they successful and more profitable because they are doing business across borders? > > there's two t