let me tell you, bringi in the rule of law is no easy thing. they're trying it in afghanistan .ot getting there. john: you started your working in peru working, trying to establish property rights. an economic adviser to the president. reform to the exte that other contries and by you to go to -- you got to russia, libya. twty-three countries. egypt and honduras and the philippines. the leaders of these countries must get that they are doing something wrong. >> they did it easier than in north america. the people who brought in the rule of law and property rights into the united states, the 18th and 19th cenry, you can't remember that. in the casef these guys, they see that they are poor relative to your weal. it's easy for them to sycamore is the difference? they are constantly looking so they can recognize much faster. we did norealize the fact it you can determine that a piece of land went from there to year, you can also do it with a movie script. you can also do it with an idea, an invention. and certainly. all of a sudden we started seeing tt people just the paper. on top

we'll see what the next 48 hours bringi brings us. president has start aid meeting with siveng leaders to talk about this economy. earlier today the president metaphmet for the first time with congressional leaders to avoid the fiscal cliff we talked so much about. both sides emerged saying they are willing to make one choices. the one word they all used to describe the meeting was constructive. >> our challenge is to make sure that, you know, we are able it to cooperate together, work together, find some common ground, make some tough compromises, build some consensus to do the people's business. >> to show our seriousness, we've put revenue on the table, as long as it's accompanied by significant spending cuts. >> let me bring in nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. from those two sound bites alone, one would think things are a lot better than when this battle was forged before. >> reporter: well, i think that both sides feel a fresh urgency to get something done. you're absolutely right, tamron. they know they can't h