and some people now fearing we're headed for a second recession, let's bring in fox business cheryl casone live in our new york city news room. cheryl, he when you look at the situation, after a two year rebound and now this talk of perhaps dipping into a double dip recession, is it politics? is it the downgrading? is it the global markets or all of the above? >> it's a little bit of everything at this point. global markets have been a huge problem over the last couple of weeks in particular because they've got debt issues, just like the united states has debt issues. that downgrade by s & p was kind of the catalyst that kicked off the big slide that we've seen, really over the last three weeks and if you look at the last two weeks of the trading week this week, thursday and friday, we lost almost 600 points on the dow and the dow is down 4% for the week. and all this have is based on a few things, but it's the u.s. economy, european banks, how much does u.s. banks have exposure to european banks and then add in the fact that we're getting some really rough economic news out of this countr

cheryl, thank you very much, cheryl casone will be covering that, fox business network, later on todayll: in the meantime we have two candidates, one nomination, in the end, a decision that could shape the future of the republican party, texas governor rick perry, former massachusetts governor mim rothny touting their abilities, and criticizing president obama. bret baier, anchor of "special report" joins me now, how you doing? >> good morning, bill. bill: i thought this rasmussen report was quite revealing, rick perry enters the race, within five or six days, he has a lead on mitt romney, essentially been running for the lead in the white house in the past two or three years. what that tells me is voters are all over the floor now and they're trying to find a person, be it a man or in this case, michele bachmann, who is third on that poll. what do you make of this? >> reporter: i agree, bill. it is a poll that raised a lot of eyebrows, and definitely governor perry made a splash into this race. it's important, obviously, to put the caveat in there that this is one poll, but he has sha

fox business anchor cheryl casone joins us with more on this story. it feels like you've heard this story every few months, that they've got a new plan to help people stay in their homes or refinance. what's different about this one? >> what's different with this one, they want to help people refinance. we've had an idea floated around by the administration, that is for maybe the government, taxpayers buy out foreclosed homes, turn them into rental properties and the taxpayer makes money off of that. this one says why don't we let them refinance and it sounds great on paper and certainly we do need to see refinancing happening in the markets so we can get away from the glut of foreclosed homes, having said that, there are obstacles to this particular plan. they're going to have to get investors that back mortgage-backed bonds, they're going to get them on board, who does the refinancing, the banks of this country and will the taxpayers have to put money out. taxpayers aren't going to want to put money out. they've had a lot of plans, this is one that

cheryl casone, where are they this morning? >> we are in for another bumpy ride. we are looking at another rough day for the markets. we've had incredible volatility and volume over the last 48 hours. we're going to have it again, the futures now telling us the dow is going to open to the downside about 200 points or so, s&p, nasdaq as well. asia, as you mentioned, bill, had a great night, they had a great session. europe is the problem. many analysts tell me europe is a true time problem from a fiscal perspective because there are concerns with italy being the third largest economy they cannot be bailed out, they are too big to be bailed out, and that is a big concern for these markets despite what the fed told us yesterday. bill: that's going to take time to unwind in europe. with regard to the fed, has it ever announced what it plans to do with interest rates? for the next two years? >> no. bill remarkable. why did it act this way? >> the fed is trying whatever it can, and i believe this is under the leadership of chairman bernanke, they want to do anything the

cheryl casone joins me with more. what does it mean? >> reporter: these are fascinating numbers.ifty-four point nine is the earlier read for august consumer senment, the worst number we've seen since 19 # zero. you mentioned some -- 1980. you mentioned the key factors, this is what the poll said to the board, look, if i don't have a job, i'm worried about my expectation of moving forward, i'm either unemployed, if i'm working, i haven't had a raise, and i'm concerned about the health of the u.s. economy. now, this polling was all done during the big debt debate right before s&p downgraded the u.s. economy from aaa to aa, so that big debate, all the rhetoric coming out of washington, many of those surveyed said that bothered them and it gave them that negative sentiment. now, you take this data, you put it on to the top of a really roller coaster ride for wall street, and you've got another big hit to the markets. that was this morning, we have actually recovered then with regard to the dow. one of the things, 61 percent criticized president obama's handling of the u.s. economy. t

cheryl casone has the story. >> reporter:th is fascinating story. this is coming from our partners over at "the wall street journal" here is what the report says. bank of america, remember the nation's largest bank is working on a deal behind the scenes with state and federal regulators to get themselves out of a major lawsuit they are facing. actually lawsuits plural. here is what bank of america wants. bank of america wants a deal from the feds from the states, that they will have protection from lawsuits that they are currently facing and also future lawsuits if they forgive some of the loan amounts for troubled borrowers, their own borrowers. these are homeowners that have a loan at bank of america or have a service, loan that is serviced by bank of america. they would actually be forgiven for some of the principle of their home. controversial idea but this is what bank of america wants. they're telling the feds, look, if you protect us from the legal system, protect us from lawsuits we will help out homeowners and forgive them on principle. now

bring in fox business network's cheryl casone. thanks so much for being here. is it good news? it's an interesting plan. >> reporter: it's an interesting plan, but investors have been doing this for three years, megyn. the white house is a little behind the curven this one -- curve on this one, i'm not going to lie. big real estate investors have been buying up blocks of foreclosed homes since the beginning of 2009 and doing exactly what now the white house is proposing to do which is to take these foreclosed properties, you fix them up, and you rent them out, and then you wait it out. and when the market comes back, then you sell them. now, jared bernstein who's the former economic adviser to vice president biden, this is something he has talked about for a long time. but, again, many in the market, the big money investors, have been doing this for a long time. there's also a little bit of a moral hazard for taxpayers. the fannie mae and freddie mac gses, remember, we own these guys now be. does a taxpayer want to take the risk of being, basically, a landlord? that's going to

we have good news for you today and cheryl casone from the fox business network is here with five companiesews, cheryl. so let's start with ernst & young. >> the accounting business is big right now. all the activity that's happening out in the country right now, all the compliance, for instance, these companies have to go through and they have to find accountants. thau there's a couple of things about this one. they do a lot of corporate audits but they're very much about work balance and a lot of the accounting firms are like that. salary range anywhere from $70,000 to $115,000. >> there's a name we all know, sears, what are they looking for? >> they've been around for 100 years. they need associates. they're hiring in california, they're hiring in texas. and most of my companies are hiring in california which is a good thing. unemployment is at 12% out there, by the way, again, people say they get stability where they feel like they have a good stable job at sears and they like who they work with. they like their co-workers. don't always like your co-workers, you're ok and everything. no