with the economy ranking the top issue among voters, christine romans is looking back at the economicdicators for us to see what they actually show. christine? >> good morning, zoraida. you know, framing the election around, the republicans are trying to frame this election around this question, are you better off. they're also trying to talk a lot about debt. the president may have averted a great depression, they say, but he did so really racking up the nation's credit card. let's take a look at the facts about unemployment. this is the unemployment rate. when the president took office, it was 7.8%, now stands at 8.3%. so, the unemployment rate is a little bit worse and the jobs situation, when you look at the unemployment rate, has not really improved too much. but look at jobs lost and jobs gained. when the president took office, look at all of these job losses, hundreds of thousands of jobs lost, and that began under the bush administration. and now, most recent month that we have data for, 163,000 jobs created. is that enough? of course it's not enough. it's not a robust recover

i'm john berman. >> i'm christine romans. now. >>> good morning to you and welcome to "starting point," soledad o'brien is off today i'm zoraida sambolin. >> and i'm ali velshi. breaking news, teachers on strike. chicago teach erps hitting the picket line instead of the classroom right now. leaving 400,000 students out of school this morning. where do the intense negotiations stand? >> back in session, the election season is the home stretch and lawmakers in the home stretch and lawmakers return to capitol hill today but even with that fiscal cliff approaching, will they actually get anything done? >> the bus re-igniting the american economy. a weak jobs report fueling both campaigns this morning. cnn is going in-depth, taking a look at the jobs crisis in america. >>> larry summers, chicago

christine romans, cnn, new york. of the classes offered by ccursera include a mathematical biostattstics boot camp from johns hoppins university... and writing in the sciences from ssanford. and find out what a reporter does to put a look like this on the face of a child... coming up. 3 --adblib weather tz-- growing out your hairmean, which i don't like. so pantene dared me. skip a trim. pantene beautiful lengths. the pro-v keratin protection system, helps prevent breakage and repairs split ends and the program donates $1,000,000 to help woman fighting cancer. so getting longer stronger hair also means i care, that i like! beautiful lengths from pantene. hair so healthy it shines. a west virginia casino spending a fortune... beautiful lengths from pantene. to stop question seven. they don't want competition. the washington post wrote the casino behind the ads is... "most concerned with its own bottom line." and the baltimore sun says it "doesn't have maryland... taxpayers' interests at heart." so when you see these a

christine romans, christine romans is standing by. christine romans, forgive me. sorry. we'll call it a friday. i'm having a friday moment. run through some of the numbers, the tax returns out and about on the website for folks to see. >> i'm waiting to download those from the website. 2010, this is how big it is. this is just 2010. we'll get another year like that, 2011, those are the two years that mitt romney, the romney campaign will allow us to pour over. i guarantee you there are headline that the campaign released, how much he made last yeerks h year, his effective tax rate. you will see a lot of people, me too, going through this on a friday evening in a political season to find out just where the income is coming from, we know almost all next income, what countries, what kind of investment vehicles is he invested in, where are those investment vehicles domiciled, et cetera, et cetera. a lot to go through here. you can be sure. but the headline is he made $13.7 million last year, and he paid $1.9 million in taxes on that. we know the effective tax rate is 14.1%.

christine romans is here with the headlines. >> good morning.t this morning. a hidden camera video that's captured romney's blunt comments to wealthy donors at a fund-raiser back in may. on this tape romney describes nearly half of all americans as, quote, victims, who will vote for president obama, and it's not his job to worry about them. romney tried to clarify the remarks later saying they were off the cuff and not elegantly stated. he says he wants to help all americans. >>> u.s. troops ordered to halt joint field operations with afghan security forces. the decision coming after four american troops were killed by afghan police. there have been a series of these insider attacks on nato forces by afghan police, and by insurgents disguised as security officers. 51 western troops have died in those attacks so far this year. >>> nearly 200 people were arrested during protests in new york city to mark the one-year anniversary of occupy wall street. most of these arrests were for disorderly conduct. hundreds of protesters gathered at new york's p

christine romans. i don't want to get ahead of myself.is new information just getting it, romney's tax returns from the 2011 year 2011 released today, and there is a link to it. you can check them out. tell us what you have been able to find out about this. >> okay. so here's what we know. at 3:00 the romney campaign is going to release his 2011 income tax return and brad malt, the trustee for that blind trust for the romneys is telling us that, indeed, they're going to release the entire return for the year 2011, and that will be on-line for everyone to see. in the meantime, they've given us some numbers. of course, we will be digging into all those when they come out, but this is what they tell us. the campaign says the romneys paid $1.9 million in taxes last year on $13.6 million in mostly investment income. that works out to an effective tax rate for the romneys of 14.1%. the campaign also says the romneys last year donated $4 million to charity, about 30% of their income. what is interesting here as well is that along with this file,

here's christine romans to explain how changes the airlines could affect your travel plans.folks. according to flightstats.com over 1,000 american airlines flights have been canceled. more than any other airline and over 13,000 have been delayed in the past month. in response to this disruption, american is preemptively canceling between 1% and 2% of flights through october, and possibly beyond. they say more domestic flights are affected than international about this. so what does it mean for travelers? american says passengers whose flights are canceled will be notified as far in advance as possible, and they'll be automatically rebooked on to the next available flight. that's what's important. if they cancel your flight, they're going to automatically put you on the next one. to make alternate arrangements they recommend calling american's reservations department, and be patient, everyone. >> right. >> if you're booked on american you can keep up to date on your flight status using avps like flight track or the flight notification tool on the airline's website. you've got

i'm christine romans. >> and i'm brianna keilar.sts expected in egypt as friday prayers come to an end. so far not materializing. the muslim brotherhood urging people not to gather in tahrir square and instead urging peaceful marches in other parts of the city. now that wasn't the case there last night as fighting fires and violence erupted throughout the city. meantime protests spreading to 11 countries from as far west as morocco to as far east as india. the worst of it in yemen where at least five yemenis were killed after protesters stormed the american embassy in sanaa. protesters destroying cars and property as the yemeni military brought out water cannons to control the crowd. >>> and in libya, news overnight that four people arrested in connection to the killing of ambassador christopher stevens and three other americans. we now know the identity of the other two american victims killed in the attack. glen doherty and tyrone woods, both former navy s.e.a.l.s who were acting as security. >>> meantime this morning, more u.s. f

i'm zoraida sambolin along with christine romans. the favorite celebrity bake for cybercriminals trying to lure internet users. >> sweet emma? >> the software security firm has named watson this year's most dangerous celebrity to search for online because many sites use her name to trick people into downloading malware or steal personal information. when searching the actress's name, there's a one in eight chance of finding a malicious site. watson replaces heidi klum. the only guy to crack mackcafee top 20 is jimmy kimmel. >> their mistake was making a spoof of the crossover summer song gang mam style. they're using the public pool facility at the el monte aquatic center. their version was posted on youtube. th13 lifeguards and a pool manager were then fired. the city says it was a clear unauthorized use of resources and property. it was still funny the lifeguards say they'll petition for their jobs back at the next el monte city council meeting. >> maybe they'll just get in trouble? >> see t whole video and make that decision. >>>

christine romans is going to join us to break it down.ball players use eye black to black out the sun but one player may be in trouble for a message he decided to write on his eye black. really? jack, you're a little boring. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia. ♪ this girl is on fire [ male announcer ] use any citi card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts, more events, more experiences. [ jack ] hey, who's boring now? [ male announcer ] get more access with the citi card. [ crowd cheering, mouse clicks ] [ male announcer ] get more access with the citi card. i've been a superintendent for 30 some years at many different park service units across the united states. the only time i've ever had a break is when i was on maternity leave. i have retired from doing this one thing that i loved. now, i'm going to be able to have the time to explore something different.

i'm christine romans. >> i'm john berman. soledad is off today.l be back on the field beginning tonight. it is like christmas here. thank you! how they got there and what happens from here. >> someone's the got job security in america. >>> candidates coming out swinging. obama and romney both in the same state again today, hammering each other on jobs. but why does newt gingrich call romney's campaign a messaging failure? >>> and it is one of the most famous cold cases in history. where jimmy hoffa's body? well, a new break in the case this morning has police ready to start drilling. > it's thursday, september 27th. "starting point" begins right now.

>> christine romans, cnn, new york. >>> all right, it wasn't a moment too soon for nfl players and fansr nfl refs were in baltimore thursday. will they be there sunday? we'll fill you in. americans believe they should be in charge of their own future. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want. ameriprise. the strength of a leader in retirement planning. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you one-to-one. together for your future. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] every car we build must make adrenaline pump and pulses quicken. ♪ to help you not just to stay alive... but feel alive. the new c class is no exception. it's a mercedes-benz through and through. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial services. your soups are so awesomely delicious my husband and i can't stop eating 'em! what's...that... on your head? can curlers! tomato basil, potato with bacon... we'v

christine romans, cnn, new york.rive our nation's military are the ones we used to build usaa bank. with our award winning apps that allow you to transfer funds, pay bills or manage your finances anywhere, anytime. so that wherever your duty takes you, usaa bank goes with you. visit us online to learn what makes our bank so different. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing a reason...to look twice. introducing a stunning work of technology -- the entirely new lexus es. and the first-ever es hybrid. this is the pursuit of perfection. and the first-ever es hybrid. i'm also a survivor of ovarian a writand uterine cancers. i even wrote a play about that. my symptoms were a pain in my abdomen and periods that were heavier and longer than usual for me. if you have symptoms that last two weeks or longer, be brave, go to the doctor. ovarian and uterine cancers are gynecologic cancers. symptoms are not the same for everyone. i got sick...and then i got better. >>> developing now, we are getting word of a protest against the u.s

what happened to the key players from lehman's collapse, christine romans tracked them down. >> fourlehman brothers collapsed. we're looking at where the major players at the table back then are today. ceo dick fold, after losing his job at the end of 2008, he started matrix advisers in april 2009, the company does strategic consulting and is listed as still working there. in 2010, he took a position at broker dealer legend securities but left the company a little over a year later. regulatory filings show that fold has been involved in over a dozen lawsuits since the lehman bankruptcy. erin cowan was fired four months before the company filed chapter 11, post banking she appears to have moved out of the spotlight. she hasn't re-emerged publicly on to the finance scene. former treasury secretary hank paulson, he along with regulators chose not to bail them out with taxpayer money as customers abandoned it. he left office with president bush in 2009 before his three-year term running the u.s. treasury, he was with goldman sachs. today he's with academia. he started the paulson institu

>> christine romans, cnn, new york americans are always ready to work hard for a better future.ameriprise financial was founded back in 1894, they've been committed to putting clients first. helping generations through tough times. good times. never taking a bailout. there when you need them. helping millions of americans over the centuries. the strength of a global financial leader. the heart of a one-to-one relationship. together for your future. ♪ >>> welcome back, it is almost half past the hour, and i'm susan hendrick, in today for don lemon. i want to take a look at the headlines for you. today, ten miles of one of the busiest freeways in america are closed. the people there are calling it carmageddon, so far no problems with the traffic, no snarls. the first carmageddon happened when the 405 was shut down. people are being asked to stay off the road if they can. that stretch of 405 will be opened again on monday. >>> and the butler for the pope accused of stealing documents from the pope and leaking them to an italian journalist. the court denied a motion to strike some o

christine romans, cnn, new york.-----end----- ccn.script----- a big bankk.. paying out... ouu...the reason behind many people getting checks (((rrak 3)) 3 3 3 --reporter pkg-as folloos --discovvr bank is &prefunding $200 million dollar to morr han three and a half million customers.why? becauue of deceptive telemarketing. a joint investigation by the consumer financcal protection bureau and the f-d-i-c found were misleading customers.they tricked ccstomers into ps - purchasing credit card "add ons," like identity theft protection ann credit score tracking.telemarketers often implied these enefits were free -- buu they weree't. and recorded sales calls found fast when explaining cost and produut terms.some evenn processed urchases without the customer agreeing to it. discover says it will stop deceptivv sales tactics, aad ppy a $11 millloo olllr -&pen of the $200 million ollars in customer reeunds. the average refund will be $57 dolllrs, which customers should reccive by earll next year. the amount depends on tte roduct customers bought and also hhw long theyyhave had ii.af

christine romans applies that question to the stock market. by the way they clean themselves in the bathroom.ttvwkun+og#wvs#q'ppu;v?2v.ac=u;lt"p/wlÑkñ0k9%"@nkgh@ú&cg8 try charmin ultra strong. with a new duraclean texture it helps you get clean.tt@l"bé(kk?h plus it's four times stronger than the leading value brand. and you can use up to four times less. charmin ultra strong.ttvwkun+og#wvs#q'ppu;v?2v.ac=uúje1

christine romans has those for us. friends, family, and hollywood this morning remembering actor michael clark duncan. he died yesterday. clarke appeared in dozens of movies, but his signature role was in "the green mile" that earned him a supporting actor nomination. he never recovered from a heart attack he suffered in july. he was 54 years old. >>> jurors in the drew peterson murder trial will hear closing arguments this morning after five weeks of testimony, endured three near mistrials and even coordinated their wardrobes. the former police officer is charged with drowning his third wife, kathleen savio, in 2004. the case was considered an accident until his fourth wife, stacey, disappeared four years later. >>> it's just 5% contained. flames are burning through angeles national forest. firefighters are hoping to gain ground today. thousands of visitors had to evacuate the popular camp ground over the weekend. for now, the fire is burning in a wilderness area away from homes. >>> louisiana residents are trying to

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in this week's "smart is the new rich," christine romans takes a look. >> i got hired to drive a truckeporter: out of work for a few years, he went from homebuilding to trucking. the reason? it's where the jobs are. >> i've been through several recessions before. i was building homes when jimmy carter was president. things were bad then. but they're terrible now in that industry. >> reporter: movies like "con y "convoy" was the image of truck drivers in the past. >> i've had ex-teachers, ex-lawyer ex-lawyers, ex-accountants. >> reporter: it's supply and demand, a rebounding economy means more freight to move and more jobs to fill. about 200,000 long-haul trucking jobs are open nationwide to add to the 1.5 million drivers on the road now. like health care jobs and retail sales, truck driving is an occupation that's growing. more than 300,000 long-haul trucking jobs are expected to be added between 2010 and 2020. prime trucking is hiring. >> i could put a couple of hundred people to work this next week. the demand for our services is there. it's the qualified people that's the challenge.

. >> christine romans, host of "your bottom line," christine? >> all this looking in the rearview mirror is driving me crazy, because i'm so scared looking forward. we have to figure out in washington how we can fix the right now and look longer term to cutting our debts and deficits. why can't we do both, stephen moore? why can't we do both at the same time? i'm not convinced that washington and party politics will allow us to do -- we have to be juggling a lot of balls, it and can't just be debt reduction, and it can't just be near-term stimulus. it has to be all of that, and more. >> yeah, look, christine, i agree with you that it would be wonderful if we could do both. if we could stimulate the economy, and then have these conversation and senators turn into fiscal saints and then, you know, and then cut the spending. i've been in this town for 30 years -- >> i'm sorry. >> all i ever hear is put out the punch bowl and let's party. they never put the punch bowl away. that's what i have a problem with what the three of you are saying. i believ

christine romans joins me now.ou said something on the very early morning show today that astounded me, the amount that it has ballooned in the last ten years. >> tuition has just gone up, up, and up, and your income hasn't. the reality for the american middle class is you can't afford to go to college, and you also can't afford not to. so what are we going to do about it? >> reporter: when jackie graduated from brown university this year, she put off going straight to medical school. instead, she took a research job at sloan-kettering hospital. >> it is nice to have a paying job where i can pay back part of my student loans before going to med school and possibly adding on a lot more. >> reporter: and she had plenty of them, $100,000 worth. why? her family is middle class. her mother works in a school. her dad owns a bar. she says they're considered too wealthy to qualify for many grants but, she says, no the wealthy enough to have saved the money for the more than $50,000 a year to attend brown. >> when you're in

christine romans is here. september is historically a bad month for stock. >> historically it is the worst month of the year for stocks. let me tell you there's an old saying on wall street. sell in may and go away. if you did that, you lost money. during the summer, up 7%. overall, more than 10% for the s&p 500. look at that. that's the s&p, almost 12% year to date. you can see there was that late spring dip. and then it had a pretty good summer overall. three big events will decide what happens for your stock portfolio. ecb meeting. a lot of talk about just how far officials will go to try to keep the euro together. also, august jobs report. that's friday. looking for 130,000 jobs created in the u.s. that's going to be a very important report for the health of your job obviously. and interest rate meeting on september 12th and 13th. so all of these things will kind of bake the cake for what's going to happen for stocks and the direction of your money for the month. it's interesting because hedge funds, the s

thank you, christine romans. >> you're welcome. on every one of our cards there's a date. a reminder... that before this date, we have to exceed expectations. we have to find new ways to help make life easier, more convenient and more rewarding. it's the reason why we don't have costumers. we have members. american express. welcome in. >>> and there is a beautiful live picture of a somewhat empty auditorium in charlotte, north carolina. but they'll be over 35,000 media delegates and special guests piling into that auditorium, because we're on the countdown to the start of the national democratic convention. our full coverage starts at 7:00 p.m. eastern tonight with the fabulous wolf blitzer and anderson cooper shepherding all of our work, and going right through until past midnight with piers morgan, as well. so you're not going to miss anything, especially that big, big speech by michelle obama and the keynote address by julian castro. make sure you tune in for all of that. in the mean time, michelle rhee is a name that has become synonymous with controversial education r

it's not that simple. >> reporter: christine romans, cnn, new york. >> now, a recent study by fidelityhows families are way behind their college savings goals. fewer than 1/3 of parents with college-bound children are even considering the total cost of college. and only 30% of all families are on track to cover that hefty cost. >>> he just won an emmy for his role on "two and a half men." so how acting along side ashton kutcher different from acting alongside charlie sheen? the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well. ♪ [ female announcer ] for everything your face has to face. face it with puffs facial tissues. unlike the leading regular tissue, puffs has soft, air-fluffed

christine romans is here with the number 46% to show us exactly what these numbers mean and who amongre. >> he says he's talking about the 46.4% of americans who do not pay federal income tax. that's what it looks like on that pie. who are those people? working poor. elderly. there are actually a few thousand millionaire households in those numbers. but mostly it's the working poor, elderly and people who frankly don't make enough money to pay income taxes. don't forget, we have a complicated tax code that has all of these benefits. bush-era tax cuts for everyone which means some people actually get a check at the end of the year because they don't make enough money or they have so many tax breaks that they have a negative tax break. >> i remember those days in my 20s. let's move on. you may not be paying income tax, but that doesn't mean you're not paying taxes. >> when you look at people paying payroll taxes, most of the people -- the majority of the people who are not paying income taxes are paying payroll taxes. so let's talk about the arena here. 18% of people, only 18% of househ

christine romans is here. what do the numbers say? >> jumping up and down in the streets.gage. we have 373,000 new home sales. these are new homes so as i told you before, every new home is a construction worker, a roofer, a plumber. it's a lot of economic activity because you're building that house from scratch. 1,000 better than the prior month but not exactly as much as wall street had been hoping for. they've been looking for more like 380,000. stocks are down just a little bit. no big move on it. more broadly, carol, we've been seeing these signs of life in housing. we've been seeing sales are starting to pick up for both new homes and for existing homes. we've seen that prices are starting to pick up. now those are new home sales. carol, look at the trend. look at the peak. at the peak of activity in '05 and '06, i mean, there were millions of people employed building houses. now the far right of your screen, that's where we are now, trying to get off the mat for new home sales. 373,000 new homes constructed in the most recent month. i want to show you quickly mortga