from a consumer perspective, you want to make sure it is easy for the consumer, that the consumer feels secure and safe, and at the same rules apply for all of the people who might be participating in the consumer experience on the internet. >> do you si -- allow the players on the industry, especially in the advertising world have really advocated for a self-regulatory -- >> for a self-regulatory practice, i would advocate as well, because it is such a fast- moving world and government does not move that fast. government is not designed to move that quickly. to the extent that you can have self-governance that works well. the advertising industry is a good example. it is, in large part, a self- governing industry, with the federal trade commission overseeing it and stepping in when the industry is not able to handle it themselves. i think that is not a bad model, at least for a lot of things that might go on on the internet, at least at this time in our history when things are moving quickly and we have many new experiences and technologies being put out there. >> mr. tauke, the broadb

the ftc is built for consumer protection. so our view historically has been that we should remain under the auspicees of the federal trade commission. that agency has the expertise to oversee us. which we hear from the financial services industry is not opposition to consumer protection but just simply making sure that we call it proden shl regulation but it's the safety and soundness. my deposits, your deposits are sitting in a bank. that is some of the money loaned into the u.s. economy. are the banks good stewards of my money? are they making safe and sound lending decision sns when they are that's called proden shl regulation. you're doing a good job. consumer protection runs parallel. that's the debate. should the regulation be completely separate or more aligned? the lending scommuent in general said aligning the two still makes sense. but you can still do that and bill a good consumer protection regime. >> zoo are you supportive? guest: our view has been -- the question for us is what would a stand-alone agency mean to

going back to the consumer, if the consumer should have some kind of sense of certainty in the space, not have to worry about which company at the moment is doing which thing, but just what is my experience into a have a good experience on the space. i don't think this would work very well for the consumer. >> host: as a long-time washington hand do you see any movement in congress or d.c. the fcc leaning towards considering all these companies to be equal partners in a sense? >> guest: i think the fcc is constrained, some might even say hamstrung, but a statute under which they operate. they assert an under flexibility but what is happening potentially what the court decisions is that their flexibility is being constrained. that's an partly i think is important for congress to act. there a lot of members of congress who believe they ought to have congressman boucher who is chair of the telecoms committee. i don't want to speak for him by the say when he took comprehensive look at the law. several other members of congress said similar things and i think there is a general recognition

consumers can't.people without cell phone service can't make that phone call to the mother of a deceased miner. they can't do it. so that's the way i look at my responsibilities here, and i think a lot of us feel that way. so in closing, i appreciate the challenges the fcc. i understand they're much more complicated now. don't let that discourage you at all. bend the curve if you have to. i look forward to the chairman as testimony about how he is going to move ahead and how we're all going to do it in fact together and bring the wonders of broadband to every community in this country. that has to be the end result. i call upon the distinguished ranking mem from texas. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, first i want to extend what i know is everyone of us concern about that horrible disaster that happened in your state and i know that your being there was very comforting for the victims families but also, i know that it was probably very difficult personally to meet with people who had experien

a tough, independent consumer protection agency is a plain old good idea to give consumers a fair shake. the bill would also consolidate existing bank regulators so that banks can't shop around for the most lenient regulator. under the republican that the republicans -- under the bill that the republicans won't even let us debate, regulation would be strengthened over all financial firms. no more changing your charter just to avoid the rules that you don't like and picking your favorite regulator. again, commonsense protections against wall street trickery, but they are being blockaded. perhaps the provisions that have the c.e.o.'s most distressed are the ones that would crack down on runaway executive compensation. it's really remarkable that even in the worst of times, wall street bankers pay themselves multimillion-dollar bonuses. there really are no lean years, it appears, on wall street. just good times and really, really, really good times. the bill that the republicans won't let us debate would give shareholders a stronger say on management compensation and would ensure that the

that every decision that i made put the consumers first. what's the impact on consumers? persons who without, often without a voice or without the means to come into my office every day. i want those voices to be as loud and as clear as those entities who have millions and millions of dollars who are able to have offices in this nation's capital. i think if that were said about me more often, then other things might be said that i could sleep well and transition and say job well done. >> host: we've got about two minutes left, commissioner clyburn. what else is on your agenda that we have not talked about? >> g:

group to present consumers as well. we're consumers as well. the topic was credit scores essentially 101. how their built, where they come from. why and how they're used and et cetera. host: don on the independent line. caller: good morning and happy easter. my question and comment. i'd like to say first of all, i grew up in an era where people didn't have credit cards. you went to local businesses and they - to buy a couch or something and they would carry the credit. we didn't all have these credit cards but the industry. how much a year does that industry make? you know, all the trance union experience and forth. that's paid for by consumers so if that could be divulged as part of education month, that would be great. secondly, the industry advertises it's services to insurance companies, as you mentioned and it seems strange that the insurance industry uses that information to penalize you. if you never had a car accident or ticket the last four years but your credit score falls you pay more in insurance and can les

we care very much about consumers. we don't want to impede the ability of consumers to use those cards. and again we think the cards deliver tremendous value to the merchants that far exceed their relatively modest cost. >> i want to take two more questions. my own and the gentleman in the back and let me just ask line and then ask your zandt we can respond to get there. you mentioned the regulatory challenges in australia and what happened there and i am just wondering as a multinational corporation looking at your business activities globally from a market perspective how are things here in terms of the penetration rates of digital money and activities and forces elsewhere in the world, where is there amount of digital money and fastest growth and how were we stacking up? but needed the other question. since i am with african development center. thank you for coming. my question, i am originally from nigeria. if you are in the continent of africa it is difficult to use credit cards. that's create a blockade if we loo

a nice way for consumer, what is wrong with telling consumers. >> what companies are you doing business with that you're being defrauded by? >> that's what i want to know. >> i've gone on the internet and don't give me what they said they're going to give me. what this bill mostly does. this-- >> how is. >> brenda: hold on, hold on, let mark finish, mark? >> if you go, if you go to joe bob's bookstore.com and they don't send you the book you ordered that's not a federal issue. it's not the federal level. if i go in the furniture store and buy a piece of furniture and they charge me this installment plan and hidden in the fine print is hundreds of dollars of extra charges i didn't see and know about i'm out of luck. >> mark. >> and it's going to give us a number and say you're going to pay $532 and i know that's what i'm going to pay. what is wrong telling the consumer what they're going to pay. >> brenda: hey, hole on. >> what's wrong with that? >> actually there's some fraud sometimes in governmentsi bureaucracies that brian might tell us the sec. >> you've got to watch the credit card

where the problem lies is in the consumer sector, and there is a lot of consumer debt that needs to be worked off. that is going to be a process that is going to take many, many years. >> well, it is a good point to make, and tony, i think that this is a problem when you look at the consumer part of the economy. we know that the balance sheets on the corporate sector have improved quite a bit, but i believe it was meredith whitney the financial analyst and head of the meredith whitney, the head of her own company who said that consumer credit is down, 8% or so year over year, and she is talking about cash and home equity lines and talking about credit cards. if the consumer does not feel like they have the leverage, and the credit behind them, they are not going to be spending money. >> at this point in the cycle, maria, you don't need it. let me explain that. there are four progressions of expenditures coming out of the downturn. the first is lower interest expense in the mortgage in the last cycle. so that is the first source. and the second is turtle up, and spend some of the money

consumers can't. people without cell phone service can't make that phone call to the mother of a deceased miner. they can't do it. so that's the way i look at my responsibilities here, and i think a lot of us feel that way. so in closing, i appreciate the challenges the fcc. i understand they're much more complicated now. don't let that discourage you at all. bend the curve if you have to. i look forward to the chairman as testimony about how he is going to move ahead and how we're all going to do it in fact together and bring the wonders of broadband to every community in this country. that has to be the end result. i call upon the distinguished ranking mem from texas. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. chairman, first i want to extend what i know is everyone of us concern about that horrible disaster that happened in your state and i know that your being there was very comforting for the victims families but also, i know that it was probably very difficult personally to meet with people who had experie

what is the impact on consumers?rsons who often without a voice or without the means to come into my office every day. i want those voices to be as loud and as clear as those entities who have millions and millions of dollars who are able to have offices in this nation's capital. i think if that were said about me more often, then other things might be said and i would sleep well in transition and say the job well done. >> what else is on your agenda that we have not talked about? >> telemedicine is important to me. i do not think we talked about it much.

consumer credit is coming back. consumer is spending again. look at american express. look at the performance in american express. that's the way to play the consumer recovery. >> and the fact that the consumer is spending. in some cases they're being forced to spend. take a look at the airlines right now. what they're getting as far as premiums over and above where they were last year is obscene. and now they're moving up the luggage charge. >> that's not obscene. that's called profit. that's called enterprise. >> they are spending, they clearly spent at the malls. in particular, the malls were very active. i think the story has legs because the consumer hasn't backed off. $3 a gallon gasoline hasn't backed them off. nor has the airlines charging a ton. hotels are charging a ton. rental car companies are charging a ton and they're getting it. '. >> look at that consumer credit number yesterday. what we got on retail sales, the best number in 11 years, i don't like the way tjx traded today. a lot of consumer names have run and run. a lot of people thought they incorpor

it is like consumer reports. consumer reports says, this is a great car, it's safe. you as a consumer don't understand the modern workings of a car with all its computer technology, but you buy "consumer reports "requests and you read it. it tells you that this is the safest car in america, s so you feel safe putting your wife and kids in that car. but you didn't know understand this circumstance that the very rating agencies who were rating these products weren't doing any due diligence and were being paid by the investment banks whose products which they were rating. that's got to change. suggestion number two: in terms of residential mortgage underwriting, in a broker or bank is going to write some exotic-type mortgage where there is little to nothing down, then they should be required to maintain a portion of those mortgageds on their books. let them bear the risk. don't let the bank shift it off so that it can become securitized in the marketplace and tangle all of our financial institutions and put us, the taxpayer, at risk. if we make those banks hold some of

the consumer is doing better. for all of those reasons, i think our best bet is that we will see a moderate recovery. again, forecasting is not a precise business. >> so, we are making progress, but have not achieved total success. what happens, german bernanke, if the unemployment rate does not decline as the economy improves? >> that is the possible risk. we anticipate the unemployment rate is likely to decline relatively slowly. there are a couple of factors. one is the pace of overall growth. if growth is moderate, that will not quickly lower the unemployment rate. that is the first observation. the second has to do with the rate of productivity. following the 2001 recession, productivity gains were significant, which is generally a good thing. and then that firms were relatively slow at bringing workers back. -- it meant that firms were relatively slow at bringing workers back. we do not anticipate productivity growth will continue at that rate going forward. it does, that will reduce the number of workers at

consumers who l.a. pl apply fore loans would be provided financial literacy and educational opportunities. i am proud of the credit unions in hawaii that have worked to develop payday loan alternatives to meet the needs of their members, particularly for our military families that have traditionally been exploited by payday lending. the national credit union administration has provided assistance to develop these small consumer friendly loans. more working families need access to affordable small loans. this program will encourage mainstream financial service providers to develop affordable small loan products. i also appreciate the work done by senator menendez and his staff to authorize financial education economic empowerment grants intended to provide opportunities that economically -- for vulnerable families. mr. president, this bill is not about the last financial crisis. this legislation is about creating a more fair financial system that better educates, protects, and empowers consumers and inve

which is that surcharges harm consumers. we care very much about consumers. we don't want to impede the ability of consumers to use those cards. and again we think those cards deliver tremendous values to merchants, which far exceed their relatively modest costs. >> thanks. i want to take two more questions. my own and the gentleman in the back. and let me just ask mine and then we'll ask yours and josh, we can respond together. you mentioned the regulatory charges in australia and what happened there. i'm just wondering as a multinational corporation looking at your business activities. how are things here in terms of the penetration rates of digital money and activities? versus elsewhere in the world? where are the most amounts of digital money and the fastest growth and how are we stacking up? but let me also take the other question. >> i'm with the african development center. my question i'm originally from nigeria. if in the continent of africa it's very difficult to use any of these credit cards. that creates an economical blockade. if we are looking at

this is about the consumer. you are looking at a technology that's interactive and allows the consumer to have much more control and do things like create their own content. when you talk about getting access to things you don't have access to, things like spy aware that the consumer doesn't have control over. -- things like spyware. things like how we manage the networks, with the speed means when you listed, but i think applications -- i think gigi is wrong. i think these device guys can do it and the network guys complain about it. they have to work together in the to work together and talk about these things. a good example is p2p technology. there was concern about ingestion and the industry got together in a groove stimulated by network providers. we all worked together to figure out how to make technology work better with the network. a lot of times the applications can have a bad of fact on the network. not intentionally, but they can. -- can have a bad effect on the network. if you can get a wide range

editors of consumers digest e determine if a car is a best buy?they drive it in the real world. and put it through its paces. they rate its fit and finish. and the amenities inside. they factor in purchase price and operating costs, fuel economy and resale value. in short, they do what you do to test its quality. the consumers digest best buys from chevy. put them to your own test. and may the best car win. laxatives? i've tried all these. put them to your own test. this one's gritty. this one can make you bloated. clearly, miralax is the one for me. it relieves my constipation with no harsh side effects. miralax. restore your body's natural rhythm. hey what's going on? doing the shipping. man, it would be a lot easier if we didn't have to weigh 'em all. if those boxes are under 70 lbs. you don't have to weigh 'em. with these priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service, if it fits it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. no weigh? nope. no way. yeah. no weigh? sure. no way! uh-uh. no way. yes way, no weigh-ing. priority mail

we cannot see how important the consumer protection agency is. it sounds like a big authority in making sure that someone is regulating the big, systemic institutions -- those are basically tfamily and job issues. we are living through the carnage of the system breaking down. the reason we are also committed to moving financial reform forward is to make sure we are never in this position again. our grandparents in the great depression gave us 80 years of a system that was stable. we need to put in place a regulatory structure that will give us another 80 years. >> we will see more bubbles. we will fall in love with something again. it will create euphoria and be over down again. >> there are always cycles. this bill will give us better tools to clamp down on those before they occur. when there are failures, there will be better tools to deal with them and avoid the terrible bailouts that undermined public confidence in the institutions and the government. it is common sense. it is having transparency in the derivatives markets. i hope we have als

consumers of this nation.so why not move forward? i'm puzzled. i truly am puzzled and i listened to my colleagues who oppose -- bringing this bill forward to speak on the floor, and i -- i still don't understand their argument. because if we move forward, amendments are in order. amendments that are germane will have to be considered. they're going to have to be voted on. that's the rules of the senate for us to move the bill off the floor we're going to need at least 60 votes. we know that. it should be an open -- an up or down vote. but we know from the prior record that the minority will invest on 60 votes. we should be willing on an important issue like this to vote up or down. but they still have that right. so they're not jeopardizing the ability of the minority to block the final consideration of the bill. but what they are doing is blocking the debate on the bill. and the only thing i can think of is they would prefer to work out their issues behind closed doors rather than on the floor of the unite un

it's quite clear the american consumer is back. on "fast money" we're going to go through the single stop stories people can make money out of. the broerks, the gaming stocks. why some hedge funds are shorting walmart. we'll have debate on when is the next time to get back into metals. the ceo of pep boys will be in. is there profits in people fixing cars? and we'll throw a cold bucket of water over out all with a man who believes now is the best shorting opportunity in ten years. back to you. >> thanks, simon. see you in a few minutes. right now, tiger woods is teeing it up in the masters. take a look at this message. national car rental? that's my choice. because with national, i roll past the counter... and choose any car in the aisle. choosing your own car? now, that's a good call. go national. go like a pro. to the all-american meal. french fries, and our national passion for them, are legendary. classic. iconic. but times change and people want better foods. so cargill helped a restaurant chain create... a zero trans fat cook

i yield myself such time as i may consume. ask five legislative days to revise and extend the remarks of any members that want to include them. and also to include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized. mr. conyers: madam speaker, my colleagues, this jurisdiction comes to the judiciary committee under the commerce clause which says that all compacts must come through the committee. and the public service commission of the district of columbia is being replaced with the district of columbia agency with oversight of matters relating to the commission. the state corporation commission of the commonwealth of virginia is being replaced with the commonwealth's department of motor vehicles and there are a number of our colleagues in the senate that should be thanked for helping expedite this matter . messrs. cardin, mikulski, mark warner, and jim webb, and we are grateful to them all. i urge my colleagues to support this resolution because it

there will be a discussion of consumer scores and reports consume with stuart pratt. "washington journal" is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c- span. >> flexible policy makes employees more productive. instead of spending time worrying about what is happening at home, your employees have the support and peace of mind that they desperately need to concentrate on their work. >> at the news c-span video library, you can search and share. there are over 160,000 hours of video from yesterday or last year. every c-span program since 1987. the c-span video library is cables latest gift to america. >> the commission on wartime contracting held a hearing on the reduction of the work force in iraq. there were remarks from private contractors working in that country. this is just under two hours. as a commission, that is what we're interested in. mr. horn, you have 15 minutes. you can use it anyway you wish. i was trying to get you help with ice. i am sorry you are not taking it. >> i am douglass corn. -- i am douglas horn. the departments of defense, state, and a homeland sec

dangerous for consumers. look out. simple, helpful information for american consumers to get. an independent commission to help advise consumers in those ways and have some regulatory authority over the people who put those products together. that's what we want in this bill. it's not fan sivment it's not tricky. it's just a way to unwind the gotcha contracts that too many americans have had to put up with for too long because wall street and the bankers have been writing those contracts and there hasn't been discipline over them. so that's one of the ideas that we're out there with. if they have a better idea, where is it? i don't want to deal in the dark. come out here on the floor and tell us in the bright light of day what better idea you have than a consumer financial protection agency that is independent and out there to help the ordinary folks. we would also consolidate bank regulators so that a bank, a big wall street bank can't shop around and decide which regulator it won' wntses to wane it. you shouldn't get to choose your regulator when you go out on the field of c

let's ask jerome marts, director of consumer research at thompson reuters and jan niffen. if i got all that right. jerome, let me start with you. has all the good news been price under to the stock market? because this news is better, better, better than people thought. >> it's definitely better. the important thing to note is that the department stores came on top with 12.3% same-store sales followed by the apparel at 11.8%. what is this telling us? the consumers are responding very well to the new spring merchandise and just so you know, march and april are two months that are categorized by introduction of new spring merchandise that is sold at full price. this is telling us that the consumers definitely willing to spend to pay full price again and that is a trend we haven't seen in two years and that's why it's such great news. >> jan, what i thought awas significant about this is it looked like the strong shopping went just beyond the discounters. the likes of walmart where people were trying to go cheap. am i correct in saying that? >> absolutely. it was pretty amazi

whoever makes a loan to a consumer, everyone should be subject to the same consumer regulations whether you're a bank or an auto dealer or a mortgage company. if there is a consumer regulation imposed on a community bank it should be imposed on anybody that grants credit to consumers. >> mark, which is worse or which is better -- having a standalone consumer agency or putting it inside the federal reserve? >> i think the substance of what it does is far more important than where it is housed. even the way it's in the federal reserve under the current draft it's sem independent. it doesn't really report to the board. there is no veto authority. it is immaterial in all but name. it's important what the powers are and the scope rather than where it is housed. i don't like it as necessarily a standalone. there are a lot of trade-offs in banking. i remember a study where cra and campbell ratings were inversely related. this comes at a cost of safety and soundness. you have to have somebody doing regulations that cares and examines that. >> cam fine, last one to you. regarding too big to fail

consumers from wall street. it essentially goes to anybody that lends money on an installment basis where you have more four weeks -- excuse me or more than four installment payments. let me quote from the letter. -- quote -- "n.fib is -- providing consumers with clear and accurate financial information is an important goal. but because of the reach of the bureau's authority many small businesses will find themselves subject to its regulations. in addition to the many new and duplicative burdens placed on community banks, the bureau is charged with regulating any retailor or merchant that finances a purchased subject to a financing charge or written payment plan with more than four payments. many small business retailers and merchants such as medical professionals, hardware, electronics and jewelry stores struggling through the current economic climate would be subject to these new regulations. these small businesses had nothing to do with the wall street meltdown and should not be faced with ownerrerus and new

anyone who cares for consumers in their states, local consumers up against huge credit card companies that keep you waiting on the phone for hours when you have to try to file a complaint, whose offices are in another state or another country, sticking up for your local citizens is something i think we should all be prepared to agree to. finally, for those of us who have local banks, community banks, main street banks, who are domiciled in our home states, why should they suffer the disadvantage of having to compete against these huge, rapacious credit card companies and wall street banks and be subject to their state's law but have this loophole allow the monster banks, the gigantic banks to take advantage of consumers in this way? i think you can look at this amendment from a whole variety of per speck alternatives and -- perspectives and the principles that it stands on are ones that many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have supported and championed over the years. mr. merkley: i might just chime in at this point and say that really in terms of the discussion i saw

generally, consumers can decide how they want to manage their monthly payments. it's only at liquidation or property distribution that the first lien investors have priority. we routinely modify our second liens. we have offered almost 54,000 second lien modifications over the last 14 months, 1,000 of which -- 12,000 of which have been paid permanent. approximately 45% of these were on loans where we did not service the first lien. there are certainly individual cases or even segments of borrowers where principal reduction may be appropriate. last year we began testing targeted principal reduction programs for certain high-risk borrowers to see if a principal reduction program could be effective. once we see the results of these tests, we will be able to better evaluate the effectiveness of a broader principal reduction program. but we are concerned about large-scale, broad-based principal reduction programs for both first and second lien mortgage loans and particularly for current borrowers with an ability to repay their obligations. our first concern is that su

does that make you someone operating in consumer financial -- in the consumer service -- in the consumer financial service market? does that make you operating in that market? i'm sure it's not the intent of the chairman to give the government information on kentucky kenyans who use paypal? but i why not make it clear? these are questions people are asking once they have real estate had a chance to lact this bill. i'm talking now about the unintended consequences. plenty of other groups have pointed out some of the real adverse consequences of this bill on meme had absolutely -- on people who had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the financial crisis. for instance, i've heard from a number of utilities in kentucky that use traditional derivatives as a way of keeping prices low for themselves and by extension for homeowners and small business owners across my state. general electric employs more than 5,000 people in kentucky, so i want to hear what they have to say about this bill. and what they're telling smee that this bill -- and what they're telling me is that this bill could r

protect consumers -- we're all consumers. we're very interested in a consumer agency. we want to balance that. and while protecting the deposit insurance fund and so forth. regulating derivatives. let's be honest, derivatives played a big role, a lot of them, in the closet, unknown and so forth in our financial debacle. but derivatives every day are used legitimately by so many of our businesses not only in america but all over the world. we need to regulate derivatives while protecting jobs and our economic growth that we're all very interested in; a common desire. details matter here. details of anything. and the presiding officer understands that. senator dodd understands it very well. and as we're moving down the road in the process here, we're continuing to negotiate and we're continuing to negotiate in good faith, trying to reach a common goal. who knows what will happen between now and monday or next tuesday or wednesday or thursday. i hope it's a bipartisan bill that we can gather a lot of people on both sides of the aisle. i think that's one of our goals. but

of the consumer sees is not available on cable card and most consumers look at that and say i'm not goingo buy a retail box. said any-- even if you get past the programming issue, then you have pricing issues. how much is a cable card? do i have to pay for release it least box and they cable card and then there are installation issues, and sellers who failed to bring cable cards were not familiar with them, multiple truck rolls to do a single install and so on. fortunately congress anticipated the video service providers might foreclose the competition and innovation. the consumer electronics availability act directed the fcc to ensure in its regulation the commercial availability of competitive devices for multichannel video programming providers. the subcommittee's bill became section 629 in 1996, the telecommunications act. after many years of inconsistent efforts to foster video device competition chairman genachowski proposed to advance the ball into provisions. to proceedings. versus rulemaking to allow products such as tivo which rely on cable cards to work on cable systems free of

but toby, this consumer drive this economy, 70%. sure. >> brenda: by placing a tax on consumption, are you basically changing our way of capitalism? >> well, and without getting complicated, this, the way it's being proposed is that all the fees are stuck all the way through the value chain and the consumer ultimately pays it number one and number two, the argument has been, well, the people in the dark economy, in other words, the black market, actually not paying tax the all, this is a way to get them out. what they found in italy, you have he' got a whole new crime wave in organized crime they subvert the things, multiple of million dollars in europe stolen so for the mafia a great idea. >> always a bogeyman on anything you want to talk about. >> that's your line, mike. >> wait a second, this isn't a new idea, tobin. the truth is it works around the world. wouldn't you rather have a vat tax. >> how does it work. >> than do away with income tax. >> wouldn't you remember have a-- >> we will never have that. >> and it's not sold yet

consumer is doing as we enter the second quarter of 2010 though? >> i think individually they are getting stronger by having-- by borrowing less and therefore saving a bit more. however, though, we're doing it by shifting much of what would be individual accumulation of debt on to the government's balance sheet. in 2009 the government actually increase its debt about 1.6 billion which is 15%. yet nominal gdp grew less than 1%, we can't keep that up forever. >> what about the implication for stock investors what about the expectations. >> as the government works on getting its balance sheet in some sort of order, there is little doubt in my mind will you see earnings growth will be slower on the part of corporations and i'm talking beyond the next quarter. and long-term that means that the return on stocks will most likely be less than the 10% we come to expect. >> let's take a look at the returns on a quartet of picks that you provided back in the middle of october of 2009. chevron is down by 2/10 of a percent with its stock price. wal-mart stores

which is that surcharges harm consumers. we care very much about consumers. we don't want to impede the ability of consumers to use those cards. and again we think those cards deliver tremendous values to merchants, which far exceed their relatively modest costs. >> thanks. i want to take two more questions. my own and the gentleman in the back. and let me just ask mine and then we'll ask yours and josh, we can respond together. you mentioned the regulatory charges in australia and what happened there. i'm just wondering as a multinational corporation looking at your business activities. how are things here in terms of the penetration rates of digital money and activities? versus elsewhere in the world? where are the most amounts of digital money and the fastest growth and how are we stacking up? but let me also take the other question. >> i'm with the african development center. my question i'm originally from nigeria. if in the continent of africa it's very difficult to use any of these credit cards. that creates an economical blockade. if we are looking at

here, but consumers everywhere. and those who don't have much it's going to be very difficult to tell them, hey, slow down. >> okay. yeah. it's. >> or is that your next book? >> there is never going to be another book. [laughter] it's very easy for us in berkeley to say the answer is we have to consume less, and it's really important to remember that for a lot of people the answer is actually to consume more. i mean, there's still half of the world's population lives on less than this latte costs, live on $2.50 a day. we've just reached the milestone that one-sixth of the people on the planet, one billion people, are chronically hungry. so absolutely for a huge number of people the answer is to consume more. there's a huge number of people who need to consume more just to meet a level of basic human decency. so that means the onus is on us even more to scale back because we so disproportionately use resources. we have 5% of the world's population, and we use 30% of the world's resources. and other countries increase

in addition to the education of consumers, what do you see in terms of the consumer starting to rebound? do you think the consumer protection agency is necessary? we're about to see a lot of change. >> you know, what has happened in this nation is actually very sobering. consumers were not eupto make the right decision, but at the same time the producers and sellers of the products in my mind were also not making very wise decisions. they were focused on short term and the focused on the profit now, and the consumers were so certain in a certain way that we didn't used to do before. i am an economist. that means i believe in capitalism, believe in free economy. >> so do you believe in bailouts? >> however, let me finish this part first. with that, though, we have a very big assumption. that assumption is that people have sense of responsibility, sense of integrity, sense of doing the right thing. when we do the right thing, then the total is right. if we do a small thing, it's not right, and i'm not worried about that, then for the bigger good it doesn't turned out. we need to return to

area are you for a consume area genesse of some sort?solutely. -- >> greta: some of the people -- some of the consumer advocates critical of say they think dodd doesn't go far enough. they say they don't want it to fall under the federal reserve because the federal remember is of failed to use its power this that area years before the financial meltdown. the first thought i have is, why in the world are we looking to create a new consumer agency? why don't we get the people to do the job who hold the position? >> you are right. that's the correct way to do it. the suggestion from our side of the aisle was you raise the level of responsibility and visibility within the regulatory agencies on consumer responsibility. you have safety and soundness as primary purpose of the federal reserve, occ and other agencies which control banking. raise consumer protection to the same level of safety and soundness and merge them. they are intertwined. whether you have good consumer protection has a big effect on safety and soundness of the banking commu

daily. >> the highest consuming group consumed 46 teaspoons of added sugar. the lowest had on average 3 teaspoons. >> reporter: here's what 46 teaspoons of sugar looks like. >> we found that people who consume more added sugar are more likely to have high cardio vascular disease risk factors. >> reporter: the study appears in this week's jama. >> one of the things that the study was helpful to show is that the amount of added sugar as it increases, the triglycerides goes up and hdl goes down. hdl levels were 20% lower in those who consumed the least halt. and that's the good cholesterol so you want high levels. it would be important for long- term hel tth to look at how hutch added sugar you are getting and finding ways to reduce that. >> reporter: one way is to read nutrition labels. here were to bowls of similar servings. each have two servings. the one on the left has 6 teaspoons of added sugars, the one on the right, 2 teaspoons. >> we tbheed to pay attention to the amount of caloric sweeteners and added sugars in the foods we eat eat. >>> free trees. tha

fire consumed vehicles. and the protesters stormed government buildings and took over the state television headquarters. at first, riot police fired rubber bullets into the air to keep the crowds at bay, but that escalated into live ammunition. hundreds were hurt, and footage showed some of the injured being carried away. >> ( translated ): people are unhappy. look around here, young people, we all are poor, no jobs. they are shooting at people, you can see for yourselves. after this, i think there will be blood for blood. >> ifill: at a news conference, bakiyev reported violence had broken out in other cities as well. >> ( translated ): the situation in talas yesterday was quite tense, especially in the evening. around 7:00 p.m., there was tension. the building of the regional administration in talas was attacked twice, then it was taken over and destroyed. everything that could have been broken was broken and then set on fire. >> reporter: kyrgyzstan has been gripped by unrest since early march over povert

consumer reports says do not buy this car. they found significant and severe rollover risk during turns. they do all of these controlled testings, four different drivers found the same problem. they got another vehicle, found the same problem on this one. they say it is not isolated. it is a problem with the electronic stability control system. it manages the brakes and the steering together. so if you're going up an off ramp and there is some sort of an obstacle, you turn quickly, there could be a real rollover risk for people with this car. if you have this car, they say be very careful on any on ramps or off ramps because they're very concerned about the stability of the vehicle in those circumstances. take it to your toyota dealer and demand a fix. if you don't own this car and thinking about it, consumer reports in a very rare warning saying do not buy this car. toyota spokesman not commenting on this report. again this is brand new. >> what do you do if you take it to the dealer and say, listen, we have no guidance, no w

hundreds of thousands more have very costly, very consuming injuries. it is a challenge we have taken on with the american hospital association. there are some pretty simple checklist that have been shown to dramatically reduce hospital- associated infections. two-thirds do not require new equipment, do not require fancy training. they're just not implemented in hospital after a hospital. they are not in place in way too many of our medical care -- we currently pay the same amount for incidents whether or not something happens related to hospitals if you were not, we still are paying up until last year for so-called "never" incidents were the wrong limb is amputated. you did the same payment of the public insurance system as the best possible result. we can use, i think, the payment system to begin to drive and put in place incentives, initially incentives to promote better care, but eventually disincentives for bad care, and i think we have to start doing that very quickly. " there is a serious shortage of gerontologist, which is a concern as the popul

you're talking about the consumer, wall street's getting more bullish consumer discretionary of late after the stocks have had monster runs so far this year. why are you raining on this parade? >> well, typically, in recessions you purge at the excess of the previous expansion. and we did that in housing. but inning ayegate debt levels we have not because of the a debt the government is taking on. so as we're further on in this economy interest rates are still heading higher in a still very leveraged economy, i'm very concerned about the double dip implications from that because higher rates raising the cost of capital not only at the corporate level, it's going to izz rat cost of capital at the consumer level, at the same time commodity prices are going up, at the same time income zbroeth very sluggish, job gains are very sluggish, and i see this recovery in the economy more as a mean reversion rather than the foundation of a multiyear sustainable bounce. >> peter, it's karen. let me ask you, what would you need to see to make you become bullish on equities? >> comfort that the econ

the reality is the consumer has less credit than they've had in years.o -- >> up my sleeve i actually do have a top-rated retail analyst on the fast line. her name's deborah weinswig. she joins us from citigroup. deborah, do you think we're going to get more up side surprises in retail? what's your feeling as we go into earning season? >> i think what we'll see, so we've got comps tomorrow, and typically, so it's the second month out of the three months for the quarter, and typically what we will get is an update on the quarter from an earnings perspective. i think we'll see some very nice updates from retailers tomorrow. not only in terms of up side to comps but i think we will get an update to earnings pretty much across the board -- >> if i may ask, just to bring you down to the stock level, why is nordstrom your top pick in. >> going into tomorrow nordstrom's was our top pick. we were just out to see the company yesterday in seattle. and what we're seeing across the board there is better conversion, so basically not only is there more foot traffic in

whether it's the consumers, the manufacturer, or the department of transportation. the -- unfortunately is not kept up with modern automobiles. the standard should lead, not lag behind technology. the agency, toyota itself during the last 10 years has lost sight of where it was. in the 1980s when the camry was introduced, toyota steps up, found the problems within a year, mote if iing the consumers, and took care. toyota needs to go back to what is does best which is building safe, reliable vehicles and responding to the consumer. out of all of this toyota and n.h.t.s.a. need to move forward. they need to install the brake overhaul with the electronic throttle control. to restore consumer faith in the openness of toyota, it needs to release all of the information that it submits to the government in the acceleration investigations. it needs to conduct a public engineering study into electronic controls that has experts with no ties to the automobile industry. n.h.t.s.a. itself need to immediately set a standard for accelerators and not the old mechanical standards t

the consumer looks to be doing better. for all those reasons, the best bet, i think, is we will see a moderate recovery. again, forecasting is not a precise business. >> we are making progress but have not achieved a total success te? what happens if the unemployment rate does not decline as the economy improves? >> that is a possible risk. we anticipate the unemployment rate is likely to decline relatively slowly. one factor is the pace of overall growth if growth is moderate, that will not quickly lower the unemployment rate. the second observation has to do with the rate of productivity. following the 2001 recession, productivity gains were significant which is a good thing generally but meant that firms are relatively slow in bringing workers back because they did not need to. we have seen remarkable productivity gains in last year or so. we do not anticipate that growth to continue at that rate going forward if it does, that may reduce the number of workers that firms need to bring back in order to meet demand there i