falling pricesre clearly a boon to businesses and consurs trying to saveoney. the trend is also good forome buyers and pple who buy things on credit. because e fed has greater leeway to hold off raising interest rates. but the is a downside. economist jonathan basile sa today's ta is bad for bunesses trying to boost earnings. >> you don necessarily have the pricing power to generatan awful lot of pfits. and to be honest, yoprobably don't ha a sustainable demand yet either. i mean, a lot of what's gonen in terms of imoving balance shts has been cost cutting. anlabor is taking the brunt of that. >> reporter: the big queion is where inflion heads from here. economists expect e government's msive stimulus efrts will push up prices, eventually. but theytress, that's way down the road. >> this is just noan environmt that's conduci to significant ck-up in inflatio it's way too ear for that. >> rorter: so for now, consumers may find low price are the "carrot" that entis them to buy a ttle something exa at the store. ika miller, "nightly busines report", new yor >>usie:

. >> susie: intel says consur demands picking up as more and mo people buy laptop computers. the computer chipmakerays it expects toost stronger sales in the third quarter. >> paul: tonight's mket monitor guest is a lg-term bull, buhe thinks profit taking might be wise right about no he's john dorfman, chairn of thunderstormapital. >> susie: then, rooms fu of people busy awing the latest in anited films. t it's not hollywood, it's india. we look the latest outsrcing trend that's turning into a blockbuster h for bollywood. >> pau i'm paul kangas >> susie: and i'susie gharib. th is nightly business report for friday, august8. "nightly business rert" is made ssible by: is program was made possible by contributio to your pbs station from viewersike you. thanyou. t 7//& >> susie: good eveningveryone. people didn't ea more money in ly, but they spent a bit mor and economists wcomed the news. the small pop in snding, just 0. is thanks to the "cash for clunkers" program. personal income waunchanged last month accordi to a report today from theommerce department. the big question now

thindustry is typically among the first to benit from a pick-up in consur demand. erika miller looks at ether the road ahead ibumpy or bright. >> peoe now are moving into bigg places, finally. and they're moving into mes again finally and even businessesre finding bigr office spaceecause they're geing good deals, so why not? >> reporr: if you want to feel good about the economic recovery, talk with n katz at flat rate ving. new york's lgest mover says business has been proving steadily this ar. ditto for profits. >> we're dn slightly from wherwe were last year. but we feel od about the rest of this year. and weeel we're really going to even out. >> reporter:ut plenty of other tranortation companies are suffering,specially freight carriers. shipnts are down, because nsumers and businesses are bung fewer things. the total weht of truck shments has dropped 15% nationde over the past year and a half. transportation economi paul biham says many truckers are battling forurvival. >> the bigge constraint right nois just a lack of demand. they just don't havenough eight-- e

. >> susie: as paul mentned, a new reportrom the conference board today shows that consurs looking ead six months are much more confidenabout their own nancial fortunes. that should be good newsor retailers, because peopl concerned about their financ tend not spend. scott gurvey explas. >> reporter: whethe economy hit the ids the retail sector fell o a cliff from which it has yet to recover. pele without a job or afraid of losing one just d't spend. maridriscoll of standard and or's says retailers have scrambled to adjust. >>n the last year we've watched retailerslow down their ste expansion, reduce eir inventory investment, sk theimerchandise assortment. whe they still have higher priced items available forheir shoppers, they've ewed their assortment to wer price points. >> rorter: wall street anticipating lower earnings r some and actualosses for otherspunished the sector's stocks. but mberly greenberger of citi notes a recent modesrecovery in sharerices matching more encouraging news about the economy. >> we dohink there has been a fundamental change in thway consumers spd their mon

swiss hope to recoup more an $5.5 billion on that sale anchanges are coming tomorrow for american consurs. thanks to the credit cd act of 2009, a w set of rules goes into effect. includg, the ability to reject rate increases. but as jeff yastine rerts, it's alreadyaving some uninteed consequences. >> rorter: across the country right now, there arehousands of peopljust like kirk arthur. he keeps several credit rds. and when he attempteto make a small puhase with one of them la weekend, he found it was canceled withouany advance noti. >> there's thafeeling of embarrsment. you feel, oh, what d i do wrong? and en i got angry because i knew i hadn't done athing wrong. and th was the disconnect. i've been a good customer. i pay my balances f on time. >> reporter:rthur's cancellation comes as part oan industry-wide movement to t out ahead of t credit card act 2009. curtis arnold, founder of cardratings.com, says thnumber of accountbeing cancelled or switched to variable ratesas surged in rece weeks. >> this is crazy. unprecedented thgs that are happing right now. probably a worse casscenario exa

and some consurs and money experts we talked to say it's a change long overdo. >> they are trying to cheat people while they still can. >> they are trying, you know, and i am trying to be a smart consumer and buy what i can afford. they try to get people where they want to spend more than they have. >> it's below 7. right now it's more than 15. so you know, i am trying to negotiate with them. if it works out, it works out. if not, i will have to cancel. >> they are not supposed to give credit card to people that cannot afford it. they start giving all these credit cards, and now this is causing problems. >> it could get worse before it gets better, joe. more rate height restrictions will be implemented in february. >>> important information today for businesses getting ready for a swine flu outbreak. new federal guidelines will be announced later today. coming up, we will tell you why the homeland department is getting involved in that. >>> and robert novak is being remembered as a dedicated reporter and a washington original. >>> and survivor winner richard hatch is arrested after g

in some cses we're finding that consurs, it's not so ea for them to getthat money back.they have torove that they didn't use the card in many cases, and it can take months, in some cases peop are not gting it back ifit's a usiness account instead of a pernal account. t i want to poi out that even if consumers ha ze ability, retailers are the victims this, as well as the bks, the card issuers w have to reissuemillions of new cards to customers whose numrs have been breached. and tre are lawsui because of this. against heartland, tyx, you know, wh they have unsecured systemshat are breached, the cost is passed down to the retairs for the fraudulent transactions a also the people ha to reissue the cards. >> suarez: wll have to end it there. kim zetter, rosetta nes, ladies, tha you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> ifill: finally tonit, a bookonversation on the future of news. jeffrey brown has that. >> reporter: it no secr the news business iin great turml, newspapers and television stations e sufering from the econom downtur as once plentiful advertising dries , leading

ey have focused on things that would he them improve their profitabily, not for the benefit of consurs >> ifill: when it comeso the blic option, how does the govnment... how can the government be a player, that to say part of the oices that are offer, many ofthe choices fered to consumers, and also a refee, a regulato >> well, the legislation would have to make it clearhat theye not the same. d you can ve them separated. in fact, the presint has said that thatould be the case. thendustry is trying to confuse the issuey saying it wouldn't b but you definitely can have a blic option that would be opered separately from a regulatory agency. >> ifill: wh about their argumet that it would drive surers out of business ort the very least t them at a ompetitive disadvantage? >> wl, you know, a the president sa, they're trying to have it both ways. they're sayingon one hand the government couldot be an fficient and good competior and on the other that it would force them out ofbusiness. it mes no snse. it would not forcehem out biness. what it mht do is provide some kind of a counter to theall