as darren gersh reports, the drama is not yet worrying investors, but it is complicating efforts to reach a $2 trillion package of spending cuts. >> reporter: bond markets greeted news the debt limit talks had broken down with a yawn today. the view seemed to be that this was just another act in a long- running political drama. two republicans-- majority leader eric cantor and arizona senator jon kyl-- abandoned negotiations, saying democrats were pushing for tax hikes they could not support. the next move may be house speaker john boehner's, but today, he did not give any ground. >> a tax hike cannot pass the house of representatives. it's not just that its a bad idea; it doesn't have the votes and it can't happen. >> reporter: boehner insisted the president needed to get more involved in the talks. but democrats like chris van hollen, a participant in the debt limit talks, charged republicans were pushing their anti-tax agenda at the expense of the country. >> the speaker of the house said it was time for an adult moment- - "adult moments" mean it's time

darren gersh, "nightly business report," washington, d.c. >> tom: here's what we're watching for tomorrow. lew piantedosi of eaton vance management is our market monitor. he thinks market volatility presents opportunities for long- term equity holders. speaking of investment strategies, what's the best way to build an index fund: by the size of the company or the financial performance? we look at two popular strategies, their rewards and their risks. >> suzanne: ford's revving up production of electric and hybrid vehicles, tripling its annual output to more than 100,000 units over the next two years. the automaker eventually wants to put electric technology in a quarter of its cars and trucks. one of the first off the assembly line is a modern hybrid only take on the minivan. it's due in u.s. showrooms next year. and ford's electric plans will mean more than 200 green tech jobs for michigan. >> tom: avaya filed for a $1 billion initial public offering late today. the maker of phones and telecom gear is the latest tech firm to tap into a resurgent i.p.o. market. the offering values avaya a

darren gersh, "nightly business report," washington. >> tom: here are the stories in tonight's n.b.r. newswheel: a mixed day for stocks, as a couple of big takeovers helped offset new worries about greece. the dow rose a point, the nasdaq fell four and the s&p 500 was up a fraction. trading volume started the week with 905 million shares moving on the big board and just under two billion shares on the nasdaq. standard & poor's slashed greece's long-term debt rating today by three notches to triple "c." it thinks the country will see one or more defaults over the next 12 months. mexico's top banker wants to be the next head of the international monetary fund, but the french finance minister is still the frontrunner. still, mexico's augustin carstens says electing a european would be a conflict of interest because greece, portugal and ireland have borrowed so heavily from the fund. oil prices hit a three-week low today on worries the sluggish u.s. economy will crimp demand. oil fell almost $2 to settle at $97.30 a barrel. still ahead, economic winners and a loser from the business of ba

darren gersh reports. >> reporter: inflation is higher than the federal reserve expected, unemployment somewhat worse, and growth a little slower. so the first order of business at their meeting this week is for fed chairman ben bernanke and his colleagues to adjust their forecast. but analysts like tom gallagher expect the fed will continue to argue the recent slow-down in economic growth is temporary. >> but i think they do have to worry that the sustained path for the economy may just be weaker than they've been anticipating. >> reporter: the fed is almost certain to keep interest rate policy where it is-- very loose- - for an extended period. how extended will depend on the economy. >> i think you have to measure it in terms of conditions, and as long as unemployment remains high and wages are not growing strongly, i don't think they have any reason to think about raising the fed funds rate. >> reporter: but that doesn't mean the fed couldn't do more to stimulate the economy if it showed clear signs of sliding back into recession. economist vince reinhart wrote papers with then-fed

as darren gersh reports, bernanke says one critical component to that growth outlook is the consumer. >> reporter: yes, the economy is slowing, but federal reserve chairman ben bernanke does not see it stalling. >> with the effects of the japanese disaster on manufacturing output likely to dissipate in coming months, and with some moderation in gasoline prices in prospect, growth seems likely to pick up somewhat in the second half of the year. >> reporter: that would be welcome news for the president. a recent poll shows confidence in his handling of the economy has fallen. today, mr. obama tried to address those worries. >> i'm not concerned about a double-dip recession. i am concerned about the fact that the recovery that we're on is not producing jobs as quickly as i want it to happen. >> reporter: in his speech, bernanke said the economic recovery will depend on continued spending by american consumers, and the good news is they are making progress repairing their balance sheets. economist mark zandi says, before the recession, we carried 600 million credit cards in our wallets. r

but as darren gersh reports, many analysts think pandora could be too hot right now. >> reporter: they have good reason to party at pandora. a few days ago, analysts had valued the company at just over $1 billion. but pandora ended its first day of trading worth around $3 billion. that's far higher than analyst anupam palit expected. >> i think, based on my estimate for sales this year, my valuation gets to about four times sales, which i think is pretty reasonable and where we are seeing it right now is about 12 times sales. so i think we are getting into stratospheric valuations, which i don't think can be justified by the underlying fundamentals. >> reporter: users love pandora. punch in a song and pandora's music genome software will find similar artists and songs and create a custom internet radio station. pandora's popularity explains why palit likes the company. he expects pandora will bring in $295 million in revenue in 2011 and then grow almost 30% a year, hitting $1 billion in sales in 2016. >> i do think it's a very solid business. i think it's going to grow very well over t

darren gersh explains why. >> reporter: you know we all do this. americans swipe their debit cards 38 billion times a year. what you may not know is that retailers pay an average of 44 cents to process every swipe-- or $16 billion a year. today, the senate debated whether to push back new regulations that would cap those fees at 12 cents. senar richard durbin said a delay would be a big kiss for the nation's biggest banks. >> this delay could be significant, and from the banks' point of view, the longer the delay, the better. what's it worth? $1.3 billion a month for every month they can delay it. how long would they like to delay it? forever. >> reporter: the new rules do contain a special exemption for small banks, but montana's jon tester said regulators were not confident it would work. that's why tester is pushing to delay the new rules, which he said would force some small banks out of business. >> and i could care less about the wall street banks, they're going to do fine. but i'll tell you what, we lose the banks of our small towns of monta

darren gersh reports. >> reporter: google famously says it's code of conduct is "don't be evil." now the federal trade commission is investigating whether the search giant lives up to that promise. google controls 65% of the search engine market and the question anti-trust expert robert lande says will be how google uses that power. >> if you think you are getting a good search, but it's leading you to a google product, that's like fraud and that's one way of describing what i think will be the essence of the f.t.c. investigation. >> reporter: google argues it's all about searching for better ways to serve consumers. david balto was a top anti-trust expert at the federal trade commission. he predicts this investigation will end by concluding google actually protects consumers. >> certainly there are some competitors or advertisers who are unhappy, but consumers aren't. surveys that have been done of consumers have found that consumers see no need to regulate search. consumers are very happy with the product. >> reporter: in the '90s regulators took on microsoft in an epic antitru

darren gersh, "nightly business report," washington, d.c. >> susie: here are the stories in tonight's n.b.r. newswheel: stocks rose for the third straight day. the dow gained 72 points, the nasdaq up 11 and the s&p 500 added 10. as for volume, 910 million shares moving on the big board and 1.8 billion on the nasdaq. a lot of deal-making in the housing market in may. the number of people signing contracts to buy a home surged 8.2% last month. still, the national association of realtors says many of those deals are having trouble closing because buyers are having a tough time getting appraisals for financing. and the marriage between the london stock exchange and the canadian exchange operator, t.m.x. group, is off. the companies are walking away from the deal because they say it is "highly unlikely" they'll get majority approval from t.m.x. shareholders. still ahead, we'll find out what's driving tonight's stock pick: ford. "street critique" guest hilary kramer looks under the hood. >> tom: banks will be able to collect up to 21 cents from retailers every time shoppers swipe their debi

darren gersh reports. >> reporter: alarmed by high student loan default rates at for-profit schools, the department of education set out more than a year ago to make sure more students graduate with a degree that actually helps them find work and pay back their loans. but r.b.c. capital analyst bob wetenhall says regulators turned out to be easy graders. >> and some of the companies that were suspected of being the primary violators, like i.t.t. educational services and corinthian colleges, and e.d.m.c., are now in a much better position due to having a longer time frame in which to adjust their practices to meet these relaxed thresholds. >> reporter: r.b.c. capital does seek investment banking business with for-profit colleges. the new regulations require that for-profit schools pass one of three tests to stay in the federal student loan program: 35% of former students are repaying their loans, or a typical graduate's annual student loan payment is less than 30% of discretionary income or 12% of total earnings. but the new rule gives colleges four years to pass the so-called "gainfu

our washington bureau chief darren gersh was there and has this report. >> reporter: with the economy performing worse than he and his colleagues expected, the key question for chairman ben bernanke was whether this slowdown is temporary or not. the chairman told reporters he doesn't have a precise read on why the economy has lost momentum over the last few months. >> one way to think about it is that maybe some of the head winds that have been concerning us, like weakness in the financial sector, problems in the housing sector, balance sheet and deleveraging issues-- some of these head winds may be stronger and more persistent than we thought. >> reporter: two of those economic headwinds-- gas prices and the japanese earthquake's impact on supply chains-- are already easing. but the fed chairman says other economic drags may be felt into next year. which is why bernanke says the fed will take some time to see whether their forecast of better growth ahead holds up. after listening to the news conference, societe generale's stephen gallager says bernanke is not in a hurry to make chang

darren gersh, "nightly business report," washington. >> susie: joining us to analyze these developments-- constance hunter, chief economist at aladdin capital. hi, constance. >> hi, susie, how are you? >> susie: good, thank you. let me pick up where we left off in our reporting with this question, will lower oil prices be the magic bullet to fix the economy? what do you think? >> well, it's certainly a big bullet. it's not necessarily going to be the magic bullet. everybody has been feeling the oil pinch, whether you're a household, an individual, you're running a company. and so it certainly will help because it will reduce that cost for business owners and for families. it will allow them to spend on other things, other than oil. >> susie: will it boost consumer confidence? >> it could. it could if you have other things also happening at the same time. but i think there's three big structural problems overhanging our economy. one is our it's structural problems with jobs. one is the structural problem with housing, and one is the structural problem with the debt ceiling and the defici

washington bureau chief darren gersh spoke with u.s. trade representative ron kirk. kirk also is the former major of dallas. darren began by asking why it's been so hard to pass these trade agreements. >> well, because you're in washington. and everything is, you know, everything is hard in this town. but the reason that we took the time to look at korea and panama and colombia, not just from the standpoint of what does it take to pass them, but look at them in the broader context, that what 95% of the world's consumers somewhere other than the united states, part of our success in the future is going to be linked to our ability to take more of what we make, manufacture, innovate, create here in the u.s. and share it with the world. and so within that you've got to have a trade policy that not only speaks to those that say hey, pass these agreements, get going, we need the market access but you've also got to have a trade policy that reflects those that say we want to make sure our trade reflects our core values. particularly how you ought to treat workers. not just h

darren gersh spoke with c.f.t.c. chairman gary gensler today and began by asking him why regulators needed more time. >> um, the american public needs us to move forward and get all of these rules in place. congress gave us one year to do that. it's complicated subject and we substantially finished proposing 51 of these rules but it's going to take us more time. we hope to be able to complete the final rules over the course of the rest of the calendar year. >> so you're supporters have said to me, you know, he's the most aggressive regulator in washington. your critics say he's the most aggressive regulator in washington in fact so aggressive that these rules on margins and the way he's implementing the dodd frank reform law risks hurting american business. what do you say to that complaint? >> i say that transparent markets and well regulated markets benefit the american public and businesses and ultimately help promote jobs. the financial system fails america and the regulatory system failed. but what we know from

washington bureau chief darren gersh asked whether the new numbers show the economy has hit a soft patch. well, look, we face some tough headwinds in the beginning of the year and the growth raise slowed down. we knew that. i said last month when we were well above expectations for jobs and this month when we are below, you never make too much out of any one month report. what you want to do is look at slightly longer trends. and you if look over the last six months the private sector has added more than a million jobs. so i think that's the trend we want to continue and to accelerate. most of the private sector forecasters are anticipating a rebound of growth for the second half of the year. and so i think our, that is what our effort is now. the president is up every day, how do we get the growth rate up. let's get people back to work. >> gas prices have obviously been an issue for the economy, also the supply disruptions from japan following the earthquake. take those one at a timement how big an impact have they had? >> well, look, what caused what we are seeing now is a slowdown of