economics usa. david schoumacher. the 20 years after world war ii brought self-confidence to american political economics. the lessons of depression and war convinced economists and politicians alike that the government could promote prosperity by manipulating taxes and spending. these continuing adjustments are called fiscal policy. for the two decades after world war ii each new administration asked itself how fiscal policy could be used to control the economy. our story begins in 1944. americans had vivid memories of the great depression. they remembered 1/4 of the work force without jobs factories closed families hungry. and they remembered an inspirational leader who showed them that the government cared. it was the war not the new deal that ended the depression. by 1944, 12 million people were in uniform. 66 million more had jobs supporting the mightiest war machine ever known. amidst this world conflict senator harry truman said, "war is hell but peace might be worse." working with truman was

in economic growth with lag, becomes more evident. while projected economic growth reaches a peak in 2018, we project n.h.e. growth will -- this reflects the effect of faster enrollment by the baby boom generation and faster growth as the population ages. so taking over the entire projection period, nh.e. growth is predicted fastest than gdp. to translate those growth rates into the effect of -- the purple line on the chart -- because they have been growing at similar rates in 2010 and expected to do so again for 2013, the health share of gdp has remained stable since 2010 and is projected to do so in 2013. in 2014 and after, the health share is expected to rise as projected nh efshgs further outpaces economic growth due to the ekt of the coverage expangs, faster economic growth and the aging population. over the period, the health share of gdp is projected to rise from 17.2% in 2012 to 19.3% by 2023. and, again, to help put the projected acceleration in nhe growth into context, it's important to remember in other of our major finding

economic system." you were pronouncing judgment: america's economy has failed. has our system failed? >> unfortunately, that's what the numbers say. the median income of the american, median means half above, half below, median american today is lower than it was almost a quarter a century ago. our economy has grown over the quarter century. let's be clear about that. in a particular sense, but all of that growth has gone to the top. so you look at the middle, they've stagnated. and if you look at, say, an important demographic group, males, median income of a full-time male worker today is lower than it was 40 years ago. >> 1972 i think you say. >> that's right. >> amazing. >> it's amazing and americans have not yet grasped the reality of where we are. that our economic system has not been delivering for most americans and the fact that this has been true and that we have no longer a country where there's opportunity, where the life prospects of a young person are so dependent on the income and educat

so i think the economics are very clear for india. they're extremely clear for china as well, which is why you see huge investments and policies getting driven and supporting renewable energy investments. >> i'm going to give jean pascal one last shot at it. >> well, the challenge, indeed, is to satisfy the needs of the population of the world, particularly the poor people who don't have access to energy, clean energy in particular, who have to walk for miles to collect water, etc. the challenge is to address at the same time the needs of those people. and the challenge of fighting climate change. i agree that innovation and technology is certainly part of the solution, and a decreasing cost of some technologies is extremely promising. but i also think on the basis of what the ipcc has reported to have international pricing on carbon would help in that direction. we'll see next year. if the world is moving in that direction. >> to my guests, thank you very much for being with us today. that brings us to the end of this edition of "ins

with economic analyst richard gill we'll explore that question on this edition of "economics usa." david schoumacher. schoumacher: since the passage of the employment act in 1946, it has been accepted policy for the government to fight unemployment by stimulating total demand. often, inflation resulted. when that happened the government shifted gears and clamped down on demand in order to decrease inflation. for five administrations the government more or less successfully practiced the delicate art of balancing off unemployment and inflation. the experience of the 1950s and 1960s indicated that when unemployment went up, inflation would, correspondingly, fall. by the time richard nixon was in office, though, this classic relationship was showing signs of strain. by 1972, inflation was at a level of 4% and unemployment was at 5 1/2%. a year later unemployment was holding at 5% but inflation had skyrocketed to 8 1/2%. why weren't the old predictable trade-offs working? what had happened to change the economic rules? nature, suddenly violent rampaged over the entire globe. in 1972, t

1929 is the year of collision between 19th-century economic theory and 20th-century economic reality. of the crash john maynard keynes provides a new theory of the business cycle. what was his revolutionary idea? boom and bust: who can explain the business cycle? with the help of richard gill, we'll explore that question on this edition of economics usa. i'm david schoumacher. boom or bust? why is the economy so unstable? factories sit idle or stagger along because nobody has any money to spend. workers sit home without any money to spend hoping the economy gets better so they can work again. it's a pattern that repeats itself over and over again. few people worried about trying to explain economic fluctuations during the 19th century. americans were too busy building railroads expanding commerce overseas, or creating new industry. the years after the civil war saw a continuing expansion of the american economy. although this prosperity was interrupted by periodic slumps few people seemed to worry. didn't the economy always bounce back? on the eve of world war i, economists had no the

you can see -- this is about the austrian school of economics and the chicago school of economics. are they friends or are they foes? a little bit of rivalry between these two schools. they agreed on some things and disagreed on other things. both of them won nobel prizes. milton friedman won the nobel prize. hayak won a nobel prize on business cycles in the stigler 1930's. won the nobel prize as well. meeses should have won a nobel prize. can you notice some differences between the austrian-european economist on the left-hand side and the american economist on the right-hand side? glasses and hair. that is true. i will tell you the austrians are supreme pessimists, as they suffered from two major world wars and a great depression in between. the two americans are very upbeat and optimistic. a lot of differences between the two. i will spend a little bit of time -- if you have questions, are we going to have a microphone? if you have a question in mind, i would be glad to talk to you about those. this is one of my favorite -- this was a fun book to write. what i did was, in the boo

that the driving issue in this election should be the economic well-being for working people and the stagnation that most people are facing in their wages and their difficulty in making ends meet is a very real issue. and it sometimes gets talk about . it's not really the abstract idea. it's the fact that you have the economy improving, but not for working people, but for the wealthy and c.e.o.'s and corporations. >> so are the candidates that you are supporting talking about this issue at the right level? >> we believe the issue should be driven home harder, that that's a really stark contrast this year between democrats and republicans and the candidates we're supporting. . d that's when we do our work that's almost exclusively what we focus on is the economic -- what this election means for the economic prospects for working people. >> let me turn to melanie. >> you recently sort of compared the message that republicans and democrats are conveying to mobilize their base and get that to the polls. you did say democrats needed to do a better job. i'm wondering if you had to give the

need, the economic analysis. maybe that will do some more good. but, because my understanding of when a building comes to landmarking too and i'm still just a year on the commission is that you do elaborate job of analyzing structure in bringing to us a landmarking proposal already. and you did that with henry adams. so i'm not just vowing the idea of requiring what some better job or somewhere along the guidelines talking about. so this is just my general idea. >> that's a great point commissioner and if i can answer that question. the difference between the designation report and historical structure report is the designation report is done by a qualified historian, for the designation report we would require an engineering to give some seismic information and if the roof meets needs to be replaced. they are able in the historic structure report to prioritize what should happen to the property to continue it's preservation. >> it would be slightly different. >> definitely, but the designation report that you ar

but first of all, since the committee met in july, the economic information received is atts economic activity a moderate pace, on balance. the unemployment rate is little indicatorsa range of that suggest there remains significant underutilization of labor resources. that language again remains in the statement. inflation languages new. it has been running below projected. expectations have remained stable. low inflation is still on the fed's radar. two dissents. he did not like the considerable time language in here. richard fisher, he believes continued strengthening of the real economy improves outlook for labor utilization engine -- and rice stability. likely an earlier reduction will be warranted than is suggested by the committee's stated forward guidance. two dissents over forward guidance. let me walk you through again the forecast. i will have to hold this up so people can see it. hopefully, you have got an on-screen. believe policymakers -- theirst interest in first interest rates, 17 policymakers total, we do not know who these are. separately, down here, more portly, this

the austrian school of economics and the chicago school of economics.are they friends or are they foes? because they agreed on many things, but they also disagreed on other things. so there was a little bit of rivalry between these two schools and both of them won nobel prizes. hayak won a nobel prize in 1974 for his work on business cycles in the 1930s. and then you had milton friedman win the nobel prize. stigler won the nobel prize as well. ludwig von meses also deserved the nobel prize. now can you notice some differences between the austrian, european economist on the left-hand side and the american economist on the right-hand side? [ inaudible ]. >> glasses and hair. >> that's true. and mustaches. but i will tell you, the austrians are supreme pessimists, as they suffered from two major world wars that were very destructive and a great depression in between. while the two americans are very upbeat and very optimistic. there are a lot of differences between the two. now i'm going to spend a little bit of time -- by the way, if you have questions, a

with economic analyst richard gill, we'll explore that on this edition of economics usa.'m david schoumacher. what is inflation? here at the bureau of labor statistics, they measure inflation, in a sense, with the consumer price index, totaling the costs of goods and services, then comparing them from month to month and year to year. inflation has affected everybody. some look back nostalgically to the three-cent postage stamp. when prices go up a little, we're not surprised. but when they get out of hand, we take notice, as we did in the late 1960s when prices began spiraling upward. what caused that spiral? as the country grew in the 1950s, no one was worried about inflation. then late in the decade, the economy cooled down. that became a factor in the 1960 elections. i'm not satisfied to have 50% of our steel mill capacity unused, or when the united states had last year the lowest rate of economic growth of any major industrialized society. president kennedy called for a new frontier, a new era of energy and spirit. the election may have been close, but there is genera

this is to prevent evidence-based policies to work to secure economic growth, shared prosperity and economicecurity. our goal is to foster innovative, nonpartisan ideas and ultimately to introduce new and effective policy options into the national conversation. we at the project aquarius knowledge that a defining history is succeeding generations of americans have enjoyed standards of living higher than the generations that came before. looking around us today we see that america is failing to make critical investments in areas that would contribute to our nation's economic growth and security. within this vision we recognize climate change as posing real and present challenges to our nation and indeed our globe economic future. climate change is fundamentally about risks to safety and academy and we seed serious policy conversations about what actions to take to address those risks. though is what we are focused on here this afternoon. again, thank you for joining us. i now invite secretary ruben to introduce our futured guest. [applause] thank you, melissa and let me apologize for starting

and is there a economic piece to this? in terms of i am just going to talk about or it is just straight talk for me, okay? and it was stressful for be a black woman in san francisco. and it is especially stressful if you are under economic duress, we are less than 6 percent of the population, this is a round up in terms of the population, and in 1991, i believe that we were around 13 percent of san francisco, population, and we are now less than half of that. and we have been exiting san francisco for a variety of reasons, most of which are because of the economics. and so, i would speculate that the health issues have not really diminished greatly, and certainly, there are some triumphs through the departments initiatives over the years. but nonetheless, the numbers continues to be very stagnant. and so, is there any particular one, is there any particular initiative between the health department and those working on the economic development issues, in the city. in order to help improve and elevate the status in the quali

economic analyst richard gill and i will investigate that question on economics usa.avid schoumacher. captioning made possible by the annenberg/cpb project america's businessmen and women know how dependent they are on a friendly bank for their success and the growth of their communities. america's banking system has provided that success and growth for more than a century. although most banks are healthy and long-lived historically we have faced bank failures. while we can accept other businesses failing with a shrug a bank closing is another matter, as we learn in our story. new york early in the century, financial capital of america. it was money that kept new york moving and growing, money that built its elevated trains and skyscrapers. most of the money that built new york came from the banks, from the powerful national firms on wall street to the more modest like the knickerbocker trust which served the city's neighborhoods. working-class families kept their savings in the knickerbocker. storekeepers dropped off daily receipts there and borrowed there to buy mer

to -- itn the appealed could have the same economic states. the republican party has done itself no favors in this regard in such a hostile way against immigration reform. that's not lost in the latino community. even more importantly, they afl cio has been for comprehensive immigration reform for a while. we are going to continue to fight that fight. it's going to go on. these are people's lives and just speculating on political implications can up secure the fact that this is something that and doesn'tmatter disappear the day after the election. >> can you describe what afl is doing to reach out to latino voters? to you have spanish advertising? have you adjusted the message after the presidents decision to defer in the way you just described? >> we are finding that that has residents. if we are focused on those is a way of meeting people where they are. >> how do you know when your message is impacting voters? is resonating with voters? what works and what doesn't? of pullinggreat deal -- of polling. know it is very data driven. thes extrem

we want to look at economic projections, updated economic projections. not much change from the june projections for 2014. the big, the big change is in the gdp growth projection for 2015. a big downgrade there to 2.% in 2015 from a 3.1% projection in july. basically very little change in the outlook for the unemployment rate. sees it at about 6% for 2014. about five 1/2 2015. also no change basically in the fed's inflation forecast. but, the hint that the fed might begin to raise rates a little sooner than the markets were expected come in this infamous dot chart, dot plot that we get. first of all, just fed member, participant sees, says the rates should rise this year. 14 say next year. and two say in 2016. but it is in the range of expect expected levels of rates for next year that the subtle change that suggests that the fed sees its short-term target rate at about 1.5% by end of next year. in june it looked like the consensus forecast was for about 1%. so, street a lot there to chew on. melissa: but the very last thing you mentioned, that is what t

the economic impact we expect to be severe. [audio difficulty] as you pointed out at the operational concessions, contracts on our infrastructure, all of those have stopped or slowed. we know that there's going to be price increase after results of shipping costs -- [inaudible] from lie peoria going -- liberia going out, there's going to be loss of jobs because of the close of businesses. hotels ors entertainment centers, general finance is going to decline because general economic activity as a result of so many people with high purchasing power having left the country. we know that what this all will mean is that per capita income will also fall. but let me say that we -- [inaudible] to address this decline. we believe there's the potential to tim late other -- to stimulate other sectors of the economy that have not been very high in production such as our fishing business, other areas that we're looking looking at. so also we are going to get -- [inaudible] from world bank and from african development bank to be able to -- [

the third challenge is economic one.the financial year ending june 13, 2013 had recorded a budget deficit amounting to 270 billion egyptian pounds, representing 13.8% of the gdp. it recorded also a growth rate of 2%, while the population, growth rate is 2.5, meaning that the per capita income of the egyptian was declining. it recorded also a deficit of account amounting to $30 billion. in a nutshell, the egyptian economy was and still is suffering from deficits, a budget deficit, a growth deficit and an external deficit. as a result of the accumulated budget deficits, public debt reached 92% of the gdp. the external deficit led to the depletion of the foreign currency reserves that were down to $11 billion in, on june 13, 2013. down from $36 billion in january 2011. today they stand approximately at $17.3 billion. and the growth deficit led to the increase of the unemployment rate for 13%. industry was in no better shape than the rest of the economy and was facing several problems, including a serious shortage of industr

that's why i asked her to be the economic development authority. she worked with the local people here. and actually, it looks like this going to continue to grow beyond what was initially planned. the net revenue gained -- we didn't write out a check. credit against a taxes in future years. frankly, the state is going to fort madisonw the school district in lee county gained substantially. this was a great deal. on this samentinue subject with the next two questions. so for the next question, let's who has aelle, question for senator hatch. >> senator hatch, if you're elected, what's your plan to any business that does receive a state tax incentive is held accountable job creation, contributing to the overall economy, and also also explain how you have used tax incentives in your own private investments? >> absolutely. the one important thing that you maketo do as a governor, sure that there's transparency, accountability and responsibility. ans is another good area, example, in which governor branstad did not use any of those three guidance or pr

where do you see the economic three here for the countries, for the region, for the continent? how do you think about the kind of investment that will be needed to sustain economies while public health measures are brought to bear that will take a considerable time? isfirst point i want to make this is an epidemic of poverty. not strictly a disease of poverty but it is an epidemic incomesty just as low and lack of food and lack of water are all manifestations of andrty as is illiteracy many other manifestations of poverty, the weaknesses and lack of capacity in institutions to respond to the public health crisis is just as strong an indication of already. , unfortunately, there is a self reinforcing negative cycle we are beginning to see here. thate disease worsens, undermines capacity and undermines finances and economic ability and political systems and legal systems. further weaken the entire economic and social are cutting incomes and leading to more poverty. crisis becausee for the last nine years since the elections in 2005, liberia has been a positive reinforcing inle, t

this was the basis of the economic system of the elites in ancient copan. for the noble, the system worked well. the more dependents he controlled, the more powerful he appeared. but the system also created a problem. what was he to do with such a large family of elites ? i suspect that one of the things is what do you do with these people ? these people are too noble, they're too elite, they have too high a social position to be menial farmers. so what you do is you provide them with elite patios and you have them be your priests, you have them be your artisans, you have them be your tailors that make your costumes and your feather work. and that's what we see in this patio. that's what we have here. keach: so the lord supports his extended household, and in return, they produce goods exclusively for him. this is specialization, but not one based on buying and selling. it was a closed economic relationship, so limited to a family that it had little effect on the economy of the larger community. but what about the larger community ? ordinary people living o

let me discuss the economic conditions that under pin these actions. the economy is continuing to make progress towards the fomc's objective of maximum sustainable employment. in the labor market conditions have improved further in recent months although the pace of job growth has slowed some recently job gains have averaged more than 200,000 per month over the past three months. the unemployment rate was 6.1% in august, 0.2 lower than the data available at the time of the june meeting. broaders measures of labor market utilization such as the u 6 measure have shown similar improvement and the labor force participation rate has flattened out. these developments continue the trend of gradual progress towards our employment objective. but the labor market has yet to fully recover. there are still too many people who want jobs but cannot find them, too many who are working part time but would prefer full-time work and too many who are not searching for a job but would be if the labor market were stronger. as noted in the fomc statement a range of labor ma

demands for economic opportunity and economic security have been really important to the black freedom struggle, and so we're going to see them kind of reappear here in significant form. so let me show you a couple of slides. these are statistics from the census. and here we have a comparison of white and black poverty in 1959 and 1968. not a hard graph to interpret. what do you see? cara? >> in 1968, poverty had declined a lot. but still black poverty is a lot higher than white poverty. and it's still probably like that today. so there was change, but it wasn't -- they're not equal. >> yes. so we see progress for both groups over this time. but as you say, we continue to see a disparity. any other comments on this graph? all right. i want to show you a little more detail here. and i want you to tell me what you see in this graph. pedro? >> so, for -- you can tell with gender, there's a disparity where the poverty is, even among races. but with black females, they're among the most highest. well, actually -- yeah, among the most highest. they actually did decline slowly, but you can se

of economic advisers back in the '90s. his best-selling books have shaped worldwide debate. and now he's written one of his shortest but most important works he's done, a 27-page white paper for the roosevelt institute laying out a tax-reform plan to hold corporations accountable, create jobs, and boost the economy. joseph stiglitz, welcome. >> nice to be here. >> you argue that elimination of corporate welfare, or at least its reduction, should be at the center of tax reform. why? >> i want to put it in a broader context. our country needs, faces a lot of challenges. we, as you mentioned, 20 million americans would like a full-time job and can't get one. we have growing inequality. we have environmental problems that threaten the future of our planet. i think we can use our tax system to create a better society, to be an expression of our true values. but if people don't think that their tax system is fair, they're not going to want to contribute. it's going to be difficult to get them to pay. and, unfortunately, right no

economic growth. first, making these changes is cost effective. look at the new powerplant rule i just mentioned. it will decrease emissions 30%. the health and climate benefits for producing more clean energy and reducing our use of dirty energy is expected to be worth $55 billion and $93 billion in 2030. if we fail to make changes now, it will be more costly to do later, and may fail entirely. what the latest science tells us to do to keep temperatures below dangerous levels. the alternative, allowing them to reach increasingly dangerous levels will require expensive and dangerous action later. the council of economic advisers found that for each decade of delay, the cost of hitting a given climate target goes up on average approximately 40%. we must adopt a risk management approach to climate change. we must do what we can to substantially lower the risk of the most catastrophic climate impacts, and that means reducing emissions. as the former secretary of the treasury hank paulson wrote recently,

they concluded an economic deal with the imf.ce russia has escalated its war against ukraine in the meantime, the economic circumstance becomes even more difficult. that said, the priority is to help ukraine defend its territory from kremlin's aggression. herbst now director of the atlantic council eurasia center joining us from washington. mr. ambassador, it is a privilege to have you on. thank you for your time. >> thank you. past, anfrom the age-old classic. inside jaguar's new old car. ♪ latinis time for today's america report. citibank is challenging a u.s. court order permitting it to forward interest pants on engine interest payments on argentine bonds. what is the banks main argument? >> citibank isn't just a bank in the u.s.. it is also a bank in argentina, one of the biggest banks in argentina. it has been in a hundred years witht has to comply argentine law, too. it is a legal pickle. if i am abiding by u.s. law, i am breaking argentine law. if i am abiding by argentine law, i am breaking u.s. law. they wereve that, if

actually is as a discipline and that's what this book is about is to try to demystify economics. >> it's been covered in the past by booktv. you can go to booktv.org, click in his clicking his name and watch his past programs online. one more but you want to tell us about? >> one more book which is code section 60 and is a biography of that part the active part where the veterans of the iraq war in afghanistan war are very -- was a profile biography portrait if you will of the national shrine that we have because that is the active part of arlington. it's particularly residents today so it takes us behind the scenes of how the cemetery actually works starting with the burial from the iraq war. so you understand there is a living and breathing organization,, organisms. arlington is an organism. he wrote a book called on hallowed ground which was a history of the cemetery and i've never been there before. i have rarely been so moved as riding and walking around arlington. so it is a biography if you will of the active section of arlington which affects every one everyone in the countr

in economics. with that, i'll turn it over to the policy guys. >> hello, the focus of my remarks is to explain how the international tax system works. the united states taxes income within and outside the united states. there are smaller countries that do so, chile, israel and south korea are the three in the oacd. among major industrialized countries and virtually any european country, the canadians, australians, they all have some form of a territorial system where they simply tax the income of their businesses earned within their country. the united states provides foreign tax credit which is meant to avoid double taxation of income earned abroad. in broadest principle, think of it as a reduction in the u.s. tax. you basically calculate the tax that would have been paid under u.s. tax and duct foreign taxes. it's the foreign taxes exceed the u.s. taxes, which is rare these days, then there is no u.s. tax due. if there is additional u.s. tax due, you have to write a check to the treasury. this re

and then it in economics for economics in pictures. we have the cast of characters. i a truly hope you don't do a cast of characters and then please give me your advice. mrs. for me though whole concept of the forgotten man we think of roosevelt so often and the man at the bottom of the economic pyramid even the audio they be in the library exhibits. there was another forgotten man it known to them but the forgotten man described by a professor at yale in they spoke of the different forgotten man that jay wants to help blacks, -- x but then tried to coerce c id to the party. but it a is the forgotten man that what i have figured is that they have debated whose "the forgotten man" is it? the taxpayer? your forgotten man hurts mine. we did not get that with education. this is the soviet union to have a look there were not mostly traders. but definitely influenced by russia that seems promising at the time. one of the fastest and most lovable and most radical we view him getting excited a lot of fuss like the sound it makes them dizzy with happiness but that same phenom

and so obviously, recession impacts economic -- economic growth and health spending growth to a great degree. i believe the main reason for that is just to try to take out the great recession from the comparison. >> yeah. this last recession did impact health spending more and more immediately than several of the previous recessions. and it really did distinguish itself and lent itself to being exclu excluded. >> i want to follow up on that question and sarah's question, as well, about the comparison between the projection period and the historical period. it seems like on the ledger balancing factors that might accelerate growth versus those that might slow down, you've got more people getting coverage in the future. you've got an aging population. which distinguish that from the previous period, but you're finding a slower historical rate of growth. and if i understand you correctly, you're suggesting that tamping down growth in the future will be pressure on medicare payments, some economic pressure, at least, in the short-term. but it seems like those factors must be very, very po

is a potential economic substitute for much of the financial and economic trade in that part of the worldleft.have about a minute last month beijing rejected a proposal for open nomination of candidates for the first-ever leadership elections scheduled for 2017. did the financial markets see the tension coming back in august? >> they should have. we wrote about this. this was literally decided in 1984 with the handover. there was a body of people that they would be able to in fact select their own nominees and have a real vote but the president made it very clear a month ago that that was not going to happen. think it will continue to be the position. we do not know how much destruction and carnage will happen in the interim. heim joining us tim from los angeles. always a pleasure to get your perspective and expertise. up next, standing by with the latest on the markets report, and later, ford executives face investors as excitement builds for the latest mustang to hit the road. matt miller will join us live from detroit when we continue in a moment. ♪ >> what does silicon valley get that

parity and economic security. our goal is to foster innovative nonpartisan ideas and ultimately to introduce new and effective policy options into the national conversation. we at the project ack nooij a defining feature of our nation's history is succeeding generations of americans have enjoyed standards of living higher than generations that came before. but looking around us today, we see that america is failing to make critical investments in areas that would contribute to our nation's economic growth and security. twhn vision, we recognize climate change as posing real and present challenges to our nation's and indeed our globe's economic future. climate change is fundamentally about risk to our safety and our economy. we need serious policy conversations about what actions to take to address those risks. that is what we are focuseded on here this afternoon. again, thank you for joining us. i now invite secretary rube on the introduce our featured guests. -- ruben introduce our featured guests. >> thank you.

the country's huge economic debt is a drag on its standing. the world economic foruchl is well-known for holding the dabos meetings where political and business leaders from around the world gather to discuss global issues. and that's the latest in business. i'll leave you with a check on markets. >>> the prime minister of japan says he wants to take a bold and fresh approach to tackling major policy issues both at home and abroad. shinzo abe has reshuffled his cabinet, creating new positions and opportunities for women. he says his main focus will continue to be on improving the economy. >> abe created a new post of minister in charge of security legislation. he says he wants to continue to explain his security policies to the public to gain their approval. people in tokyo have had their say about the new cabinet. >> translator: i think they should focus on economic measures. declining and aging population, we will tackle the issues and focus our attention on rural areas so we can make these places attractive, make them places where young peo

economic conditions broken down by industry and by region. in the most recent edition feds say economic activity, quote, continued to expand since the last report, which was in july, at a moderate pace. it showed modest growth and some companies had a tough time filling jobs especially skilled labor. if you're a truck driver, construction work or know a thing or two about computer programming, there is demand for your work. sales in cars showed acceptsly strong growth. that was helped along by lending. auto loans was the strongest lending category in most places. still, most areas reported missed consumer confidence. consumers in places like ohio and virginia were visit in their discretionary spending. the money spent makes up two-thirds of economic activity in this country. the fact that consumers are still holding back in some, not all parts of the country is something that matters. the first hints of a down turn usually show themselves when consumers start to sit on the fence with their spending. they sense something that the other parts o