this is david schoumacher for economics usa.annenberg/cpb project captioning performed by the national captioning institute, inc. captions copyright 1986 educational film center

for economics usa, this is david schoumacher.b project captioning performed by the national captioning institute, inc. captions copyright 1986 educational film center nenberg media ♪ for information about this and other annenberg media programs call 1-800-learner and visit us at www.learner.org.

for economics usa, i'm david schoumacher.tioning is made possible by the annenberg/cpb project captioning performed by the national captioning institute, inc. captions copyright 1986 educational film center annenberg media ♪ nenberg media ♪ many elderly americans were too old to work. pensions were non-existent savings gone. what was franklin delano roosevelt's answer to the needs of older americans? too many young people were

economic analyst richard gill and i willxamine that question on this edition of "economics usa." david schoumacher. the united states has always been blessed with vast natural resources, including some things we used to take for granted, like fresh water and clean, healthy air. but not any longer. in the past few decades, we've learned that industrial activity carries with it a substantial environmental price tag. if we want fresher waterand healthier air, somebody is going to have to pay for it as we found in the tiny town of silver bay, on the shores of lake superior. 30 years ago this part of minnesota was practically a wilderness area. thenshortly afteworld waii some farsighteentrepreneurs cided there was money to be made in a rock called taconite, found here in abundance, near the famous mesabi iron range. they called their venturethe reserve mining company. ruth erickson remembers the early days before the trouble started. anybody that came here to work was in -- [ dog barks ] shush! -- was in bad shape economically. and reserve ilt the town they furnished us with our medic

with the help of our economic analyst richard gill we'll find out on this edition of "economics usa." david schoumacher. we like to think of our economy as one that runs on competition. for instance, we can choose the brand ofasoline we buy. if one station sets its prices too high thene can simplygo across the stet for a lower price. if enough drivers pass the high-price station by, sooner or later it goes out of business. of course, if in order to attract business a station sets its prices too low and can't cover costs, sooner or later it'll go out of business, too. but what happens to prices if one company, or one person, controls all the gas stations? that was what the country faced in 1890. the company was standard oil -- the man was john d. rockefeller. this was the infant oil industry john d. rockeller saw after the civil war. drilling equipment was hand- and foot-operated in those days and available cheap. anybodcould in the o rh, and anybody did. with thousands of small-scale prospectors drillers, and refiners competg, the supply of oil was plentiful. prices were low, and so w

alan krueger, professor of chick, and former council of the white house economic visors and eric spiegel, president and siemans usa on the labor market, has your take on it been borne out? i think it has over the past year or so? >> i mostly agree with that. i think we're seeing the dow market get tighter. ethink companies have not necessarily adapted to the any environment. i think we should see it going forward given how much unemployment has decreased. >> and obviously, that has a lot of implications for the federal reserve. it has implications for how quickly sort of this complacency we have in terms of inflation, i mean that could change relatively quickly. i've been arguing that most people think that we'll have never have an issue again with deflation in europe that we're never going to have to worry about it again, couldn't it change fairly quickly in a tight labor market? >> it could change. i don't suspect that it will change quickly. i think the history of inflation is it tends to move up somewhat gradually. and i think a little bit of inflation now would be a good problem to have. i'd rather see that t

economic and social affairs and a guest of our speaker. jeff ballou al-jazeera media network and vice chairman of the npc board of governors. donna leinwand lachey broke -- breaking news reporter for "usa today," vice chair of the speakers committee and the former ftc president. skipping over our speaker for a moment the treasury reporter for "bloomberg news" and the speakers committee member who organized today's dinner. thank you. the u.n. undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations and a guest at the speaker. washington bureau chief for io load news. associate editor and journalist for scientific america. mark, senior associate editor and kiplinger's personal finance and treasurer of the national press club. [applause] the united nations celebrates its 70th birthday later this year. that's seven decades of international peacekeeping humanitarian aid assistance with economic development and support of human rights. while particulars of the u.n. agenda change from time to time the underlying goal has remained constant to prevent another conflict like world war ii. ban ki-moon the foreign minister of south korea serving a second term as u.n. secretary-general. he has been on the