the economy as a whole. finally, a strong middle class can only exist in an economy where everyone plays by the same rules. from wall street to main street. [ applause ] as infuriating as it was for all of us, we rescued our major banks from collapse, not only because the full-blown financial melt down would send us into a second depression, but because we need a strong healthy financial sector in this country. part of the deal was that we wouldn't go back to business as usual. that's why last year we put in place new rules of the road. they refocused the financial sector on what should be their core purpose. getting capital to the entrepreneurs with the best ideas and financing millions of family who is want to buy a home or send their kids to college. we are not all the way there yet. the banks are fighting us every inch of the way. already some of these reforms are being implemented. if you are a big bank or risky financial institution, you have to write out a living will that details how you pay the bill

down to three and a half to four percent over the medium term and the economy remaining. under versified and vulnerable to two shocks in international community and capital markets if if you have more ambitious reduction in the reliance on oil in the budget more ambitious reduction in inflation you will get investment you will get more productivity and you will get higher growth and there's no reason why the russian economy could not grow by as much as six percent over the medium term but this is a matter of the policies that will be person well i know i am of doesn't like predictions but you do like to give recommendations well you mention these this analysis you made well based on this analysis what are your recommendations for the russian government when this autumn and maybe winter well. we have actually taken a look because this is now a political transition phase in russia we have taken a look at the medium term policy priorities i think the starting point is that we all agree on the objectives over time which is to have an economy that realized this is growth poten

and allow us to maintain a strong italian economy and. what the country needs most is the trust of its own people over fifty percent of the bonds issued. the italian government are in the hands of the people because the government will have to prove to its people that its capable of paying its debts. and finally being the european union has become some sort of a religion. the european elite. like i've already said saving the euro as a project imposed from the top down based on overrating the notion of a european unity after all if europe is not merely the seventeen states that form the euro zone it's not even the twenty seven member states of the european union in fact europe comprises some fifteen nations and by the way that includes russia which is also part of europe with that in mind i believe it was the elites headquartered in brussels that promoted this project from the top aiming to drive europe into a new form of centralism and i think it will be in my mind europe's advantage is exactly its inclusiveness and its diversity and form

>> no question the economy. you read the papers, the economy is showing signs of growth but unemployment is still high. as i get ready to put my feet into the professional world, i want to know i have a job. this next president can assure me of their policies. that is the way i think the election should be going. >> greta: what matters to you this time? >> absolutely the economy. >> greta: no doubt bit? >> no doubt about it. >> greta: what is second? >> education. >> greta: how is the economy doing? >> crappy. it's not doing too well, but it has not to do well for us to change it. i don't just see it as a crappy situation but i see it as an opportunity. i see as americans getting more and more and tired and upset and less tolerant of it. i think that is absolutely necessary if we want to change anything, kinds of bad is not good enough. we need to be things really bad, as we've seen occupied protests get in the streets and put their bodies on the line. >> greta: economy is your focus? >> economy is the most impo

i'm here in europe of course to emphasize home port is to the united states and to the world economy as a whole that germany and france succeed alongside the other nations of europe and building a stronger europe. we'll see how that goes meanwhile what is the s. and p. trying to do issuing a downgrade warning for fifteen euro zone countries the ratings agency uses politics to justify the downgrade saying european policymakers continue to disagree over how to tackle the debt crisis but is as in p. trying to tackle its own crisis trying to hedge its bets to improve its own reputation and restore confidence after notorious wrong calls it made ahead of the two thousand and eight financial crisis and one unexpected casualty of the eurozone crisis it's chocolate we'll show you how debt is taking a toll on cocoa let's get to today's capital account. so the big question are we seeing signs that a covert war by the u.s. in cooperation with israel against iran or cold war between iran and its enemies is underway right now this is what analysts and articles from reuters to the atlantic are aski

the economy is not a fixed pie. when you expand the labor curve, a simple economist will say the price of labor goes down and we're all hurt. the more people that work here, the more people that are chasing jobs and we're all doomed. wrong. the expansion of the available labor force creates opportunities that did not exist before. you have innovation and entrepreneurialism that increases the actual size of small and medium-sized businesses. they consume and that expands the demand curve. you have a dynamic economy for 90% of u.s. born workers that enhances their wages. the other 9% got whacked up side the head with globalization and immigration and everything you can list and they need help. getting rid of immigrants doesn't really help them. the final point is if you look at the last 15 years, 25% of publicly traded companies in the united states are essentially from the bay area region and one out of four was started by an immigrant. we have great data on this because it's all transparent. you can look it up. you

economy is in the global economy is one big one thousand debt to g.d.p. ratio for tape worm i think it's sir alan sugar but listen max the point that these consultants made to the treasury was illustrated by the example of a saver who made seventy thousand pounds in contributions between one nine hundred ninety four and two thousand. the nine only to see the forty six thousand pounds and profit from the rise in the value of the footsie one hundred being consumed in its entirety by the financial services industry so every single penny of profit you made on the rise in the footsie went to bankers but there is a cult in the u.k. where the population itself endorses rupert murdoch's position and therefore david cameron's that these are god like human beings that only through them can we create economies and wealth or people newquay of money in a pension account let's say the pension account is tied to the footsie index of fifty one hundred let's say well what these bankers do whether they just. are roy baikal skull and lloyd's they take that index of a hundre

economy will be in better shape in 2012? suzanne pratt talked with some wall street pros about what they expect in the new year. >> reporter: when it comes to the economy next year, there's good news and bad. the good and perhaps best news is the u.s. is not expected to slide back into a recession. instead, we're likely to keep meandering along, and that's the troubling part. >> the outlook for the u.s. economy heading into 2012 remains one of modest economic activity, below the trend of growth that we saw in prior years. >> actually, we think it's probably going to be a similar year to 11 in the sense that growth is still likely to be quite disappointing. >> reporter: just how disappointing? most economists predict g.d.p. will probably average only about 2% next year, and the problem is that most of the risks are on the downside. we all know that europe wields the biggest monkey wrench for the u.s. recovery, but it's less about trade and more about our financial ties to the region. >> how much are european banks delivering?

liquor was the foundation of the economy. and >> anything that touched on the possibility of prohibition was greatly and popular. >> the first campaign was a great effort, but not a success. >> the war was not over. less than one decade later, a graphic protests brought new life to the movement. >> women's suffrage, the republican convention in oakland, this time it was the private sector response. 300 marched down the streets of the convention center. women were entitled to be here. >> joining together for another campaign. >> women opened a club in san francisco. it was called the votes for women club. if she could get the shopkeepers to have lunch, she could get them to be heard literature. the lunch room was a tremendous success. >> it was the way that people thought about women willing to fight for a successful campaign. what happened was, the social transformation increase the boundary of what was possible, out word. >> there were parades and rallies, door to door candidacies, reaching every voter in the state. >> the e

. >> if you want a flat economy in a fat economy flat tax is the way to do it. it lowers on productive worth and risk take success . tracks foreign capitol. we don't have to spend six and half hours filling out tax forevermores. half of the lobbying in washington revolves around it and crushes the spirit of the american people. they don't know what the rules are. and bad all around and get rid television and start over. kim, it sounds good to me, how about to you? >> i don't agree with the flat tax at all. i don't understand how steve can call it a flat tax. that is exempses or deductions. we need it not only for the lower income bracket. it is giving them exemption and deductions for you know, parents with young children, but it is going to hurt the middle class. they need the exemption because the middle class is hurt nothing today's economy . losing their jobs and incomes are falling and underwater homes are worth less than the mortgage. they can't afford a flat tax and pay like the rich. >> flat tax. a lot of people don't know what is in it. it is 100,000 pa

french most gloomy about economy so this is according to a poll and the two gloomiest on the economy are the brits and french almost one in ten britons or nine percent expect their economy to improve in the next six months and only ten percent would describe the economy and britain as good but there is more pessimism in france as just two percent of the people are optimistic about the next six months and only seven percent said the french economy is good well you can't compare the french of the british because they're from starbucks. yeah whatever it's everything is gloomy to them if they're not getting some kind of freebie from led government at any given moment there gloomy and down in the mouth and having an existential crisis they may think of me you know in the middle of disneyland well but they're gloomier than normal so that's why star cosey is far behind in the polls he's predicted by every single poll that he's going to lose this is unusual for an incumbent but if it's a desperate economic situation an economy trumps it's the economy stupid that's going to be proven once aga

economy and taxpayers. in 2010 what first appeared as a great crisis spread and dictate global headlines. stock markets and the way european nations are categorized. as events worsen this summer, crisis took, of european states and even managed ability of the closest relationships between nicolas sarkozy of france and angela merkel of germany. and their efforts to save the euro. the e.u. instituted the stability facility and encourage european central bank to take extraordinary measures to address liquidity and solvency in the crisis facing european nations and their banks. so far it seems their actions failed to beat the bazooka markets desired. the greek crisis transformed into a full-fledged euro zone crisis. the contagion to the larger economy of italy and spain with a similar sovereign debt of roughly $4 trillion. today as european leaders worked to strengthen the framework of the e.u. financial markets have become more dependent on continued willingness of central banks to use their balance sheet to r

banking system economy and the economies of its european allies were so fragile and so overextended that even a 15% increase in the price of oil could cause panic and bring down the banks and threaten the stability of countries in southern europe. so you can ask what did all this have to do with u.s. oil diplomacy with iran and saudi arabia? that was the subject of my research after all. i'd never heard of the banking scare in 1976 before and certainly have not expected to find one. there is no reference to the episode in the memoirs of them are administration officials that i am aware of. and histories from that period apparently make no reference to it, again that i am aware of. so to try to put the context of the transcript, to put it in some context i had to broaden the focus of my research well beyond the narrow confines of u.s. oil relations with iran and saudi arabia in 1970s. i started to look at the whole subject of oil and much more holistic way. by studying the impact of rising oil prices in the 1970s on the economies of countries like the united states, portugal, greece italy

and the economy as a whole.inally, a strong middle-class to only exist in an economy where everyone plays by the same rules. from wall street to main street. [applause] as infuriating as it was for all of us, we rescued the major banks from collapse, not only because of a full-blown financial meltdown that would send us into a second depression, but because we need a strong, healthy financial sector in this country. part of the deal was we would not go back to business as usual. that is why last year we put in place new rules, the refocused the financial sector on what should be their main purpose. getting capital to those with the best ideas, financing millions of families who want to buy a home, or send their children to college. we are not all the way there yet. the banks are fighting us every inch of the way. but some of these reforms are being implemented. if you are a big bank or risky financial institution, you have to have a living will that details of exactly how you will pay the bills if you fail. this

economy. that's looking nor strength going forward-looking for new business creation to begin picking up again. not enough to take down unemployment to the point where it gets to long-term employed, which is what we really worry about but taking down unemployment nonetheless. we have a chance of reaccelerating in 2012 and doing a little better. >> to be fair, even the best projections, 5% unemployment where we were before the recession started, 2017. not talking about a big burst in 2012 but anything makes a difference. harvard university professor, author of "civilization the west and the rest." you bring something here, a deficit reduction plan, 2011 was undeniably a year of political gridlock or what diane calls keystone cops in washington. leadership deficits have held us back. how do you see this playing out in 2012? >> well, it's hard to be too optimistic. one of the thins that gave us signs of life in the last quarter was a plunge in the savings rate. i'm not sure americans can really p

skies over the european economy continuing to darken how real is the threat of the collapse of the euro zone to try to find an answer to this and some other questions now joined by and then we're off the german parliament from the free democratic party frank schaeffer of mrs shelfer thank you very much for joining me and first of all how would you agree that the efforts by merkel and sarkozy to save the eurozone and are heading in the right direction now i know it's a project that's being designed by those at the top of the european union needs the steps that would bolster the market economy and that would be adjusted so that it could fit into the market economy according to the rules of the market economy if you decide to take on the risks you have to bear the responsibility for these risks the projects that are enforced from the top will not be able to operate under certain conditions such projects should work from the bottom up. bureaucrats and their allies in national governments want to see more fiscal control over national governments more control over their budgets also how much

economy right now on the economy and it's fragile. it is fragile. picture over the last three years, we lost about 8 million jobs in that horrible recession of 2008, 2009. we've only recovered about 2 million of them. this has been by far the most anemic recovery. hopefully under a normal kind of recovery pattern, we'd see big job growth next year. that would be the normal course of events. the worry i have, we were in the economy of 1970s you have periods of false prosperity where the economy would lift up and fall and lift up and fall. that seems to be the pattern right now. i don't think you'll see a real resolution. you're not going to see those employers really go out and hire, i think, until the election is held in november 2012. i really think people are in a holding pattern right now. >> chrystia, what's the best solution? what is the fix? we know the blame. we know why we are where we are largely. we know a lot of people share responsibility for this. what's the logical fix? it doesn't seem to be the thing we're talking about. >> i think th

because if the economy gets better, i'll make a lot in economy, i own the japanese yen, the swiss francere are plenty of ways to protect yourself. and when things don't get better, they will print a lot more money. and when they print money, you have to own silver, you have to own a lot of things if you're going to survive. >> you've already made a lot of money in commodities. amazing how you made this call so long ago. here we have a godebt of $17 million. >> it's been up 11 years in a row. it would not surprise me at all if gold didn't continue to rest and consolidate for a while. it's been consolidating for over three months. i hope it continues to consolidate, i hope it goes down. >> what about silver? you said you want to own silver. you want to put silver to work right here? >> i'm not buying anything right now, but if i had to buy gold or silver today, i would buy silver because silver is more depressed, that's all. i hope gold and silver continue to rest and consolidate so i can buy more. >> here we have oil at $100 a barrel. when do you expect the price of oil to become a probl

the economy is not a fixed pie. when you expand the labor curve, a simple economist will say the price of labor goes down and we're all hurt. the more people that work here, the more people that are chasing jobs and we're all doomed. wrong. the expansion of the available labor force creates opportunities that did not exist before. you have innovation and entrepreneurialism that increases the actual size of small and medium-sized businesses. they consume and

economy is doing a bit better, investors were still disappointed. they were hoping the central bank would signal new plans to boost growth. stocks sold off after the fed announcement: the dow lost 66 points, the nasdaq fell 33, and the s&p slipped about 11. the fed's december meeting marks the third straight year of interest rates at 0%, a reminder that the u.s. economy is still struggling. the message from ben bernanke today was upbeat, or was it? for every positive comment, there was also a negative. the fed's policy statement said there's "some improvement" in the job market but, also, the unemployment rate remains high. it noted that the economy has been "expanding moderately," but "strains in the global financial markets" continue to pose "significant downside risks." and policymakers said consumer spending is advancing, but business investment appeared to be pulling back. harris private bank's jack ablin says all that equals uncertainty for investors. >> we're still in this roller coaster market that, end to end, isn't going very far. so we wa

we don't know in modern economies what helps an economy continue to grow and to remain strong and to prosper as it inknow vates, particularly as the economy and the culture and the society becomes relatively well off. it is a known phenomena that it is hard for individuals who are relatively well off to take outsized risk and put everything on the line. back to my original story, if you think about the swimmers in the contest, in order for the united states to prosper, we need lots of swimmers who are willing to get in the water and swim and save nothing for the trip back because they are the type of person who will do whatever it takes, work as hard as is needed and get to the other side without saving energy to get back. and this shows up in what we now have as the crystal clear data in the last several years largely funded by the kaufman foundation out of kansas city and augmented by others. two important fin

>> yeah, the job of epa is not to help the economy. in fact, mow the things they do is going to be a drag on the industry and they do it and the obvious thing is market regulation they're finally going to do after 21 years of being told to do it, not allowed by gover, maent is to lower mercury levels in people. from old swsle coal fired plandown and this is why not bad for jobs even though it can be a drag for the utp>ity, no question that residential power could go up 3, 4, 5%, they've got to install new punants and one power 18ule people they had to hire to do one plant. it will create >> need, it's not gareat for the utiliws industry or power bill, but lowers mercury levels in people. >> brenda: 're t s> this is a matter of continual overreaching by the epa. and the and thre g 'tis the season for a frenzy, the hot gift causing frenzy, and hot topics for one stock. get the names next. forty years ago, he wasn't worried about retirement. he'd yet to hear of mutual funds, iras, or annuities. back then, he had something more important t

the economy. it's doing a little better. you put those things together, and i think if these -- i'll call them relatively low prices on stocks. basically the path of least resistance is up. we should get more of it. >> what about europe? here in london, it certainly feels quiet on the ground in terms of consumption, in terms of people in stores. but going back to the central banks's move to ease liquidity this week, does it frighten you because they may know something we don't? is it just a move to unenclosing the system? what's your take on europe right now? >> i think it's the latter. i like your phrase, unenclosicc system. it finally got to germany and that's a problem. finally the central banks said, we need to go something to make sure the economy keeps working. it's a positive, but it's also not a cure. >> the super committee turned out to be not so super, failing at the task of relieving the deficit. how do you feel about that? people are wondering if europe is in worst shape than egypt. do you think europe could come