what fitch is not saying, but almost screaming is, the washington sons of fitches are doing not about it, they screamed it. after the cliff, get ready for the crash. i'm not surprised we could still be cut. i'm surprised that fitch has not already done so, john campbell said that triple a rated countries do not we behave this way. i'm surprised it has not already happened. what do you think? >> i know, i just, you know there isal this talk if we get into a big fight over trying to reduce entitlements and making a long-term solution to this, that fitch or some rating agencies may cut our credit rating at this point. if that is what they are doing, they have it backwards. what they should do is they should look at reducing our credit rating, if we don't -- if we don't make some significant change in long temp problem, otherwise we'll surpass italy, and greece and spain and japan. that is what hey should be talking about. not just about this fight we're going to have over the fiscal cliff. of this going to to look like. neil: you know what worries me. is that we build a great dial of exp

fitch has to watch that. as we get closer and closer to the deadline, we're just a few weeks away, here we are again, right after our new year's eve of watching all of this, markets on edge. fitch on edge. and they will have to react and they may react. if we can't pay our bills, if the situation deteriorates with the markets and again if they can't come to some type of deal, fitch will put us on a review, translation for we'll have to downgrade. jenna: with the fact we already did that once, we were downgraded by one rating agency, what would it mean for the economy, markets, for all of us if another agency comes out to do the same thing? >> you mentioned 2011, jenna, markets went haywire. it was ugly. late summer 2007 ven when the downgrade happened by s&p. had a huge drop in the market. 20% drop in two seconds. we'll see the same type of situation play it unfortunately. there are a couple of things. think about creditors, vendors of the united states. think about social security checks. sympathy about gove

i don't blame fitch. look, we have to pay bills, the constitution says it, but everybody doesn't seem to care much about the constitution right now. >> i thought yesterday at the president's news conference, i thought the partisanship was at an all-time high in regards to the fiscal cliff debate. they, referring to republicans in congress, they can either acts responsibly and pay america's bills or act irresponsibly and put america through another economic crisis. it feels a little bit worse, markets sort of shrugged that off. that was good news in all this. but it seems like the dividing line is real firm and real deep between republicans and democrats at this point. >> i wonder whether we know anything. one of the things that's gripped me is there was almost universal belief that dividend taxes were going to go up dramatically. even down to the last day of december. you come in, dividend taxes barely go up. i find that, like facebook, which we're going to talk about in a moment, we're not really privy t

fitch rating says the u.s.ld lose the top credit rating if there is a delay in raising the debt limit. we'll find out with the senior political analyst brit hume thinks about this. good evening. >> good evening. the warning from the fitch rating agency today is certainly will become talking point for president and democrats who claim the republicans are using the debt ceiling recklessly as leverage for spending cuts. worry over the debt ceiling is only a part of the reason for the fitch warning. the agency said even if the ceiling is raised it would likely downbegrade anyway if there is no "credible medium term deficit reduction plan." you will recall that standard & poor's did downgrade the u.s. debt last august after the debt ceiling was raised amidst 11th hour suspense. it was blamed on bringmanship to use the debt creeling to get spending cuts. s&p did cite the melodrama as part of the reason but placed emphasis on the view that the debt ceiling deal fall short in what our view would be necessary to stabili

the fitch point, what obama is realizing, what fitch is saying could actually happen and smart preemptivelyame the republicans. >> sean: isn't it to be party, and balanced budget and greater freedom and to hell with the political consequences, take a stand? >> the republicans caved on the tax, yes, they did. they lost, they caved. >> sean: caved. >> and i don't like the word, but they did, they made a deal. they agreed to higher taxes on a certain group of people. >> they got permanent tax cuts for 98% of the people. >> that's obama's line. look, they don't have to cave now. now the issue is spending and debt. they should not, they must not cave now. >> sean: why do you disagree? >> i'm just, i'm a realist and a pragmatist. and i do not believe that there's any possibility of dealing with entitlement spending in the the next eight weeks to get something through congress. >> sean: quick question. >> which is what we need to do. >> sean: what wok so bad if the republicans said we're not going to raise the debt ceiling unless there's significant cuts. >> that should be the opening position. >>

by the time the recovery is over, fitch expects sandy's cost to top $20 billion. new jersey is one of the states hit hardest, and, today, governor chris christie talked about the storm's toll on his state's economy. >> there's no question that sandy hit us hard. there's also no question that we're fighting back with everything we've got. sandy took a toll on new jersey's economy just when we were coming back from a national recession. sandy disrupted our economic life. cars weren't bought, homes weren't sold and factories couldn't produce. from those things, we can catch up, and we are catching up. make no mistake-- as common sense would tell you, sandy hurt new jersey's economy. >> susie: christie today pledged to devote the final year of his first term in office to rebuilding and reinvigorating areas of the state devastated by hurricane sandy. >> tom: as the drama over the fiscal cliff played out in washington, car racing may have been the last thing you were thinking about. but as rick horrow explains in tonight's "beyond the scoreboard," the fiscal cliff deal

fitch credit ratings put out this note, quote,"although home prices have stabilized and started to improve, we believe that home price appreciation will tend to be relatively narrow focused." where? >> well, there is different parts of this? if we're talking about housing demand, actually increased sales, that is occurring across the board. but building activity is being limited to certain markets, where we have lean conditions that i just described, which are true for the nation. but we do have gluts in some parts, mostly in the south and in the west. prices, however, are going up across the bard. even e so-caled sa states, the west and the south, where we saw prices take especially huge hits are showing especially large rebounds at this point in time. the price rebound is across the board, and construction activity a little more mixed. >> tom: we learned a few weeks ago that the federal reserve has begun an internal debate about pulling the bond strategy, by the end of this year. that has helped push down those mortgage rates to record lows. what could be the impact? >> it will hurt. aff

fitch credit ratings put out this note, quote,"although home prices have stabilized and started to improve, we believe that home price appreciation will tend to be ratively narrow focused." where? >> well, there is different parts of this? if we're talking about housing demand, actually increased sales, that is occurring across the board. but building activity is being limited to certain markets, where we have lean conditions that i just described, which are true for the nation. but we do have gluts in some parts, mostly in the south and in the west. prices, however, are going up across the board. even the so-called sand states, the west and the south, where we saw prices take especially hu hits are showing escial lge rebounds at this point in time. the price rebound is across the board, and construction activity a little more mixed. >> tom: we learned a few weeks ago that the federal reserve has begun an internal debate about pulling the bond strategy, by the end of this year. that has helped push down those mortgage rates to record lows. what could be the impact? >> it will hurt. afforda

if they don't, fitch threatened to downgrade america's a.a.a. credit rating. in syria tonight, no place is safe from the civil war. today, two explosions devastated the university in aleppo syria's largest city. more than 80 people were killed; most of them were students. this war started two years ago as a popular uprising against the syrian dictator. correspondent clarissa ward has been working inside syria and is just back across the border in turkey tonight. clarissa, you've been talking to your sources. what can you tell us about the university bombing? >> well, scott, this university is located in a relatively calm part of the city that is under government control. but so far, we don't really have a sense of who was responsible for this attack-- both sides, of course, blaming each other. activists we spoke to saying that regime fighter jets bombed the university, but spokesmen for the syrian government saying that, in fact, it was rebel rockets that hit the school. one thing certainly is clear from this grotesque incident which is the exceedingly high pr

i always look forward to that one. >> fitch warns any delay to raise the u.s. debt ceiling will prompt a ratings review. >>> and germany sees the economy transacting 0.5% in q4. >> and dell is eyeing the private life. the pcmaker is in talk wes private equity firms for a potential buyout. >>> now, facebook gears up for a big announcement ats its headquarters. find out more about this when we come back. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. ♪ make it worth watching. ♪ the new 2013 lexus ls. an entirely new pursuit. [♪...] >> i've been training all year for the big race in chicago, but i can only afford one trip. and i just found out my best friend is getting married in l.a. there's no way i'm missing that. then i heard about hotwire and i realized i could actually afford both trips. see, when really nice hotels have unsold rooms, they use hotwire to fill them. so i got my four-star hotels for half-price! >> men: ♪ h-o-t-w-i-r-e ♪ hotwire.com >> announcer: save big on car rentals too, from $12.95 a day. >>> welcome back to the

. >> and fitch. >> and fitch.we are stuck here at 1475 now, 1470, 75, which is the highs, is indicative of a market that is no reason for it to go higher until the issues are solved. >> i know you were traveling so i will give you a pass on no recipe today. we will just do chinese takeout. >> i took the red eye and lanted at quarter to 9 this morning. >> choe niinese takeout for ken today. >> not italian takeout. thinking gold, german take out. they are taking out of both paris and potentially u.s. look at two-day charted tens. we are a couple base point lower but similar pattern yesterday. low yield around 9:00 eastern. same as yesterday. look at comparison between our ten-year and boons. selling pressure early in the year. widen that spread out. 40 is the key. moderated a bit. good to pay attention to. and last chart, this is a one-month chart. one-month bills. even though it basically moved from close to zero to 7.5 basis point,i it's a lot. tyler, back to you. >> thank you. now where do the wealthy plan it put

amber crop -- aber crop be and fitch has been giving magazines for years. >> you are a sick man. >> jm still thinking about -- i am still thinking about that store. >> go to an abercrombie and fitch store and prepare to see abs. >> i am insulted when bill said he was moisturizing his jeans. i must have taken offense, and i just didn't under. >> and i took the opportunity to moisturize yours as well. you are welcome. you are welcome. >> we have the most sophisticated panel. it is the most sophisticated panel on fox news, and we cannot avoid making body fluid jokes. dana, we could not, not do this story. would you buy a pair for jasper your imaginary dog that no one has seen? >> let me tell you something i grew up in new castle, wyoming. everybody wears wranglers. people in new york city may make fun of wrangler jeans, but that's the jean of choice for cowboys and cow girls across america. it is a very efficient thing. you can -- you don't even need hand lotion. you can put your hand in your pocket and your hand will be moisturized jie. i will cut an hour of -- >> i will cut an hour of m

sandy will likely cost the insurance industry at least $20 billion according to a new report from fitchtch says the complexity assessing insurance losses from such a large and intense storm over a widespread region created uncertainty in estimating ultimate insured losses from superstorm sandy. that's the latest from the fox business network, giving you the power to prosper liz: welcome back, everybody, live in las vegas on the floor of the consumer electronics show. we moved to a panel here. good friend of this broadcast is rob enderle. they're talking about evolution whether the pc survives. yes, according to rob. what about panasonic, everybody is talking about rumors that they would be getting out of the television business. get it straight from the horse's mouth. joe taylor is the head of panasonic america, north america. great to see you thank you. >> happy new year. liz: you guys getting out of the television business? >> i heard that 20 times in the last couple of months. i think it was mark train. the rumors of our demise are greatly exaggerated. would a company getting out tv

to to fitch, you don't care, do you?rading, does it? >> well, there will be some volume on the back of it but also it can have a ripple effect through the economy because of what types of bonds some of these portfolio managers have to keep in their portfolios. so we need to have the drama kings and queens in washington all get back on a bus and go back to the land of common sense and we need to stop the shenanigans and get on with our business. what we have had happen here another rerun of what we had to happen towards the end of the year. it is not good for us internationally. we have to get a solution. we have to get it done cleanly and we have to move it on. stuart: do you want to sign a debt ceiling increase, do it now? >> no, i don't, but at the same time i would like to have some common sense in the discussion. what we have got are two sides that are also putting other factions at work and other hidden agendas at work and i don't think that's going to get us anywhere soon. that's what makes us look bad, is the figh

still holds its aaa rating from the agency but is now on negative outlook same situation with fitch agency as well that standard and poor's has already slashed the economies of racing. and moving on the people living in the u.k. . so physically in bad shape could be monitored by the government to see if they are taking steps to tackle their health now proposals by a conservative run council have suggested that if these people are proved not to be provocative the benefits should be cut as a result of new technologies such as smart cards could be used to track claimants use of leisure centers allowing local authorities to dock their payments from those who don't carry out g.p. perscribe exercise now obesity cost sick u.k. economy an estimated eight billion dollars a year. now moving on there have been a few jobs that have escaped the grinding by the ongoing global credit crunch but some professions have had it particularly not just the health of the balance sheet that is at risk in some cases is actually the workers themselves so we go in at number five the worst job of twenty twelve accordi

. >> greta: let me switch to fitch warning it may downgrade credit, the american credit if we -- if theebt ceiling isn't raised. it's so important t? that we get this debt situation under control, and i think that once again, when you consider what we're doing to our future generations, you know, our children and our grandchildren, currently who have $53,000 debt upon them. we're eroding their possibilities and their opportunities in this great society. so i think we have to have up in washington d.c., the seriousness, to look at the true problem, which is a spending problem. look at mandatory spending programs and we have to stop the exorbitant amount of spending and we have to say, finally, we're going to stop this debt and we're going to get serious, and i think that fitch is very appropriate in saying that if they don't see a curtailing of the spending, that they're going to downgrade us. >> greta: we're going to keep our eye on this, because certainly all eyes are on this debt ceiling these days in washington. stay with us, so congressman, we have much more to talk to you after the

losing the triple a status from fitch. u.s. debt to gdp is on track rise in excess of 90%.hat strategies say they want it see is stabilize around current levels but that means spending cuts have to be put in place and the magic number in total of either total taxes or spending cuts is 4 trillion. so given the deal we struck yesterday is 600 to 700 billion there as a way to go. if there are additional down grades, will they have impact on the bond market? keep in mind it doesn't have much in mind when it lowered its rating in august. >> thank you very much. >>> largely lost in all of the drama over the cliff, aid to victims to hurricane sandy on east koefd. it has republicans now turning on republicans. >> hi, tyler. kind after surprising and unexpected fight here. let me show how as they were getting zun with the fiscal cliff debate. here is how it went down. >> the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor, say aye. >> aye. >> those opposed, no. >> no. >> and the opinion of the chair? ayes have it accordingly the house stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow

what about this fitch idea that bnks are going to need more capital? >> i think the rating agency i am not in favor of for the simple reason basically it has been created by regulators. regulators didn't want to take the risk so they upped the case to rating agency. so now rating agency basically has a monopoly. they can say anything they want. they cannot be sued. they tend to employ people who are not the best thinkers simply because economically they can't. so first of all, i wouldn't follow rating agency as, you know, the rule of law. >> do they need more capital? >> in my view, they don't. they probably need slightly more contingent capital meaning the buffer above equity. i would add more buffer for the reason that eats such a high component of the gdp, but you need the buffer. and this buffer is filled with hybrids. so basically, anything which is above equities, but in case, let's say, you know, things could get converted into equity, but remains best as time goes on. >> you're analyzing banks across the place. who is in the strongest position

fitch didn't do it at the time. but the last time we had one of these debt ceiling debacles that embarrassment was the first downgrade of u.s. credit in history. if congress doesn't act and we default for the first time ever, the consequences are likely to be severe for all of us. federal interest costs would likely rise, business and personal borrowing costs would probably follow. it would also make the struggle to manage our historic debt levels tougher. the worst thing that can happen if you're beck lg under debt, is for your interest rate to go up. it could mean higher taxes and more cults to programs and services from the government. any hope for a controlled fix to our debt problem would be compromised. failing to pay for what we've already spent would be hazardous to the fragile economic recovery now gaining steam. just this week we got a reading about construction of new homes. it jumped 12.1% in december compared to the month before. that's the highest in more than four years. first-time claims for unemploy

is the stock market set up for a fall though with fitch warning on america's credit rating due to thefight? our market pros will weigh in on that, plus other things coming up. and also ahead, a million jobs, that's what our failing infrastructure might cost the new according to a new report coming out and we'll hear why that's exhibit "a" in the case for why we need even higher taxes to pay for road and bridge improvements. stay tuned. more "closing bell" coming your way. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 when i'm trading, i'm totally focused. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and the streetsmart edge trading platform from charles schwab... tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 gives me tools that help me find opportunities more easily. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can even access it from the cloud and trade on any computer. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and with schwab mobile, tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 i can focus on trading anyplace, anytime. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 until i choose to focus on something else. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 all this with no trade minimums. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550 and only $8.95 a trade. tdd#: 1-800-345-2550

holds its aaa rating from the agency but is now in negative outlook and it's the same situation with fitch agency as well as standard and poor's has already slashed the economy's rating. mading on the people living in the u.k. who are clinically obese or physically in bad shape could be monitored by the government to see if they are taking steps to tackle their health now proposals by a conservative wrong council has suggested that if these people are not proved to be productive then their benefits should be cut as a result the new technologies such as small called begins to track claimants use of leisure centers allowing local authorities do that payments from those who don't carry out g.p. prescribes exercise or basic also u.k. economy an estimated eight billion dollars a year now that's all the business for now i'll be back at less than two hours time to stay with r.c. there's plenty more coming up just next actually. thanks very much indeed katy yes the news continues after the break israel's latest the wall it's building a security barrier on its border with syria right after its frie

rating firm fitch warns that the united states could lose its top credit ceiling if the debt ceilinged. timothy geithner has warned congress they'll reach that limit as early as next month. >>> asian markets plummetled ahead of key economic data. it plummeted more than 2.5% while hong kong's hang sang lost a fraction. >>> stocks ended mixed on wall street over the uncertainty of the nation's debt limit. the dow finished the day up more than 27 points while the nasdaq fell nearly 7 points. >>> shoppers spent more this holiday season than last but not as much as experts predicted. sales rose 3%, falling short of the national retail federation's forecast of 4.1%. many stores heavily marked down merchandise in the final shopping days to lure in shoppers who held back on spending. still, retailers hauled $580 million in november and december. >>> walmart says it will buy u.s.-made goods over the next decade. the retail giant is also pledging to offer a job to any honorably discharged american veteran within a year of active duty. walmart expects to hire a thousand veterans in the next fiv

he is managing director at fitch and he said if it is just like 2011, america will be on review. that means it could be downgraded. they do not like this talk from the president about no negotiations, because that imply as real standoff. and they don't like the words, deadbeat nation. after all, if you pay a bill with a credit card, which you have no intention of paying off that credit card, or reducing the balance on it, that makes you a deadbeat. so they're looking for political leadership, the financial side of america. they're not seeing it and they're threatening a downgrade. martha: we see what happened in other countries that have been downgraded and a lot of irresponsible spending with no real plan to get it under control. no doubt that goes into the equation as well as you point out, mr. varney. >> thank you. miss mccullum. martha: a massive aid bill for victims of superstorm sandy is moving toward key votes in the house but not without controversy. northeastern lawmakers are pushing an aid package topping $50 billion. fiscal hawks want spending cuts to offset any paymen

. >>> the nation's credit rating hangs in the balance once again as fitch threatened to downgrade if fix the country's debt burden. geithner warned that the u.s. will reach the credit limit between mid-february and early march. >>> mark zuckerburg released a new graph search. ate louz users to mind their friend's data for information they may otherwise google or yelp. they're talking about the strange name and the limited function within the social network. >>> william and kate are sifting through applications for a super servant to do just about everything, cook, cleaning, drivinging, walking dogs and polishing silver. so just how close are you to your virtual assistant? apparently if you made a personal connection to iphone's siri or google's now, you're like 57% of one group of smart phone owners who name their virtual helpers but they also enjoy their sass and sense of humor. >>> and finally, google is wishing a happy 112th birthday to frank joseph zamboni jr. >>> sports highlights including a college basketball upset are straight ahead. >>> plus, a high school principal uses the

fitch is threatening to downgrade america's credit rating if lawmakers don't raise the borrowing limit. >>> five contractors are sending sealed envelopes to sacramento this week hoping to win the contract it start building the state as high- speed rail system. the "mercury news" explains the contractors submit one package with their plans for the project, another sealed envelope contains their price. officials will first check the proposals and then open the envelopes containing the costs. >>> san jose state university is launching an online education pilot program. the program is small for now offering only three classes, entry level math, elementary statistics and college algebra. but governor brown says it's a big step toward a new future for higher education. >> the goal is to empower more people and to reach out to our students so they can graduate quicker so they don't carry this big load of debt on their backs for the next 25 years. >> the program is unique because of its low price, $150 a course. anyone can take classes even students who are not enrolled at san jose state. >>>

ratings agency fitch warns that washington's dysfunction could cost the u.s.it rating it still has with them. that is if congress doesn't come up with what it calls a credible medium term deficit reduction plan. understand that fitch is not just looking for an 11th hour debt ceiling deal that sets the table for another mini crisis down the road. the federal government hit the debt limit as you know on december 31st. the treasury is using so-called extraordinary measures to pay its bills through mid-february or early march. now, fitch predicts washington will extend the debt ceiling despite the current war of words between president obama and republicans in congress. what happens if we get downgraded? it happened before. remember 2011, when standard & poor's did it. that hit markets and the wider economy hard, but it didn't cause interest rates to increase. this time could be different, however, because the rest of the world is getting its act together. even successful businesses like ford are worried. here's what ceo alan mulally told me today. >> i think the

and fitch they're now downgrading sovereign debt the aaa rating of the u.s. debt which is already been downgraded it looks like is going to be downgraded again how does that factor the fact that banks no longer have collateral on their books isn't that part of a growing problem going forward jesse i think that there's a conflation of a couple of issues there's obviously sovereign debt which is a different issue then the inadequacy of either collateral or bank capital now the problem with american accounting and i think that this is also true in international counting with the european and british banks is that you cannot understand either the collateral that they're putting. against trades like derivatives trades we just don't understand or know how much that is or cannot assess independently whether that's adequate or we can't understand the capital what the store is at the bank that can cushion the losses who will be on the hook for the losses and what frank partnoy and i did was walk through wells fargo wells fargo in the united states is regarded as a sta

are aiming to vote today in the house on a plan which obama promptly says he would veto meanwhile fitch has warned the u.s. could lose its aaa credit rating if washington doesn't get a deal to treat what we call economy no this may all feel like deja vu and maybe it will all turn out fine maybe it won't though where do you want to place your bets we'll talk to the daily reckonings eric bryant and joe bowman about their choices plus a german study finds paying taxes has a positive impact on a person's subjective well being no word on what the findings would bring in the west but if you are counting on taxation to make you feel like your quality of life is on the up and up state side we'll talk about some other economic options and the opec of maple syrup has been robbed millions of dollars worth of the hot commodity has been stolen from canada's maple syrup cartel yes cartel i said maple syrup cartel and those are not my words that's according to the new york times we'll talk about it in loose change let's get to today's capital account. in the u.s. as we watch this fiscal cliff charade

do is look at what's happening in europe to see that's what the consequences. >> we recently got a fitch ratings report, and i'm quoting from their report that said in the absence of an agreed and credible medium-term deficit reduction plan that would be consistent with sustaining the economic recovery and restoring confidence in the long-run sustainability of the u.s. public finances, the current negative outlook on the aaa rating is likely to be resolved with a downgrade later this year even if another debt ceiling crisis is averted, end quote. how do you think the football markets -- the financial markets in the broader economy would react if there was no credible commitment to addressing the current fiscal situation as we've just discussed? >> mr. chairman, i think that the debt limit bill does not control or limit the ability of the federal government to run deaf sets -- deficits or incur obligations. but i do believe it's a limit on our ability to pay obligations. so i think that while this is not the perfect solution, at least you do have the opportunity here by if you simply rais