i'm gerri willis and this is "your bottom line." spend half an hour with us every saturday morning and we will save you money. that's a promise. on top tad, where the jobs are in 2010 and how you land one. we've got your game plan. and seeking financial freedom? we'll help you dig out of debt and give you the power to prosper. plus, we'll put those infomercial products on the test from the pedegg to the snuggie and the magicjack. don't make your move until you see us put them to the test. >>> it's a new year. and for many that means new motivation to tackle the job market. so what should you be doing differently in 2010? tom is a career expert and the senior editor of "yahoo! hot jobs." great to see you again, tom. >> thank you. >> we're talking 2010, the world's a different place. people are still pessimistic, according to your own survey, 66% think that the economy could be the same or worse this year. is there any reason for optimism? >> there is a little bit of optimism from the survey. we found that one in three of the people w

first "your bottom line" with gerri willis, starts right now for you. >>> happy new year. i'm gerri willis and this is "your bottom line" the show that will save you money in 2010. from your house to your job, savings and your debt and health care we're here to help you make the very best financial decisions for you and your family. "your bottom line" starts right now. no doubt, you've had to deal with your credit card company in the past year about raising interest rate, lowering your credit limit as you try to pay down the debt. with the new year, how can you rid yourself of debt, get cred knit tip-top shape and start to save? ryan mack the president of optimum capital management, donna risatti, and jeff gardere, clinical psychologist a licensed real estate broker. let's start with credit cards. this is what has people so upset this year. you know they've got such bad terms of their credit cards. any hope in 2010 that this situation will improve? >> well, definitely. february of 2010 a new law will go into effect where credit card companies are not allowed to raise your

personal finance editor gerri willis take as look. >> reporter: lights, presents, debt. it's inevitable after the holiday season, but not for the hildebrandts. the family we fert met last october after he climb out of a whopping $123,000 of debt. >> this beautiful victorian i got at a craft store, but on an after-christmas sale. i probably gout it 65%, 70% off for her. >> reporter: this year they survived holiday shopping debt-free. the kids still got stocking stuffers but candy didn't spend more than $30 on each. one tip, thift store shopping. >> how much you pay for one of these turtle necks? >> the low price going now about $. 9 to $3.99. >> reporter: another way to keep costs down, focusing on family traditions like baking cookies or singing christmas cares at a local nursing home instead of expensive holiday entertainment. just one year ago russell was working a second job as a night janitor, sleeping in his car to save on gas money. candy stretched their dollar with cheap meals opinion today their finishing the last of the hash browns that got them through the wors

this came all little bit after i have had this audition meeting with gerry and sonny west.when did sonny west joined the entourage? >> when i made the deal with elvis to have security from memphis meet us so i can get back to california, when i called elvis who was at the office, to tell him that you wanted to meet about the meeting with the president, elvis said, and this is the type of friend that he was, he is going to go into the executive offices. nobody says no to elvis. i learn that. so what happened is that he said, gerry, go out in front of the hotel and i will swing by and pick you up on the way. he included his friends and everything. as i was waiting and i saw the limousine coming, i saw sunni getting out of a taxi -- sonny getting out of a taxi, and i said give your luggage to of ballet and we're going to the white house. >> how did the audition go? >> the audition went swimmingly. i did not know until i got a call from the gate that you guys were real. i thought that it would be an impersonator. this card says that there is someone here who look surprisingly l

the story, gerri willis followed the story five years bigging out of this debt. you won't believe, actually, some of the things this father what they were eating, but the good news is, that they are in fact debt-free as they're in 2010. >> great story. >> it is a great story. another great story involves just about all of us. you've got a cell phone? sometimes when i get bored my thing is, maybe check like facebook status updates kind of thing. some people tweet. you know, some send e-mails. it's the kind of thing, ever thought about this, sitting in the jury box, on jury duty, grab your cell phone, want to google around, get background on that case, yeah. that may be a no-no. creating a lot of buzz from the legal community and something not a lot of people think about but something you can't do in certain places. we'll be tackling a bunch of legal topics with our two fantastic legal eagles coming up in the noon hour in the "newsroom." >> all right. looking forward to great stuff coming up. see you soon. >> thank you. >> sniffing out danger. a man's best friend.

profeor robert magre explains why the quakwas particularly devastating to theragile nation and father gerry creedonrged the world community not to abandon the isla country. if youant to help haitians, find a listing of organitions respondingo the crisis. anof course, we'll continue to post updates, photos and interviews as we g them. also on thsite tonight, "pchwork nation" director dante chinni discussesow the unemployme picture has changed over the past year all that and more is on ouweb site, newsho.pbs.org. gwen. >> ifill: and that the newshour foronight. i'm gwenfill. >> lehrer:nd i'm jim lehrer. we'll see you online, and agn re tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. major funding r the pbs captiong sponsored by macneil/lehrer proctions captioned media accessroup at wgbh access.wgbh.org

host: tampa, fla., gerry on our independent line.ou for caller: lee with the collegeville -- caller: are you familiar with the college of america's? the intention was to destabilize lot america. that goes back a while -- latin america. that goes back a while. guest: as far as i know, there are no current plans to destabilize latin america. the effort over the last 25 years has been to work with stable, predictable economic- democratic governments and to deal with the issues at hand over trade and investment. host: in bolivia and with morales, was the shape of the country? >guest: the imf has just about with a very favorable view of president carlos' leadership -- president moralises is doing in that country. it is an interesting case with how the leader can turn around the economy and begin to deal with the issues he needs to address. host: debbie in albuquerque. caller: listening to you and i'm quite amused with your take on history because a lot of people in america do not know the history of what on in central america and south am

host: tampa, fla., gerry on our independent line.are you for caller: lee with the collegeville -- caller: are you familiar with the college of america's? the intention was to destabilize lot america. that goes back a while -- latin america. that goes back a while. guest: as far as i know, there are no current plans to destabilize latin america. the effort over the last 25 years has been to work with stable, predictable economic- democratic governments and to deal with the issues at hand over trade and investment. host: in bolivia and with morales, was the shape of the country? >guest: the imf has just about with a very favorable view of president carlos' leadership -- president moralises is doing in that country. it is an interesting case with how the leader can turn around the economy and begin to deal with the issues he needs to address. host: debbie in albuquerque. caller: listening to you and i'm quite amused with your take on history because a lot of people in america do not know the history of what on in central america and sou

the first lobbyist that we signed up for the fair elections lobbies for fair elections was gerry cassidy like the godfather of lobby. he basically started blogging as a profession. and his idea was, look, when i started this, lobbyist had to know something that you have to know the process. you have to know your issue. you had to be a public relations person. you have to network. now, any yo-yo, that's my word, with a checkbook, with a checkbook and get into see a member of congress and can start to influence legislation. and that's not the way at the lobbying profession started. so he is very much in favor of changing this to a publicly financed system. we had eight other lobbyists of almost equal stature. one is that a ceo, who used to run the d. triple see, the democratic congressional campaign committee, which was the committee that raised all the money to run congressional campaigns in the house. so it was his job to actually get all this money for members to run on. and he is now saying this is out of control. this is so bad and so out of control, that i think we need to change to

precision toolmaking place, there was a group of guys, and one guy who said i should call him and gerry the mechanic -- call him jerry the mechanic. he shakes my hand, and he and his buddy were talking about -- i said, how long were you working here? he said 20 years. i noticed that a lot of the equipment was digital in fancy instead of the old machines on the other side of the building to i said, did you guys have to get additional training for this? he said, "we used to work in this old plant, and we got laid off, and we came here to lorain community college and took a six-month, 12-hour-a-day course that completely retrain us, and that is what got us these new jobs, and we've been working over a decade at these new jobs." [applause] here is the thing -- he's go -- these guys were not playing, as far as i know, unless the mayor is a lot slicker than i think. [laughter] but these guys did point out that it was jtpa -- jppa funds, job training funds for the federal government and the state all worked together to make sure that people have access to the funds. during that time, they were