this is simon marks reporting for gnn. s >> this is obviously a serious blow.n the difficulty with our economy, the impact on our economic recovery could be dramatic. the president needs to be out there and he he wants to be out there. he needs to be saying some things that will calm the oil markets. there will be a press conference in about an hour. he will want some concrete recommendations as to what he should say. he has some specific questions we will get to and try to move through this fairly quickly. i want to turn to the deputy national security adviser to give us an update. what do we know? >> thank you. i direct your attention to the power point behind you. we cannot understand the importance -- they are responsible for 7 million barrels of crude a day. the united states in 2010 produce seven and a half million barrels. this is a serious situation. we are gathering information. in terms of spare capacity, which is used by the cartel to keep in reserve and manage prices, rising oil demand has eroded that along with the libyan unrest. the attack has sig

you'll see it here live on gnn. ♪ >> well, we've gone from a bad dream to a nightmare.t and long-term spending problem that's confronting the country that we can get out of to get the economy growing and revenues up. and yet our economy getting our economy growing revenue is up depends on an oil market that is now being taken hostage by iran and venezuela. so we've got to get some guidance. i think the bar went up with what the president needs to do tonight. i'd like to us to address three things. one, we need a plan to absorb the short-term impact on this. secondly, we're going to need a plan to address the debt which will address the downgrade issues. and finally, we need a plan on energy to avoid the repetition. it seems to me that's what the president needs to talk about. i'll turn to you first. it seems to me the president's job got a lot harder. what's your initial reaction? what are your thoughts as to how he should try to frame this? >> well, with all respect to the conversation we were just having, we're whistling past the president's graveyard. this is unsusta

. ♪ >> welcome back to gnn.ow our continuing coverage on an attack on the world's largest crude oil processing facility in saudi arabia. the assault by a group of heavily armed attackers has left treatmentty's water and power generation facilities badly damaged. detail of the attack are still emerging. i witnesses reported seeing helicopters heading into the facility just before a series of explosions rocked the compound. the helicopters are reported to have been mistaken for saudi equipment and may have had company logos. the attack apparently took as little as 10 or fenty -- 15 minutes. oil markets reacted to the news with a surge in prices, exchanges in london seeing the single greatest jump in history, kicking off a chaotic day of trading in which officials considered suspending trading. markets in new york open under normal conditions this morning. to help us make sense, we have standing by in blunting our correspondent. what can you tell us? >> there have been real moment of panic on the markets. instabili

back to gnn where we are covering breaking financial news.ncies is expressing concern about the sustainability of the u.s. debt position today amid what is perhaps the most severe oil shock in modern history,ierce of a deep recession and sharp worsening of the u.s. debt to g.d.p. ratio are undermining confidence in america's ability to meet its obligations. this month's spike in oil prices has sent u.s. equity indices tumbling by more than 10% over the past year and led to expectations regarding u.s. economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. a recent gnn poll earlier this week found broad sentiment among economists the u.s. is headed for another recessionary period. the united states triple-a credit rating was the focus of attention earlier this year while legislators debated raising the u.s. debt ceiling. rating agencies put a negative outlook on the u.s. long-term debt and some prominent investors made widely noted moves to reduce their exposures to u.s. treasuries. we go now to our financial correspondent

whether we should do a big tax cut and get back to reagan gnn m oppics.hink this, you know, we'll see what the super committee comes up with. i think that's the last sort of hope for a bipartisan agreement. >> these markets doing what they're doing and people's 401(k)s doing what they're doing, they're impatient. >> no question about it. >> they have every reason to be. the one piece of hope is that everybody's talking about the same thing and although we don't agree on it, all of us can have overlap and we have intellectual differences in terms of what we think is right, but we can agree on this show, they can agree when they try behind closed doors. >> you're right. >> you guys are optimistic. thanks for being here. i know from watching tv, you're all very busy, so thanks a lot. diane swannen, chief economist for mesirow, steven moore, and john king. >>> coming up next, why rick perry has a problem with ben bernanke and why the king of coffee is taking a direct shot at washington, d.c. politics. i'll explain, next. [ shapiro ] at legalzoom, you can take