jon: greg burke live for us from rome. jenna: he's certainly in the center of a lot of volatility there. there are certainly lots of mixed emotions from investors after the last couple of days. >> this is not the iceberg hitting the titanic by any means. >> hold onto your stocks no matter what. history has taught us it will rebound eventually. i'm hopeful that will happen. >> there is nothing more safe than united states bonds. our government can print money, we can raise taxes. jenna: today speculation the federal reserve may make a move and right now chairman ben bernanke and his team are meeting behind closed doors. the question that we're asking today is, what can they do really to boost the economy? anything, we are joined live by phil flynn. what is next, what are you watching for? >> you know what i'll tell you right now the fed has to send a strong message to the market today. i'll tell you what, right now you may have lost your full faith in the crucify the united states but right now it looks like the market has

greg burke is streaming live from rome. what is going on with the world markets?porter: it's a crazy time, and for mid august you certainly see a lot of political action which is not normally the case. in italy, for example the finance minister trying to convince italian parties today that the government can get it together. this is difficult stuff because they need major structural changes beings this is not something you'll change overnight. the unions do not want to hear about pensions being cut or people being able to be fired more easily. meanwhile the markets across europe are looking pretty good right now, but they are certainly jitter re. they started well this morning, now they went down, now they are all up again, this despite fears about both french and italian banks. a couple of italian bank stocks had to stop trading, because they were down. italy is actually well over 3. all these positive numbers probably a reflection of what is going on on wall strao*et. i don't think anyone here believes that it can last. the real heavy weights meeting next week i

greg burke is on remote 287 coming in to us live from rome. going on with the markets in italy greg? >> reporter: hey jon. very interesting. you know, this is vacation time in europe but if anybody has money in the markets they're certainly not having a very peaceful vacation at all because the markets are feeling the effects. they are down. one positive piece of news, though, from europe today, as last week we had a major scare with italy and spain, the fear they would not be able to pay back their debts, today the european central bank moving in and moving in in a big way to buy italian and spanish bonds, to the tune of some $3 billion in one day. >> it's ten-year money, it's over 6 percent, dramatically that's come down to 5.3% in italy and 5.5% in spain, a huge move in the borrowing cost to these two countries, thanks to the european central bank intervention, buying up their bonds. >> reporter: now, over all, though, the markets are reacting to the downgrade, the ripple effect is causing almost losses all over, first in asia, then in euro

greg burke joins me live on the phone from madrid. greg. >> reporter: megyn, that's right, pope benedict is getting his formal entry into madrid now. there was a small ceremony at the airport earlier today, now he's going to get the keys to the city. this is the first of groups leading the young people, and you can hear them shouting as he makes his way in the popemobile. some of the people have been waiting all day, about half a million are here for youth day, the reason why pope benedict is here. lots of enthusiasm, you can see that on the streets, definitely, but the trip has not been without controversy, mostly because of the pope, in such economic troubles, with 20 percent unemployment, there's been a small demonstration saying this is not the kind of -- not the time to be spending that kind of money on a trip like this. now, it's hard to explain the sort of rock star enthusiasm for this # four-year-old pope. [-- >> [interruption] >> megyn: thank you. that was a very noisy phone line from madrid. we appreciate the report. >>> he w

greg burke, thank you for the update. bill: terrifying moments on board an american airlines plane, passengers and pilots forced to make an emergency landing, turbulence violently shaking 152 passengers and six crew members. they eventually landed safely in charles shon, south carolina, the chaos, though, apparently injuring passengers and a flight attendant on board. >> it would be premature for me to speak about that. i know that two people were transported. i don't know the extent of the injuries or how serious they are. bill: passengers eventually made it on other flights, the airplane is being checked out for damage in charles shon. >>> three refugees under arrest after one of them tried making it through airport security with what it looked like a bomb, albeit a fake bomb, a woman arrested in phoenix after security discovered a jar in the carry-on bag with a a cell phone attached to the side, the woman claims a man from her home country gave her the jar containing sesame paste. at some point the cell phone was taped

greg burke is streaming live from rome with more be. llo, greg. >> reporter: shannon, that's right. well, you know, there's always been fear of contagion, what was happening in the smaller european countries like portugal and greece would spread to the bigger ones, and certainly it's looking more and more likely that that is getting close. the problem is debt in both spain and italy. what's going on? well, europe has had to bail out the smaller countries, portugal, ireland, greece. actually greece two times. but now there is fear of real contagion to the bigger economies. italy is the third largest economy in the e.u., spain is the fourth largest, and they could be countries that are actually just too big to bail out. italy, moreover, has virtually no growth which is certainly not promising for lenders already afraid that italy and spain are not going to be able to pay back their debts. now, in the midst of all of this one country that is growing, germany, germany is quite important in all of this, and that is essentially because somebod

greg burke is monitoring what's happening in europe from rome, italy. greg? >> reporter: hi, jenna.ght, things looking better. one of the things they did is actually in four countries here, italy, spain, france, belgium, to block short selling. but today markets looking good, up germany, france, london all about 2%, the markets. spain and italy up over 3%, so that is all very positive news after a very rough week but long-term prospects still looking pretty tough. you know, the growth figures or the lack of growth, really gdp figures are out for the second quarter, france was flat, greece perhaps no surprise but down nearly 7%, so it gives you an idea what a drag that is on europe. this is very much a political story just as it is business economics, and here in italy prime minister silvio berlusconi working with political leaders today, he's trying to explain to them what kind of cuts they're going to have to make. they're trying to trim down next year's budget by nearly $30 billion. so, clearly, politically that is not going to be an easy sell on the street, an easy sell out there

greg burke has this live from rome. >> reporter: every couple of years the pope organizes something calledfferent city. this year it is in madrid. this world's youth day is shaping up a little differently than other ones. one because of a protest this evening, 5,000 people expected. protests against the high cost of the trip. the second thing the arrest of a 24-year-old mexican man apparently arrested because he wanted to break up this protest with some sort of chemical or gas attack. a little excitement before the pope even arrives tomorrow. it looks like the police did not say they actually recovered any memorandum kals, but that the man was making threats online and they are obviously very careful about these things. the young people are there in madrid to pray, to go to confession, that's what the organizer is saying, not making much of the protests. there is some debate about the actual cost to the government, and that is because spain is one of the countries in europe right now with highest unemployment and especially among young people. so a certain different debate in this world yo