tom hudson is off tonight, jeff yastine joins us. treasury secretary timothy geithner delivered a pep talk today on the new rules to reform wall street and the banking system. speaking to business leaders at new york university, not far from wall street, geithner promised the reforms would not crimp innovation or competition, jeff. susie, the financial regulatory reforms were signed a few weeks ago by the president, and today geithner said the government will move quickly to put them in place and there won't be layers of red tape. >> susie: the treasury secretary also had a tip for wall street: >> don't wait for washington to draft every rule before you start changing how you do business. get out ahead of the process and out in front of your competitors. >> susie: also talking about the economy today, ben bernanke. echoing his testimony to congress last week. the federal reserve chairman told a legislative conference in south carolina he sees modest economic growth and a long and bumpy road to recovery. he thinks persistent weakness

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> jeff: good evening everybody. the smartphone wars heated up today, as research in motion launched the latest salvo. suzanne, it's called the blackberry torch. >> suzanne: jeff, the torch has a host of new features, including the addition of a real touch screen to blackberry's traditional keyboard. but how will it stack up when compared to apple's iphone and google's android phones? scott gurvey reports. >> reporter: at&t and rim executives unveiled the blackberry torch today, declaring it best blackberry ever. for canada-based research in motion, it has not arrived a moment too soon. blackberry virtually created the smartphone market a decade ago with a revolutionary device which tied the cellphone to corporate e-mail. but, while blackberry is still number one in terms of phones in service, it has lost marke

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening everyone. stifling competition and strong- arm tactics are no more for intel. jeff, the chip giant inked a deal with the federal trade commission to end those practices today. >> jeff: suzanne, the settlement comes eight months after the agency sued intel. it alleged the company used its massive size to elbow out the competition and pressure chip customers for over a decade. intel says it settled to get out from under the cloud of litigation. scott gurvey reports. >> reporter: intel had been accused of using anticompetitive practices to take business away from competitors. not only in the category of microprocessors, where it is by far the world leader, but also in the markets for graphics and other support chips. federal trade commission chairman jon leibowitz says the proposed settlemen

"don't go to the hudson river. go to the upland and work by gravity." and that's what new york city did. they first went to the hudson highlands, but 150 years later, it went to the delaware highlands. and really diverted the water that normally went to philadelphia to new york city. i don't think they anticipated that. narrator: the majority of new york city's drinking water comes from watersheds in upstate new york. a watershed is the area of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water. mountains act as a funnel to feed rivers and lakes. and in this case, reservoirs. in the new york city system, water is collected and stored in 19 reservoirs, which can hold more than a year's supply -- over 580 billion gallons of water. almost all of the system is fed by gravity, without the use of energy-consuming pumps. valves open to regulate the flow into the 85-mile-long delaware aqueduct -- the longest tunnel in the world. at hillview reservoir... the water is partitioned into another giant tunnel system. where it travels deep be

and from miami: tom hudson, co- anchor of the "nightly business report" on pbs. tom, so the fed puts out just a few paragraphs yesterday, and, markets clearly did not like it today. what did they see? fill in the picture for us. >> well, what they saw were concerns building in china and elsewhere about the global economy continuing to hilt the brakes. the chinese markets continue to try to price in a slower economy over there. that's awfully important for u.s. exporters. andry thinking the federal reserve assessment of the economy through the end of the year has certainly shareholders and the stock markets worried as we see lots of folks piling into the resk-off trade, and that meant buying u.s. government bonds ahead of what the federal reserve has promised to do as you detailed earlier. >> brown: now, neil irwin, what seemed to get people's attention was-- in part at least-- was a perceived change in direction by the fed. explain that. >> that's right. what -- for last year or so, the fed has been in exit strategy mode. they've been talking and thinking about h

tom hudson is off tonight, and jeff yastine joins us. well, american businesses are still cautious about hiring. and jeff, the latest employment report shows the u.s. economy continued to lose jobs in july. >> jeff: that's right, susie. this is the second month in a row with a drop in payrolls. the labor department reported a loss of 131,000 jobs, most were temporary census workers. american firms did some hiring, increasing payrolls by 71,000 private sector jobs, but that wasn't enough to bring down the unemployment rate. it is unchanged at 9 .5%. >> susie: president obama noted one positive: the private sector has add ed jobs for seven straight months, but he did say that progress, quote,"needs to come faster." we have two reports tonight looking at what's ahead for the job market and what washington can do to speed things up. we begin with suzanne pratt in new york. >> reporter: the dog days of summer are never a great time to find a job. this summer, however, the labor market is even tougher than expected. experts say despite better

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening everybody. how to fix fannie mae and freddie mac. susie, that was topic "a" today at a housing conference in washington sponsored by the obama administration. >> susie: tom, treasury secretary timothy geithner kicked things off, saying it's important for the government to continue backing home mortgages. but as for how much government support... geithner brainstormed with the nation's top housing experts, bankers, policymakers and academics. >> tom: today's meeting was a first step in figuring out how to reform the housing system. and, as stephanie dhue reports, there were plenty of suggestions. >> reporter: the federal government has used its financial muscle to backstop the housing industry. fannie mae, freddie mac and the f.h.a. now stand behind 95% of new mortgagees. but, treasury secretary timoth

jim langan, editor of the "hudson valley news." once again we appreciate your time. enjoy yourself this evening, jim. >> thank you very much. >> glor: we turn to the disaster gulf tonight. on day 103, the worst of the oil slick appears to be done gone, on the surface at least. questions remain about whatalize beneath. also with the static kill scheduled to begin early next, we b.p. is starting to scale back its crews. don teague is in grand isle, louisiana this evening. don, good evening. >> good evening, jeff. how much oil is still lurking out there in the gulf? it's a question without a clear answer 16 days after b.p. finally capped its blown-out well. in alabama, beaches finally reopened for swimming friday, the water declared safe. >> at first, we were skeptical about the water. but when we got down here and saw how clear it was, kids wanted to get in. >> reporter: the visible oil slick in the gulf is shrinking and skimming boat crews says it's getting hard tore find oil to clean up. the navy is even using a blimp to search for patches of oil. experts say bacteri

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening, thanks for watching. another nasty day of selling on wall street, with the dow losing 133 points. susie, the catalyst this time was a plunge in sales of existing homes. >> susie: tom, the drop in july sales was much bigger than expected, 27%. the report kindled more fears tom: about the economy, and raises the question of how much longer before it will grow again. conflicting indicators make it difficult to answer that. investors get a daily dose of gloomy economic news, but they also see a healthy pick-up in merger deals. indicating a level of optimism. we have two reports tonight, looking at the bullish and bearish trends affecting the markets. we begin in washington with stephanie dhue, and a closer look at today's dismal housing report. >> reporter: without a buyers' tax credit for support, econo

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening everyone. sales of new homes fell to an all-time record low in july. tom, you'd have to look back to 1968 to see home sales this low. they plunged 12% last month. >> tom: and susie, today's news comes on top of yesterday's disappointing report of a big drop in existing home sales. things are so gloomy that president obama took time out of his vacation to hold a conference call with his economic team, focusing on the deteriorating housing market. >> susie: home prices continue to fall as well. the median price of a new home last month was $204,000, almost 5% lower than a year ago, according to the commerce department. now, prices on existing homes? about $183,000, slightly higher than last summer. lower prices haven't been enough to turn browsers into buyers, and economist dean baker says there's a r

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening, and thanks for joining us. susie gharib is off tonight. suzanne pratt is with us. just one day after the federal reserve confirmed an economic slowdown, wall street today reacted in a big way. >> suzanne: tom, stocks sold off sharply. the dow lost 265 points, the nasdaq was off 68 and the s&p 500 lost 31 points. volume also picked up, with over a billion shares trading hands on the big board and 2.3 billion moving on the nasdaq. >> tom: the fed's assessment of slowing growth reminds some investors of japan 20 years ago. that's when growth stalled following a deep recession. scott gurvey looks at whether we're headed down the same road. >> reporter: it is called japan's lost decade-- the decade of the 1990's when the japanese economy did not grow. the stagnation followed a severe recession,

this is "nightly business report" and tom hudson. this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening everyone. worry, worry, worry. that was the watchword on wall street today, and all week long. tom, everyone's nervous the u.s. economy is screeching to a halt. >> tom: susie, there's been a steady stream of downbeat economic reports in recent weeks, and investors have found little reason to buy stocks. today was no different. the dow and s&p were in the red, and the nasdaq was virtually unchanged. >> susie: so can investors still make money in a "down" economy? suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: the stock market doesn't like it when the economy is growing slowly, or worse, not growing at all. since the beginning of may, the s&p 500 has lost about 10%, and it was about that time that economic data began to deteriorate. in recent days, investors have grown increasingly worried about the pace of the recovery, and talk of a so-called double-dip re

hudson river park in new york, and the blue waste plant in the city of vancouver, canada, and the one that most resembles our waterfront is the port of oakland's waterfront plan, which is a good example of some of the work that we can apply to the southern waterfront. as a part of best practices, we looked at sign it, how we can improve sign it to provide continuity on the system, site furnishings -- how we design and establish criteria for furnishings that are durable, made tenable, comfortable, and usable. and again, the idea of connections. how do we connect open spaces together down to the waterfront? a good example of this is in vancouver where they have lives that come down to the waterfront so that it is not a linear system that if you drop from at&t park to herons head park, you just have to jog back, but you might be able to look into the neighborhood and provide down to the water and back up into the neighborhood, so it is something we're looking at as part of the connector street along the blue green way. since the community workshop and at the community workshop, we receiv

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening everyone. general motors will soon be a public company again. tom, late this afternoon the automaker filed papers with the securities and exchange commission for an initial public offering. the i.p.o. is expected to be one the biggest ever in corporate history. >> tom: susie, some of the money g.m. raises will pay back american taxpayers, who bailed out the company just one year ago. many of the details are still unknown, but here's what we can tell you about the landmark i.p.o.: g.m. will be offering 500 million shares to the public sometime between october and december. the stock will be traded on the new york stock exchange and the toronto stock exchange. the automaker will trade under its old ticker symbol, g-m. the company will not pay dividends. and the government will sell 20% of its holdings

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening everyone. congressional investigators are now trying to figure out when egg producers first told government officials and consumers about a salmonella outbreak. tom, so far, over half a billion eggs have been recalled, and over a thousand americans have gotten sick. >> tom: susie, that's led food safety activists to press for tougher government regulations and raised concerns about large egg producers. but, industry groups say their health record is strong and they say bigger can mean safer. darren gersh reports. >> reporter: more and more of the nation's eggs are coming from fewer and fewer baskets. a dozen companies-- including wright county egg of iowa, the farm where the recall begin-- have more than five million chickens. and food safety advocates like patty lovera say that's part of the proble

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening everyone, and thanks for joining us. susie gharib is off tonight. i'm joined by suzanne pratt. suzanne, federal reserve policymakers said today what everyone's been feeling-- the u.s. economic recovery has slowed down. >> tom, the fed kept interest rates essentially at zerio, and now it's taking a new tack to prime the economic pump. >> tom: the fed plans to take the money it earns on its portfolio of mortgage-backed securities and use it to buy u.s. treasury bills. scott gurvey explains the move. the fed is on a roll, or at least that is the policy. with main street in a gloomy mood, the central bank announced today it will roll over its portfolio of securities. that will keep its balance sheet at record levels, but it will prevent the tightening impact shrinking the portfolio would have o

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening everyone. a new week, and a new batch of billion-dollar merger deals. tom, intel said today it's buying the wireless business of german chip maker infineon technologies. >> tom: susie, the price tag on that deal is $1.4 billion in cash. it's the second deal for intel in as many weeks. the chip giant's paying over $7 billion for mcafee, the big computer security firm. also today, 3m agreed to buy cogent, maker of a different kind of security product-- devices for fingerprinting and biometric identification-- for nearly $1 billion. american companies are sitting on a pile of cash. but they're not using it for hiring, they are using the money for deal-making. erika miller has details. >> reporter: consumers are not the only ones holding on tightly to their cash these days. corporations are too. non-fin

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening, and thanks for joining us. susie gharib is off tonight; i'm joined by suzanne pratt. stocks posted modest gains today, but trading volume was light. in fact, this will most likely be one of the lowest volume days of the year. tom, traders said they didn't want to buy or sell until they see what the federal reserve does tomorrow. that's when policymakers will meet to review the state of the economy. >> tom: with few new jobs being created and credit still tight, scott gurvey reports there are many opinions, but little agreement, on what the fed will or won't do. >> reporter: what's a fed to do? from wall street... to main street... we are looking to the central bank to get us out of the worst recession since the great depression. but, having pushed short-term interest rates down to almost n

this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening everyone. ben bernanke said today he'll do whatever it takes to prop up the economy. tom, the fed chief's speech at an economic conference in jackson hole wyoming came just hours after the government reported that u.s. economy grew only 1.6% in the second quarter. but bernanke didn't change his forecast. he still believes the economy will grow "at relatively a modest pace" this year. he said there was only a low risk of deflation. and he made a case that the fed alone can't solve the world's economic problems. >> tom: susie, bernanke used this speech to boost confidence that the fed is on top of things, and investors bought it for today. the dow rallied more than 1.5%. the chairman outlined four actions the fed could take, if necessary: pumping up the economy with money by buying long-term securitie