did the best of oecd countries but it didn't go through a great deal of pain? yes, but because of flexible markets and resilience, it will actually be ok. it really does not get to the heart of competitiveness as policy makers want to think of it. it is probably too broad. competitiveness, i would urge you, and studied with respect to areas that have an actual competition -- can be studied with respect to areas that have an actual competition. it is not about economies, it is about particular sectors. it is an article of faith among economists, at least outside of washington, that the optimum tax on capital is zero. it is tied to a discussion on productivity. there is also an interesting discussion, and evan will talk about this, about international tax cut addition, that there are things on which we compete in addition to the article of faith. you look at additional examples with education policy, and the basic underpinning would be improving primary education. but there is a competition to be had in attracting the best graduate students, the business that i h

according to the tisa test given by the oecd, we only rank as average. >>oecd, organization for economic cooperation and development for a better world economy. national experts in areas of economics, science, and technology, taxes, education, migration, environment, all the concerns of the 21st century meet at oecd. education is key to ensuring that people everywhere at the perchance that finding good jobs with stable futures. oecd examines the education system to find what works and why. >> how did they evaluate the effectiveness of the educational system? the use a program for international student assessment them this spring they to pisa. it is a global assessment. >> it looks like the -- it looks at the assessment of 15 year olds. we don't just look at people's confidence. we are very interested in people's attitudes, dispositions. we want to know whether young people see signs of something that will open life opportunities for them and whether they understand what they learn in school related to life and we collect a lot of contextualized data from

the chart shows this widening of corporate tax rates between the united states and oecd countries. can you make sense of what the president is saying? >> the idea is that u.s. firms can do for u.s. taxation's if they locate activity offshore. you can think of it as being like this. if you want to sell in germany, you have to compete with companies that are producing comparable products at a tax rate that is a few points lower. one way that you can do that is to locate a subsidiary in ireland and then that subsidiary will sell to germany and the profits will land in ireland. it seems crazy to assert that the company that does that is evil. then we would take away the opportunity for the u.s. firms to compete in germany. there would probably lose. right now, there are multinationals because they are allowed to avoid u.s. taxation. the way that you attract business to the u.s. is to make it so that you do not have to go to ireland to go through germany. if you wonder why there are so many unemployed people, it is amazing that they would say something like that. >> i think that what th

according to the psia tested by the oecd we only rank as average. >> oecd come organization for economic cooperation and development for a better world economy. areas such as economics, science and technology, taxes, education, migration and growth all of the concerns of the 21st century education is the key to ensuring people everywhere have a fair chance of finding good jobs with stable futures. oecd studies education system examining what works and what. >> how does the oecd evaluate the effectiveness of the educational system? they use a program for international student assessment. >> this brings me to pisa. what is the pisa? it is a global assessment looking at the performance of what we believe for the most essential subject areas but we don't just look at people's confidence. we are also interested in people's attitudes, their positions. we test the highest competence we also want to know whether young people see signs that will open a life opportunities for them but they understand what they learn in school relates to their life and reconnect data to the parents, schools and sys

of the ten major oecd nations with v.a.t.'s, or national sales taxes today, only canada has lowered its rate. denmark has gone to 25% from 9%; germany to 19% from 10%; and italy to 20% from 12%. the nonpartisan tax foundation recently calculated that to balance the u.s. federal budget with a v.a.t. would require a rate of at least 18%. proponents will also argue that a v.a.t. would result in less federal government borrowing but that, too, has rarely been true in europe. from the 1980's through 2005, deficits were by and large higher in europe than in the united states. by 2005, debt averaged 50% of g.d.p. in europe, according to the oecd data, compared to under 40% in the u.s. while there is no official proposal to impose the v.a.t., i think it's necessary for my colleagues to be on record on this onerous, new tax. therefore, i'm offering this very simple sense of the senate amendment which calls the v.a.t. exactly what it is, a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back america

i am on the committee and we had a guy from the oecd who did education and he said the kids in our country are falling behind young people around the rest of the world in terms of graduation rates for high school, brett tuition breaks for college. we will not compete internationally if our educational system is not up to par. we have pure manufacturing jobs than we have had for 40 or 50 years. how could we be a great economy if we are not producing the products we need? i don't know how you do that. in terms of the needs of our kids, in many ways you judge a nation on how it treats its august people. we have the highest rate of child with property of any major country on earth, a 18 percent said. is that acceptable? because we don't invest in child care and your education, we have more people in jail and china does, any other country on earth. china is a communist country way bigger than us and we have more people in jail. our infrastructure is crumbling right now. how will we become a great nation if we don't have roads and bridges and a transportation system that we need? everybody knows

but, the oecd basically came out and said this week that their begrowth forecast for the uk the top for european countries. if we can get good growth maybe the spending cuts could be paid back a lilt bit. >> interesting forecast, guys. >> well done. thanks to both of you. >>> when we come back, more on the international currency story. revamping its currency policy and who stands to benefit the most from that change if, in fact, there is a change. >> these currencies are really getting interesting. we'll talk about this carry-on fee outrage as more airlines start charging for luggage. we'll sit down with an executive of one carrier who has refused to go along with the rest, making some people very happy. we'll talk about it when we come back.  >>> welcome back, everyone. treasury secretary tim geithner making an unexpected stop. steve liesman reporting they may be very close to a deal here, although it could be a long time coming. steve, what is the latest on this? is this a deal that could really be monumental? >> i think it could be a siggant announcement, b

. >> what is the oecd? it is the >> is the organization for economic cooperation and development. it helps sustain economic growth, and boost employment, improve living standards, and help world trade. >> what is pisa? >> that stands for program for international student assessment. it was formed in the mid-1990s, and was designed to provide countries with accurate data about the education system. >> how do americans consistently rank of pisa testing? >> american students have consistently ranked average on all subject areas on the p i s eight test -- and pisa -- on the pisa test. >> what do these rankings mean? >> we need to work harder on our scores or we will continue to fall behind. >> speaking about your own education experience and community, what are some areas that are working? >> at my school, the teachers focus on cooperative learning and creating a positive learning environment. >> what are some areas that you think need to be improved? >> i think teachers salary is an area not working well. currently teachers are paid based on longevity instead of performance. >> with

. >> oecd, the organization for economic cooperation and development. we have experts in areas such as science and technology, taxes, migration, and all of the concerns of the 21st century. we work to ensure that people everywhere have a chance to find good jobs with a stable future. we examined what works in education and why. >> how did the oecd evaluate the effectiveness of our educational system? >> they used the program for international student assessment. >> we looked at the central subject areas. we do not just look at competence. we are also interested in attitudes and disposition. we want to know if young people see signs of something that is going to open up life opportunities for them. we collect a lot of the textual data that helps us understand where our educational system actually is. >> pisa surveys are given every three years, beginning in the year 2000. the results may surprise you. the united states has consistently performed no higher than average. these average results for the united states are in all subjects, math, science and rea

derek, it's pretty clear, in the oecd countries in the states, in europe, in the uk, policy is going to stay low for quite some time. so how much is that liquidity that we're creating in the west going to keep pumping into the east to, in fact, create bubbles there? >> indeed, g3 markets will be on hold until at least the second half of next year. there will be more conversations for investors to sell short the yen, maybe even the dollar and to buy assets in emerging markets such as in asia. however, whether or not they will be doing so will depend on the outlook for the global economy overall. and i think that sometime in the second quarter, markets will begin a major downturn on concerns over deficit in those major economies, only in the smart ones like greece. and this, i think, will put the end to the trade and the flow of money into emerging markets. so it will not take much longer for those flows to be reversed. >> so low u.s. rates will stop having an impact in hong kong, will they? >> well, investors will be too afraid to put a lot of new capital to work elsewhere. obviously,

we had a guy from the oecd that does education. this country, in many respects, is falling behind young people and the rest of the world in terms of graduation rates for high school and college. we're not going to compete if our educational system is not up to par. we had fewer manufacturing jobs that we have had. how we become a great economy of we're not producing the products that we need? i don't know how you do that. in terms of the needs of our kids, in many ways, the judge and nation on how it treats its youngest people. we have the highest rate of child part -- the poverty of any child country -- of any big country on earth. we don't invest in early education. with more people in jail than china does, than any other country on earth. for a country with a glass, we have more people in jail. our infrastructure is crumbling right now. how'd you become a great nation if we don't have roads and bridges, a transportation system that we need. everybody knows that we have well over $1 trillion in terms of infrastructure and transpo

. >> what is the oecd? >> the organization for economic cooperation and development. it brings together the governments of different countries to sustained economic growth, boost employment, raise living standards, and help grow world trade. >> what is pisa? >> there is program for international student assessment. it is meant to provide countries with an accurate data about their education systems. >> how have the americans have ranked in pisa testing? >> american students have ranked average on the testing. every year it has been given, including 2003 and 2006. >> what does this mean? >> it means you need to work harder on improving our scores. >> thinking about your own educational experience and the community, what are some areas that are working? >> teachers at my school focus on creating a positive learning environment. >> what are some areas that need to be improved in the education system? >> teacher salaries. currently, teacher paper work -- the date instead of performance. >> what did you learn from the people that you've interviewed? >> the headmaster at my

be finalized this portion of the testimony by saying the tax burden which is considerably below the oecd average would have to be higher than the average by the mid center within a few years after that we would be in the highest tax nation? >> that's including state and locals. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> we now go to senator durbin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it strikes me, stepping outside and looking in that social security and medicare's calculus the tax code is astrophysics or something and you just touched on it here because each year we go through a very public display in the appropriations process involving a very small amounts relative to the size of the federal budget yet when it comes to the tax expenditures which we are making each year there are very few sunsets and little and you will review about where we are going. i don't know if this qualifies as a starting or a short but the amount of money we spend on tax expenditures use it can distort business and economic decisions exceeds the amount that we appropriate in domestic programs each year so would you say that among

we had a guy from the oecd that does education. this country, in many respects, is falling behind young people and the rest of the world in terms of graduation rates for high school and college. we're not going to compete if our educational system is not up to par. we had fewer manufacturing jobs that we have had. how we become a great economy of we're not producing the products that we need? i don't know how you do that. in terms of the needs of our kids, in many ways, the judge and nation on how it treats its youngest people. we have the highest rate of child part -- the poverty of any child country -- of any big country on earth. we don't invest in early education. with more people in jail than china does, than any other country on earth. for a country with a glass, we have more people in jail. our infrastructure is crumbling right now. how'd you become a great nation if we don't have roads and bridges, a transportation system that we need. everybody knows that we have well over $1 trillion in terms of infrastructure and transpo

be finalized this portion of the testimony by saying the tax burden which is considerably below the oecd would have to be higher than the average by the mid center within a few years after that we would be in the highest tax nation? >> that's including state and locals. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> we now go to senator durbin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it strikes me, stepping outside and looking in that social security and medicare's calculus the tax code is astrophysics or something and you just touched on it here because each year we go through a very public display in the appropriations process involving a very small amounts relative to the size of the federal budget yet when it comes to the tax expenditures which we are making each year there are very few sunsets and little and you will review about where we are going. i don't know if this qualifies as a starting or a short but the amount of money we spend on tax expenditures use it can distort business and economic decisions exceeds the amount that we appropriate in domestic programs each year so would you say that among the thin

the oecd recently came out with a study looking at the sort of number of people in this country who own own business is actually the 22 richest nations of the world, the 22 richest nations. where did america come out in that list of the 22 richest nations? we came out second to last about only luxembourg. meanwhile, wal-mart, one company now controls in some cases upwards of 50% of the various lines of business in this country. 50%. often 50% plus. but let's get back for a second to this issue of fear. let's take a look at the sort of our independent workers because not everyone has the ability to run their own business obviously. the salary workers in this country let's look at white-collar employees and what is happening to people in this country. just one good example think is what is going on on madison avenue in the advertising industry. not long ago you had the couple dozen large advertising agencies, independent agencies and if you were a worker, if you were in executive you could go and you could compete the different potential employers against each other. you could sort of get