cnn money.com's poppy harlow has more now on how some folks are making a bet on a motor city renaissance. >> reporter: this house in northwest detroit recently sold for $7500 bucks. just $4,000 would have bought you this one right across the street. you may have missed the investment opportunity of a lifetime. >> we have actually a waiting list of people to rent and to buy. >> this man thinks he didn't. michael alexander has purchased 250 homes in detroit, betting the motor city will rise again. >> when we find a nice street like this, we try to buy all of the available inventory on this street. >> why on earth is this a good place to put your money to work? >> well, that's a good question and i get asked it a lot. we're buying homes in that particular market range and able to offer them at better prices so since everyone is going to need a place to live, we're offering value. >> alexander's company invests between $10,000 and $20,000 rehabilitating the homes which they say they've been able to flip for a 20% to 30% profit. even with buyers scarce, alexander says he's been able to rent m

cnn's poppy harlow is here with details of the automaker's evolution. ood morning to you. >> good morning, heidi. general motors emerging after six weeks in bankruptcy and we the taxpayer in by $50 billion for this company that is going to be smaller and virtually debt free and we're going to own 61% of it. here's what we know. three priorities for the ceo, customers, cars and culture. they're going to keep four brands, chevy, cadillac, buic and gmc and keep about 4,100 of their dealers and what you're looking at there is the decline in market share. we'll get to that in one minute here but general motors market share has fallen for decades. for decades now they have been struggling, heidi, and they have under 20% market share. heidi, they're down from having 50% market share at their peak and that's the whole goal. make cars and make people buy more of them than they are right now. >> make money. that's how business usually works. if this new gm will turn things around enough. >> that is the big question and what we also know, is that more job losses ar

that is the bottom line, isn't it, poppy harlow? >> that is exactly right, don. gm promising at $50 billion of our money, taxpayer aid, they'll make cars people will want to buy. they are smaller, they are cutting their dealership network from 6,000 to 3,600, they have unloaded billions upon billions of debt in the bankruptcy process. closing 16 u.s. plants that means 20,000 u.s. workers at gm will lose their jobs by the end of the year. they are going to launch new cars, ten new cars across the u.s., 17 new vehicles around the world in the next 18 months. the real issue is will people want to buy those cars more than they do now. the ceo came out with this announcement. i have three priorities, customers, cars and culture. a bankruptcy proceeding is a financial task. not a culture change at a company. i asked him can you ensure the american taxpayer that owns 61% of gm that the culture at your company has changed. here is what he told me one-on-one. >> i've always been a believer that culture is about how you act and how you perform and where you spend your time

cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow has the breakdown from new york for us. poppy. >> good to see you, tony. what a day for the u.s. auto industry. a rebirth of sorts for general motors. and fritz henderson, the ceo, still thinks they can rebuild themselves. here's how they're going to do it. let's break it down. first all, they'll be much smaller than they once were. they are shedding dealerships. the goal, to cut down dealerships from 3,600 to 6,000 from where it stands today. they are closing 16 plants across the country. that means they will cut 20,000 u.s. workers. that's when the remaining 88,000. they'll also cut about 450 white-collar employees of management at gm. they will also be a company with a lot less debt thanks to bankruptcy. and we, the u.s. taxpayer, are supporting gm to the tune of $50 billion for them to restructure. and also they're really going to try to offer more attractive products. fritz henderson, the ceo, saying this morning they're going to launch ten new vehicles in the u.s. and, tony, 17 new vehicles around the world over just

poppy harlow asked the legendary star about his thoughts of the economy. he's had good lessons in the economy ever since he was 6 years old. so little help from his family but he's done a lot since then. he told me one on one, have faith in the american economy with a look back at history, we always emerge stronger from a crisis. take a listen. >> anybody has lived to regret it. we have a system that unleashes human potential and then continue to do so but you won't see that tomorrow or the next day necessarily. but i will guarantee that five years from now you and your kids and all of the people will be ultimately it's the spirit in him and not government stimulus that is going to get the economy back on track. that's what he said. we talk about history shows this and obviously if you tell them what to do, though, none of the government intervention as we talk about what is going on. >> it's a great question and we ask the final question for my kids, listen, should americans have any confidence to hold that little savings that they might have out of the m

poppy harlow has a breakdown now from new york. what is that? want to be profitable and analysts and the plan and really make a long-term travel this week and more time and fundamental problem and that is and and the country, and union workers, some of which make concessions, but it's really the future workers where the pay cuts have been taken and gm is shrinking. they are not bringing on a lot of new employees. how much cost for gm? a tougher road ahead, heidi. >> what am i going to have to do to turn things around? >> they have to build cars that people want to buy. and i want to clear something up. we went to gm a week ago or so and they said, gm sells more cars than ford or chrysler. however, they are selling less and less cars. that is a problem. fritz henderson coming back and saying, this is going back to basics. if the company can do that, we are going to change the company perception. in a statement today, fritz henderson came out and said, now it's our responsibility to fix this business and place the company on a clear path to succes

poppy harlow is in new york tonight. she joins us by phone. a lot of people are upset about this, asking how this company keeps main street running but yet no one will get behind it. tell us us what going on. >> that's exactly right. this is the subject of a lot of debate throughout last week. this is a 101-year-old lender that services nearly 1 million small and medium-sized businesses in this country. the largest lender to those small businesses across america. but they made some mistakes. they made some aggressive pushes into subprime lending. it took a big hit. i should say, this group, c.i.t. group, this lender did get $2.3 billion of t.a.r.p. money last december, but it found out a few weeks ago that it needed more help and it went to the government, the ceo really working with people in washington trying to get additional ate, and it was not able to secure that additional aid. you heard from lawmakers coming out last week talking about how this bank is not like others, for example not like aig and others that -- and bank of america, cit

cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow is in new york tonight. she joins us by phone. a lot of people are upset about this, asking how this company keeps main street running but yet no one will get behind it. tell us what's going on. >> that's exactly right. this is the subject of a lot of debate throughout last week. this is a 101-year-old lender that services nearly 1 million small and medium-sized businesses in this country. the largest lender to those small businesses across america. but they made some mistakes. they made some aggressive pushes into subprime mortgages and student loans just like every other bank did. it took a big hit. i should say this group, cit group, this lender did get $2.3 billion of t.a.r.p. money last december, but it found out a few weeks ago that it needed more help and it went to the government, the ceo really working with people in washington trying to get additional aid, and it was not able to secure that additional aid. you heard from lawmakers coming out last week talking about how this bank is not like others, for example not like a

let's begin with poppy harlow live in new york. >> $700 billion in t.a.r.p. money, but the treasury department doesn't require the banks where all that money is going but a new report with some interesting findings. we'll dig deeper at the top of the hour, heidi. >> president obama continuing to push his health care reform and he said this morning if you don't set a deadline nothing happens and nothing gets done. he's setting the deadlines for the august recess. much more on that at the top of the hour. >> i'm susan lisovicz at the new york stock exchange. the dow is nearing the 9,000 mark. this is as investors await testimony from ben bernanke on the economy and the so-called exit strategy from recession. heidi, more on that at the top of the hour. >>> also look at the gap of the wealth of white americans and african-americans. a welt building expert will join us to talk about what you can do to narrow the gap. >>> most ex-convicts will commit another crime and end up behind bars again. this revolving prison bar is costly for communities and devastates famil

cnn money.com's poppi harlow explains. >> this house in northwest detroit recently sold for $7500.0 would have bought you this one right across the street. you may have missed the investment opportunity of a lifetime. >> we have actually a waiting list of people to rent and to buy. >> reporter: this man thinks he didn't. michael alexander has purchased 250 homes in detroit. betting the motor city will rise again. >> when we find a nice street like this, we try to buy all of the available inventory on the street. >> why on earth is this a good place to put your money to work? >> well, that's a good question, and i get asked it a lot. we're buying homes in that particular market range, and we're able to offer them at better prices so since everyone is going to need a place to live, we're offering value. >> alexander's company invests between $10,000 and $20,000 rehabilitating the homes which they say they've been able to flip for a 20% to 30% profit. even with buyers scared, alexander says he's been able to rent many of these homes at attractive prices. but it's far from a safe bet.

cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow takes a look and a nap. >> reporter: if a good night sleep seems like a faintry, blame the economy. one-third of americans are losing sleep over their concerns about their personal finances or the economy, according to the national sleep foundation. >> we're seeing a combination of people, people who have had long-standing problems with their sleep, who report that their sleep is getting worse because of the added stress of the economy, as well as people who are coming in saying that they have never had a sleep problem before. >> prescriptions for sleep medications at a record high, topping 56 million in 2008, and up 54% since 2004. but if pill-popping doesn't sound like the solution, consider a good old-fashioned powernap. >> you can nap in response to sleep loss, so after the fact. or you can nap in anticipation of sleep loss, because only sleep can replace sleep. >> reporter: and napping may be just the ticket. business is booming here at yellow wellness, where, believe it or not, people in manhattan will pay nearly $30 for a 40-minute nap. >> it has been a

poppy harlow has our energy fix from new york. poppy, break this down for us, won't you?> how could we forget that $147 a barrel oil. this is the commodity futures trading commission or cfcc for short. they've been holding hearings in washington this week trying to figure out the best way to shield customers from surging oil prices due to, quote unquote, excessive speculation. i want to break it down for you because we all speculate on oil prices but some collect the oil and some don't. airlines for example buy oil through these futures contracts and actually collect on that oil. then there are hedge funds and investment banks and investors like you and i that can buy these oil futures contracts but don't necessarily collect the oil. with more and more investors pushing their money into oil in the last year or so, crude prices have soared, obviously they're way down from where they were last summer. cnn's allan chernoff reported on it back in 2007 but what is new is that the cftc is proposinging trading limits for those financial companies. it's also garnering limits wide

cnnmoney.com poppy harlow has our energy fix this morning. morning, poppy. what can you tell us about this? >> the g-8 nations agreeing to cut greenhouse gas emissions across the board by 80%, but the goal is a far ways out. they're also pledging to prevent world temperatures from rising by more than 2 degree celsius or 6.3% fahrenheit. u.s. scientists say if it rises more than that, it will be disastrous for the planet. this is the first time the g-8 set a temperature ceiling before. there are environmentalists who are up in arms and they are disappointed. yesterday greenpeace showed us how disappointed they were putting that big, big banner up on mt. rushmore saying america honors leaders, not politicians. stop global warming. they're arguing 2050 is way too far away. we need more aggressive short-term goals. these goals are just meaningless, heidi. also if you don't get developing countries on board like china and india, big industrial countries and that does not look like it will happen today at the major economy forum where 17 countries are coming toget

. >> i'm poppy harlow in new york. last summer the trading commission said it was excessive speculation by oil traders that did not cause oil prices to jump over $140 a barrel. now, the commission is proposing new regulations, heidi, to curb excessive speculation. will it reverse its position on that, too? we'll tackle that in the next hour. >> i'm elizabeth cohen in atlanta. when swine flu hits season, it is expected to hit hard. this fall, who needs to be the most worried about swine flu? i'll have that answer at the top of the hour. >> thanks, guys. >>> we will also take you inside an operating room seeing a patient being put under with propofol. powerful sedative michael jackson may have been given before he died. >>> it may be next week before we learn the cause of michael jackson's death. yesterday investigators searched the las vegas home and office of jackson's doctor. cnn's ted rowlands has an update. >> reporter: investigators left, according to murray's attorney with cell phones and a computer hard drive. an

poppy harlow has more. that caught my attention. hollywood film crews. are they trying to get their cars in movies, free advertising? what is going on? >> not exactly. this is about bringing jobs to michigan. we could see detroit changing from the motor city to the movie city. you have over 14% unemployment in michigan. a huge underemployment problem there is help coming from an unexpected place. take a look. don't be surprised to see george clooney or robert de niro in michigan. the hollywood a-listers have joined clint eastwood to make major motion pictures in the embattled state. >> we are focused on the creative economy, whether it is film making. >> if i have to come back here again it is going to be ugly. >> clint eastwood's "gran torino" takes place close to detroit. a 42% tax break for studios that hire local workers rather than bring in their own crews. sounds great, but even though michigan have a skilled labor force most don't have any experience working on film sets. enter mort mizer in and the center for film studies, the school gives michig

cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow has our today's energy fix. >> sometimes you need money to fund somethingt money. that's exactly what's going on with t. boone pickens, not canceling, but slowing his plans for a huge wind farm in the texas panhandle. could have powered 1.3 million homes, it could have, but it's on hold right now, basically because the transmission lines to get that electricity, get that energy from the panhandle to the rest of the country, they're expensive. he wanted to build them, and he can't get the credit to do it right now. also what we're seeing a decline in energy prices, that has diminished some of the urgency for other companies trying to get into this sector as well. think about it when t. boone announced the pickens plan, tony, about a year ago, oil was over $130 a barrel. now it's less than half of that. so, let's be clear. the project's not going away. he's already ordered 667 of those giant turbines you see right there from general electric for $2 billion. he just now looking at other locations for them. i spoke with his team today. they said maybe oklahoma.

. >> reporter: and in detroit, poppy harlowe. >>> let's put this a little bit more into context. new report shows a record 1.5 million plus homes fell into foreclosure in the first half of this year. in michigan, that equates to one in every 74 households. and on friday, michigan became the first state in 25 years to top a 15% unemployment rate. experts say those job loss as count for much of the increase in foreclosures. it's bad out there, huh. >>> a once unspoken subject in the black community. not anymore. depression is no longer a dirty word. you're in the right place. only progressive gives you the option to name your price. here. a price gun? mm-hmm. so, i tell you what i want to pay. and we build a policy to fit your budget. that's cool. uh... [ gun beeps ] [ laughs ] i feel so empowered. power to the people! ha ha! yeah! the option to name your price -- new and only from progressive. call or click today. >>> depression in the african-american community has long been a taboo topic and as a result, many cases go undiagnosed and untreated. my colleague, soledad o'brien yen

poppy harlow just spoke with the ceo, fritz henderson. what do you know?reporter: the bankruptcy process, they may be a new company out of bankruptcy. this is really the beginning of the work for this company, a daunting task ahead for fritz henderson. what is going to matter to you folks is that this company is going to be a lot smaller, a lot more efficient and they are going to produce the cars that you want to buy more so than you do right now. what we are going to see, ali, is a number of dealerships closed, 16 factories, 20,000 more people at gm will lose their job. what this really gets to the crux of it. how does the company change? bankruptcy is a financial thing, it is complicated. it gives you a clean slate and wipes away most of their debt. however, what they also get is a new chance to emerge as a company with a new culture. banks rubankruptcy doesn't chan your culture. does the culture that led you into this bankruptcy is really going to change? here is how we answer that, ali. >> i have always been a believer that culture is how you act and

cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow has our energy fix from new york. poppy, hi. >> hey, chuck. we all remember the $147 a barrel or more than $4 bucks at the gas station for a gallon of regular unleaded. how could you forget? they're holding hearings this week trying to figure out the best week to shield consumers from surging oil prices because of excessive speculation. let's differentiate between airlines that buy oil through contracts. they use the oil. they take the delivery of it. then there's a lot of financial institutions like hedge funds, investment banks that will buy the oil futures contracts but then sell them at a higher price. they don't collect the oil. a lot more investors putting money into the market over the past few years. this is driving prices higher. this is proposing trading limits for the financial companies. it's getting widespread report. there were a lot of the commodities, oil, et cetera, the hope is to help consumers bring the prices to a more normal level. some consistency to the picture. >> have they reserved their position? it wasn't excessive s

cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow explains. >> reporter: don't be surprised to see george clooney or robert de niro next time you're in michigan. those hollywood i-listers have joined others like clint eastwood to make major motion pictures in the embattled state as it works to reinvent itself. >> we are focused entirely on diversifying our economy, for example, in the creative economy, whether it's filmmaking. >> if you stay here, because if i have to come back here again, it's going to be ugly. >> reporter: clint eastwood's movie takes place a few miles from detroit. so, what's the incentive to film here? a 42% tax break for studios that hire local workers. rather than bring in their own crews. sounds great, but here's the problem, even though michigan has a skilled labor force, most don't have any experience working on film sets. >> okay. >> reporter: enter mort meisner and the center for film studies. started in march, the school gives michigan workers the chance to hone their skills to meet the needs of movie execs. >> i don't think hollywood woke up this morning and decided, hey, let'

cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow is joining us, and i understand that you have some details about something's going on there. >> yeah. you know, it's a bright spot in a pretty sad story for the state of michigan, especially the city of detroit. the state of michigan battling more than 14% unemployment and, christi, this is not to mention a host of under employed workers there. this state, no doubt, desperate for jobs, and despite the woes in the auto industry, there's actually some hope coming from an unexpected place. take a look. >> reporter: don't be surprised to see george clooney or robert de niro next time you're in michigan. those hollywood a-listers have joined others like clint eastwood to make major motion pictures in the embattled state as it works to reinvent itself. >> we are focused entirely on diversifying our economy, for example, and a creative economy, whether it's filmmaking. >> you stay away in case i have to come back here again. it's going to be ugly. >> reporter: clint eastwood's "grand torino" takes place just a few miles from detroit. what's the incentive to film he

poppy harlow is joining us now with details. hey, poppy. >> hey there, chuck. we hope it can because it is mainly our company now as u.s. taxpayers. we have $50 billion in gm to prop up the company. they are getting smaller. much smaller. they're shedding dealerships. the goal is to get down to $3600 by the end of next year. that's down from roughly 6,000 dealerships today. they're going to close 16 plants in the country. that will be 20,000 more gm workers will lose jobs by the end of this year. they say it's going to offer more attractive products. announcing today they will launch ten new vehicles in the u.s. in the next 18 months and during the same time about 17 new vehicles around the world. the priorities for fritz he henderson, customers, cars and culture. bankruptcy does not change culture in a company. so i asked the ceo if he can assure us, the u.s. taxpayer that now owns most of gm that the culture that led it into bankruptcy has really changed. take a listen. >> i've always been a believer that culture is about how you act and how you perform. and

cnnmoney.com poppy harlow met with one family trying to ensure ford's future is as bright as its past. what did you learn, poppy? >> we talked to a family, the grandfather and the father and now the son is there at ford. this is one of the positive stories that we don't hear much about. let's introduce you to that family. take a look. lino worked as an engineer at ford from the 1960s to the 1990s. following his father's work at the automaker during the great depression. >> for me it has provided a great living and provided an opportunity to send all my kids to college. >> reporter: it was lino's first and only job out of college. three decades later, his son, carl, followed in his footsteps. >> probably the first thing that interest me about it is ford, we have like a family days and i always remember as a kid what was there and then even then as a kid, the engineering or the intuition of all the interesting parts and stuff like that. >> reporter: carl has been an engineer at ford since 1991. in fact, all three of lino's sons have worked at ford, something you see a lot of here. >> i

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wall street insiders are looking back at those harrowing times, and they talked to cnnmoney.com's poppy harlowd poppy's in new york with the breakdown. can't wait to hear what you learned from this discussion, poppy. >> hey, tony. yeah, it was a fascinating panel. we sat down with the former chief financial officer at citigroup, also former new york governor and attorney general eliot spitzer to get their take on this crisis, the bailouts, the role of the regulators. and spitzer has really made news recently, tony, by criticizes the fed. he went so far as on national television to call the fed a giant ponzi people. he said it's a huge cause for concern. take a listen to what he told us. >> the fed unilaterally has issued trillions of dollars of capital and guarantees, most of it guarantees, to the banks across wall street after they failed. probably that needed to be done, but we don't know why, how, what the terms were, what the logic was. >> i'm glad that we had the luxury of sitting here to debate what they should have done and could have done, right? i think if we bring ourselves back to l

poppy harlow is joining us from the krcnnmoney.com newsroom. fill us in on this one, poppy. >> a lot of folks didn't know what c.i.t. was even a week ago but there's been a lot of debate about this lender. it's one of the largest lender for small and medium-sized businesses. it's been facing a major cash flow shortage. what we're hearing from multiple reports, including "the wall street journal," is that c.i.t. was struck a tentative deal with its bondholders for an emergency $3 billion loan. the goal there, stave off bankruptcy. so what is c.i.t. and why does it really matter to you? that's the important thing afterall. well, it's a 101-year-old lender, small and medium-sized businesses rely on c.i.t. to get cash for their day-to-day operations. it has 1 million customers among small and medium-sized business owners. it operates in about 30 different industries, and it's actually the top lender to both women and minorities in this country. it has always focused on somewhat less creditworthy borrowers. it's had a lot of exposure, ill-timed bets

cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow met one family trying to ensure ford's future is as bright as its past. >porter: lena worked as an engineer at ford from 1960 until the early '90s following his father's work at the automaker during the great depression. >> for me it's provided a great living, provided an opportunity to send all my kids to college. it's provided satisfactory income in my retirement. >> reporter: it was his first and only job out of college. three decades later his son carl followed in his footsteps. >> probably the first thing that interested me about it is we have like a family day, and i always remember as a kid just the sheer breadth of what was there, and then even then as a kid is the engineering or the intuition of all the interesting parts and stuff like that. >> reporter: carl has been an engineer at ford since 1991. in fact, all three of lino's sons have worked at ford. >> i think it's the most defining element of this company, it's a family company. i can't tell you the number of places i can go in our company where people come up to me and say, you know, i'm four

poppy harlow joins us with more on that. hey, poppy. >> there just may be some gold.'re talking real estate investments. detroit is really ground zero for the housing crisis. you just have to take a walk flu northwest detroit to see why. you see homes like these, foreclosed, some abandon, many vandalized or bank owned. while those are homes that paint a bleak picture for some, there might be an upside. we spent a day with a man who thinks that he's got it right. take a look. this house in northwest detroit recently sold for $7500. just $4,000 would have bought you this one right across the street. you may have missed the investment opportunity of a lifetime. >> we have actually a waiting list of people to rent and to buy. >> reporter: this man thinks he didn't. michael alexander has purchased 250 homes in detroit, betting the motor city will rise again. >> when we find a nice street like this, we try to buy all the available inventory on this street. >> reporter: why on earth is this a good place to put your money to work? >> well, that's a good question. i get asked

cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow is joining us with the latest. impressive, right? to laugh at. serious profit for goldman sachs in the second quarter. the numbers better than even analysts expected. take a look, folks. that's in just a three-month period. why zid this happen to goldman sachs? one reason for this, the collapse of their main competition lehman brothers and bear stearns. somewhat insulated from parts of the banking world right now that aren't doing well. we're talking direct consumer loans and loans to businesses. so the question is till whether goldman sachs can keep this up down the load. the ceo coming out today saying yes, markets still refragile. but he did see improving conditions. a blowout quarter certainly. >> would that have been possible without taxpayer help? probably not. the t.a.r.p. money and a lot of government guarantees of goldman sachs. that allows the bank to borrow cheaply. the they're profiting now. the question on that is how did it play out politically? goldman reaping the benefits while americans are certainly struggling. this

cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow joins us live to tell us about this.a big announcement and really hard to dig through in all of the lawsuits pending. >> this is a big boon for not only general motors but also for the obama administration pushing for this restructuring for the company, now steps closer to the ultimate goal of a new general motors. they want to be lean. they want to be profitable. general motors is doing what it can. they're closing about a dozen factories. you have heard that before. they're slashing up to 40% of their dealerships. focusing on the core brands, but a lot of analysts are still skeptical about what this will mean for gm. can they really make a comeback? one analyst told us this morning this might just be something that buys gm time by erasing its debt. doesn't get to the fundamental problems of the company. one of the problems is what gm is working to fix. that is the declining market share. look at the chart on your screen. what this is is the sales volume falling year after year after year for general motors since 1985.

cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow met with one family trying to ensure that ford's future is as bright as itseporter: lena widman worked as an engineer at ford from 1960 until the early '90s. following his father's work at the automaker during the great depression. >> for me it's provided a great living. it's provided an opportunity to send all my kids to college. it's provided a satisfactory income in my retirement. >> reporter: it was his first and only job out of college. three decades later, his son karl followed in his footsteps. >> probably the first thing that interested me about it is ford, we have, like, a family day. i always remember that as a kid, the sheer breadth of what was there. and even then as a kid, the engineering or the intuition of all the interesting parts and stuff like that. >> reporter: karl has been an engineer at ford since 1991, in fact, all three of lino's sons have worked at ford, something you see a lot of here. >> i think it's the most defining element of this company, is the family company. i can't tell you the number of places i can go in our company where

poppy harlow asked the legendary investor for his thoughts about the state of the economy and where heht to be putting our money. are you getting free advice from a very smart source? >> reporter: he knows how life is for all of us. warren buffett. we spoke to him one-on-one on friday and you know what, he's been making money in the market really since his father opened a savings account for him when he was 6 years old at the omaha national bank. he told us you got to have faith in this economy even now when things look rough, because when you look back in history, america always, time and time again, emerges stronger from a crisis. take a listen. >> anybody that bet against this country has lived to regret it so we have a system that unleashes human potential and it will continue to do so. but you won't see that, you know, tomorrow or the next day, necessarily. but i will guarantee you that five years from now, ten years from now, that you and your kids and all the people around you will be living better than today. that's the history of america. >> of course, he acknowledges this is

we hope our colleague poppy harlow gets some royalties on that. meanwhile coach shares down 25%. a little giveback in the first minuting of trading. remember, we closed the day out yesterday at the highs of the year. and we've had quite a win streak, heidi. back to you. >> all right, susan, sounds pretty darn good, i think, i think we should talk a little bit more about it. we will check back with you later on, keeping our eyes on those numbers, of course. but the housing market's stabilizing, at least a possibility of that. very interesting to a lot of people and certainly the overall economy here. gerri willis is joining us now to talk more about this. gerri, yesterday, we saw that big number, pretty much a surprise to everybody by way of new home sales. now today, another indication maybe, just maybe there's a little bit more of a stabilizing factor here in the housing market. >> and i can't tell you what good news this is for homeowners across the country, heidi. the fact that home prices not just going sideways, but actually increasing month to month, that is very good news

poppy harlow details what's next for the largest automaker in her conversation with its ceo. poppy?is a new general motors, and the u.s. taxpayer is backing this new company up to the tune of $50 billion. here is how gm will try to turn itself around. it will be much smaller. the company is shutting thousands of dealerships. the goal, cut those dealerships down to 3,600 by the end of next year, that is down from about 6,000 dealerships across the country. today, they're closing 16 u.s. plants. that's going to mean eliminating about 20,000 more u.s. workers by the end of this year. gm, the new gm will carry significantly less debt than before because of the bankruptcy, and they say this company will produce more attractive products. gm's saying this morning it will launch ten new vehicles in the united states, and 17 new vehicles around the world over the next 18 months. the three priorities at this company, the ceo, fritz henderson saying today it is customers, cars and culture. here's the thing. the bankruptcy process is financial. it does not change the culture at the company. so

joining us now, cnnmoney.com correspondent poppy harlow. does duz this mean, poppy, the housing market is now finally coming back? >> reporter: you know what, wolf, that's a great question. that's what everyone is asking. i'd be encouraged by this news. at the very least, this is an encouraging surprise. wolf, as you said, an 11% spike in new home sales last month alone, far better than expected, and we should note this is the biggest monthly increase in home sales in nine years, so some strength there. this is also the third month in a row that we see new home sales rise. but let's be clear. take a look at what's on your screen because new home sales in june of this year were still down 21% from june of last year. when you look back four years during the height of the housing boom in one month alone in june we sold more than 1.3 million homes. last month, 384,000. so, we have to put it in perspective. here's what fuelled that search. home prices continue to fall. the median home price in this country fell another 3% in june to about $206,00

poppy harlow asked the legender investor for his thoughts and where he thinks americans should be putting their money. poppy has the breakdown from new york. everybody wants this guy's ear. good for you, poppy. >> thanks. that's why they call him the oracle of omaha. he has a few more dollars to play with than we all do, but listen, warren buffett, folks, has been making money ever since his father opened a savings account for him in omaha when he was just 6 years old. he's a legendary investor. he told me one-on-one, have faith in our economy because when you look back at history, america always emerges from crises stronger. take a look. >> since 1776 anybody that bet against this country has lived to regret it. we have a system that unleashes human potential, and it will continue to do so, but you won't see that tomorrow or the next day necessarily, but i will guarantee you that five years from now, ten years from now that, you know, you and your kids and all the people around you will be living better than today. that's the history of america. >> all right. of course, buffett acknowled

they talk to cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow. >> any way you look at it, the picture is clearer after it's fallen apart. we talked to the former ceo, the former governor, and eliot spitzer to get their take on the crisis, the bailouts, the roll of the regulators. it comes as an interesting time. spitzer made news by criticizing the fed, going as far as as calling them a ponzi scheme. he told us it's really the lack of transparency that's a major cause for concern right now. take a listen to what he told us. >> the fed unilaterally has issued trillions of dollars of capital and guarantees. most of it guarantees to the banks across wall street after they failed. probably that needed to be done. we don't know why, how, what the terms were, what the logic was. >> glad we have the luxury of sitting here and debating what they could have done and should have done. if we bring ourselves back to december, it was terrifying. >> that was the former cfo of citigroup who not long ago sat in one of the highest offices on wall street. saying last fall post the collapse of lehman brothers, et cetera, the

poppy harlow has more. what did he have to say? >> even though billionaires run into trouble, t. boone pickens slowing down plans for a wind farm in the panhandle but not putting a stop to them. the hope was to build the transmission lines toic that the energy lines to build the expensive -- he's been trying to tap the credit markets for funding. he's already purchased 667 wind turbines for a total of $2 billion. the plan is definitely not going away. they are moving forward. what they're doing now, chuck is looking at different locations for the wind farms. some possibilities they told us oklahoma, kansas, also possibly some areas in kan the. and they also do want to push forward with that project in texas. it's just not going to go as quickly as they expected before, chuck. >> how about cars and municipal vehicles that run natural gas? is that part of his plan? >> it's part of the pickens plan. today it got some movement in congress. the pickens plan had called for 350,000 heavy duty trucks to run on natural gas. pickens has been huge supporter of this in exchange for tradition