portugal is a similar situation. so you have a division between what they are calling the core economies in europe -- france, germany, switzerland -- and the economies are in much weaker states. and there's bonds and other issued debt. it would create a massive knock-on effect that would spread not just throughout europe but potentially around the globe. >> could it also reach the u.s.'s shores? >> well, it's interesting. right now, the u.s. is actually benefitting somewhat from this. at least the dollar itself is strengthening, as people -- as investors flee to safer currency, and the dollar is considered a safe currency, a safe haven investment. whenever there's turmoil around the world, the dollar usually benefits from it. so that's a positive for the dollar. but long term, the united states -- we're talking about debt bombs. that's what we're calling these things, debt bombs, ticking time bombs of debt. the united states has a huge debt and it's growing. this year it will probably reach, according to the obama ad

now it's portugal, spain, ireland. and there will be plenty more and the equity markets are following suit because of worries about global growth. >> maria, i was won derpg what you're hearing in terms of whether or not this is actually a story also of dollar strength of whether it is a question of euro weakness. i don't know which is -- whether rich bernstein has an opinion on that. >> sue, i think it's a little bit of both. i think the dollar should be strengthening at this point in the cycle anyhow. the fact that there's problems in europe and other parts of the world is sort of the icing on the dollar cake from my perspective. so it's a combination of events that are really occurring here that are supporting to dollar. >> yeah, because it's sort of the default, the reserve currency, when you don't have alternatives, you want to go with what you know. and what has worked in the past. and an interesting point that sue made, rich, that gold really was not acting as the flight to quality. rich bernstein, let me get you

portugal, big, big spread today though widening and the shift has come from greece to portugal to the iberian peninsula and they're asking questions about who ultimately will be next here in europe? could it be spain? that is a much bigger part of the euro zone and the uk is being talked about as well. >> guy johnson, thank you very much. major index declines and let's get to the "power lunch" market insiders. paul paflick is with banion partners and ned riley, ceo of riley asset management. mr. pavlick, by any polite terms this is a test of the markets in the united states. do you think the u.s. markets will pass that test? >> i do. i think if you take a look at what's going on in europe, is this the disease that's going to kill the patient over there? i don't think it is. what you're seeing is a relatively bad flu over there and it will knock the patient out for a couple of days and it will make him stagger, but he'll eventually come back to help. greece is trying to fix their problem and, you know, spain, portugal. that's going have to be the next step, but i don't necessarily beli

pm portugal eight and a half times as rich. we are twice as unequal. other countries is very similar but that is an important difference and we will show it makes an astonishing difference with social problems. increasingly we're worried about the contrast between the material success of our societies and the social failings this is an illustration of how the media constantly preoccupied with the by linds for drugs or teenage birth or prisoner crowding, all of that how it come up over time. we collect data on some of those problems with life expectancy in each country. math and literacy scorers allow you to compare how they were doing in different countries. and the mortality rates, homicide, teen-age birthweights and how much they contrast, of this city city -- obesity and mental illness including drug and alcohol addiction and social mobility of people moving up and down the social hierarchy. we put them into an index of social problems. it is like all those health and social problems weighted equally. where our country is the average physician on al

much higher in yield than spain or portugal or some of the others that you mentions. people do have money they're willing to lend. but there is some concern there, and it's probably not lithuania, because they don't have to come to market again this year. >> right. >> greece, on the other hand, does. in april, in may, they have 10 billion and $12 billion, $10 billion in april, $12 billion in may that they've got to refinance. that's going to be a real concern later on in this quarter. >> jeff from your perspective, what is more concerning, a year ago when you had major banks at risk of failing, or now when you have entire countries at risk? >> i think these are more aftershocks of the global financial crisis. if we had every country in europe, for example in the same financial position as we had all of the banks in the u.s. in the same financial position a year ago, a year and a half ago, i'd be concerned but that's not the case. a different picture between the haves and the have-nots in europe and germanys and france are willing to extend assistance to other members

greece, portugal, spain, which proposed to cut back its pension. retirement age and then reversed itself 48 hours ago. so its policy, which is being reflected in these prices in our vi view. >> sure. but as you know, david, policy takes a long time. what you do in the meantime is what you saw yesterday in overreaction? >> this is nerve-racking for investors and very complex because of the interrelationship of these currencies and various sovereign debt issuers. so investors have two choices. they can run to cash and sell. in this case been they've gone to an asset class that yields next to zero and will probably appeared to do so for years. they can focus on the places in the world where you're likely to get more growth. merging market asia is one of them, for example. even as china was going through change, in the long run, the chinese economy is going to be larger, more profitable and much more of a power in the world. >> david, stay with us. stay with us. james bevan, the cio of ccla investment management, both of you, we appreciate your time an

spain, portugal, and greece. they're lovely places. how important are they to the world story, how important are they to the economic coverry, in short, how important are they? who'd have thunk it? spain, portugal, and greece, knocking us down. >> by the way, i love jim's hue hefner remark. california's economy is probably bigger than spain, greece, and portugal combined. the problems in california haven't led to a market sell-off. so i think in some sense we are in a correction that was due. we had an amazing run-up from march through october. we had a flat line for the past three months, so we're in a phase where there's been selling pressure building up, and, yes, there's a lot of lingering global worry. it's not like people who freaked out in 2008 into 2009 suddenly became on opty mists or forward looking. there's a pool of worry to tap into with sufficient news to generate it. but that doesn't mean in my view that what we're facing is a world where we're going to have the next leg down. i think the real problem is too many people

greece, portugal, and spain are at risk of default. joining us to explain what this means, stu schweitzer, global market strategist at j.p. morgan private bank. hi, stu. >> hey, susie. >> so what was the fear that spooked the markets the most? was it this surprise number on jobs or was it the debt crisis in europe? >> i think it was both jobs and the debt crisis, the european debt crisis, but let me make what i think is an important distinction on the job front. because there were two-bits of news today on jobs. one was the white house saying that there was going to be a big downward revision to the job count coming out with tomorrow's report. but that is pretty widely known in the markets. and the unemployment rate already reflects all the damage that we've had to jobs. it's terrible at 10% plus. the other news that came out on jobs, though, was the latest weekly figure on unemployment insurance claims which did move up unexpectedly. and they had been in a downtrend and now they're up something like 10% above where they were at their

well, how important really is greece, portugal, and spain. who would have thunk it? but a bigger question. will europe save the euro. meanwhile will the bank tax announcement lost 700 points. is there a war on capital and investment? maybe that's the real cause of our stock market decline. but help may be on the way. massachusetts senator scott brown was sworn in today with his vow to fight tax and spend policies plus the first annual tea party meeting today and joining the revoft against big government tax and spend carly fee or reno blassing her opponent as the evil sheep. as team obama embarked on a war on toyota or is this really just a safety issue? fasten your seat belts, everybody. "the kudlow report" begins rye now. good evening, everyone. i'm larry kudlow.

whatever the reasons whether it's greece, spain, portugal, whatever. it is causing a major ripple of deflation. it's want that the dollar's strong. it's just that the euro's weak, but gold is getting totally, utterly slammed along with metals and other commodities and that is deflationary and that worries me. what's your thought on this? >> i think regarding the euro, it i think it does underscore the structural issues with having a monetary authority with really no political tie, so to speak, so you run into these problems where some of these -- it's not right to call them periphery countries, but smaller countries within the union are having issues and that kind of causes a problem. >> i want you to focus on the american stock market because the impact of the collapsing euro is a very high dollar and that, in turn, has led to an absolutely crushing sell-off in gold, commodities and metals. previously those were strong stock market sectors, is this an ongoing issue? >> well, i would say probably not a bad thing to take a little air out of those areas.

portugal, italy, ireland, greece, spain, all struggling with deficits. the fact is that greece is an economy in trouble. take this, baker street, 56 shops are empty, the market's just do not believe that the plan will work, despite the greek prime minister's insistence. >> we are ready to take any necessary measure to make sure that the goal of cutting the deficit by 4% in 2010 to the percentage of 8.7 of our gdp -- >> there are intense discussions going on tonight amongst european officials about whether or not to bailout greece. these talks are likely to continue tomorrow at an informal economic summit in brussels. if there is a rescue it will be controversial, prompting questions about who was going to pay and what the conditions will be. >> the united states is expressing deep disappointment in a london court ruling that has forced the disclosure of intelligence reports about a way that a british man was treated by the cia while in american custody in pakistan. the document sho that british officials knew that he was subjected to cruel, inhumane, and

>> there's remarkable progress in countries like spain and portugal.hink greece benefited from huge financial transfers, and frankly, they have enjoyed credit cover, if you like, in the single currency zone. they've enjoyed low interest rates and they've lived beyond their means. now is the adjustment. >> doesn't this suggest the kind of unworkable nature, one currency, but all these countries with widely different standards? >> if you don't have a fiscal union as well as a monetary union, then you get into trouble. and the really worrisome thing is that the greek economy, the greek government have got to have a severe adjustment on living standards and they don't have the flexibility of the exchange rate because they're in a monetary unit. that's the problem. all the pressure is going to come on wages, on living standards. you know, in ireland where the economy is also going like gang busters, almost a leprechaun on steroids, in the public worker some of the workers are taking a wage cut of 15 to 20%. >> what is the mood in europe? do you think there'

countries, portugal ireland,ilityly, greece, spain, pictures none have come up with a credible plan. you could say that about the united states. >> tom: right. >> but they're a lot further along in terms of the crisis than we are. >> tom: with that in mind, here we are going on the better part of a month with greece in the headlines, and worries about the global stock market for that matter, is this priced in at this point? is this risk already acknowledge expected world is ready to move on? >> well, i think certainly a greek default, do some extent eye mean, i think it's still a low probability event, but it has been, to some extent, priced in. i don't think a sparn one has been because that's a much bigger deal. if spain were to default on its debt, we could be look at a splitting up of the euro zone which would be pretty nasty. i don't really think financial markets priced that in. again, the good news is low. >> tom: developing economies really go off like gang busters here in 2010 already. the u.s. economy, clearly, is gaining some of the its sea legs at least in the fourth quar

investor attention may also shift to other high debtors in the med region, notably spain, portugal and italy. >>: another 16 billion will arrive as structural funds from the eu and greece's tourism and shipping sectors are already showing some signs of recovery. eckart sager caught up with the greek finance minister in davos and began by asking what the countrycan do to stave off bankruptcy. >>papakonstantinou: it's not an easy task. and it's not a task that can be done overnight. we are now in the middle of the storm, however we've had a ccessful bond offering a few days ago, we went out for 3 to 5 billion euro, we've got an order book for 25 billion, ended up getting 8 of that. so, we believe that as soon as people see the implementation of the stability growth programme that we've tabled to the european commission, which has gotten good reviews and as soon as they see the budget being executed properly and as soon as they see that the tax reforms are actually being legislated then spreads will tighten, markets will relax and we will have the time to do these necessary reforms that t

, pay yourself billions of dollars, start the rumor, get the swoon, take the money, and leave portugallessness, homelessness, what do you care, they're suckers. think of it like a man-made iceburg and we're heading right towards it. we just see fairly calm seas, all the money printing. but beneath the surface, all these secret bets and no money by the trillions, hidden below. and don't think that just you or i can get in on the scam, if we could, we could start a bank right now, we would have a good time. you actually have to have a huge asset base like our bank deposits or a huge insurance base, which only aig and citigroup have, which comes in very handy, by the way, when you want to blackmail the government into leaving the bill with the taxpayer, when you can't pay the losses. because you're like, well, either i wipe out all the life insurance, all the bank deposits and everything else stop lending, or you just give me all the money. don't worry, we're sure congress is going to get around to cleaning this mess up, as soon as they actually start working for the taxpayer and not the

in the last 24 hours the country of portugal tried to raise $500 million in the debt market.couldn't. they only got $300 million. that is a failed auction. clearly investors around the world are being far more picky about where they're going to put their money and they're going to demand higher interest rates. that's the bottom line. >> you're absolutely right, michelle. we're talking about a market that is just seeing reaction to this debt, not necessarily an out and out default. we had the president of greece on last week in davos. he was telling us he's trying to get the deficit now at 13% of his country's gdp. he wants to get that deficit down to 3% of the country's gdp, in just two years. we heard president obama's budget yesterday talking about a deficit of some 10% of the overall gdp. these numbers are staggering. investors have figured out that debt is a bad thing. they're reacting to it. even if we don't see that -- >> you're darned if you do and darned if you don't. because when greece says we're going to reduce the amount of debt, what does that mean? that means de

impact us but fortunately because we have kids in school, we knew the geography of, greece, spain, portugal, are triggering big declines because their governments are impoverished. they're spending too much money. hey, so is our government. so therefore the world comes to an end? uh-uh. i am not disagreeing with what we saw on our screens today. it happened. i am simply here to draw a distinction between the notion of observation and the notion of explanation. i can make the observation all you want that because oil is down, gold is down. i can observe that the dollar is up, oil is down. but you know what, that's just me looking at the screen. hearing the chatter. it explains nothing. and as i knew from my hedge fund when i used to work with people i would say hey, look, the dollar is up, gold is down well, tell me something i don't know. tell me something that can make me money tomorrow. what explains this wholesale selloff today is more complicated. much more complicated than the oil boom connected to the gold boulgmented 6 -- bone. that kind of logic isn't logical. to understand it, we h

there's rumbling s out of portugal. they have a big vote on their budget deficit.you look at the asian session here, things are getting a little bit weaker. i think you just see that rollover continuing. >> you anticipate a stronger dollar scenario tomorrow as well, so therefore commodities will continue to be weak in tomorrow's session? >> correct. >> we don't have the leadership at all over the materials for one? >> i think this continues until you get some kind of certainty. i thought you would get certainty when the ce approves greece's budget, but that doesn't seem to be happening. you really have to think safety. >> i worry about another crap show tomorrow. if the jobs report for december is as bad as it was, i can't believe the one to january is going to be any better. >> tomorrow could be a troublesome someday and tonight the indication will be the dollar itself. does it rise again? one trade again in oil, be careful, don't go short. >> our thanks as well to b.k. we'll check in with him later on. he's manning that prop desk for us all night. >> all night? >

if the imf makes positive statements, that might help greece, but if it spreads to italy, portugal --e imf, god help us all. >> that will do it for "power lunch." . >>> it is 2:00 on wall street. stocks are selling off again right now at the lows of the session, down triple digits on the jobs report. the dow well below the 10000 mark. today one undiscovered real ray of hope for the job market. it is 2:00 in both these places. in the low 80s in sunny miami and in the low 30s and snowy washington, d.c. washington is closed for business. is it a sign that he announced his bonus this afternoon. and it is 11:00 p.m. in dubai. a major auction under way with where animal sold for $2.7 million. an impending sign of doom or a sign of a recovery. what creature is worth $2.7 million amid this financial crisis? i'm erin burnett. this is "street signs." let's get straight to the trading floors because we are just touching the lowest levels of the session. bob pisani is at the big board, scott's at the nasdaq. i'm sorry, rick santelli is with us. bob, we started out, then we kind of held and then i

portugal, ireland, italy, greece, and spain. the acronymn for this is the pigs, if you will, unfortunately. all of these countries have large amounts of debt. the recession that we just went through and some of is still going through like spain is still going through a recession have exposed the fault lines, if you will, and have made this problem far worse than it was before. unfortunately, as the story was said earlier, in the case of greece, they essentially lied about the numbers. so all of a sudden the picture in greece was looking a lot worse than it did just, you know, a pew months ago. not only are the investors focused on greece but all of a sudden they're beginning to worry about the others especially portugal and spain. a little less worried about italy and ireland right now. but those three countries, greece, portugal and spain are particularly worrisome. >> brown: so you have these countries that have their own problems but then there is the further contagion worry, i guess, and the impact on the rest of europe. exp

debt problems in spain and portugal have battered the euro credibility on the world market. they suspect of vote rigging at a thousand polling stations. sri lanka's newly appointed president has dissolved parliament. there was the arrest yesterday of his chief rival. he now faces a court-martial for treason he is accused of plotting to overthrow the government. >> the general, the former army chief, burst unexpectedly on leave sri lankan political scene a few months ago. suddenly, there was fire in the presidential campaign. that is now becoming just a memory. the general lost the election two weeks ago and he is now in military detention his allies and his wife and dozens of security forces dragged him away from his office by his hands and feet late at night as he held discussions with colleagues. >> this is not an arrest. this is an addiction. he was carried away h. he had said that, as a civilian, he would surrender to police. up until now, we do not know where he is held. how can that be? if he is arrested, then we must be told where he is being held. the government must

countries like portugal and spain have been borrowing more cash than they collect at sky-high rates. the rising dollar sparked a selloff of commodities. crude oil down nearly $4 a barrel. gold tumbling more than 4%. aluminum maker alcoa lost 4%. weekly jobs claims rose by 8,000 instead of the drop some had hoped for. predibzs for today's big jobs report, economists hope to see jobs added in january but realistically the unemployment rate could tick higher. >>> bank of america was the biggest drag on the dow, down 5% after new york's attorney general charged former chief ken lewis and joe price with fraud for allegedly misleading shareholders about the bank's merger with merrill lynch. >>> meanwhile, the dow's only advancer, sisco. despite impressive fourth quarter earnings, sisco only managed to eek out a gain of less than half a percent. >>> mastercard, however, didn't fair as well. while the credit card company posted a 23% jump in profit, shares plunged 10% due to cutbacks in credit card spending. >>> both the "new york times" and the wall street journal are reporting the industri

portugal, italy, spain and greece, the so-called pigs, are europe's weakest link right now, free on what they call young democrat says the places ruled within living memory by fascist collaborators or generals. what's the chant? what are you chanting? >> we're saying people, don't bend your head. the only way is to fight back and revolt. >> in the quiet of an athens bar i met up with the student protesters. if the workers and the farmers won't stop the austerity, will they? >> i think most people of our age are very much considering leaving greece at some point. i know i have many friend who are unemployed at the moment and have been think things are not going to get better so they're thinking going abroad, find a job or maybe do some extra studying for awhile until things get better, if they get better. >> the youth i think feel very much betrayed. the two governmental parties in one way or another, they say the same things about the economy. and they do the same things about the economy. but i think that the good youth has to react first of all in a political way. >> do you think peopl

that stands for portugal, ireland, greece and spain.in what happened. >> they're europe's problem children. they have spent too much. they have not brought enough in. and they borrowed too much, george. this is a classic subprime problem of the u.s. consumer '07, '08, '09. now, it shifts to europe. never been to portugal. never been to greece. doesn't matter. there are companies in the united states that have invested in those countries because they were fast-growing economies. this could very well be a problem for the u.s. and we saw yesterday, that was reflected in our stock market. >> and the sell-off continued in europe and asia today. >> oh, yeah. absolutely. this is a followthrough. you used to see that whatever happened in the u.s. was what then happened overseas. now, it's the opposite. things that happen in china, things that happen in india, things that happen in europe, are affecting the world markets. and this is now a major issue for us. >> meanwhile, here at home, the big concern is jobs. and whatever happens month-to-mont

this is from portugal, watch this closely as he back-heels this over his own head. the goalie doesn't know happened. that was the only thing he could do. snazzy goal. portland's andre miller who gets shoved into the baseline camera man here. when you have the viewfinder pressed up against your eye and 150 pounds of man comes at you, you draw blood sometime. wear a cuff. >>> faux pas. drew has a birth mark on their cheeks. apparently oprah was not in the know and this is what she said. >> all right. who just kissed you, there is a big old thing right there -- >> she thought it was lipstick on his face. then again oprah is pretty powerful. if she said it is lipstick, by gosh it is lipstick. >>> mike richards knocked him out cold. he's unconscious on the ice. he stayed that way for a minute. when he got back to the bench one of the teammates had to tell him he scored the goal. kind of living it for the first time all over again. he was fine. mike weir at the match play looking for his golf ball, he finds it four feet off the ground lodged in a cactus. that is an unplay

mentioned earlier, hopes of a debt fix for greece helped lift the market spirits as worries about portugal and spain also were lessened. we saw the stocks of banks in those countries respond today. these three bank stocks trade as american depository receipts on the new york stock exchange, representing a share much like a normal u.s. stock does. national bank of greece saw very heavy volume on today's rally. the two spanish banks, santander and banco bilbao, also saw lots of interest during the rally. several items in the airline industry today brought buyers in for those stocks. the legacy carriers all saw nice action on the upside led by united airlines. u.a.u.a. helped lift the sector as it reported much better passenger revenue results for january. with united's global reach, investors see it as leading some good news to come. american airlines won the fight to keep its alliance with the bankrupt japan airlines. delta lost out, but not its stock-- continental was up and us airways hit a new 52-week high. selling stock below the market price helped boost interest for shopping center ow

portugal's prime minister says emergency aid is now on the way from the mainland. >>> seven years ago today, 100 people lost their loved ones in a fire. the fire broke out when pyrotechnics from the rock band great white ignited foam surrounding the stage. a memorial service will be held tomorrow. >>> heavy snow then a roof collapse snapped gas lines then finally a huge fire. that chain reaction disaster left the sykesville carroll county fire department in ruins. now one week later, mike schuh reports how the firehouse is rebounding. >> reporter: the damage is massive, the social hall completely destroyed, the kitchen went up in flames. >> you can look out over the halls. >> reporter: next door, the offices and living areas sore severely damaged, they don't know the insurance company will want to save any of it or bulldoze it and start new. office equipment is wrecked, but all of the firefighting equipment was saved. they pulled it out and fought their own fire. though they haven't missed a call sin the fire, they are now working and living out of these tents. furnaces blow in warm a

they are being called the p.i.g.g.s., portugal, italy, airline, and spain.host: our next call comes from edn. on our line for independentents in mournt poconno, pennsylvania. >> good morning. this has to do with the economy. i just want to make this comment. i'm getting tired of hearing the democrats cry about what obama inherited. when we paid hundreds of millions of dollars begging for votes, now they are crying to their momies like little girls. they should stop making excuses and move on. i'm sorry if this has nothing to do with the stock market. i don't understand what it's all about. thank you. host: thank you for your call. let's parse that out a bit from the obama administration and what they may or may not have inherited. what did this stock market look like when the current administration took over and how has it changed since tchen? -- then? guest: well, it's a mess. i don't think that is a partisan topic to note that the stock market was a mess when obama took over. so in september of 2008, as i mentioned earlier, you had lehman brothers fall apa

terms their interest costs may be 30% or 40% of their tax revenues in places like spain, italy, portugal and greece and ireland. the so-called pigs. that is worrying investors. some say if you're paying 40% of your tax revenues just to pay your interest, we may not want to lend to you any longer. that might send rates up or lead to an unlikely outcome, default, which would clearly be bad for the economy worldwide and set off implications many of us don't know what they would be. >> this word of left us here with tonight, a term of art from your business? >> yes, and you'll hear more about sovereign risks. >> terrific. david favre, thanks. >>> with all this going on on wall street, new york attorney general was filing civil fraud charges against the ceo of bank of america, former ceo ken lewis and the bank's former chief financial officer. they are the first senior managers to face charges in the wake of the financial meltdown. our own senior investigative correspondent lisa myers reports on the fallout. >> reporter: the civil fraud charges against bank of america and former ceo ken lewis

spain, turkey, portugal and ireland?> right. >> kevin, is anything on the money markets showing we're on the cusp of what we already went through or is this sort of the consequences of what we already went through? >> perfectly put. i think mr. schork was into the same thing in oil, applying to the whole ball of wax. so no, joe, the short answer that the indicators of crisis through the banking industry that were early two years ago and a year and a half ago, they were early indicators that things were going wrong and have remained quite stable. they are still being botched by the central banks heavily, but that's a good thing. and i think that the key thing here is that you're really dealing with a market that is driven by liquidation of a massive theme that resolves around inflation. so this is what happens when myths burst and i think that's when mr. schork was pointing out in the oil market. even as you were pointing out with gold, gold is negatively impacted, even though fundamentally, you're talking about people lo

it's spain, italy, greece, portugal, and ireland. who are also floundering.se, soros' solution is more intrusive monitoring. okay, big brother, soros, i don't know what it means but i don't think i want any of that. so you have all of these countries going down in domino effect. we're starting to see now people are freaking out, wait a minute, wait a minute, what is happening in europe? apparently, their economies are all tied together. it's almost like we're all interdependent on each other. oh! wait a minute, yeah, that's right! to stop nuclear war we could just tie all of our economies together. who would have seen this coming? who would have seen this coming when this coming, when all we were trying to do was stop nuclear annihilation. it's like george soros type global master planning idea is horrible. when we're all tied together, when one falls down, we all fall down. if america falls economically, the entire world will fall. if china falls, the world falls. europe falls, the world falls. got it? it's the reason we now hear on television it's the phras

that's on the at the time of portugal an other countries in the international bond market. >> neil: it's on our debt too but continue. >> no, our debt is a significant issue and that's why we passed the pay go rule, next week i'll introduce legislation directly to the debt. when president obama was sworn in we had $10 trillion plus in debt and projected deficits of 8 trillion-dollar to go. we have to deal with it, both parts are somalian and fox and your show in particular, you're right to keep our feet to the. >> neil: the only thing that worries me -- you're big on the pay go thing, a way to pay for programs either through spending cuts or tax increases or whatever but wall street is not convinced. they're not always right and the market doesn't always reflect reality but there's increasing view that the world cumulativelily, our country included, is digging a hole and with the scott brown swearing in today, no someone is listening to what massachusetts voters said and what the ratings guys are saying about what world governments are doing. it's like you're whistling in the graveyard.

>> well, it's affecting portugal and spain. >> they have the same problem. >> you know, and the worry is that it could go beyond that, say to eastern europe, which was really stress tested last year by the financial crisis. you know, for the u.s. it has two important implications. one is on the dollar. you could argue it doesn't help the u.s. because a stronger dollar is going to make it harder to drive an export driven recovery. it also keeps the fed on hold a little longer than it would otherwise be all else being equal. the real big worry is that this sends some kind of wakeup call to investors. investors start punishing any country that has fiscal problems including the u.s. and we start seeing long-term rates rise. that's one of the reasons that they're kind of relieved at the fed right now and the treasury is we're not seeing that in treasury yields. treasury yields have been kind of tame. and, in fact, investors are moving into u.s. assets and not away from them during all this. so another reason to say this is europe's problem. we're keeping our hands out of this, keeping our

but i think this year is going to be as much about not just portugal and greece, but hopping around to different sovereign related issues. this is the problem today. where should we be looking? where should we think about the problems? put these scores on across all of the factors. there are more issues than just those guys. i mean, you know -- you're friendly to the markets in the u.s., right? you think 3% growth here and -- >> yeah, certainly. >> and you like the economically sensitive stocks? >> absolutely. you know, to that point in the end, the u.s. comes out looking relatively good in the grand scheme of things. again, against a school of ugly sisters, perhaps, but i think we're not looking so bad. this is a year where we think we can get out 7%, 8% equity gains. we think even if it's stimulus driven, we're going to get 3% plus gdp growth. then add on to that. the first half of the year is about defensives. we've been there so far. going into the back half, i think it's going to be a traditional play. let's think defensive, let's think health care. other areas like that i think a

several deaths have also been reported in spain, u.k., portugal, and germany. >>> beginning tomorrow,will slow down for millions of passengers throughout the u.s. the airport's main runway will shut down for repairs for four months. it is supposed to eventually ease congestion and because there will be fewer flights to meet demand, ticket prices are already on the rise there. >>> coming off of a week in which stark differences emerge during a white house summit on health care reform, the wig question on everyone's mind -- what's next? let's check with cnn's kate baldwin who is at the white house. >> reporter: white house officials say that this week president obama will lay out what he sees as the way forward in getting sweeping health care legislation passed. today speaking to cnn's candy crowley, speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, she seems resolute that democrats will try to move forward to pass legislation with or without republican support. listen here. >> they have had plenty of opportunity to make their voices heard and if they wanted to truly have -- bipartisanship is a two-w

would ceci this type of contagion spread to other weak players in a very weak economy such as spain, portugal, italy. what happens when angela merkel or some of the rulers of these other countries have to come in and bail out their banks once again. so you have to imagine how difficult it is for the ruler of a germany to go to their people and say we need to help bail out a european cousin here because this is bound to recourse to us. at the same time, the germans are saying well, the greek have to tighten their own belt. so it's exceedingly difficult and fraught with tension. >> couric: roben farzhad, thanks again. >> thank you, jeffrey, appreciate appreciateit.appreci. >> lehrer: again, the other major developments of the day: the president and the republicans staked out their health care ground in a televised summit that was testy at times. and the government of afghanistan officially claimed control over a key taliban stronghold. the "newshour" is always online. hari sreenivasan, in our newsroom, previews what's there. hari? >> sreenivasan: on health care, you can ask three policy experts

portugal. emergency crews looking for more than 30 people still missing.andslides killed more than 40 people on the island of that madiera. officials say there is little hope. peru, two buses crashing head on on a stretch of highway in the northeast. the rec killing more than 35 people. police and firefighters had to use cutting equipment to reach many of the injured trapped inside the vehicle. no official cause released. but a local newspaper reported the highway where the crash occurred had no center dividing line. israel, three lion cubs making their public debut at safari zoo just outside of tel aviv. an animal trainer says they were born a month ago. the cubs, all female, the trainer says the zoops lion population had dropped from 50 to just 9. the hope, fees females will help boost the population in the next few years. and that's a wrap on this fox trip around the world in 80 seconds. >> shepard: we all know the government can take away our homes to clear way for roads or strip malls. what about your museum if you happen to have one? next, why the go

about the other piece of what's happening in the markets today, which is concerns about greece, portugal and spain? >> it's not really greece, per se, that matters to markets, andrea. it's this idea of small governments that have gone out, issued a lot of debt and what is the possibility or chance that they might default on that debt? that's a question that involves not just greece, but spain, italy, ireland and several other smaller countries. the broader question which is how solid is the euro zone? we have a dollar zone, all part of the same central bank. same over there in europe except they have all different kinds of governments. that's one of the achilles heels of the euro zone. investors are worried about the cohesion there. >> all right. steve liesman, chuck todd, john harwood, thanks to all of you. >>> for more from the labor union side on the job deficit, we're joined by the president of afl-cio, rich trumka. it's down from 10%, you've heard the negative outlook out there. it's going to take a long time and could end up at the end of the year, or at least in november at 10.5%.

. >>> global market kicking off a spiral about debts in portugal, spain and greece.ainful measures to get budget shortfalls back under control. the u.s. jobs market rattling investors. jobless claims rising last week. they expected a drop around 10,000. disappointing earnings from mastercard making things worse. profits were up last quarter, but not as much as analysts expecting. but macy's one of the few bright spots adding more than 2% on strong sals numbers, and improving outlook. >>> that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. now back to "hardball." >>> if i'm a rhino, so is ronald reagan. i mean, i'm a less taxing, less spending, more freedom kind of guy. i take a pragmatic, common-sense approach to government. if that's not what people want, they'll let me know. >> welcome back to "hardball." that was charlie crist, fighting out in florida. he's getting hammered by the tea party crowd down in florida. hard right republicans trying to get a candidate purity test. they failed. but would even ronald reagan have passed that test. pat buchanan worked for pres

mounting debt in portugal, spain and greece was behind the plunge across europe. government deficits in those countries have raised concerns about possible defaults. that, in turn, dragged the euro to a seven-month low against the u.s. dollar. senate democratic leaders announced plans today to pass a jobs bill next week. the measure would include tax breaks for businesses that hire unemployed workers. it would cost $11 billion over ten years. majority leader harry reid he's hopeful the bill will win bipartisan support. >> our agenda is not about politics or partisanship, we have a jobs agenda. it's about putting people back to work. our motivations are to help americans sleep a little better. our mission is not to stop until every american who wants a job can get a job. >> sreenivasan: there were signs some republicans might join in supporting the bill. senator john mccain said he's willing to talk, if democrats are willing to try something different. >> the stimulus package did not work. we proposed a stimulus package that would have worked and so i'll be glad to

portugal, ireland, italy, greece, and spain -- >> a horrible name. >> that's what they call -- >> i'mure they mean that in the best possible way. that's crazy. you guys and your acronyms on wall street. we think washington's bad. >> apparently barkley sent a memo around saying don't use that anymore, but it's a convenient way of putting together five countries that have very similar economic troubles. >> fair enough. fair enough. going back to this jobs report, what is it now that needs to be done by the administration in this jobs bill that will continue to lower this number? >> well, one of the puzzles is, with the economy now having been growing for over six months, why aren't employers hiring? there are a couple of reasons. first of all, it turns out they've been able to produce a lot of stuff using the people they already have. even though profits are up, they don't have a strong compulsion to hire. and the other is uncertainty. they keep being told how bad the economy is and how this has been a terrible crisis and so on and they're not really sure what's happening. so the admini

not among banks, but governments like greece and portugal, those countries are having trouble refinancingich makes it harder to borrow money to support their economic recovery. so if one defaults, there's fear it could spread to other european nations and possibly around the world. today, though, as you mentioned, it's jobs day and it's not as bad as it could have been. there's good news and bad news. i'll get the bad news over with first. unfortunately, 20,000 jobs were lost in january when none were expected and the december job losses have been downwardly revised to 150,000 from previously reported 85,000. the good news is, however, the unemployment rate dropped to 9.7%. that's a five-month low when it was actually supposed or expected to rise to 10.1%. and the november job gains were upwardly revised to a gain of 64,000, up from 4,000. so not all bad. and ford is offering to fix a software glitch that's affecting brakes in its ford fusion and mercury milan hybrid. the problem affects about 9,000 vehicles that were made before october of last year. ford says warning lights do come up o