live from rochester, new york, tax and county columnist for reuters.for being with us this morning. >> thank you. >> as we wait for this official press conference to release tax returns, a few organizations to get a preview, "the washington post" and yours, and it shows that mitt and romney had an adjusted gross income of $21.6 million. we have it up there again in case anyone missed it. adjusted gross income is a total income minus a spew specific fees, effective tax rate of 13.9%. this is not the full extent of his net assets. i excludes an ira and blind trust for his wife. 550 pages and forms that christine romans told us. what would you be looking for in these pages? >> well, these pages show that romney is, in fact, in compliance with the law and the funds that he has in the cayman islands and elsewhere are perfectly legal. nothing is being hidden. on the other hand, here's what they show that everyone else but reuters has missed. the romneys gave $100 million to their sons and paid not one penny of gift tax. they were able to takes a sets they ha

he talked about how reuters had to admit they had five or seven mistakes. today. if you have one mistake, understandable. two, unbelievable three. is probably a firing offense. seven? >> kimberly: i know. trying to get after the guy. >> eric: mr. beckel, your were more thing? >> bob: he is married, by the way. do you know how much i love polls? i am dedicating this to eric today. can we bring up the polls that show for the first time in six months the president of the united states favorability approval, job rating is more than the disapproval? 48 to 46%? more importantly, the second number is the amount of people who believe the economy is getting better in the country. the same. 44%. better, 37%. worse, 17%. that is where eric is down with the 17% wing nuts. economy is getting better. welcome to obama recovery. >> kimberly: this is a celebration? >> eric: some people say it's getting worse and staying the same. my one more thing, saying good night to jack and suzie welsh. listen how they say goodbye. >> nice job on "the five," too. it's really great. >> t

the thomson-reuters sales index of 22 retailers rose 3.4% in december. that's a bit above expectations and better than last year. >> tom: still, as erika miller explains tonight, the strong sales came at a hefty price. >> reporter: 50%... 60%... even 70% off. retailers know many customers won't even look at merchandise unless there's a "sale" sign. >> the customer is demanding "sale," and they are only buying when they do see "markdown" and "clearance". >> reporter: kohl's and j.c. penney lowered their fourth quarter earnings guidance today, blaming excessive markdowns. it didn't help that weather was warmer than usual in many parts of the country, making sweaters and coats a tough sell. >> i think there were unplanned markdowns that were being taken toward the end of the month on those items. i think that will continue and is continuing into january. and i think that's where you have the real margin risk. >> reporter: but in some cases, even desperate discounting wasn't enough to spur sales. gap and wet seal posted terrible same-store sales results, wit

a reuters report discovered bain capital has millions of dollars in foreign tax havens in the kay men islands, bermuda, hong kong and ireland. this is not illegal but offshore holdings brings in massive profits for companies like bain, which is the source of mitt romney's income. he's becoming the poster boy for what is wrong with the tax code in the country. he calls himself an expert in creating jobs, but romney is an expert in gaming the system. >> what is the effect it rate i have been paying? probably closer to the 15% rate than anything, my last 10 years my income comes overwhelmingly from investments made in the past rather than ordinary income or earned annual income. i got a little bit of income from my book but i gave it all away and then i get speaker fees from time to time but not very much. >> not very much. the story won't go away. there is a new chapter every day. his rating is starting to take a dive. he has an unfavorable rating of 53% in a new ppp poll. 33% of americans say they look at romney favorably. romney, this guy, he's got ice in his veins. he can't relate to

same sort of response as sopa to the dollar currency wars iran banned from trading gold and silver reuters reports that the u.s. agreed to freeze the assets of the iranian central bank and ban all trade in gold and other precious metals with the iranian central bank and other public bodies and around max so this is just applying to the your peon union they also are not allowed to trade oil with iran so how do you think this is going to affect the euro the dollar and will it preclude china russia or other nations like india from kentucky operating no course on its financial suicide of course because it doesn't preclude china china wants gold iran's got goal they're going to do deals with china and china is preparing itself in this currency war for a post us dollar reserve world and also you've created markets we created the hollywood stock exchange is gold and silver are they fungible commodities well of course i mean this is a joe's you how arrogant these policymakers in europe are and why they're going to lose this currency war it's very simple that's why gold is over going higher so of c

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james from reuters madent obama can use energy 25 times dancing around this they took it juliane is ast. he's getting his own show on a network bankrolledded byhe

joining me now is felix salmon, the finance blogger for reuters.e here on the political desk don't know about this. we need you. is this a proper area of examination for someone who has run some of these operations? >> i don't see why not. most of us know what it's like to run a household or we can imagine what it's like to run a small business. we think to ourselves, running a big business is a bit like that. it's not. you're using highly sophisticated financial techniques and you're borrowing enormous amounts of money and you're making companies incredibly fragile. it's like flying a supersonic jet. you can go incredibly fast and make lots of money but they can blow up ofr crash really easily. the trick is, if you're someone like mitt romney, to get this thing accelerating as fast as you can, sell out, and you're nowhere near when the crash happens. >> with absolutely nowhere near -- >> none. you want to -- >> that's short term in the business world? five years? >> no, that's long term. >> in the modern business world? >> short term is what happe

this one was taken by jim bjork, also for reuters. so between our winner and our first runner-up, obviously, 2008 will never be surpassed in terms of genius photos from the presidential campaign trail. that doesn't mean, though, that we're not always looking for contenders in 2012. not that long ago, we thought we had a pretty good possibility with this one, a friendly, slightly overactive baby sticking his fingers in the president's gob. that was a pretty good one, especially because of the oblifousness of dad there, or the bald guy. then i had high hopes from the really animated strange speech that rick perry gave in new hampshire to that anti-gay group. it was so visually stunning, that speech, i thought for sure there would be an important gesture or facial expression shot at that speech by a still photographer. but there really wasn't. when governor perry, god rest his campaign, when governor perry cuddled the syrup at the end of that speech, it was possible to get a nice video screen grab of that, which you see there, him sort o

and yet, if you put that reuters poll aside, and i would recommend you do because the other two polls are more in line with what i'm hearing from everybody on the ground in south carolina, including people in romney's own team. this is a close race. nobody knows who's going to finish out in front. you have in the pp poll and the american research poll. you have romney in the 20s, gingrich in the 20s, ron paul in the 20s, santorum not far behind. there's going to be a lot of movement. and one thing that hasn't sunk in from over the weekend was the endorsement of evangelicals of some of the most powerful evangelicals in america of rick santorum. that's going to have a big impact on this race, as well. but, but i just -- i want to go back really quickly to something that tina said about jon huntsman and we'll leave that story behind. again, the great irony is that jon huntsman ideologically if you look at his record from being governor of utah forward, jon huntsman was the most conservative republican, small government conservative in this race bar none. again, the "wall street journal"

. >> i just want to bring you breaking news from reuters news agency. this is regarding our story on iran following the european ban on all imports of iranian oil. president barack obama has spoken, saying the fresh sea use sanctions against iran underlined the strength of the international -- of fresh sanctions against iran underlined the strength of the international efforts against the nuclear program. he went on to say the united states would continue to impose new sanctions to increase pressure on iran. a statement coming from president obama regarding the latest sanctions against iran. we will keep you updated on further developments. violence has continued in syria after the government rejected a plan by the arab league. there were more deaths in the city that has seen some of the fiercest fighting. our report contains some graphic images. >> the regime was burying its dead. three soldiers who officials said died in an ambush that killed 11. in almost a year of rebellion, the regime says 2000 of its people have been killed. the president claimed

james from reuters made the point the unemployment rate is 8.5%.e same time president obama can use energy 25 times dancing around the -- >> back to columbia journalism they did a study on where the numbers came from in terms of the statistics. this this they took it apart from the middle. >> ed the school definitely approaches from the middle. >> look at that article, jim. >> moving on. wikileaks founder julian assange is a tv host. he's getting his own show on a network bankrolledded by the in addition government. it's on the rt muse network starting in march. so this is the guy who likes to, you know, spill secrets and conspiracies. >> i'm sure it was a difficult choice between the kremlin and russian tv and nbc. i'm sure they'll do well. >> there are a few challenges. >> no, you go. >> he's under house arrest in britain. there's a challenge to make this a show from -- >> first of all, it's only ten one half-hour programs. i share an office with tom heartman who does a show on rt so i want to be open about that. we are talking about the kremlin

he told reuters: cordray is set to begin as director of the new agency this week. appointment is good for at least two years. the president upped the ante this afternoon by making three recess appointments to the national labor relations board. the five-person panel oversees labor-management issues as well as union elections. the nlrb recently lost one of its members and was unable to make any major decisions due to lack of a quorum. we look at the appointment battle over richard cordray now, with david hawkings, who follows this as editor of cq roll call's "daily briefing." and binyamin appelbaum, who covers the consumer protection bureau as a financial reporter for the "new york times." i'll start with you, binyamin. originally this started as a fundamental fight over the creation and powers of this new regulatory body. >> that's right. this agency was a centerpiece of the democratic vision for how financial regulation should be overhauled in the wake of a 2008 financial crisis. the ideal is that the responsibility for protecting consumers, for enforcing all the

this isn't our -- >> we, reuters?we, reuters, breaking views, my colleague, richard biels, a real whiz kid. he used a yale university professor, he's got a formula that says you can predict the winner of a presidential race, using a couple of simple economic variables. we simplified that even further. so what you can do is enter in basically three things. you can enter in gdp growth. that's personal income, but we use gdp growth per capita, and you can look at it whether it's 2%, 3%, 5%, at 2.5%, it's the number we're using. that's sort of what people are expecting. >> and the point is that basically this is a calculator for, for instance, obama's advisers, valerie jarrett. they're like, do you think we're going to get re-elected? they're like, i don't know, let's get the calculator out and enter in the numbers. let me go to my political analyst, what are your twos' view on the statistical analyst that always go on. if the employment rate is high, he'll center stand a chance. how valid are those assertions? and ultima

wall street journal and rite reuters ran good pieces about bain.ngton post fact checker glen kessler has been getting recognition for the pinocchio awards. he says this -- that got -- i'm not -- romney got three pick ohnos, and it's interesting that the referee role the ref sometimes plays getting as much attention as it is. i want to turn to one more thing about romney, and that is i'm hearing a lot this week, a lot of it on msnbc -- i even heard howard stern talking about it. that had to do with an incident three decades ago with the romney's dog. let me play a little bit from the rachel maddow show. >> mitt romney put shameus, the family's hulking irish setter, into a dog carrier and attached it to the station wagon's roofer rack. >> what were you thinking? >> this is a completely air tight kennel, and mounted on the top of our car. he climbed up there regularly, enjoyed himself. >> are we seriously going to report on what happened with romney's dog 30 years ago? >> we didn't on current tv. this week on current tv we focused on the fact that mit

now, we're talking about companies like ford, exxon mobil and fed ex which thompson reuters says havebad track records over the past years with their buybacks. on the other hand st. jude medical and jc penney actually have a history of genuinely adding value with well-timed purchases. but they are in the minority. then there's netflix. from 2007 to 2009 the company bought shares at really at lows looking pretty smart, but here's where it made the mistake. it continued buying shares from 2010 to 2011 as shares skyrocketed to all-time highs around $300 a share spending several hundred million dollars in the process. netflix having to use so much cash for buybacks, the company had to raise $400 million for expansion. purchases of the shares in the last go round was not necessarily money, my friend, well-spent. >> thank you very much. up next on "street signs," the new ceo of rim has some of us feeling bullish. is a second act in the cards? this one or this one. two or three. when the fed speaks, wall street listens. but which fed head moves the market the most? here's a hint, it's actual

reuters reports the victims are french soldiers. 17 others were wounded. the suspected gunman has been captured. >>> also this morning, cbs news confirms that six u.s. marines were killed in a helicopter crash in southern afghanistan. the crash happened yesterday in helmand province. the cause is still being investigated. nato says there was no enemy activity in the area at the time. >>> coming up on the morning news, hackers take down the justice department website in an act of revenge. plus, another mail carrier caught on tape practicing his free-throw with a delicate package. first though, scott pelley has a preview of tonight's "cbs evening news." >>> as the south carolina primary approaches, our own steve hartman goes on the road to find his ideal candidate. it's a mayor with a half century on the job who doesn't think politicians should talk politic. his story tonight on the "cbs evening news." ith all oxi-activ, neither do moms. it helps get out your family's tough dirt and stains the first time, every time. try all oxi-active. what's going on? we o

a secure fire wall the irony is that as they're talking about this we hear from an exclusive that reuters had a european source has reported that germany wants greece to hand over control of its fiscal budget as a condition for the next bailout package this softer t. over its fiscal matters the further irony is that we've seen capitalism really be one of the topics one of the issues here at this davos questioning of capitalism in its current form is still serving the globe and we've seen klaus schwab the founder of the world economic forum want to have a meeting with him and b i. spoken about the problems of inequality and in fact income inequality or inequality itself is identified by the world economic forum as the top risk for two thousand and twelve in past years it's been things like the decline of asset prices and in two thousand and twelve that's the top risk interesting language right it's not a problem that needs to be addressed it's not what's really making life so difficult for so many across the globe it's the risk. artie's law unless you're reporting for us there now online a

brought to a reuters camera is filming from his rooms balcony the entrance of the u.s. army in baghdad. during that time i was receiving mortar rounds to try to make the bridge collapse so when i'm sitting down here and i got all these fires coming from all directions i don't think it could tell me is that somebody is looking for somebody else and then when i seen the individual standing up on about what a pair of binoculars. and they were talking and he was pointing. i did not immediately engage that individual i did not do that i called it up and told him what i've seen. and it took about ten minutes later for them to call back and say. fire around and that's what i did. every moment of the moment of the attack at deafening sound is that. we don't in sort of the i can't hear anything or hear the whole i feel is in internal. thought. let's look at the last two a superpowerful that i felt like i was breaking inside the building looking up my first thought was that i had some sort of internal bleeding him a couple grafter about ten seconds i saw the smoke rising from the