the case-shiller index, the name been the s&p case-shiller pe ratios. can't believe it. you're telling us that we should innovate more in terms of finance. >> i think that should be our response to occupy wall street. they want to fix something, right? >> right. >> okay. like if a car is broken, you bring in a mechanic. you've got to bring in people who study finance. they're looking kind of bad now, because people think it's just evil. it's not evil. it's something that can be fixed. >> one of the things that you recommend and the great thing about the book is you have very, very specific ideas. some of which seem attainable and some of seem like pie in the sky. one of them, my producer refers to as a prenup for mortgages. tell me what you're talking about. >> right now we have over 11 million americans who are underwater on their mortgage. the home price fell, their mortgage balance didn't fall. so they're ruined, right? and that's a major part of our crisis. they don't spend when they're in that state. that didn't have to happen. we want to give them

and professor shiller of the shiller index gave an interview to the "wall street journal" and said he thinks this will muddle along for the next few months if not years and it does not look like it will get better. the president proposed in the state of the union that he would initiate a task force on helping people who are underwater on the mortgage and we have seen stories recently, it has been 90 days and there has been nothing done on it. they have not put forward the name of anyone to run the task force so the administration is dropping the ball in a critical area because as we have discussed this will be a an issue if november. >>neil: i look at a lot of the housing plans, and i am wondering, now, whether americans are just saying "stop." we have had various mortgage rework programs. we have had principle extension programs and the like. to little avail. maybe the better part of valor is to cease and deit is. maybe -- to cease and deitsist. >>guest: it would be more a political statement. the housing market is a mull dry faceted industry and it is unlikely the government can do

speaking over books, tomorrow's show i'm going to be joined by robert shiller.e is going to be here for his take on the world's late, great depression and his outlook on the economy. more gloom and doom. >>> up next, diplomatic crisis that sounds like mission impossible. an escaped blind chinese dissident said to be in the american embassy in beijing, just as secretary of state hillary clinton heads there to rescue. the president mum so far. it's a high-stakes game, and will a false move by either side wreck relations? ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about market volatility. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 in times like these, it can be tough to know which ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 way the wind is blowing. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, we're ready with objective insights about ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 the present market and economic conditions. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 and can help turn those insights into ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 a plan of action that's right for you. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 so don't let the current situation take you off course. ttd#: 1-800-34

. >> still to come in the next hour of "squawk," we have robert shiller, the co-founder of the case shillerfessor of economics and pimco's neel kasrkari today. and we'll have the first look at the market since we got the big friday jobs report from the government. do anything ♪ ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i can go anywhere ♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la la la la la la [ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. solutionism. the new optimism. is to take you from where you are... to where you need to be. and we're not just talking about points on a map. with a more intuitive delta website and mobile app... and the most wifi equipped planes. we let you be everywhere at once. innovations like these are extending our reach so you can extend yours. and now, even at 30,000 feet you can still touch the ground. hey, it's sandra -- from accounting. peter. i can see that you're busy... but you were gonna help us crunch the numbers for accounts

another reading on housing from the standard and poor's case shiller home price index shows the same trend. prices in the top 20 housing markets hit fresh lows in february, falling a sharp 0.8% from january. >> the last year has seen a little bit of stability. what we've been doing is bouncing across the bottom. we have hit new lows, and it's basically moving somewhat sideway are for of the last year or so. that's a sign of some bottoming out, but ifou look at existing housing starts and home prices, none of these statistics are showing a sign of an absolute turnaround. the most is perhaps a bottoming out. >> susie: meanwhile, big protests today as the nation's largest mortgage lender, wells fargo, held its annual shareholder meeting in san francisco. police shut down streets in the city's financial district as hundreds of people protested everything from wells fargo's record on home loan modifications and foreclosures to its environmental policies. >> tom: wall street managed to shake off that sour housing news ansend the blue chs higher, but technology stocks were under pressure ah

the monthly s&p shiller report index following g home prices i 20 cities out tuesday.e fed's open market committee wraps up a meeting on monetary policy. ben bernanke wil hold a p press conference as well. on friday, we get the first reading of gross domestic product for 2012's first quarter. the gdp is the broadest measure of the health of the american economy and typically a market mover.ç >>> what makes a town tops? the wealth report compiled by citi and frank research polled individuals with assets of more than $25 million on which cities around the world are the most important. considering economic activity, political power and the price of luxury housing. here's the list of the top five. london, new york, hg kong, paris, singapore. interestingly, when asked which cities will be important in ten years, numbers three, four, and five are all in asia. beijing, singapor shanghai. a sign of our timimes. that will do it for us. thank you for joining me. next week join me for mohammad el arian. keep it here where wall street meets main street. have a great week, i'll se

you will be getting the robert shiller calls -- the robo calls. you know how hard i work.ou know how strongly i believe in the games that the value of southwestern pennsylvania have instilled in me. i come from a steel town of immigrant parents. my grandfather worked in the mines, someone who lived in government housing on the d a grounds and saw the great sacrifice of our men and women, serving them as they served our country. you know me. they will say all the things that i am someone who does not stand up in what i believe in. you know me. [applause] i ask you over the next three weeks, and this is not have time. no marching bands. we are hitting the fields. the clock starts tonight. we have three weeks to go out there. we will win this state. after winning the state the field looks a little different in may. the one time that we did when in last 120 years, the republican party had the courage to go out and nominate someone who all the experts and contents and republican establishment costs said could not win. it was too conservative. he lost almost every early primary.

. >>> robert shiller stressed that the u.s.conomy is in no way immune to the troubles plaguing the eurozone. >> we're always looking over to europe as a sign of trouble ahead. and i think europe could lead the u.s. into recession. but at this point, it's looking stronger than that. >> joining us now as our guest host for the next hour is senior adviser at asset management. allison, great to have you with us. when we're looking at the economy here .if united states and getting a sense for how the markets trade, eurozone a big piece of that. when we look at the banks, what's your take on where we stand? >> longer term i still like the equity markets. i think near term we're probably in a slowdown process. we had such a strong rebound starting last fall. the market went straight up, almost assuming everything's back to goldie lox environment. we have issues coming out of europe which hopefully people in washington are watching. austerity budgets don't help growth. that could make the market a little move sideways or choppy. >> a l

i don't know which way home prices -- with our s&p case-shiller, they are still going down.nk they might. i wouldn't buy a home as just a generic investment. >> if you know you're going to live there, have the right credit. >> if you know something about the property you could still invest a home, routinely buying as an investment, i don't think it's a great idea right now. >> stay right there. stick around. no apologyist for wall street but stay with us. [ male announcer ] if you believe the mayan calendar, on december 21st polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space. which would render retirement planning unnecessary. but say the sun rises on december 22nd, and you still need to retire. td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. we'll even throw in up to $600 when you open a new account or roll over an old 401(k). so who's in control now, mayans? [ female announcer ] introducing new nature valley protein bars. 100% natural ingredients like roasted peanuts... ♪ ...creamy peanut butter, and

s&p case shiller home price report and sales of newly built homes in march.em both starting tomorrow morning at 9:00. >> if that wasn't enough, a lot more as well. we have so much to digest in the united states tomorrow for the markets. we will get key economic data from spain as well as the uk. both struggling to balance austerity measures while keeping economies afloat. and trying to institute growth plans. what does that mean for your money and is it time to take risk off the table? joining me now is stephanie, sarah, ceo and portfolio management where she overseas $14 billion in assets. thank you pour joining us, ladies. >> thank you for having us. >> sarah, when you hear all those things, what is most important in moving your money, moving the markets. >> yes. europe remains the epicenter of the problem. we lack to european statistic to see how bad it is in the eurozone. you mentioned spain and france. we have election results. there is quite a bit of data to digest. >> so what's most important to you? what do you think is the actual mover of the needle

that have been induced the timing, the housing bubble began in the late '90s according to robert shillernd most intense after interest rates were already rising. secondly, international comparisons controlling for interest rate behavior, countries had a wide variety of experiences in terms of housing. there's not a very good correlation between housing bubbles and interest rate policy in various industrial countries. and thirdly, the magnitude of the movements in short-term interest rates in the early 2000s when you translate them into effects of monthly payments or on mortgage rates, they're trivial. that was demonstrated by the paper that was done by seven federal reserve staff that was circulated and which i have based a speech on a few years ago. i think this relates to alan's question as well. i think that given the heavy cost of the crisis, i think the appropriate mental approach is ago nostism and openness. so i think going forward particularly in situations where interest rates are lower for a period as they are today, we have to be particularly tentative to stmic stability and m

they hate new low in february, according to the s & p case-shiller index, prices are down 3.5% from aer. analysts say foreclosures and late payments are still dragging the market down. bad news for some, john, but if you are in the market to buy, that is good news for you. >> bad news for some is usually good news for somebody else. kate, stay put. don't go anywhere. >>> tonight's moment you may have missed, played out at the white house, a seventh grade teacher from southern california named america's best. rebecca milwaukee beat out 3.5 million educator, a good contest there to become teacher of the year. then she whips, what happens? the president of the united states calls her goofy. but it is all in good fun. just listen. >> she has got high expectations for her seventh graders and for herself but she also knows that school can be fun and that fits a

but overall prices still falling on the case-shiller index. that's existing sales. the price conondrom is so telling. more on the blog. >> thank you very much. >>> now for that promised breaking news and courtney reagan with more on the walmart story. >> good afternoon, tyler. we are just getting this press release coming out from walmart right now as we're scanning it through. i want to get you some of the headlines right away. walmart responding to "the new york times" article this weekend about those bribery allegations in mexico. it is working diligently, it being walmart, on the fcpa compliance. they've created a new global fcpa compliance officer position. walmart saying it will not tolerate noncompliance anywhere in the company. this can be attributed to the communications office at walmart. david tolvar is the individual responsible for making these statements right now in the press release. they also want to point out "the new york times" story about the decisions made are more than six years old. they continue to say these actions that are alleged did happ

case-shiller is only 20 cities. >> it's been so warm.w homes has done over the last couple of months? >> yes. i think we have pulled numbers forward. i would have hoped to see more sequential growth march over february. >> thanks a lot, bob. moving away from europe, the federal housing finance agency is under pressure to help struggling homeowners. obviously it will raise the cost of credit. rick joins us with a special guest in the santelli exchange and that is senator bob corker. rick? >> well, welcome senator corker. i'm glad to have you. especially con ring that you sit on a committee that really is going to continue to monitor and look at the fhfa. and my first question to you is, ed demarco, what is his legal role? >> his role is to preserve tax payer assets, to make sure that taxpayer money is not wasted and he's done a good job of that as the conservator. he's not running the organizations. he's trying to conserve taxpayer resources. >> all right. there was a lot of pressure on him. there's a lot of democrats trying to pressure h

for today, the case shiller home price index is out at 9:00 a.m. forecast to drop 3.3%.get march new home sales expected to rise #.2% to an annual rate of $320,000. also at 10:00, april consumer confidence. economists looking for a reeadig of 70. and before the opening bell, at&t, 3 m and united technologies. we're also get results from coach and hershey foods. after the close, we'll hear from apple of course, amgen, aflac and southern, as well. kyle, let's talk about the fed for a second. we were discussing it during the break. do you see them extending twist, abandoning twist or doing nothing? >> i think it's a combination of qe-3 and an operation twist. in the 20 years on wall street, this has been the most interesting time that i've seen with respect to the fed really being on the hot seat especially going into november election. so i think that they need to be accommodative, they need to make sure that they're still involved in the market place and keep the marketplace going in an effort to make sure the current administration doesn't go into the november election w

the economics professor robert shiller says a total recovery of the housing market in this country can worries that we might not see a major turnaround in our life times and it's not just home prices that are suffering. a new government report shows new home sales dropped from last march to last november. there's no rush to buy and mortgage rates might be at record lows and if they don't have money to buy, it doesn't matter and with high unemployment, high gas prices and high food prices and uncertainty about the future of the health legislation and the overall economy, and the future including housing looks pretty grim. the question, though, is this. home prices are the lowest in a decade. how can this economy recover? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile. post a comment on my blog or go to our post on the "situation room's" facebook page. a generation before it is back to approaching normal. >> this is the biggest asset almost all american families have, their homes. >> jack, thank you. >>> the united states is bracing for a new act of nuclear defiance by north korea. a provocative test that b

home prices fell for the sixth straight month on a widely watched index, the case-shiller index.s network's liz macdonald has found one of the big reasons behind those falling home prices. what's the story, liz? >> jon, we're also seeing new home sales coming in better than expected but still at levels we haven't seen in more than a year so the fact that home prices are now bottoming out to levels we haven't seen since 2002, that is making a lot of people on wall street sit up and take notice and what we're seeing is, what's driving the worst nine cities in terms of falling home prices is unemployment. jon, take a look at this map. we're going to show you the nine worst cities where we saw the worst performance in terms of house prices. what you're going to see is double-digit unemployment in some of the cities that have seen the worst declines. you're going to see in atlanta. certainly in las vegas. you see unemployment about 12 1/2%. also cleveland is seeing very high unemployment. that is directly linked to high, you know, basically high problems with housing prices. jon: so w

when you look at case shiller, it's flat. but it was only down a half a point in december.sing prices have about begun to tick up. so, you know, on a national basis it's flat, which is a big deal, big improvement up approximately people are actually building houses before we get the housing business to be back to a normal state. underlying that is a good, solid economy i think. >> jim is going to stay with us for the rest of the show. rick have a fantastic weekend and talk to you soon. >> it is two years after the bp oil spill and many questions remain about claims and legal settlements that could cost the company $8 balance. has the process been fair and why are people still waiting for money two years later? brian shactman joins us. >> an independent auditor says 7,000 claims were underpaid. that's actually pretty good when you look at the overall number. about a million in claims were processed, 220,000 individual businesses were paid more than $6 billion. soap that's 7,000 is is small percentage, mr. dine sterg h-- g has stepped aside. >> i think we did exactly what the

shiller calls -- the robo calls. you know how hard i work.games that the value of southwestern pennsylvania have instilled in me. i come from a steel town of immigrant parents. my grandfather worked in the mines, someone who lived in government housing on the d a grounds and saw the great sacrifice of our men and women, serving them as they served our country. you know me. they will say all the things that i am someone who does not stand up in what i believe in. you know me. [applause] >> i ask you over the next threeno marching bands. the clock starts tonight. we have three weeks to go out there. we will win this state. after winning the state the field looks a little different in may. the one time that we did when in last 120 years, the republican party had the courage to go out and nominate someone who all the experts and contents and republican establishment costs said could not win. it was too conservative. he lost almost every early primary. he only won one until may. everybody told him to get out of the race. this was that in 1976. we

robert shiller is one of them. it is very difficult to change an industry that has been promoting homeownership and bringing up homeownership in this country since world war two from somewhere below 50%, to near-70%. now, people are becoming renters, and what constitutes home ownership is changing. host: jimmy wright's on twitter. guest: that is a good question. it has not been long -- around long enough to answer that question. the short answer is we will see. the main three areas they will police are pay lenders, student lenders, and mortgage servicers. they have a big job ahead of them. they are looking at debt collectors, pre-paid cards, and other types of businesses that were not really regulated by anything, especially the federal government. they have a large job on their plate, but it is not clear whether they will pass muster if and be able to recoup the funds they are spending. host: lauren, a republican in naples, florida. caller: good morning. i was able to get a loan modifications on our home. we have

also we have the case shiller home price index at 9:00 a.m. and then coming up at 10:00, new home sales and the house price index, consumer confidence and the richmond fed survey. so plenty of things to dig through. not so great in europe. >> we do have a number of corporate quarterly reports that hit today. before the bell, listen to this, 3 m, at&t, united technologies, u.s. steel, amgen, hershey, reynolds, american and coach. and of course the big name after the bell, apple. shashs of that company up nearly 43% just since january. even though the stock has taken a hit in in recent weeks and i think its he pulled back about 1 11%, patty he says this could be the last stand for earnings and i think that was coming from if the apple earnings don't impress us, then nothing's going to. that's kind of like our last stand on earnings. you either get it from that or you're not. >> and we have an analyst coming up in a bit to discuss a preview of these apple earnings. and i think it's very important that we an understanding about what the printed nu

. >> yesterday we had a case-shiller analyst talking about the weakness and how in the southeast. come back, i read your -- i read through what you're saying. i believe household information might be coming back and we might see a bottom in your area. >> jim, this is a new trend. we've been expecting this for some time. we've seen flat residential growth for about two or three years during the downturn. what we have seen notably this quarter is 15,000 new customers mostly in the residential sector. in fact, what we're seeing in the housing sector is kind of firming prices, increased traffic for new homes, increased positive sentiment among brokers and builders. i think we're on a track back to recovery. >> avoid, i wish people would listen to you, tom. they read the papers and it's just bad, bad, bad, industrial, bad, bad, bad. is there anyone that would have a better pulse of their region than you given the fact that everybody has to have electricity? >> i think record sales are a terrific economic indicator, especially given the fact industrial development activity is the leadin