. >> reporter: i'm sylvia hall in washington. still ahead, as a.m.r. and u.s. airways join the ranks of companies hoping to merge, they'll also face scrutiny from the nation's regulators. we look at how the federal government views competition these days. >> tom: the democratic national convention is officially underway in charlotte, north carolina. first lady, michelle obama takes center stage with the prime time speech expected to focus on the personal side of president obama, but likely will be an economic message as well. the president has been focusoth middle class in recent campaign appearances looking forward to the convention speech on thursday night, and stay focused. >> the former chairman of the white house council of economic advisers joins us from the convention. austan welcome back to nbr. are americans better off now than four years ago? now do you answer that? >> on average yes. >> in 200 noox*ib, it was january but one of the first economic months in this country. we lost 800,000 jobs, and the stock market collapsed a net worth of something lik

sylvia hall breaks down what's behind the latest flareup. >> reporter: here in the u.s., the auto and auto parts industries employ about 800,000 american workers. the government says those workers are hurt by the money china gives to subsidize its own

sylvia hall, nbr, washington. >> tom: energy is one of those political issues that is part economic and part foreign policy. and it plays out every day in the trading pits. november crude oil futures settled at $91.37, down nearly half a percent. we continue our series "politics and the pits" with erika miller and oil trader john netto, president of m-3 capital. tomorrow, we continue "politics >> how are traders in general viewing the election? >> well, the election is opinions aside, and no entity. obama is ahead. all the polls in the key states, the battleground states, obama has a lead as well. the markets discounted an obama win, and as a result, this bullish for risk, and for oil as well. >> how high do you continuing crude could go? >> i think $96, $97. not because of an obama victory, but because of bifurcation economically around the world. oi. the split side, what happen fist we can have a romney victory. >> i think oil rallies in either case. if romney wins, it rallies more, because romney victory is risk conducive which would send oil higher. >> ho how big is the uncertaint?

sylvia hall, "n.b.r.," washington. >> tom: about 70% of hispanic voters favor president obama in the upcoming election according to the latest gallup poll. but experts say getting them to cast votes could be tricky. many hispanic businesses say they're disappointed by obama's handling of the economy, healthcare and immigration. diane eastabrook has more. >> reporter: alfonso silva's biscuits and cookies have been making mouths water in chicago's pilsen neighborhood for three decades. but in recent years he's seen a drop off in customers. >> sometimes it's okay, but sometimes it's very bad because of the economy. >> reporter: boarded up storefronts throughout pilsen reflect the toll the sour economy has taken on hispanic businesses in chicago and across the nation. unemployment is part of the problem. in august the jobless rate among hispanics was 10.2%. almost 2% points higher than the overall rate. >> because of the level of unemployment people are not spending as they were in previous years and that certainlis going to hurt a business that deals directly with consumers. >> reporter

sylvia hall, "n.b.r.," washington. >> susie: meanwhile, general motors and the u.s. treasury are throwing water on a report in today's wall street journal, that said the automaker is pressing uncle sam to sell its stake in g.m. the government owns more than 26% of g.m. it received the shares after investing $50 billion to keep assembly lines rolling. but if it sells now, it would post a loss, as much as $15 billion. g.m. stock is trading around $24, well below its $33 i.p.o. price. still ahead, gold has been a winner thanks to the fed's stimulus plan. where do prices go from here? we'll get some answers from joe doe of the street.com. on wall street today stocks ended a four day winning streak. investors took profits on concerns about a surprising drop in oil prices. we'll have more on that in a moment. by the close, the dow lost 40 points, the nasdaq was down five, and the s&p off four-and- a-half points. until now, stocks had been powered higher on hopes of the federal reserve taking action to stimulate the economy. with that done, what's likely to drive the market

sylvia hall, "n.b.r.," washington. >> tom: finally tonight, a sea- change for fidelity investments: stock funds no longer rule its portfolio. the money management firm today said that bond and money market funds now make up more than half of the company's $1.6 trillion in assets under management. that's almost $850 billion. it's a major turn for fidelity. the firm built its fortune on stock funds back in the nineteen-eighties and nineties. the change comes as investors fled stocks following the financial crisis and great recession. >> tom: that's "nightly business report" for wednesday, september 26. good night everyone. we'll see you online at: www.nbr.com and back here tomorrow night. "nightly business report" is brought to you by: captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

sylvia hall reports. >> reporter: facebook's botched i.p.o. trading glitches that caused the bats exchange to withdraw its own stock offering, and knight capital's huge one-day loss last month. we've all seen the expensive consequences of high-speed, electronic trading. today, senators heard about the problems caused by computers trading huge amounts of stocks in milliseconds. >> i'm certain that exchanges can be profitable and can work well as a for-profit enterprise, but perhaps we need to understand really what their role should be going forward, who they should be serving, and by the way- what's the role of a broker-dealer? >> reporter: questions like that took on new urgency in may 2010, when u.s. markets lost $1 trillion in about ten minutes, then gained back most of the losses. automated trading software took the blame for what's now called the "flash crash." >> there's been shockingly little done regarding our capital markets since the flash crash which was in may of 2010; well over two years ago. and the possibility of another flash c

sylvia hall reports. >> reporter: the all-time record low for a 30-year mortgage is 3.49%. the federal reserve is looking to break that record. >> bernanke is doing the right thing to get mortgage rates even lower, even though it's already looking like black magic that he's already gotten it down as low as it is. >> reporter: acclaimed housing economist robert shiller walked us through the math. right now, the 30-year fixed- rate mortgage is near 3.5%, and the 15-year mortgage sits just above 2.8%. that's extremely close to 2.3%, the rate of inflation that's expected over the next ten years. inflation rates act as a sort of floor. subtract it from a mortgage rate, and you get the real mortgage rate, or what you'll really pay over time. that means a mortgage rate close to inflation is astonishingly low. >> it's conceivable that the real mortgage rate could actually hit zero. its... at the 15-year level, it's already at 0.5%. economic theory doesn't even say you can't have negative real rates. it's happened. it's kind of hard to believe for mortgages, but it reflects the very

sylvia hall took a look at exactly what that means. >> reporter: in this baltimore lab, dr. curt civin researches leukemia in search of a cure. it's hardly a political job, but these days, he's keeping a close eye on the federal budget. you see the sequester-- the severe spending cuts headed our way in january-- could affect him. if it takes affect, it will cut more than $2 billion from the national institutes of health. dr. civin and researchers like him depend on grants from the institutes for funding. >> it's tough enough to cure cancer. tough battle. going to take a long time. to cut the funding, to have unevenness, to take a project all the way, and then say well, we can't scale this up the way we should, or even maintain it the way we should? how can we do that. and it's not good for us. >> reporter: dr. civin says labs across the country may have to lay people off if their grants are defunded or reduced. eventually, that could lead to less research and fewer cures. he's especially worried about young scientists. some of them have new- potentially breakthrough- ideas,

sylvia hall reports. >> reporter: a lot has to happen inside these walls between now and january. first up, congress has until the end of this month to avoid a government shutdown. to do it, they'll probably pass a continuing resolution known as a c.r. c.r.'s have caused major battles between the parties in the past, but this one will likely pass soon. lawmakers could also pass a bill to normalize trade with russia. but beyond that, nobody expects congress to accomplish much during this month's session. that leaves big issues, like the spending cuts and tax increases known as the fiscal cliff, on the table until after the november election. >> whoever has more power next year is going to have more power in brokering an end of the year deal. but no one benefits from the us going over the fiscal cliff, no one thinks they will. so i think a bill will come together in the lame duck period in a relatively straightforward way. >> reporter: there's also a chance congress could extend the farm bill, which expires this month. that would extend aid to farmers affected by this summer's droug

sylvia hall, "n.b.r.," washington. >> susie: for more analysis and opposing views on the debate "makers versus "moochers," we're happy to have with us jared bernstein, senior fellow at the center on budget and policy priorities and nick eberstadt, political economist at the american enterprise institute and author of the upcoming book, "a nation of takers: america's entitlement epidemic." gentlemen, welcome, and nick, let me begin with you. you say that the u.s. government has become an entitlement machine with millions of americans freeloading off everyone else. tell us what you mean? >> i think i said it was an entitlement machine, i don't think i ever used the word freeloading. the facts of the matter are that 50 years ago, the federal government devoted one dollar to entitlements to every $2 it devoted to everything else. it's turned upside dow now two out of every three dollars the government allocates for entitlements. >> what are you're thoughts >> you said you reject the notion of the term moochers, and the debate is misguided. what are your thoughts on this? >> i feel pretty st