last month, dubai teetered on the brink of default. but that won't stop today's fanfare. we've been told to expect 10,000 fireworks, a hypnotic light display. jeremy and linsey? >> stretches a half mile in the air. >> talk about having your head in the clouds. new meaning there. >> literally. >>>up next, extensive new screening rules for anyone traveling to the u.s. >>> and congress looks into a growing health concern among players in the nfl. thyear, be victorious... with the special k challenge. you can have the cereal you love and so much more. design your delicious vtory platoday... when you visit specialk.com. ♪ rheumatoid ahritisoing? they're discovering the first self-injectable ra medicine it's simponi,™ and taken with methotrexate, and swelling of ra with one dose a month. visit 4simponi.com to see if you qualify for a full year of cost support. simponi™ can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious and sometimes fatal events can occur, such as infections, cancer in children and adults, heart failure, nervous system disorders, liver

all the mortgages still out there teetering on the blink of foreclosure and the banks that keep fallingminos. >> we have passed through a spectacular bubble in real estate. somebody is going to have to pay for it. >> i own the housing market, stock market, i don't know blackjack, roulette. it's kind of all the same to me now. so i try not to play any of it. you know? >> i think that i'm willing to give faith and have faith that things will change. things have been so awful for the last so long. >> enough on the economy. there were plenty of other things to take our breath away this year. including, i don't think we're in alaska anymore, toto. >> you lie! >> and the t.e.a. party express. >> the dna of america is liberty and freedom. >> no wonder hillary clinton is smiling. she knows what's coming up on all the best, all the worst, 2009. the chevy malibu and toyota camry received 5 star crash safety ratings. but only malibu has onstar. big deal. i'll just use my phone. let's say we crashed. whoops, your phone's gone. onstar automatic crash response can call to see if you're ok. if you don

it is entirely based on the financial sector, the banks were teetering on the edge of the financial system and let's say it did collapse and we brought it back really well and that had a lot to do with policies the president did, further out, do we go up from here? that is very much up to him as well. >> victoria, the president deserves the credit? >> well, he does deserve credit for maintaining previous policy in the case of the banks. where he doesn't deserve credit is for these gimmicky stimulus plans that haven't moved the needle and he deserves credit for letting ben bernanke do this is thing and we can argue whether long term it has been a positive later. but for the short-term, ben bernanke injeshticted lots of f into the economy and propped up the financial sector and the housing market an props things up generally over the course of 2009. >> all right. you should have seen steve's fingernails dig into this plexiglass desk we have here. steve, go ahead. >> in terms of the president taking credit what turned the market around was, i hate to say it, was congress, not the white house

it was teetering on the precipice of that. mr. bernanke and others made decisions, some of which i thought were very good decisions. it is the case that mr. bernanke worked for the previous administration that in many ways created circumstances that took us to that cliff, or near the cliff, with economic policies. i'll talk about that for just a moment. but when mr. bernanke became chairman of the federal reserve board, i understood his background that fit fairly well with what we were going there. as i said, i think he did some things that should be commended and should be supported, and i support that. i've told him that i support a number of these actions that were very important. one of those actions was to open for the first time in history the window at the federal reserve board to extend credit directly from the federal reserve board to the biggest investment banks in the country. the first time in the history of the country. it has always been the case that f.d.i.-insured banks, the commercial banks, would have a window at

so teeter at the end. so arguably there could be a high level of security. my gut sense is they will be because of the quality control mechanisms. all these issues are complex, there multivariate. you know, these, criminals who try to figure out any system to create harm and so we're going to have to keep an eye on it and possibly evolve the practices and policies as well. >> host: mr. beckstrom, how did you get into this work? >> guest: i was a high-tech ceo historically and started a company, took a public and sold it when i was fairly done. and i did different social service projects mostly. i was in new york on 9/11 and my life changed that day. and i stopped on my business work and for three and a half years i worked on building a network of ceos to work on peace across the middle east at around the world. that work led to insights about how decentralized human and technical networks work here we were studying al qaeda into building our new decentralized network that led to a book called "the starfish and the spider." i got required by the government fo

some coastal communities-- likehis one in pacifica-- buildings teetered on e edge, as0-foot waves smashed ashore. conan o'brien and n.b.c. television have agreedo part ways paving the way for ja leno's return to "the night sh." the twork announced a $45 llion severance deal today. $33 million ofhat goes to o'brien,nd the rest to his staff. his last show will a tomorrow nigh but he is free to return to television ineptember. leno takes back "the tight ow" reins starting march first. those are somef the day's main sties. i'lle back at the end of the prograwith a preview of what you'llind tonight on the "newshour's" web site. but for now, back judy. >> woodruf now, president obama takes on the banksnd rollout new plans to cut them wn to size. the president open with another rbal assault on the tion's mega-banks, accusing th of taking reckless risks in pursuiof quick profits. >> we have to ent common-sense rerms that will protect erican taxpayers and the erican economy from future ises as well. fo while the financial system is far stronger today an it was one year ago, 's still operating unr

but there was a huge process in getting that thing off because any way it was like teeter tottering. so when it rung one live wave it fell over because it was -- the tires were just nearly on the bed. it was so perfect like parallel on to the bed. like if it would have fell off, one of us would have been crushed easily. so there's a lot of strategy behind moving at first and getting all the debris out. all the debris was still in the house. they had to cut through the side of the house and have like a group come in and start taking on the debris out where they could get on both sides of the car and try to lift it from there. >> take us to the moment. 42 minutes later, when the car is lifted. what was that like? >> holy moly. just like you know, big sigh of relief. as soon as i could see the front part of the car lifth and i could see kristen -- them grabbing her out. they are like, okay, we need to get you from either the same angle or different angle. i just kind of crawled through there. i wanted to get out there as soon as i could. when the car was lifted, you could feel the blood

last month, dubai teetered on the brink of default. but that won't stop today's fanfare. we've been told to expect 10,000 fireworks, a dancing fountain show, and a hypnotic light display all in honor of dubai's new big building. jeremy and linsey? >> the actual height is a secret, for whatever reason, i don't know why. it's reportedly near 2,700 feet. >> they probably don't want anybody to know so no architect gets the idea to go do something. >> one inch bigger. >> all this competition. i remember when the sears tower because the tall in the world, now it's like number five. falling down the list. i'd like to see that thing. >> i think that the view has to be matchless. >> you have to squint to see the ground, probably. >>> when we return, the president's agenda as he returns to washington today. >> the security threats fr >>> welcome back to "world news now." security in yemen was the hot topic on the sunday talk shows as al qaeda's growing strength there has come into much sharper focus. >> president obama's chief counterterrorism chief insists the administration is on

i mean betting on top of these things making a reverse pyramid that was teetering on that little pointo collapse. >> nobody wants to take the rich people, the well connected, the privilege people don't want to take a loss for it. >> they don't want to take a hair cut. >> they didn't ask a lot of the people if if for, can you verify your income. did they ask you to verify your income? they already have your name and address. they are sending you the bill. for everybody else, let me tell you something, america. all these people, all they have done the whole time is just play a game. >> what about the barbie doll house? >> i didn't think we were going to talk about that. oh, you meant on the television. oh, sure. who doesn't do that? they said they wanted to talk to me about acorn, so on the way to work i stopped on the toys "r" us and i got the, i got the big house for, you know, for barbie, because i thought i would explain -- this is going to hack him off. how much do you bet he doesn't let me bring the house on the set. this is dale rathkey. and his brother is in here some place. i ha

more than two hours, two and a half almost there in newark, teeter borrow oven an hour and hour and a half in white plains, a lot of people having problems and being late. the roadways slick with the snow and temperatures below freezing across much of the country means that you're going to have slick spots and certainly bridges and overpasses in particular certainly on the rough side. let's take a look at what this system has been doing across parts of the northeast. first, we will talk about some of the wave action, the strong winds kicking up big waves and causing quite a bit of coastal flooding. these pictures from massachusetts along the coastal areas and there you can see those big waves zwechl have some home which is were damaged and flooded as a result of. this and this wasn't just massachusetts, this was all the way up the coast in maine as well as the canadian maritimes. now the fun part of it was the snow. and some people having a good time in rhode island as a result, making a little snowman there about three to six inches total in the providence area. but we had some reall

in some coastal communities-- like this one in pacifica-- buildings teetered on the edge, as 20-foot waves smashed ashore. conan o'brien and n.b.c. television have agreed to part ways paving the way for jay leno's return to "the tonight show." the network announced a $45 million severance deal today. $33 million of that goes to o'brien, and the rest to his staff. his last show will air tomorrow night, but he is free to return to television in september. leno takes back "the tonight show" reins starting march first. those are some of the day's main stories. i'll be back at the end of the program with a preview of what you'll find tonight on the "newshour's" web site. but for now, back to judy. >> woodruff: now, president obama takes on the banks and rolls out new plans to cut them down to size. the president opened with another verbal assault on the nation's mega-banks, accusing them of taking reckless risks in pursuit of quick profits. >> we have to enact common-sense reforms that will protect american taxpayers and the american economy from future crises as well. for, while the fina

our financial system teetered on the edge of collapse and the threat of the second great depression loomedarge. i did not understand them and i still don't understand why we got opposition in this caucus for almost $300 billion in badly needed tax cuts for the american people or more cobra coverage to help americans who have lost jobs in this recession to keep the health insurance they desperately needed or opposition to putting americans to work laying broadbent, rebuilding roads and new construction projects. there was an interesting headline on cnn today -- americans disapprove of stimulus but like every policy in it. there was a poll that showed that if you broken down into its component parts, 80% approved of the tax cuts, they approved of the infrastructure, the assistance to the unemployed. that is what the recovery act was. let's face it, some of you have been at the ribbon cuttings for some of these important projects in your communities. i understand some of you had some philosophical differences on the concept of government spending but, as i recall, opposition was declared befo

your wheels in an audience that may not be helpful where you could take somebody who may be sort of teeteringand you can convince him or her of the superiority of your argument. it's the same with lobbying. probably on any given issue you have a known universe of people who will work with you and some who will not work with you and an issue that could be a middle where you're competing for those folks. it probably makes more sense to try to convince those in the middle who are pliable than trying to flip those people who you know he is going to be against us. you have to decide based on your budget and time how much you want to spend convincing the unconvincible as opposed to trying to make inroads if not maybe on every single issue on a couple of areas of commonality to bring some people in the middle over to your side. >> do you ever find members or supporters are put off or irritated by too much communication and where do you find that balance between not enough and too much especially with emails and things like that? >> that's a great question. you know, especially with the advent of ema

that threatens the economic recovery here as countries teeter on the edge of recession.ery, but a lot of that has been because companies cut jobs, they cut costs and laid people off. the recently released november figures show the average unemployment at 10%. but they have a wide range of statistics. so you can see it's quite varied. but these figures don't tell the whole story. in spain, the under 25 is at a whopping 43.8%. france similarly as higher youth unemployment because of shy job security in that country. but as we see in recent times, over the last couple years the youth unemployment situation in france has led to riots. so it is a dangerous situation if you look at it from that perspective. but growth is back. there is concern over the coming months in 2010 there will be even higher unemployment in the eur o-zone. >> we are getting the urgent wires coming across. wthis is early information crossing the urgent wires. we have no idea why this is happening, but as soon as we find out why they are evacuating union station in d.c., the national desk is work on that

our financial system teetered on the brink of collapse and the threat of the great depression lambda in badly needed tax cuts for the american people or cobra coverage americans who have lost jobs in this recession to keep the health insurance they needed or opposition to putting americans to work breaking ground on new construction projects. there was an interesting headline in cnn today. americans disapprove of stimulus but like every policy. there was a poll that showed that if you broke it down to its component parts, 80% improved of the infrastructure and 80% approve of assistance to the unemployed. that is what recovery act was. let's face it. some of you have been at the ribbon cutting for these important projects in your communities. i understand some of you had some philosophical differences on the concept of government spending. as i recall, opposition was declared before we had a chance to meet and exchange ideas. i saw that as a missed opportunity. i am happy to report this morning that we saw another sign that our economy is moving in the right direction. the latest gdp

but in the economy that quite frankly teetered on the edge of larger collapse.e president has made a series of decisions to take steps to get our economy jump started on a path toward recovery. i think that alone proves that it was all about wall street. >> on the middle of december, omb put out a memo to all federal agencies about how to calculate the stimulus, how to calculate jobs created and saved. among the things, it will be quarterly than more frequently than that. also, if somebody would pay. if two employees of the library who were already working there were paid with stimulus dollars, those two individuals should count as jobs created by or staged by the stimulus even if there's job existed already. do you have any further explanation about why this? >> i haven't seen the memo. but i'm happy to talk to them and put you in touch with them. i haven't seen the memo. do you have any more on that? [laughter] >> they put out a statement over the weekend accepting apology. i'm wondering why the president didn't talk in that apology or conversation unfortunate

our financial system teetered on the brink of collapse. the threat of the sec it -- of the second great depression looming large. i did not understand then and i still do not, why we got opposition in this caucus. there were badly needed tax cuts and cobra coverage for those who had lost jobs, they needed to keep the health insurance they desperately needed. there was opposition to putting americans to work on new construction progress. there was an interesting headline in cnn. americans disapprove of stimulus, but like every policy in it. there was a poll that showed that, if you broke down into its component parts, 80% approved of the tax cuts, the infrastructure, the insistence to the unemployed -- assistance to the unemployed. that is what the recovery act was. let's face it, some of you have been opposed to these important projects in your communities. i understand you have a philosophical differences on just the concept of government spending. as i recall, the opposition was declared before we had a chance to actually meet and exchan

our financial system teetered on the brink of collapse. the second great depression looming large. i did not understand then and i still do not, why we got opposition in this caucus. there were badly needed tax cuts and cobra coverage for those who had lost jobs, they needed to keep the health insurance they desperately needed. there was opposition to putting americans to work on new construction progress. there was an interesting headline in cnn. americans disapprove of stimulus, but like every policy in it. there was a poll that showed that, if you broke down into its component parts, 80% approved of the tax cuts, the infrastructure, the insistence to the unemployed -- assistance to the unemployed. that is what the recovery act was. let's face it, some of you have been opposed to these important projects in your communities. i understand you have a philosophical differences on just the concept of government spending. as i recall, the opposition was declared before we had a chance to actually meet and exchange ideas. i saw that as a misse

little more than a year ago, many of the largest and oldest financial firms in the world teetered on the brink of collapse. they were overwhelmed by the consequences of their irresponsible decisions. this merely pulled the a tiny -- the entire economy into a second great depression. as a result, the american people were placed in a deeply unfair and unsatisfying position. even though these financial firms were facing a crisis of their own making, their failure could have led to an even greater calamity for the country as a whole. that is why the previous administration began a program to provide these financial institutions with funds to survive the turmoil that they have helped unleash. it was a disgraceful, but necessary thing to do. most of the dollars would be lost forever. when my administration came into office, we put into rivers rules for accountability and transparency that cut the cost of the bailout dramatically. we have now recovered most of the money we provided to the banks. that is good news. but as far as i'm concerned, it is not good enough. we want the taxpayer mone

looking at health care, i have to think about the condition of social security and of medicare, both teeterings to be getting bigger and bigger and wondering, how in the world we are going to pay for this. >> you raise an extremely important point. a bit of history, and then my sense of what is next. at the beginning of 2009, it was the general judgment of economists, conservatives, moderates, liberals, economists all across the political spectrum that there was a real prospect our country could have had a depression and a real prospect of deflation. it said there was an argument then for stimulus legislation. you can debate whether it should have included this or that or something else, but there was a consensus that some stimulus was needed. now, certainly, many months later, we wake up and our government owns a car company, an insurance company, an investment house, and people are saying, excuse me? what is next? given all of these deficits and all of these costs? and i do believe that it is time for the government to put in place something of an exit strategy so that, in some of these area

you can see the dramatic photos here of people on these teetering boats, it seems. next call, good morning. caller: good morning, mr. ambassador. my question for you is a little bit comprehensive from the viewpoint given the history of haiti as basically in its 200 years not having a truly functional government. the haitians i know that have escaped -- and that is really what it comes down to, mr. ambassador -- they have escaped. they are terrified of their police, the government officials, and they actually feel that these wonderful people in their position our cattle. my question to you -- i do think a sense of enlightenment in france at this point in time exists, and i sense that perhaps there is some way that your government could take the lead and help these poor people establish a system that will actually work for them. i will hang up and listen to your answer. guest: thank you for your question. i think you are right. this is a long did it -- the long political history of haiti shows that there is much to do to bring a true rule of law into that country. but

it was at this time that many large financial firms, those left standing, teetered on the brink of collapseeir failure could have led to an even greater problem for the country. the federal reserve and other agencies took emergency measures to prevent that outcome and the previous administration started a program, the troubled asset relief program or tarp, to provide them with funds to survive the turmoil they unleashed. it was a distasteful but necessary thing to do. we've worked over the last year to manage this program effectively to hold firms accountable and to recruit as much tax money as possible. many originally feared that most of the $700 billion in tarp money would be lost. because of the management of this program by secretary geithner and my economic team, we've now recovered the majority of the funds provided to banks. as far as i'm concerned, however, that's not good enough. my commitment is to the taxpayer. my commitment is to recover every single dime the american people are owed. my determination to achieve this goal is only heightened when i see reports of massive profits

looking at health care, i have to think about the condition of social security and of medicare, both teeteringr and bigger and wondering, how in the world we are going to pay for this. >> you raise an extremely important point. a bit of history, and then my sense of what is next. at the beginning of 2009, it was theç general judgmentç of çeconomists, conservatives, moderates, liberals, economists all across the political spectrum that there was a real prospect our country could have had aç depressionú prospect of deflation. it said there wasç an argument then for stimulusç legislation. you can debate whether it should have included this or that or something else, but there was a consensus that some stimulus was needed. çnow, certainly, many months later, we wake up and our government owns a car companyt( an insurance company, an investment house, and people are çsaying, excuse me? what is next? çgivenç all of these deficits? and i do believe that it isççe for the government to put in place something of an exit strategy soç that, in some of ars not been before, we get back the prop

honestly, not simply the worst recession since the great persian but an economy that quite frankly teeteredon the edge of larger collapse. the president has made a series of decisions to take steps to get our economy jumpstart it on a path toward recovery. i think if you look at what people on wall street say about some of our other economic decisions or rhetoric, i think that alone disproofs that this is all about wall street. >> in the middle of december, the omb put out a memo to all federal agencies about how to calculate the stimulus, how to calculate jobs created and saved saying that among other things would be quarterly instead of updated more frequently and also if somebody were paid, to employees of a library who were already working there are paid with stimulus dollars, those two individuals should count as jobs created by or staged by the stimulus even if they existed already. do you have any further explanation about why? >> i haven't seen the memo but i'm happy to talk to them and put you in touch with them. i haven't seen the memo, don't know the details are. >> to follow on

some $800 billion, an enormous sum of money, in order to go to financial institution that is were teetering on the brink of collapse and save them in the hopes that in doing that, they could stabilize our economy. now, even though i took a few economics courses in college and follow the course of american business, at least as a casual observer, it was hard to argue against their request because my fear was that failure to do anything would, in fact, bring this economy down, costing us dramatic numbers of jobs and failures in the business community. and so i voted for the tarp program. it really seemed like one of the few things that we could do that might have some chance of stabilizing the economy. now, of course, it's not the most popular program in america. the idea of taking hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayers' money to give to banks and investment operations that have failed, literally failed to the point of failure seem to me to be a rescue effort for a group that doesn't usually garner much sympathy in terms of the activities that they are engaged in day to day. the money w

have been warning that guinea, an impoverished, yet resource-rich country in west africa, has been teetering on the brink of chaos for years. they were flanked by brutal civil wars in neighboring countries this aggravated existing ethnic tensions and left the entire subregion awash with small arms and mercenaries for hire. demonstrations throughout the years of 2006 and 2007 were brutally put down by military security forces, leaving hundreds dead and thousands injured. the ailing long-time president was so corrupt and unpopular that the citizens of guinea reportedly readily embraced the military junta to replace him when he finally died in december of 2008. unfortunately, the junta would not usher in peace. despite positive signals, repeated delays in the timetable for elections evoked discontinue. then in 2009, tens of thousands of unarmed civilians gathered at the national soccer stadium to protest against the junta. security forces responded by surrounding the stadium, blocking the exits and opened fire with live ammunition on the crowd. in the chaos that ensued, over 150 people were kil

era, and i am grateful for the work that he did in those critical weeks when the american system teetered on the verge of collapse -- that is, our economic system. but i do think this is a moment to take stock. in many ways, as president obama did in his state of the union address. how did we get to this very difficult economic place, and i think as we look at that, i think people have to be held accountable for their actions along the way, and that means that chairman bernanke must be held accountable for his record. i asked my staff. i said, could you get me the charter of the federal reserve because i know that it has many objectives that it needs to fulfill, and here are the four main objectives of the federal reserve. one, conducting the nation's monetary policy in pursuit of maximum employment and stable prices. two, regulating the banking system to ensure the safety of the nation's financial system and protecting the credit rights of consumers. three, maintaining the stability of the financial system and containing systemic risk that might arise in the financial markets. those are

looking at health care, i have to think about the condition of social security and of medicare, both teeteringng, how in the world we are going to pay for this. >> you raise an extremely important point. a bit of history, and then my sense of what is next. at the beginning of 2009, it was theç general judgmentç of çeconomists, conservatives, moderates, liberals, economists all across the political spectrum that there was a real prospect our country could have had aç depressionú prospect of deflation. it said there wasç an argument then for stimulusç legislation. you can debate whether it should have included this or that or something else, but there was a consensus that some stimulus was needed. çnow, certainly, many months later, we wake up and our government owns a car companyt( an insurance company, an investment house, and people are çsaying, excuse me? what is next? çgivenç all of these deficits? and i do believe that it isççe for the government to put in place something of an exit strategy soç that, in some of ars not been before, we get back the proper balance between the p

looking at health care, i have to think about the condition of social security and of medicare, both teeteringum that there was a real prospect our country could have had aç depressionú prospect of deflation. it said there wasç an argument then for stimulusç legislation. you can debate whether it should have included this or that or something else, but there was a consensus that some stimulus was needed. çnow, certainly, many months later, we wake up and our government owns a car companyt( an insurance company, an investment house, and people are çsaying, excuse me? what is next? çgivenç all of these deficits? and i do believe that it isççe for the government to put in place something of an exit strategy soç that, in some of ars not been before, we get back the proper balance between the private sector and government. çand i am thinkingç about that with respect toç the big issues coming up, particularly, on the financial reform issue which we will have real implications for your question. folks, i was one of a little over 20 members of the u.s. senate who voted against the entire

the state house was, you know, teetering on the brink. so it was a purple state that was turning shades of blue. and the democrats nominated what they thought, who they thought was their strongest candidate. he won the primary by 2-1 over the other two candidates in there even though he was badly outspent. so for bob mcdonald to then turn around and win 59-41 was a pretty remarkable achievement. some of that was helped by our good campaign and some was helped by an environment that tilted more in our direction than it had been even back in june. but again, that just shows you that a poll in june that we took that had us behind we were using it as a planning tool not to predict the election. oops. some of the pages didn't translate here. well, there's other reasons in terms of understanding how to read polls. but we're running somewhat low on time, so, again, the bottom line is and i'll then throw it open to final questions, and i know if you guys are either too tired or too shy to ask questions which i find hard to believe, that dr. thurb