>>> tonight on the kudud report, king dollar is the new reality. it is soaring. i love king dollar, but can we trust it? it's not coming from bernanke. it's coming from the euro. then again, obama care looks more like france and the euro. is it an investor game changer? and post obamacare, financial regulation is the hot money poptics ticket from washington to wall street. are we about to end too big to fail bailout nation. a new free market bankling paul ace. hat tip to chris dodd who i believe is on the right track. and bullish or bearish for banks. they're calling for bank stocks to quadruple by 2012, and why is no one paying taxes? 36% of tax-filing americans are exempt from federal income taxes. can you imagine that? 36%. this is incredible. it'soon outrage. it creates a bias toward more federal spending and higher tax rates on investors which is right on mr. obama's redribtion alley. fasten your seat belt said, the kudlow report begins right now. good evening. everyone. i'm larry kudlow. welcome back to "the kudlow report" where we believe capitalism is the

a relationship with the u.s. dollar, the euro and the equity market here. >> we have seen that relationship as the euro has weakened the dollar strength earlier in the week and trouble in big parts of the market like commodities and today the dollar is a little bit weaker and, guess what, the big material names and the commodities names and some of the big industrial names all do a little bit better. typical examples. they're all doing a little bit better here today. the market is going back, parts of it to respond to that dollar/euro relationship and particularly the strength of the dollar. >> the question is, too, when you look at that part of what's going on, one thing you have to question is how sustainable is this? the reality is -- >> there is a big fight going on and there are dollar bears and dollar bulls. it can go either way right now. this week, the weakness of the euro has definitely gotten people a little bit concerned here. >> also the mounting, mounting deficits and what that means for the u.s. dollar. >>

>> well, i personally think that the dollar, the current dollar index level is the highest close since may of '82, and i would think that 83.5 or 84 is possible and room to go, but on the interest rate front, warning shots by the rating agencies and couple of small warnings in the auctions, and we will get a litmus test with the artificially inflated jobs number. i has not happened yet, because if you did, you would know to worry about it as steve liesman will bring up, but you need to be concerned about supply rates and god forbid that we get too good of a jobs report that might not be meaningful, but still a catalyst for higher rates nonetheless. >> just to pick up on that, sue, it is worth pointing out that despite the hammering on the bonds this week and the auctions did not go well, and you don't want to sweep it under the rug here, but we are still trading at the top of what has been a fairly long-term range here of the 10-year, and the point is that when the bond market is really disgusted with deficits, when they are really choking on u.s. debt, you will know it, and you will k

but first...the u.s. dollar jumps to it's highest level in almost a year...ira epstein of the linn group joins us to talk about it...next. talking about the headlines now ira epstein of the linn group. we saw at the u.s. dollar on wednesday the u.s. dollar index is the highest level since 2009. what's going on with the gains? that life think that the dollar is going higher and i think that you have the interest rate as the differential adds to the best of bad currencies. so i do think that the dollar gets a hit out denied it and maybe the canadian dollar is well. we also saw a high pop and market interest rates on hill in the tenure now not just under 4% is that headed higher and could that be a problem? i think i think it is headed higher i think that your problems are no words with that were in the war of words with china fired on one of our big buyers of our currency me show that that ratio was out there and i think that it's got investors nervous. that enough that it wanted better yield. still suit or to sti

the euro fell, the dollar rose. do you think we're going to get back to that 11,000 level any time soon? >> well, if you look at the trend, which we have been seeing, which, again, has been an extreme vertical development to the up side off the march lows, i think that would probably be the case. yesterday's activity was harsh and a bit of a difficult situation for the market right now in terms of that upside activity that we have been seeing. at some point, again, it is going overshoot value. that's what the market is seeking right now as it continues in this extreme vertical development. and it will continue to be in vertical development until it does find this value area. anyone's get guess at this point where that value is. i think the 11,000 number in the dow is basically one of those kind of psychological big milestone type numbers, similar to 10,000, which we had passed a while ago. again, one of the most notable things in terms of yesterday's trading, again, which you touched a was the dollar strength that we

we want to focus in on the dollar yen because the move is most pronounced there. brian kelly, what would you make a move there? dollar/yen specific? >> the budget was released last night and, two, you got a look at the live rate in yen versus dollar. about a month ago it flipped and it's cheaper to borrow yen than it is to borrow dollars. and then, finally, the yen just popped above the 200-day moving average which gets a lot of big mac row and trend following funds into the equation. >> the carrie trade is back on. what does that mean for the equity mark snts. >> well, first of all, it seems going into this year the dollar was going to remain cheap because it got beat up and not only knew but inspiring renewed growth preferably in europe and we're seeing just the opposite there. what that means is right now we're back to old school where you'll continue to see convergence trades and more emphasis on borrowing in yen and not necessarily buying euros any more or facilitating purchases because so much emphasis on the euro that the dollar will continue to have strengt

i think the market wants to remain long dollars here. they're not convinced that the greek rescue plan is really a rescue or a plan at this stage. >> is it 130? >> it could be at 130 next week. i have no doubt about that and in terms of later this year once the fed starts to hike interest rates and normalize interest rates the dollar has considerable upside to it. >> sebastian, what are the best currency plays then if we're seeing the shift in the fx markets. what are the best plays for investors? >> i would agree with my colleague, lower and the short term and rel atiative and it's massive growth of productivity in the u.s. and a lot of things are improving and they went through subprime and europe and they're starting with a greek episode and the clean up of the balance sheet already has happened to many in the u.s. for the dollar to buy. >> very quickly, sebastian, what about the roopy on the board that you're interested -- >> they have expensive monetary policy and everything very fundamental on the policy and they'll have no choice e

but we had the dollar tied to gold right to the early 1970s.it was called the bretton woods monetary system. and hard to work until we blew it up. it wasn't just president nixon who did it. there was a whole idea, no idea we didn't need to have this anymore. so since the government has a monopoly on the money, the creation of it should be tied to gold. why? because it has a steady value. you can destroy it. you can't eat it or drink it, so it's all that's been supplied is out there so you don't get supply shocks. it's like a blessed. not perfect but better than anything else we have out there. and the federal reserve itself has been around 96 years, and the dollar has down and died in 96% did so having humans try to do it does not work. the fed should have only two jobs. stable dollar, and dealing with panics. period. and in terms of gold, just to show we can be modern, you don't have to own an ounce of it. all the fed would have to do is look at the price and pick a range so we don't look like we are inflexible. pick a range, and just picking

our market strengthened as the dollar weakened here in the united states. there's good reason to be concerned about a really strong dollar at this point. you know all the reasons why the market doesn't particularly like strong dollars. number one, you've got the issues with what's going on overseas. profits get hurt. the amount of money you can actually repa -- there's another thing, by the way, floating around today. mr. lipsky, second in commend at the imf was making very aggressive speeches over in hong kong at a forum saying the economic crisis was leaving deep scars in fiscal balances. on the dollar here, you can see some of the weakness we've had early in the day. >> i know you didn't want to get into health care much. there are a lot of concerns about the deficit right now, whether this is the right timing, in fact, for a bill like this. there are a lot of concerns about the increase in tax on the wealthy and what that's going to do for investment at a place like this. because people might be tempted to take out their money, out of the equities market

at the bank of america dollar or gold dollar. think the thing to focus on is how to get a stable value for the dollar so you're not relying on the federal reserve. and that is, imbecile horrify economists. and that is you have to have a tied to gold. so if you want to be sophisticated, a basket of commodities they don't look quite such like a barbarian. spreads between bones, you know, just so you know that you're not quite the simpleton i just make myself out to be. last night last night last night had rap at the depression. and we do deal with it in the book. but we have the dollar type to go right to the early 1970's. it was called the bretton woods international monetary system. and a largely worked until we blew it up. it wasn't just president nixon who did it. there was a whole idea a new idea we didn't need to have this anymore. so since the government has the monopoly on the money, the creation of it should be tied to gold. why? because it is a study value. you can't destroy it. you can't eat it or drink it, so with all t

what happens if the euro does go up and the dollar goes down, axle? just take a gander. what does that mean for the u.s. stock markets? >> well, it's not necessarily a good thing for the u.s. stock market. and indeed t may not be a good thing for the exports of the u.s. but i think let's clear up one misconception. we talked about growth before. people always think you need to have economic growth to have a strong currency. that only applies when you need foreigners to support you in the u.s. and australia when you have a current account deficit. but look at japan. japan has had a lousy economy for the longest time, yet a strong currency. similarly in the euro zone, yes, they may have a declining economy, but because they're spending less money, because when you have a bank bailout you can't have a treasury secretary stuff the money into the banking system, it has to come from the local budget, it's far more painful. >> as we are talking, the euro is fall to go a three-week low. it's now dropped to 1.34 and change. dave goldman, what do you think about axle's counter view

dollar. i think the thing to focus on is how do you get a stable value for the dollar so you are not relying on the federal reserve? and that is you want to -- and this will horrify economist. and that is you have to have a tie to gold or so -- if you want to be sophisticated a basket of commodities so you don't look like a barbarian or spread between bonds or not the simpleton i just made myself out to be. [laughter] >> gold got a bad wrap with the depression. it does d not cause the depression. but it got the wrap. and we deal with it in the book. we had the dollar tied to go through the 1970s. it was called the international monetary system. and it largely worked until we blew it up. it wasn't just president nixon who did it. it was a whole idea, new idea. we didn't need to have this anymore. so since the government has the monopoly on the money, the creation of it should be tied to gold. why? because has a steady value. you can't destroy it or eat it or drink it. it's all that's been supplied is out there. it's like a polaris. and not perfect. but better than anything else we have out the

>> hey, we are watching the dollar for sure, melissa. one of the things that could be contributing to a bit of pullback we've seen with the rally and i don't want to overemphasize this because we're still up 32 points right now on the dow and the s&p and the nasdaq also in the green at this moment, but the kansas city fed president really striking a hawkish tone this morning in suggesting that interest rates should not be kept at a zero interest rate policy in the near future. so that could be contributing to a little bit of a pullback that we've seen. i am here on the floor with brian shactman. brian, we've seen a little bit of strength on the dollar and how is that contributing this morning? >> going back to honing. the market did move a little bit and the traders weren't that focused on it, the weaker dollar has been boosting commodities and boosting equities and not the case today. commodities are up and stocks are up, but traders do say, trish, that maybe that's holding back the rally from being a little bit stronger. the bullish thi

the china market. last year it doubled to over a trillion dollars. number mercator advisory group sees doubling by 2013. the preferred approach toending the dispute is through negotiation. filing a complaint wouldn't end up with a speedy resolution. it could take two years before a ruling. simon, back to you. >> thank you very much. let's stay with the financial industry. while the crisis brought many western banks to their knees some used it as an opportunity to grow clearly in emerging markets in particular. joseph joputo from the global finance magazine just came out with the 17th analyst of the world's best emerging market banks. good afternoon to you. thanks for joining us. what are the top three and how have they got there? >> good afternoon. thank few for having me. this year we picked top banks in five region and 101 countries. the five regions were asia where hsbc was the winner, latin america where santander was the winner, in the middle east, kuwa kuwaiti national bank was the winner. in central and eastern europe it was raiffeisen bank. >>

>> yes, we can maintain the exports. dollar will go up, but from the long term historical perspective, it's relatively cheap back at the turn of the millennium, it was 1.20. it's cheap overall. the world is shrinking. the need for protein and feed continues to grow. our technology is barely up with demand. we're kind in no man's land with corn and beans as far as prices and supply. we'll probably see prices decline. if we have anything left big crops or perceived weather issues, markets will rally quickly. point is we'll see a lot of volatility with the potential for a lost volatility that will change overnight. >> i heard you say inbetween the words we'll have to have about as big a crop as we had last year. >> that's what i'm saying. the market is in this mind seth that we can grow corn seed in a gravel pit or pond and have record yields. i think that's a mistake to assume that. the fact is we've had a lot of issues last couple of years. what we've also had is rains make grain. we've had a lot of yields and a lot of productio

as an incentive, the treasury will pay lenders 10 to 20 cents for every dollar the mortgage is reduced. the government is also encouraging homeowners who are current on their loans and have good credit to refinance with the federal housing administration. lenders would receive incentive payments if they agree to reduce the outstanding mortgage by at least 10%. the $14 billion to fund the f-h- a program will come from the troubled asset relief program known as "tarp." f.h.a. commissioner david stevens makes it clear his program is not for everyone. to qualify for help from the f.h.a. homeowners must be current on their mortgages and pass a credit check. >> they wouldn't do this if they didn't want to keep their home at all costs. and that's what this program is designed for. it's responsible homeowners who could afford and want to keep their mortgage and their home if the principle balance could be lowered to make it affordable for them. >> reporter: the administration is also asking lenders to lower mortgage payments for homeowners who lose their jobs. the help will last up to six mont

the oil industry says developing offshore resources could help generate more than a trillion dollars in revenues. shell oil launched production from the perdido development, deep in the gulf of mexico, today. company president marvin odum says opening up new areas is a big step forward. >> the eastern gulf of mexico is not far from where this project is starting up. it will open up new areas where we can put in more projects like this and supply significant amounts of energy to this country. >> reporter: while critics worry about oil spills close to home, the administration says new technology makes that less likely. the president's calling on congress to pass comprehensive energy and climate change legislation. white house climate change advisor carol browner says the president's support for drilling may open up that debate. >> i think it is bringing some people's attention to this administration saying, wow, maybe we didn't expect them to do those kinds of things, but we're glad we're doing those sorts of things, whether it be the nuclear loan guarantee or opening up some areas for

, when it goes down, the dollar goes lower and here the sensex goes higher, you can see that the dollar india goes to the downside so that applies that the sensex has upside to it. so here, if tinldihe indian mon going high, that is a good sign that the markets are expressing further risk on the trading. >> so what do you suggest that people buy? >> one of strongest is lower dollar india here. and number two, the indian stock markets are doing well, and the sensex and the bolsa and other markets, and it is a good sign for stocks and therefore a good sign for global markets. >> okay. chart four? >> well, this is the most important chart we think this year, and it is interest rates as you have seen the move that we have seen just today. this is important, because what you have here is 2-year u.s. yields going to the topside, and european yields are going to the downside. why is this important? you have seen the move in the euro and seen exactly how weak the euro has been and this is the market pricing uncertainty in the euro zone and bearish for the stock market in the u.s. and bearish in

the canadian dollar's very strong. the canadian banking rules are very strong. i like nova scotia best because of its incredible dominant franchise in latin america. but bank of montreal is terrific, too. i would never fight you on those. those are both better, literally, than any bank in the united states with the possible exception of a stock that i own for my charitable trust jpmorgan. all right. write this down. you're going to hear about it from me. i wish i had got it in "getting back to even." but they weren't good enough yet to get in this book. first horizon, fhn. this is the next big thing in regional banking. i want you in it. i want you in it now. >>> coming up, the clock is ticking. call cramer at 1-800-743-cnbc to find out how to fire away at cramer on the "lightning round." >>> it is time for the "lightning round." hey, what's that all about? you say the name of a stock, i tell you whether to buy, buy, buy or sell, sell, sell. my staff prepares the graphics on the fly. when you hear this sound, the lightning round is over. are you ready, ski-daddy

continued uncertainty about the euro zone and the fact that there may be centralbacks that fear the dollar and the euro, gold may be seen as a replacement currency. we are also seeing rallying. some traders say on that score. in terms of the oil market, not much action at all related to south korea. it looks like oil prices may be poised to close below $80 for the week. back to you. >> thank you very much for that. up next on "street signs," a prescription for profits, how to make the money you're saving for health care work for you now. "street signs" will be back in a moment.

he publicized in the proximal 500 billion-dollar deficit, which was not true and it is the same thing with obama now. if you take the surplus from social security and medicare away from the general fund, which in george bush's last year in office was a 500-dollar-- there was-- which made his trip projection $860 billion i don't know how much it is now under obama but they know it is probably approximately $200 billion plus. >> host: mr. baker? >> guest: there are different measures of the budget surplus or deficit that's the case may be and if you want to blame someone here you really should blame the media because every single budget document i know of includes the deficit, both with and without the social security surplus, so you know if anyone wants to find and you conducted the economic report of the president, you could look at the official budget, every document i know includes the budget both with and without the social security surplus. i am happy to use either, depends on the purpose. i would use one or the other. there's some occasions he would want to use with counting the

the dollar, this has been the silver lining. lot of times you see equities not do well with a strong dollar. but we're at 1.33 on the euro and almost back to 92 and change on the yen. and the pound has been a problem. where is gold? i saw that broke over $1,100. now it's coming back. this is you. >> european leaders in brussels putting aside differences tw agreeing on financial support in a deal for greece. carolina climenti is reporting from greece this morning. good morning. >> reporter: very good morning to you, becky. now, here the decision is not the best decision, i would say, but it's the decision they could agree on. angela merkel when she came to brussels yesterday, she said there was not going to be an announcement on greece. at the end of the day, we saw a strong announcement on what will be the strategy if the euro zone needs to help greece. trichet said having the imf help a rur row country, he said it would be very, very bad for the euro. when he left the meeting, he had since it's a strategy, it's not a bailout yet

to get an international fund to movie really you have to have foreign stocks go up and the dollar go down, which benefits u.s. investors. that's not unheard of, but it's also not the most common occurrence. >> tom: the three funds we mentioned, any disclosures tonight? >> no, i'm good with all of them, i don't own one of them. >> tom: all right. our guest this evening, john waggoner, mutual fund columnist, you can read him at u.s.a. today. >> susie: here's what we're watching for tomorrow. >> susie: here's what we're watching for tomorrow. president obama will lay out a revised health care proposal that he hopes democrats in congress can pass. plus, the federal reserve releases its "beige book" survey of regional economies. also tomorrow, we'll take you behind the scenes at retail giant lands' end and show you how it's using quality and customer service to set itself a part from the competition. three million cablevision customers in new york city could miss out on one of the year's biggest tv events: the oscars. it's part of the latest showdown involving cable companies, networks, an

sterling is weaker against the dollar. but of course, a lot of data coming from your neck of the woods. nicole. >> indeed, christine. we have durable goods, more housing data today. great to see you on "worldwide exchange" just after 5:00 in the morning. on wall street, welcome to the start of your global trading day. dow futures are down about 16 below fair value right now. this is after what we're calling a stealth rally. we're trying to figure out what is behind the stealth rally with the dow hitting the best day bump since march 5th. s&p 500 up to 1,174. that is the best close since september 25th of 2008. we're going to dig into u.s./signo relations. the house ways and means committee is holding a hearing into the foreign trade policy. this comes ahead of next month's report that could labeling china as a currency manipulator. >> china's vice commerce minister is in washington today for talks with treasury, commerce and the u.s. trade rep's office. let's check back in with our guest host, julian pendock, who stays with

i thought it was the best dollar i ever spent. ught that was the best dollar i ever spent. but today, i wanted to try something off mcdonald's dollar menu. with so mu to choose from, i contemplated all my options. and finally went in for the 100% beefy, melty mcdouble. i thought it was the best dollar i ever spent. and i know a thing or two about the value of a dollar. ♪ ba da ba ba ba >>> that does it for this edition of "our world with black enterprise." visit us at blackenterprise.com and give us your feedback. until next time i'm ed gordon and thanks for making "our world" your world.

weakness in the dollar, strength of commodities. 's flat-lined a little bit in the opening, but i wouldn't give up the ghost here. i think the trend in this market is higher. i think we're starting to focus on corporate earnings and the ability to see an s&p 500 earn more than $80 in 2010, and we haven't heard a single company preannounce negatively yet. and this was the week we should have heard some of that. so, i think these are probably better than the reflected valuations right now and i think the trend's going to be higher. >> art, yesterday, it's been a fantastic month, march. at one point yesterday, we were up almost 7% for the month on the s&p. we were about 20 points away from 1,200 on the s&p, which at the beginning of the month was the median target for the entire year. do you think that we're taking gains away from the rest of the year or is something changed during the course of march? >> well, i think a couple of things have changed. first of all, i think if you look at march, it's really a model for what we've seen fo

the dollar is not strong. euro is weak because europe is weak and that means our economy will sell fewer exports and that's very bearish. this is not a strong king dollar thing. >> let me go to the strikes. besides the fact we have yet, no assurances -- and i'm not sure i want assurances of a bail jut for greece -- i'm opposed to that. i'm opposed to loan guarantees. angela merkel in germany is in trouble. her major coalition partner is fushous and any talk of bailouts and they are striking all over europe. that's sinking the euro. what does it mean to you. >> let me give you the chess board. looking at greece's optimal strategy it's the threaten to come out of the euro and get export-led growth and default on their loans. so greece is actually pretty houfl in terms of bargaining. -- powerful in terms of bar ginning. merkel is between a rock and a hard place. the public opinion is strongly against bailing out greece, but the german banks hold a lot of debt and they have political power too. >> it's too big to

the futures. we see them down a few dollars. oks like there's going to be a significant pop in the front-month volatility in the options. >> okay, so -- go ahead. >> sure, another interesting point. it looks like a lot of the move in the developed markets activity's been by and large priced in or kind of to be expected, given the news out of portugal and the eurozone and greece. however, the spillover into the emerging markets is one of the more interesting things we've seen setting up in the market over the past few days and we expect it to continue today, where the increased financing costs that we see in europe are having a ripple effect into the emerging markets and the concerns around the effect that's going to have on the economic, the continued growth into this country. as we've seen some aggressive put buying in various emerging markets, etfs over the past few days to protect against that move. >> all right. damon, thank you. >> thank you. >> and mark, it's been mentioned, but we do have the first u.s. bank ipo since 2007

dollar. and now to gold, back to the correlation on the dollar, especially related to the euro again, we're upbout $13. mark, back to you. >> thank you very much. quick check on the markets for you. the dow, as expected, down about 34 points right now. and now call it 32.5. s&p down about 4, nasdaq down about 6.5. losses of 0.25% to 0.33%. your "cnbc edge" now with bill sporopolis and dennis mossen, cabinet management portfolio manager. bill -- >> good morning, mark. >> i'll start with you. we've broken through the top of the ranks, but with not much enthusiasm. where is this market headed? what is it telling you? >> well, we continue to climb the wall of worry. nobody believes this thing. and you hear all the negative, nasty tales about how the world's going to end next month and they're wrong. and this thing's going to continue to do what it's doing, slow, slow move-up. 11,000, 12,000 in the cards this year, but you know, that's really not the issue. the issue has to be on managing risk and new strategies. because i do think that we're in a long-term secular bear market. >> oh, okay. there w

almost two trillion dollar federal budget deficit in >> in 2009. the government is borrowing over 1.8 trillion dollars that comes to more than 150 billion dollars a machine. next year it will be 1.4 trillion. we are going to continue borrowing over 100 billion dollars a month over a trillion a year. >> it doesn't take a ph.d in economics to think that you can run one trillion, two trillion, five trillion, 10 trillion dollars of debt. >> these numbers are incomprehensible, they are so large. >> the fiscal crunch can be dated fairly precisely. it's the year 2011 that is the year the first baby boomer turns 65. and qualifies for medicare benefits. >> the iceberg under the surface the liabilities in the form of promises that we have made to people particularly younger people today, that we will be able to pay them their social security, their pensions and their health care, for the rest of their lives, strongly subsidized by government. when we haven't the slightest ability to sustain and underwrite that funding without massive boar reing. borrowing far be

currency, it will make the u.s. dollar drop and everything will go bad. ul says, if china dumped the u.s. assets the value of the dollar would fall against other kou currencies like the euro but that would make our goods more competitive and reduce our trade deficit. on the other hand, it would be bad for china which would suffer large losses on the dollar holdings. in short, right now america has china over a barrel, not the other way around. david, i know you both have something to say about this. david? >> well, it's very counterintuitive, isn't it? >> yeah. >> that the world's largest borrower has its biggest creditor over a barrel. most of the world doesn't see reality in that way. paul's views drew a sharp rebuke from a leading kmits at morgan stanley, steven roach, who worked a lot on asian issues. we are clearly in the midst of a serious debate at home about what the u.s. approach ought to be toward china. >> richard, what do you think of the quote? >> this is a classic beggar thy neighbor policy. when you get one country attempting to use currency

the l.a. times tells us it's one in four. they tell us there's a 1000-dollar cost bring on that on every californian. so you got to bring the people into the system. you've got to try the efficiencies that you got to drive the savings that you've got to drive the value of the engagements to take place. and the fact of the matter is, with medical i.t., with these changes, you get change in behavior. the kaiser hospitals, one of the most successful enterprises, now patients are able without getting a doctor office visit, and ask their doctors questions and get immediate replies within a few minutes but of what's bothering them. they can check their blood pressure, cholesterol at home and he could be moderate back and forth. studies can go on because of the data systems about what works for people under 45, over 45, with different prescriptions at how generics match up. and all that is taking place. and there are employers in our state as a if kaiser was not available they could not provide health insurance because of the dramatic difference in those premiums. th

dollar/yen, hovering around the 90 of 41. dollar looking stronger across the board. euro weaker against the board. a lot of european powers are now debating the fate of greece. sterling/dollar, 1.5016. euro/sterling, 0.9008. uk inflation data is coming out as we speak. nicole. >> christine, president obama will sign the health care reform bill into law at the white house today at 11:15 in the morning and travel to iowa on thursday to try and promote it. the landmark legislation narrowly passed the house on sunday. republicans say they're going to fight a package of changes designed to improve the bill which may be taken out by the senate today. the $940 billion measure would require most americans to have health insurance and bars insurers from denying coverage. health care stocks moved higher yesterday and are up across the board right now. joining us live right now is hank smith from haverford investments. hank, you know, i want to bring you in. we'll continue the health care conversation in a moment. but let's talk about housing today. timothy geithner is on the h

fastest film to pass the 2 billion dollar mark at the box office and has gone on to take 2.6 billion dollars. cynics might argue that high priced 3d tickets contributed to the inflated figures, but it is undoubtedly the most profitable film of all time. i sat down with the producer of avatar, jon landau and began by asking why it had taken so long for the film to make it to the silver screen. >>landau: it was really about technology advancement. i mean there are things that we are doing in this moviethat were unfathomable only a few years ago. and we wanted to wait to make avatar until the technology was there to tell the story the way the movie deserved to be told. jim wrote this in 1995 and everybody loved the script. 20th century fox loved the script. but said wait a second, how are we going to do this. we didnt know. so we waited until we could figure it out and then we embarked on the journey. >> abirached: in some words, what has changed? its 3d but its something new in 3d. its digital but its something new in digital. run us through... >>landau: well there are

the senator as proved the 13 billion-dollar budget in a reconciliation bill. senators cut about $120 million from the governor's proposal but tonight some senators still have serious doubts it'll make it through the house. one bill expected to pass a ban on talking on your cell phone while driving. lue have to use a hands free device. if passed driver who be fined $40. >>> another bill getting attention. a proposal to raise the minimum amount of auto live insurance. the house of delegates passed it. if approved in the senate it would take effect in january. >>> now to a developing story involving the former governor. wjla in washington is reporting that he is planning to run for governor again. a source with knowledge of the announcement said he will announce it on wednesday april 7th. that event is slated to be followed by an event in his hometown. today the governor seemed unfazed. >> i'm looking forward to it this time. >> reporter: the republican was elected in 2002. he lost his 2006 bid. we caught up with the governor as he was discussing that massive heal

those threat to the dollar will come not just from the chinese currency or the euro but also from thete sector. if you interview a 20-year-old and say which do you trust more, your cellphone company or the u.s. dollar, that is very interesting. finally, that is not necessarily horrible. it is good to have competition so that the more virtuous money has an opportunity to show its virtue. >> aaron in denver, please go ahead. >> caller: good evening and keep up the good work. you mentioned the economic mismanagement and entitlement programs. those are some of the reasons the negative affect on our economy right now, i am a master's student studying international security. i have a keen interest -- i am feeling under the weather -- in foreign policy and the affects our foreign policy has on us domestically. the dod requested a budget in excess of $1 trillion. how is this going to affect our economy? if we slip in this down how will this positively affect us? >> host: amity shlaes, let's start with you. >> guest: if you look at a chart of defense spending and go back to the korean war you

the dollar is useful information. one has to be careful not to read too much into the day to day swings. >> doctor, in yesterday's news it was reported that china and japan had actually reduced their u.s. treasuries as of december. at least to in some statistics. my question to you is to what degree can fed monetary policy in setting interest rates be upset by foreign governments deciding not to buy our debt? >> there are a lot of links in that chain, okay? so first of all,ing monetary policy, if our goals set by congress are stable economic growth and price stability. those are our goals. how foreign governments conduct their modifier policy has relative to do with that as long as we are on a exchange rate regime. the big danger, i think, of course, there are two kind of effects you can have. if monetary policy or fiscal policy if you will leads to a perception on the part of both domestic and foreign -- domestic citizens and foreign governments or foreign central banks where they fear inflation, then that will drive

the dollar, of course, moving there against the euro. it's now 1.33 that's going to buy you in dollars. it's going to buy you a euro. we're seeing action on that front. lawmakers are holding hearings on this hour on policy. with the very latest on this one, hampton. >> hi, trish. for lawmakers make no mistake about it china's currency which some experts say 40% undervalued is simply the hot button issue. for the past 90 minutes lawmakers in the house ways and means committee have been hearing from currency experts saying there is absolutely no doubt china is a currency manipulator and it is affecting the economy and jobs here in the u.s. one of the witnesses at the peterson institute is telling lawmakers if china's currency was revalued, it could equal $150 billion a year in deficit reduction. and that also translates, he says, into 6,000 jobs for every dollar of every billion dollars in exports. >> revaluation of the chinese and otheration currencies are the most cost-effective step that could now be taken to reduce unemployment in the u

the doughnut hole. that sticks seniors with thousands of dollars of drug costs. is proposal would help reduce the cost of medicare over time that you pay every month this proposal would make preventive care free so you do not have to pay out-of-pocket for tests to keep you healthy. yes, we are going after the waste, the fraud, the abuse in medicare. we are eliminating some of the insurance subsidies that should be going to your care. that is because these dollars should be spent on care for seniors, not on the care and feeding of big insurance companies in a sweetheart deal. everything you should know, there is no cutting of europe medicare benefits, period, no ifs, no ands, and nobody. buts. this proposal makes medicare stronger, the coverage better, and the provinces more secure. anybody who says otherwise is either misinformed or they are trying to misinform you. do not let them hoodwink you. [laughter] ohio, that is the proposal. i believe congress owes the american people a final up or down vote. [applause] we need an up or down vote. it is time to as we get

focus will continue to be the dollar and the equities markets. oil will likely follow, go through them. we have natural gas bouncing after hitting a fresh six-month low yesterday. a lot of traders are watching to see whether natural gas is going to fall below that $4 mark with the prospect of not much demand and an awful lot of warm weather ahead. taking a look at the metals, we have got metals at this point flat right now. gold absolutely flat this morning with the dollar index a little stronger, giving back a bit. look at copper. copper is doing well with the report that chinese demand continues to be there. chinese copper imports were up 12% in february. mark? >> okay. the wiseman, jack welch appearing on "squawk box" this morning and saying if republicans think they're in for a big win in november, they should think again. >> i don't think they're going to get wiped out. because i think the economy is picking up. i mean, the economy is going to feel good. november is not going to look -- the republicans are going to get an awful shock, i thin

and the medicare program it is not much higher than 70 cents on the dollar and of course it leaves about5% that's covered by the private market, private health insurance provider some 3000 of them across the country. this for the cost gets shifted by the provider providing the service and that's why probably part of the explanation why add into blue cross of california announced a 35, 40% rate increase. it's important of course democratic majority of the president stressed that's just a perfect sybil why we have to do something about it but he didn't say that of course that increase was in at the individual, the individual market and small employer market. it was not for large companies but coca-cola and delta of the world, lockheed, it was the small individual market and of course mr. sessions, we have submitted the republican minority we talked about it when we went to the blair house for the six and a half hour session with the president democratic majority of build alternative ways of dealing with this and allowing people to purchase individuals and small businesses to pull together

sterling, weaker against the dollar 1.5005 and euro/sterling 0.9021. matt? >> well, clearly a victory for president obama. the house of representatives passing that historic legislative package late sunday night. the final vote tally 219-212. not a single republican voted for the legislation. now, as for that legislation, it would extend health care coverage to 32 million americans who have no insurance right now. the president addressed the nation shortly after the vote. >> at a time when the pundits said it was no longer possible, we rose above the weight of our politics. we pushed back on the undue influence of special interests. we didn't give in to mistrust, or to cynicism, or to fear. instead, we proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things. >> and now the bill enters the twilight zone, better known as the reconciliation process with its senate counterpart. senate republicans already vowing to use any procedural or parliamentary method they can to block or at least delay the final bill. but democrats hope to have the process completed b

and the dollar impacts trade here? >> i think getting too concerned about what's happening in europe -- and the euro's in trouble. i mean, it's going to 1.25, 1.20, 1.15. does that have to have a terribly deleterious impact on our capital market? and the answer is no, it really doesn't. so if we think that -- and i think that and have thought for a long period of time that the euro's under duress and is likely to go demonstrably low dwlaerks doesn't mean we have to come out and sell stocks across the board. >> dennis, hold on. we do want to go back toeng'llwood cliffs. mary thompson's at the breaking news desk. >> a ubs banker has been charged in an insider trading case. the u.s. attorney in manhattan announcing charges against two individuals, one of whom is igor poteroba, a ubs banker, and a friend of his, aleksei cobalt. the two of them involved in insider trading. poteroba tipping off cobalt on six health care deals. the ill-gotten gain of those insider trading tips $1 million. the investigation sun believable. but

the road for an entire year. today, we're also going to go one step further. in order to save energy and taxpayer dollarsnistration, led by secretary cho is doubling the number of hybrid vehicles in the federal fleet. even as we seek to reduce the number of cars and trucks used by our government overall. so, we're going to lead by exampleç and practice what we preach cutting waste, saving energy and reducing our reliance on foreign oil. but we have to do more. we need to make continued investments in clean coal technologies and advance biofuels and a few weeks ago i announced loan guarantees to break ground on america's first new nuclear facility in three decades. the project that will create thousands of jobs. and in the short term as we transition to cleaner energy sources, we still have to make some tough deition ises about opening new offshore areas in the ways to protect communities and protect coastlines. this is not a decision that i've made lightly. it's one that ken and i and others in my administration looked at closely for more than a year. but the bottom line is this, given our energy needs

in the first place they have to come home to the dollarn the second. this is nothing about the long-term and i want to talk about both what is the long-term? because ict pathways here. one pathway inside of this relationship between the united states and china evolves industry make genius to emerge, it becomes somewhat like a european union, which seems highly unlikely today. but if you would talk to a french winemaker for an italian urban dweller or a german burger in 1965 and asked them if 40 years hence unelected bureaucrats in brussels would be making key economic decisions about their interest rates, their currency and the government spending, that would've seemed particularly in the context of european history, ludicrous. so the fact that an e.u. pathway seems unlikely does not say it's impossible. a couple of things mitigated against us is one of the state you is conscious desires and the party leads where is the relationship between china and the united states has evolved largely without anyone in china and the united states knowin

the stimulus. is there u.s. tax dollars, the purpose of the program for stupid americans to work and use american materials in this product. the chinese are not hiring americans. they're not buying materials and their $585 billion stimulus plan. nor have the japanese, nor have the france has a 47 billion-dollar seamless program for the not looking to buy american equipment or materials to put into their stimulus programs. and in other areas, other arena, fine. that's a different matter. they use american tax dollars to put americans to. >> is to chairman, my answer to by saying that in some cases by american under the recovery act we can buy foreign goods if we don't have american good. >> and mob that are specified in a particularly and there is a process by which you have to perceive to resolve those matters. >> correct. and i think rsa gsa, one of the things we think it's an opportunity to give him in the recovery act is to buy some green building products in the kind of bulk in which we can help make the market for amer

but china keeps its currency dirt cheap against the dollar. it has slapped tariffs on our goods and basically pays a nickel an hour for labor. yes, the turbines are cheap. but at a time when the country -- they are manufacturing great products, i just think sometimes we need a little more help for our own manufacturers. >> 80% of the first $1 billion of our tax dollars went to foreign companies for this wind farm thing. that doesn't seem right. >> no, it's not. it's one of the most stupiddist things washington has ever done. most stupidest things. but, i will say this, this must be the reason obama's funneling money there so they'll buy our treasury bonds 'cause he's got to float a lot of treasury bonds to support all that money he's borrowing. >> victoria, what do you think of this idea? >> it's the inherent conflict in obama's decision to prioritize so-called green jobs. because a lot of the talent and a lot of the cheap manufacturing is going to come from overseas, china, japan is another place where we're sourcing from. it's a conflict. it'

with china or the dollar? the u.s. has problems in the dollar will begin. d vero might start to look stronger. at this point* the politicians across the line have said we will effectively stand behind a country that is in trouble. may have basically said if push comes to shove we will bail them out and then we weaken the credibility of the arrow because it does not supposed to be liked that and told the markets it will happen. >> caller: above like to know what is the difference between the greece situation where there to pay back the money and the switzerland's situation where they say they will not payback? hi watch c-span a lot and i get a lot of information from ron paul who is on the other show. and he has a bill where bernanke says flat out he will not tell people where the money went. listening to npr writer i read that to the world bank for gave 180 nation's foreign debt as long as they give up natural resources. then you have david rockefeller and george soros calling for a world government to bankrupt america to bring america down to bring the rest

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