as the united states economy remains vulnerable in the midst of a very shaky recovery just across the atlantic our european friends fight to fend off a second wave of economic financial turmoil. their lesson is one for the world as well as the united states. in december my subcommittee invited officials from the federal reserve to explain the economic unrest from europe and what actions they would consider in reaction to it and what measures remained at their disposal as events changed day-by-day. daily headlines read of liquidity injections of billions and trillions of euro, swing stock markets widely. in december the ecb held a second auction known as a long term refinancing operation to provide banks with cheep loans and a credit event was declared in greece. the credit event in greece is one of particular concern to markets around the world. as we look ahead, the european story is far from over. european leaders continue to strengthen the weak framework of the eu to substantiate their rescue efforts and financial markets become more dependent on continued willingness of the centra

if you take a look at the global economy, the g-20, the eminent group of finance ministers, the united states is number one. we are the largest economy in the world. china is now number two. china in a few years will be number one. united states is richer on a per capita basis by a magnitude of about tenfold, but china will have more economic output than the united states. it is a force that has to be reckoned with. they got this way because they have had very good growth for a number of years, but it is growing a little bit too strong. there are some small bubbles popping up in different parts of their economy, and they are trying to slow down the economy. slowing down an economy -- every government can do that. the hard part is controlling that downward trajectory. in most cases, countries that tried to slow down their economy -- they go into a crash, they go into a recession, but china is different. the best way i have to describe china's economy, to steal a line from yogi berra is one-half market economy and three- quarters centralize control economy. they are big enough. they are powerfu

russia joining the world trade organization presents a lucrative opportunity for the united states economy american jobs. we can all you must all embrace rather than escape this opportunity. russia is the largest economy currently outside the wto. it is the sixth largest economy in the world. to allow american businesses, workers, businesses, ranchers to see the opportunity that wto presents, congress must act. we must pass permanent, normal trade relations or pntr to access the growing russia market. if the united states passes the pntr with russia, u.s. exports to russia are expected to double within five years. if congress doesn't pass pntr, russia will join the wto any way and u.s. exporters will lose out to the chinese and european competitors. these competitors will expand the one side of the agreement that benefits the businesses and requires them to give up nothing in return. unlike a free trade agreement, the united states will not further open its market to russia. we will not make any other changes to our trade loss. it's a one-way street. russia, on the other hand, will lower i

you can see that the united states economy going back to 1900 has grown pretty consistently around 3% for more than a century. you can see in the 1930s, you can see the big swing as the great depression pulled output . then you can see is movement above the trend line during world war ii. after world war , to the trend line. there were recessions and booms and busts in the post war period. but remain pretty close to the trend line. if we look to the very far right, you see where we are today. we are below the trend line. there are debates about whether or not that decline is in some way permanent. i think there's a reasonable chance look at the long run of history that the u.s. economy will return to healthy growth somewhere in the 3% range. there are factors to take into account like changes in our population growth rate and our aging of our population and so on. but broadly speaking what this picture shows is over long periods of time our economy has been successful in maintaining long-term economic growth. just saying a few words about regulatory changes. you recall that i discusse

quickly, the united states economy is gaining momentum. it is on a nice, a ford trajectory. last quarter put the gdp number was the strongest of the last year, and it looks like that will continue to do better going forward. a couple of other things that are of concern i will go through quickly. the next one is that the austerity plan is going on in europe will probably cause a recession if europe is not already in a recession. china needs to avoid a hard landing, and i will talk about those topics in a little more detail. the next board is the politicians in washington really need to expend the stimulus plan they have in front of them in terms of extending unemployment benefits and the tax cuts. the u.s. economy is doing better, but it still needs the stimulus to keep going. finally, the unemployment rate is still uncomfortably high. it has come down to 8.3%, down from the 10% level. in california, it is 11.1%, down from the recent high of 12.5%, but it needs to do better. our outlook on the economy is that it is sunny with partly cloudy, but the united states is probably t

what sort of drag would a european recession as they have today have on the growth of the united states economy? >> well, if you -- let me start with this. if you think about where things were in the fall of last year when most of the world thought we were living with the real risk, europe would suffer a catastrophic financial failure. we're in much better shape today. because they have been successful in calming those financial tensions and people are more confident they're going to do what's necessary to hold the thing together. but even under the most optimistic scenario of the impact of those reforms, this is going to take a very long time and growth in many of those countries is going to be very weak for a long period of time. and that's why it's so important -- and if it's weak, it hurts us, hurts the rest of the world. less than we feared, though, six months ago. and that's very important. so even -- even though they got a long ways to go, we face less risk of damage to the united states into the global economy because of the cumulative impact of the actions they take. and you're right t

seeking to control the prices and wages within the united states economy in 1971 was another. it was a dramatic move and it was accompanied by the exit from the bretonwood system, the temporary imposition of import surcharges, and by the continuation of a spectacularly successful campaign which the president led to pressure the federal reserve board and particularly the federal open market committee under the chairmanship in 1970 of his chosen lieutenant. the pressure of the fed to ease monetary policy to the point where unemployment fell or would fall in 1972 and be accompanied because of the imposition of wage and price controls by low and falling inflation. precisely those two things. politically it was in my view a masterstroke, indeed a master club. the wage and price freeze -- by the wage and price freeze, richard nixon abandoned his former conventional policy tools to control inflation. august 1971, and november, 72, marked his odeliberate policy rush in the presidency and the conduct of the united states his entire peacetime economic policymaking in the postwar world.

emerged especially considering that many analysts actually see china's economy surpassing the united states economyin the next few years why why are we still using this word emerging economies it takes some time to catch up but you're right for the past several years the brics countries have been the only real engine of growth in a global economy that badly needs one now with europe receding into recession we need the brics growth that we've got now to a polar mode and with great volatility and rising oil prices over uncertainties about iran russia alone with that so oil supplies right is something that europe japan even the united states badly need and the last question i want to ask you is obviously because most of these countries have huge economies by twenty twenty they're expected to make up fifty percent of the global g.d.p. they're also starting to of flex their political clout as well tell me a little bit about that well i think we've seen that if you like a global governance more broadly that long ago while russia graduated to the first ranks quite joining the g eight the brics here are in

release you think is appropriate, sort of bragging about how much money you've taken out of the united states economy. or second, 31% from a single region, region 7, do you think that suggests there's differential enforcement or regions are that different. >> environment finds are oftentimes serendipitous. in terms of bragging on investment and cleanup, investments, those are generally injunctive relief where we require a company not as much to pay the fine but do the work and come into compliance. we think it's important american people know there's an environmental cop on the beat. it deters people from violating. that's an important part of the enforcement program. >> fair enough. i would suggest when the agency uses the term polluters, some of that agreement was with particular business or individuals. is that probably right? >> yeah, but that agreement came as a result of an environment. >> probably in this agreement, this agreement doesn't indicate any wrongdoing, simply says we're willing to cooperate with the epa, yet you used the term "polluters" which i will tell you in kansas we view that

because you know it's the biggest economy in the world now if you use five countries starts to implement a close trading system among themselves and exclude europe and united states well then we're going to see some serious serious shifts in the world economy and i think some of these leaders are also sort of feel that power not only with trade but with the economy especially as a lot of them are you know what we call emerging markets and there's been a lot of talk probably as a result of on the so-called south south development fund the formation in the future possibly of a joint development bank but what what's it you know what are the possibilities that this could actually happen that those five countries forming a bank it seems to me they want to have an alternative to you know institutions like the world bank which they complain as always been led by somebody in america and the i.m.f. which is always led by european and they seem to want to have an alternative is that viable yes it is the key issue of the summit is that there are going to be so any agreements to trade among themselves in their own currency and have slop agreements that is currency exchange a

you add those components together and the japan like experience for the united states economy is a growth rate of 2 1/2%. >> if i could add one point there, productivity growth in the u.s. for gdp over the last year has been negative. the trend over the long run may be 2 1/2% but because capital formation in the business sector has been so depressed and because we went -- we had a huge boom inivity in the recovery we may be looking at several years.1/2%. labor force right now with the aging population is growing about 3/4%. maybe we get a little bit of rebound in labor force participation to discourage workers but there's no question that productivity growth is going to be quite -- could very well be quite depressed over the next several years which says 2 1/2% gdp growth which is pretty close to consensus gives you a fair amount of improvement in employment, okay, and one final point is that the data on employment are very much at odds with the data on income right now. employment is growing at a pretty rapid pace. income has been surprisingly depressed. although the revisions are starti

the billion dollar debt, i address in some detail how to think about the united states by the growth of the united states economy. what i make is that of course china is a challenge because of the growing economy. they face challenges, too. they have significant hurdles to get over both domestically and in terms of their international situation before they can become anything approaching what the united states is right now. i think i addressed the problem soberly. >> what is your reaction to what it was like in this country before in 1972 when the president went to china? everything has completely flipped. they hold our debt. we still have the largest military in the world by far. now we're getting concerned that they're starting to build their military. why don't they have a right to protect themselves? >> they have a right to protect themselves. they have a right to expand. there is no justice system in the international order that says everybody gets to do with the want to do. everyone has a right. is it a benefit to our primary concerns? is it a benefit to the world? as china increases the military voice, we

did those economies grow faster or slower than the united states since 2009? >> well, the economies of europe with the exception of germany to some extent have grown significantly slower than the united states over this period of time. for probably for the reasons you said. their crisis was more acute than ours. they're in an earlier stage of adjusting to it. they reacted more tentatively and with less overall force than we did in the united states, and for those reasons and the scale of the challenges they faced beforehand, growth has been weaker in that context. i think the basic lesson in this context is yes, you want to be very careful to try to balance the imperatives of restoring fiscal sustainability with the recognition that ultimately both long-term fiscal sustainability, not just the immediate health of your economy depends on your ability to get the economy growing again. >> one of the comparisons that often is decided by some even here in this body is that the united states if it's not careful given its debt posture and lack of fiscal discipline is

that withdrew technique opportunity, and its story provides eye-opening lessons for the united states. economies singapore and south korea skyrocketed out of poverty in the 1980s and '90s. taiwan was growing at 7% to europe, joining the ranks of rich countries in no time. >> the country was getting richer. however, the health care insurance system was not all good at the time. >> a health policy expert at princeton says 41% of taiwan's population had no health insurance in 1995. >> you paid out of pocket. and for the really poor, then, you pray a lot. >> so taiwan's government decided to reform its system of care from the ground up. william shao, a professor of economics at harvard, is one of the world's leading health care gurus. shao had a broad approach. >> we approached experts from all over so we could get their experience for taiwan. >> the panel considered the u.s., its close geopolitical ally as a model for health care. they were not impressed. >> you can learn what not to do from the united states rather than learn what to do. >> they also looked at great britain, but the brit's governm

coburn backing the former massachusetts governor saying he has a solid plan to improve the united states economyer vladimir putin claiming victory again. and putin winning the presidential election in russia, beating four other candidates in a questions to win the third term as president. you may remember he was already president from 2000 to 2008 moving into the prime minister's office due to term limits. and today's vote, tainted by-- and they say bus loads were driven around to cast votes multiple times and if that's confirmed the victory could be undermined and the opposition gearing up for a protest tomorrow. amy kellogg from moscow, amy. >> hi, harris, on the radio here the other day someone said in america you don't know who is going to be elected president, but you know how it's going to go. here in russia, you know who is going to be elected president, but you don't know how it's going to go and the anti-putin movement has already said that they consider the results of this election to be illegitimate and planning a major pro it is for tomorrow. and putin seemed to be emotional as he gr

. >>> in a new show of vigor the united states economy added 200,000 plus jobs for the third consecutive month. the unemployment rate held steady at 8.3%. it's a boost for many of you and perhaps a boost for a president looking to keep his job. let's crunch some of the numbers. then we'll have a conversation with christa freeland. the file here 227,000 jobs created last month, 8.3% unemployment rate. during the obama presidency you see the rate was up around 10%. it's now dropped down. pretty static since january but down from its highs anyway. the question will it go lower than 8.3% before november? let's look now. since the president came to office, remember back in 2008 the final months of the bush administration? then first year of the obama administration? the economy was bleeding jobs. that's all the red. been in the black mostly since. a few tough months in the middle of 2010. look at that, though. since this rough period here and into 2011 and 2012, jobs up. these are the three months in a row above 200,000. one last thing to look at here, where are the jobs? the last month 233,0

i would be happy to answer any questions you have about the united states or the economy. europe has enforced a key strategic economic partner of the united states, and we have a huge state, a huge economic stake and security stake to sustain its crisis. our economy is gradually getting stronger, but we still face a lot of tough challenges ahead as a country. in early 2009, the u.s. economy was facing the clear and present danger of the great depression, and we acted with the federal reserve and congress to pull the u.s. world economy back from the edge of the abyss. we successfully used to stabilize the financial system and restarted economic growth. in the past two and a half years, despite the crisis in europe, despite the rising oil prices last year, despite the disaster in japan, despite the huge damage in the competence of the united states caused by the threat of default on the u.s. government's obligation for the first time in history, despite all of those challenges, our economy has grown an average annual rate of about two and a half% over the last two and half ye

in the united states, the economy seem ed to be barely growing. possibly on the verge of another recession. the fiscal picture here was all screwed up. we had enormous question marks about the extension of stimulus tax cuts. and the federal reserve

the start because it shows how california is doing relative to the united states and relative to texas. we kept hearing how great an economy texas had. but you can see we are on a much faster pace than the united states and about the same pace that taxes is at. -- texas is that. but they do quite well for the fact that their largest employer is the federal government. in a recession, the federal government does not lay off people. the second largest employee -- employer is the state of texas. they do not let up people. all the support organizations that work with those people to knock have the financial situation than we did in california or the rest of the united states were corporations were laid off people. but one of the most attractive things about taxes is that realistic is very cheap. austin, texas, is the most expensive metropolitan area. you want to know what the median price of a house is there? want to guess? $194,000. and i'm rounding up. it is very cheap. as a result, a lot of employers that need low-cost workers are moving to texas. that is one thing they are benefiting from. you can see on this list here, th

i want that in the united states here in phoenix to help us with the economy. that brings me to the third point and that is the notion of dynamic talent is a tricky concept in the united states. we don't know in modern economies what helps an economy continue to grow and to remain strong and to prosper as it inknow vates, particularly as the economy and the culture and the society becomes relatively well off. it is a known phenomena that it is hard for individuals who are relatively well off to take outsized risk and put everything on the line. back to my original story, if you think about the swimmers in the contest, in order for the united states to prosper, we need lots of swimmers who are willing to get in the water and swim and save nothing for the trip back because they are the type of person who will do whatever it takes, work as hard as is needed and get to the other side without saving energy to get back. and this shows up in what we now have as the crystal clear data in the last several years largely funded by the kaufman foundation out of kansas city

is that in a gold standard, the amount of money in the economy varies according to things like gold strikes. so, for example, if the united states, if gold is discovered in california, and the amount of gold in the economy goes up, that will cause an inflation. whereas if the economy is growing faster and there's a shortage of gold, that will cause a deflation. over shorter periods of time, you frequently had both inflations and deflations. over very long periods of time, decades, prices were quite stable. now this again was a very significant concern in the united states. there's a famous figure who we can see was a very good public speaker. william jennings brian.ic candi for president. in the latter part of the 19th century, there was a shortage of gold relative to economic growth. and since there wasn't enough gold, in some sense, the money supply was shrinking relative to the economy, the u.s. economy was experiencing a deflation. that is prices were gradually falling over this period. now this caused some problems. and the people who were most concerned about it were farmers and other agriculture related occupations. think

developments in europe but i'll be happy to answer any questions you have about the united states or the broader global economy. europe is of course a key strategic and economic partner of the united states and we have a huge stake, huge economic stake, huge national security stake in the success of europe's efforts to contain its crisis. our economy, as you acknowledged, is gradually getting stronger, but we still face a lot of tough challenges ahead as a country. as you know in early 2009, the u.s. and the global economy were facing the clear and present danger of a second great depression. we acted with the federal reserve and with congress to pull the u.s. and the world economy back from the edge of the abyss. we successfully stabilized the financial system and restarted economic growth. over the past two and a half years despite the crisis in europe, despite the rise in oil prices early last year, despite the disaster in japan, despite the huge damage to confidence in the united states caused by the threat of default on the u.s. government's obligations for the first time in history, despite all those cha

a force for good in northeast asia, a bastion of democracy, and a staunch ally of the united states with an economy that's the envy of the world. mun of this would have been possible without your sacrifices and those of your fallen comrades. so on behalf of those in uniform serving today and an eternally grateful nation, thank you, we are standing on the shoulders of giants. thank you. [ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, this concludes came today's say money. we thank you all for attending and helping us honor those who sacrificed so much in the defense of republic of korea. please join us for refreshments. as cause in, we were playing an outstanding documentary. and if you did not get a chance to watch the real m.a.s.h., take a little time to view it. showing in the respgs area and all the displays. please join us. thank you. >>> between 1861 and 1868, clara barton known as the angel of the battlefield and founder of the american red cross lived if will washington, d.c. building. she employed 12 clerkses on the third floor in her missing soldiers office where they received over 60,000 letters fr

so it is fair to say that we're far ahead of europe in dealing with the united states. and our economy is looking better on really every measure. than certainly the average. >> last question. there's been a lot of concern about american banks exposure to european financial institutions with credit default swaps, et cetera. if the financial reform bill that was signed in law in 2010 had been signed in law two years earlier, would that have had the effect of lessening the concern we might have today? >> absolutely. absolutely. if they were in place three or five years before, the crisis was less much severe and much better position to manage the effects of the crisis on the economy. but today because of the reforms and the actions we took to restructure them in the financial crisis. u.s. banks are in a much stronger position. hold much more capital against the risk they take around the world. that's a good thing for the united states. >> chair recognizes the gentleman from california. >> the question was asked on the 2010 krsh committee quota. we've had some responses. will they seek aut

you keep those dollars within the united states economy." and that's exactly what we need to do in these troubling times. according to the institute of energy research, we have enough oil within our borders to supply our own fuel needs for 250 years. that's not senator wicker talking. that's not a presidential candidate talking. that's the institute for energy research. 250 years that we have here in the united states, and yet they are being kept off-limits by the administration. now the administration wants an $85 billion energy tax hike. this new tax will not translate into cheaper gasoline, a fact my democratic colleagues have, in fact, acknowledged. it will make it more expensive to produce, drive up imports and hamper economic investment. according to a study by the congressional research service, higher energy taxes will increase gas prices and likely increase foreign dependence, exactly what we don't want to do. this would ultimately hurt average americans who depend on affordable gas prices to get to work every day, and businesses, s

united states. president obama and david cameron devoted the press conference to iran and the economy was the focus. >> the united states and great britain with two ditch economies in two different positions. their banking sector was much larger than ourselves. their capacity to sustain debt was different than ours. and so as a consequence, each of us are going to be taking different strategies. >> it would be wrong to think britain is just taking measures to reduce its deficit. we're also taking a series of measures to help promote growth. just before coming here we took a series of steps to unblock and get moving our housing market. we cut corporation tax in our country to show it's a great destination for investment. we're investing in apprenticeships. a series of steps are being taken. there are differences, as barack has said, the state of the two economies and circumstances we face but we're both trying to head in the same direction of growth and low deficits. >> rose: i am pleased to have george osborne here to talk about how he sees the global economy, european debt, and the austerity progra

> reporter: the rise mirrored china's emerge enas the world's second biggest economy, rapidly closing in on the united states. as china's economy continues to diversity, newland is at the cutting edge, tapping into food safety and green energies. >> when i go to the shop and they swipe this, it's newland? >> newland, in china, yes. also in other countries. >> reporter: newland develops software, chances are whether they are aware of it or not, people in china are using newland-based products every day. now she's branching out, doing deals internationally and opening offices in the u.s. and europe. she sees herself not just as a businesswoman but an ambassador for her country. >> translator: at the beginning, our technology company's target market was china. but later we found we should develop our overseas market, our business partners are surprised about china's development nowadays. >> reporter: you have very interesting friends. it doesn't hurt either to have friends in high places. crystal wang not only knows china's president hu jintao but is on first name basis with his likely successor xi jinping. >>