john harwood on the white house lawn and also to you eric dash and vera gibbons, thank you. >>> next saturday," a father's outrage. how he's leading the charge for justice in the fatal beating of his homeless son at the hands of police. >>> you're watching "msnbc saturday." i love that my daughter's part fish. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. >>> police in fullerton, california are facing intense criticism over failure to provide information about how a homeless man died after a violent confrontation with police officers last month. six officers have been place and administrative leave after beating to death kelly thomas, a 37-year-old homeless drifter.

. >> joining me live, msnbc analyst vera gibbons.morning. >> good morning, alex. >> lots of bad news right now, but i'm always looking to you for silver lining. do you see them? >> i'll try to find some. there's nothing good to be taken from this report. 117,000 jobs, a silver lining. better than expected. economists expected 75,000. others expected lower, 50,000. the unemployment rate did drop frp 9.2 positive 9.1% and gains in the private sector and manufacturing, in health care, but all in all, a pretty grim report and people have been out of work on average for 40 weeks. it's a really, really long time. >> give me a takeway for consumers on all this? >> the takeaway, you've got to be patient. it's taking a long time. the people finding work, having to totally re-invent themselves, pick up new skill, try new thing, move into other industries. go with companies expanding operations elsewhere. it really requires thinking out of the box. people getting jobs are going for the part time, the contract and free lance work, that's becomin

vera gibbons is with us.his is like watching a bungee cord. >> it is. >> is this the new normal? >> reminisce ntd of 2008 when you see the wilding wild swings. didn't see quite as much of this as early in the week. 400 point swing, 500 point swings. some cleared. volatility is expected to continue because of global economic concern, the european debt crisis and economic data mixed. when there's uncertainty there's volatility. >> in positive signs coming out of this week? what are they? >> there were some positive sign. right? retail sales were up in july. the biggest gain since march. fewer foreclosures in july. initial jobless claims down. remember, too, corporate earnings have been strong. we'll be looking to see monday whether were can build on the gains we saw today or go back further into declines. >> mortgage rates at historic lows. >> uh-huh. >> will all the refinancing help boost the economy at all? >> investors are pouring money taking mortgages down with it. you could see more people actually ge out

. >> for more on the perilous state of the economy i'm churned by vera gibbons and brian sullivan, host of snaebz's "street signs." brian, can you lay out how bad the last eight days have been in terms of the major markets? >> they have been terrible. keep in mind, we've not had this kind of a run since 1978 in the stock market. luckily it looks like we're a little bit higher today. there's a lot of concern out there, not only around our situation here, but we've also got to keep an eye on europe. i know you're a global guy, martin. look around the world. some of the biggest banks in europe are down 40%, 50% in the past year. there's a feeling that europe could really feel the pinch, almost have like a 2008-2009 scenario. remember, european countries on their own tend to be small. europe together larger gdp than the united states. if europe slows, so, too, will our exports. that could pinch stock prices here. luckily today a little bit better for the equity markets but a lot of uncertainty and fear out there, martin. >> indeed. vera gibbons, the number of planned job cuts have surged to

. >> well, joining me live analyst vera gibbons. good morning to you. the sentiments from those two ladies, we were hearing it over and over again. >> it's so discouraging to see because people have not worked for such a long time. the average length is over 40 weeks. that last woman i saw has been out of work for a year. it's very discouraging. >> when you look at the latest job numbers it, what's the take away for consumers? 117,000 jobs added. we've dropped .1 in the unemployment rate. >> the numbers came in bigger than expected. the rate dropped a little bit because people stopped looking. i think what's particularly troublesome for consumers for those looking for work is that announced job cuts actually rose in july, up 60%. so they're now at a 16-month high. before it was companies simply not hiring. now they're actually firing and firing across the board in any number of industries from defense to retail to pharmaceuticals. so you see those kinds of numbers and you think why get up in the morning? no place to go. no jobs. i think consumers are de

. >> i'm joined by msnbc financial analyst vera gibbons and psychologist and nbc contributor jeff garderedes goingor the hobo satchel or starting a new career, what are people to do? >> this has been the most volatile week since 2008, remember that, you want to have a nice cash position, dividend paying stocks look attractive and to have an emergency fund. >> and we took the survey the vast majority of people don't even have $1,000 so that makes it scary. >> 50% of those who have an emergency fund would be pinched to come one $2,000 in the event of a job loss and it's taking over 40 weeks to find a new job. >> do we have to get used to this, are these crazy swings the new normal? >> it feels like 2008, the markets are crazy, a lot of anxiety and fear in the marketplace. people thought we were past this, threw this. things were looking better at the beginning of the year. two steps forward, five steps back. >> a lot of people who don't normally pay attention in the market are obviously freaking out. so what do you do? you're not sleeping at night. >> misery loves company. what i mean by th

. >> vera gibbons, ron insana, and our birthday boy neil irwin.re is at least something to celebrate. how is that? >> thank you all. >>> coming up in just a few minutes, we're going to see how the u.s. credit rating downgrade is making news overseas. also coming up, it can be a dangerous job when a major league pitcher takes the mound. and we're going to show you why here on msnbc saturday. that's not the shot, but there's another one. yeah, that's the shot. he is down. i love that my daughs part fish. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that

vera gibbons, msnbc analyst and colonel jack jacobs, also an msnbc military analyst. an extensive background on wall street working in the financial industry for more than ten years now. welcome. vera, we have this credit downgrade. unemployment rates above 9%. a tick down from july. does it give you an indication of where the economy is head snd. >> ae also appear to be off the recovery wagon. if you look at the economic data, it's been bad across the board from manufacturing to spending, economic growth basically here is at zilch. our global economic concerns are concerns about the u.s. currency and its ability to pay its debt, and people don't have jobs. you mentioned the rate at 9.1%. it's closer to 16% when you consider the number of discouraged workers. definitely a lot of head winds out there, which has had more people talking about possibility of double dip. >> i want to talk with you, jack, about the companies that have announced layoffs this week, because there seems to be this disconnect between companies saying we have to let you go and yet they're sitting

vera gibbons is an msnbc financial analyst.learn what this credit downgrade -- what affect it will have on the markets. what is the fallout expected to be? >> well, hopefully we won't see the sea of red we saw last week, right, with the dow tanking 700 points, but i think the market will look beyond the credit downgrade and focus on the fund mentals which are extremely weak. the slew of issues facing up right now. we have the european debt crisis. we've got concerns about the global economy, growth here is essentially nill. you have growing concern and growing talk about possible double dip. >> you use a technical word. you said there's a lot of craziness in the markets right now. how real are the fears that we could see a double dip recession? that is, the country going back into -- >> economists have put those as much as 50-50 at this point given the downgrade, but nonetheless, to protect yourself in this type of veemt, i think to alleviate some of the anxiety, it's nice to have a nice cash position, particularly if you are i