wells fargo and wachovia are finishing up that merger. we will see the wells fargo signs show up here and in north carolina. the wachovia name goes back to 1879 and will kind of be washed away, so that will be a bittersweet moment for north carolina. >> we are looking like an inside the time warner cable carena, where i just a few hours -- we are looking live inside the time warner cable arena, where in just a few hours the democratic national convention will get under way. earlier today, politico correspondent mike allen interviewed valerie jarrett on what to expect from this week's democratic national convention. the convention begins today and features speeches by jimmy carter via video, and francisco mayor julienne castro, and michelle obama. >> thank you for coming out. we are excited to be in the city. we had fun last night out on the counter we are honored to start this morning with a gallery jared, who has the title of senior advisor to the president, which barely begins to scratch the many portfolios she has. after that, we will

wachovia bought a lender called golden west financial.mortgages in california where housing prices were falling apart. they had some investment banking issues as well. that put them into trouble going into the financial crisis. bank of america had bought first countrywide, and then merrill lynch, the biggest investment bank. a lot of concern about the merrill lynch deal led to a government bailout and a lot of congressional hearings and what happened there. now the countrywide deal was going through in causing problem. there was a lot of trauma during the financial crisis. wachovia over one weekend was ready to fail. they were trying to figure out who to sell it to. eventually wells fargo came back with another deal. and there were moments where wachovia was close to failing and they did not know what was happening. a deal came through in the last minute, and there were consultations between the lawyers and they were going to sue for millions of dollars. they settled not too long ago for 100 may in dollars. >> what effect does this have o

wachovia, at that time, employed 20,000 people in charlotte.today, wells fargo, having made charlotte their east coast headquarters, employs more people than that. it is a different mix, a different income level, certainly, and there is no way to sugar coat and the loss of corporate headquarters, but charlotte dodge the bullet. they needed charlotte, and we needed them. it hit us between the eyes that frankly our economy has always been fairly diverse. we had perhaps forgotten that. the perception have become that we were a one-industry town. it was in debt crisis that we began to focus on the energy sector and the opportunities that exist there, and we have been able to realize some of those opportunities with 4000 to 5000 jobs in that sector over the last couple of years. we have a growing appreciation for health care in our market. we are not the home to a medical school, so we are not thought of as a medical center, but when we look at the kellogg -- carolina's health-care system, presbyterian hospital, they are recruiting the top professio

. >> citigro is going to buy the banking operations of wachovia. >> joining us now in columbia, southarolina, hogan giddily, and in charlotte, site of the democratic convention, julian epstein and professor michael eric dyson. good afternoon. hog hogan, let me show you a chart of the five worst one-day drops in the history of the dow jones industrial average. four of the top five worst days on wall street occur between september and december 2008. the fifth incidentally was the day trading reopened after 9/11. four years ago this month, john mccain suspended his campaign to head to washington. mitt romney today is enjoying a boat ride at his lake house. so doesn't that indicate that things are better? >> things are obviously worse. and i think the democrats are in a box. >> hogan, sorry, let's stop. we can't continue with obviously worse because at that point, the dow was around 6500. today, it's in excess of 1300, so you're saying that things are obviously worse. >> well, unemployment's obviously higher. i mean, the deficit's obviously higher -- >> okay, stop, hogan. hogan -- >> mart

you had companies like first union, wachovia going out and spending too much money, hurting their own shareholders, doing things like buying golden west or bank of america buying countrywide. those types of transactions ended up being very bad for their shir shareholders -- their shareholders. here we are it is nice that both sets of shareholders can win. i think this point in time in the cycle you do want to look for targets. you are not going to get hurt by owning the buyers either. that's a great environment to be in. dagen: anton, thank you very much. we will see you very soon. connell: back to the breaking news we have been covering, this earthquake and tsunami warning costa rica. we have been reporting on it here on fox business the last few minutes. 7.9 magnitude quake hitting costa rica. no immediate accounts of damage coming in just yet or injuries. we will obviously follow that. the pacific tsunami warning center has issued expanded regional tsunami warning and watch, parts of the pacific under either that tsunami warning or watch. to be clear about this, there was a tsunami

a little more than four years ago we were in charlotte watching wachovia collapse, a major financial institution in america. we saw tens of thousands of jobs lost because of the worst recession since the great depression. right now granted there are a lot of people in my state unemployed and i understand how hard it is for those families, but at the end of the day, after 29 months of consecutive job growth, we appear to be coming out and that puts us in a better place philosophically so we're on our way out and i think all of us in america have to remain optimistic and focused on job creation. connell: if things are getting better and if they are getting better in your state which the president won last time around and it's gone to be very close it looks -- and it's going to be very close it looks like this time. why aren't you running for reelection? >> i'm not running because i'm going to focus on educational technology which i choose to do as my life which i think is the most transformational thing to happen to colleges and universities probably more than a century. that's where m

eluded to, combined with the problems of charlotte's financial sector, you know what happened with wachovia wells-fargo and industry of the state. and ironically continuing robust migration have meant the labor market in north carolina has been tremendously stressed over the last few years. especially since it never recovered from the 2001 recession. the most stunning finding in the study we completed, is that since 2000, north carolina has added about 0.3% jobs while the state as a whole has gained almost 20% in population. this is the economic backdrop in the south for the fall election in my view. one way or another if the south is going to emerge economically out of this age of rapid technological change and globalization, southern workers have to become more skilled. whether or not there's the political will to bring this about is a key question. we just put out a report, plato versus plumbing. what we have to do in the south is develop multiple pathways to ensure post-secondary education for all north carolinians and southerners so we could move up the value change and create a future

structural factors, combined with the problems of charlotte's financial sector, what happened with wachoviandustry, and, ironically, continuing robust in the migration, that has all meant that the labor market in north carolina has been tremendously stressed, e especially since it never really recovered from the 2000-2001 recession. the most binding a study we completed is that since 2000, north carolina has added 0.3% jobs. the states as a whole have gained -- the state has gained 25% in a population -- population varie. this is the backdrop for the fall elections. one way or another, the south is going to emerge economically out of this age of rapid technological change and globalization. southern workers have to become more skilled. whether or not there is the political will to bring this about is a key question. we put out a report in which we entitled it, "moving beyond," and what we have to do is develop multiple pathways to insure post secondary education for all north carolinians southerners' so we can move up the value chain and create a future for this part of the united states. t

the structural factors combined with charlotte's financial sector, what happened with wachovia, wells fargo and bank of america, the collapse of the construction industry which has been profound, and ironically, continuing robust in migration has meant the labor market in north carolina has been tremendously stressed over the last few years, especially since it never recovered from the 2000-2001 recession. the most stunning finding we just completed is that since 2000, north carolina has added 0.3% jobs while the state as a whole has gained 20% in population. this is the economic backdrop of south and north carolina for the fall election in my view. one way or another, if the south is going to the merged economically out of this age of rapid technological change and globalization, southern workers have to become more skilled. whether or not there is the political will to bring this about is the key question. we just put out a report titled moving on plato verses plumbing, we have to develop multiple pathways to insure post- secondary education for all north carolinian is so we can mov

former wachovia build something also in the center of charlotte.g banking industry that came in here after 2000. between 2000 and 2010. now thousands of people have lost their jobs at those banks, making north carolina a much more challenging environment for president obama and in some recent polls it showed mitt romney in the lead here. raising some big questions whether charlotte was the right pick for the dnc. bill? back over to you there on our set. there you are. bill: come on back over here. martha: i'm coming back over. bill: state unemployment here is high, well above 9%. 9.5, 9.6% in the tarheel state. both candidates making a major push for the all-important undecided voter. brand new polling numbers out of north carolina giving governor mitt romney a slight lead over president obama. the president narrowly winning here four years ago as martha mentioned. our chief washington correspondent james rosen is live in charlotte. how many, if you can, undecided voters are there in north carolina, james? >> reporter: well, quite a few. in fact fa

remember in 2008, people in this community woke up to wachovia, imploding overnight, our world changed in north carolina. we didn't just lose hundreds and thousands of regular jobs. we lost financial services. one of our big, big brands. we've struggled and bounced back. i believe the attitude in north carolina is one of optimism. we look forward to the future and feel great about what we're doing, although we know there are lots of people in our state who are displaced and that's why we continue to focus on education and workforce training to help folks out of work get job skills for the 2 1st certifica century. >> is it going to rain on thursday? >> i can do a lot of things but not the weather. >> thanks for being here. >> thank you, welcome to north carolina. >> we appreciate it. still ahead, the dnc chair debbie wasserman-shultz will be back. she'll talk about how testimonies can sway the undecided voters. what is the most important requirement for being middle class? we'll tell you coming up next. you're watching "starting point," we're coming to you live from the cnn grill in cha

neil: charlotte is one of those crossroad cities, a big corporate town, with wachovia, and bank of america, and your presence, and on and on. but, things have turned south. we have a 10% unemployment, there about. the state not doing a lot better. without getting political about it, do you think this state is in trouble? >> no, i think -- you know i am a charlotte native, i have lived here all my life. neil: you have seen a lot of change. >> i have seen not only north carolina but charlotte has also done a fantastic job in growing. i do not worry about charlotte, it is a great place, people want to live here could and be here, i think charlotte will more than hold its own. neil: what do you think of the president rescheduling his stadium speech tomorrow night for in this room? >> i think he did it because of the weather conditions, last night you saw the lightning storm. neil: you don't think it was because they could not fill the seats. >> i don't think so. neil: okay howard levine thank you very much. the family dollar big cheese. a company that thrived. and we have guests on the left an

when my children were in high school, they wanted to manage their own money and put their money in wachovia. my daughter had a conniption when she put a hundred dollars in and the next time she made a deposit she only had $80 because of the minimum balance fee. and that's when i converted her to the credit union. she has been there ever since. my children don't save money, but they have an account as long as they live, because that account will remain open because of the $5 balance they have to have. as long as they put in $1.90 for the checking account fees, that went into effect this year and everybody complaint, but they said because even credit unions had to help pay off that tarp thing. guest: the points she makes is important, that being able to know the fees up front and make the choice of a bank or credit union or a small bank based on the terms and conditions and fees of protecting accounts that are offered. what we are pushing for is that these things be put on line by every financial institution so consumers can go on line the way you would shop for shoes, so you could pull a dif

. >> it's strengthened in the merger with wachovia made even stronger. it's part of something we live by everyday called our vision and values and it's how we do business every day as well. this marks wells fargo second era participating in the national book festival as a charter sponsor. but even before this, it has been a hallmark of wells fargo and it's something we remain very, very committed to. i think, i hope you would agree, education creates strong talented workforces. it's really where innovation comes from. it's how we build people neighborhoods and families and make vibrant sustainable communities. and at a time sadly enough wing employment opportunities, safe and affordable housing, good schools, support for small businesses and health care and other public service have been left untenable for many, our focus on is what we think has never been more critical. we understand americans are demanding more from the financial institutions, and you should. but what we're trying to do is trying to demonstrate our commitment of being part of the natio

islamic the corporate citizenship is and the fact it's really strengthened and wachovia made it even stronger. it's part of something we live by every day called the vision of values and it's how we do business every day as well. this marks cash to the second year of participating in the national book festival of the sponsor. but even before this, the port for education has been a hallmark of wells fargo and it's something we remain committed to. i think and hope you would agree education creates strong talented work forces. it's where innovation comes from. it's how we build stable neighborhoods and families and make a vibrant sustainable communities. and in that time sadly enough when employment opportunities, safe and affordable housing, the school's support for small businesses and health care and other public service have been left attainable for many focused on this work we think has never been more critical. we understand americans are demanding more from their financial restitutions and you should push. we are trying and to demonstrate our importance and continue to be a part