billionaire warren buffett raised eyebrows when he invested $230 million in byd.ing to look like a smart move. and if chinese car companies succeed in making their cars as good as their dreams, the world's next generation of speed demons mike grow up thinking the only cool cars to buy are those made in china. cbs news, beijing. >> that's the "cbs morning news" for this friday. thanks for watching, everybody. hope you'll join us later for "the early show." i'm betty nguyen. have a great weekend. ,,,, >>> your realtime captioner is linda marie macdonald. caption colorado, l.l.c. comments@captioncolorado.com >>> good morning. >> good morning. >> it is friday. excuse me. >> it is friday, the 23rd of july. elizabeth has lost her clicker. [ laughter ] >> it's an important tool. >> that's true. >> yeah. >> we have traffic and weather coming up. the weekend forecast for

billionaire warren buffett raised eyebrows when he invested $230 million in b.y.d .t's starting to look like a smart move. and if chinese car companies succeed in making their cars as good as their dreams, the world's next generation of speed demons might grow up thinking the only cool cars to buy are those made in china. celia hatton, cbs news, beijing. these nutrients help support energy and immunity. science gives you more reason to trust centrum. you picture of that 40 ton whale [ announcer ] how do you plus up breakfast? introducing total plus omega-3 honey almond flax cereal. all the nutrition of total, plus 10% daily value omega-3 ala, and a delicious honey almond crunch. new total plus omega-3. and a delicious honey almond crunch. copd doesn't just make it hard to breathe... it makes it hard to do a lot of things. and i'm a guy who likes to go exploring ... get my hands dirty... and try new things. so i asked my doctor if spiriva could help me breathe better. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled maintenance treatment for both forms of copd... which includes

he is the latest billionaire to take bill gates and warren buffett up on their challenge to give half their wealth to good causes. and we'll be right back. mike rowe: today's story from the ford model year end sales event... roger's workday. 9 to 5? try 5 to 9... everyday. that's why roger needs the ford f-150. it's the only truck that can keep up with him. best-in-class towing and payload, and now, best-in-class residual value. course, roger would never sell his f-150, even if he had the time. anncr: hurry in now and get a built-ford-tough f-150 with 0% financing for sixty months. mike rowe: remember roger and that f-150? yeah, they're gone. no pain medicine is proven to last longer than advil. not tylenol. not aleve. nothing lasts longer than advil. pain relief that lasts. one more reason to make advil your #1 choice. ...into a free year's supply? be one of thousands to win free honey nut cheerios for an entire year... its great taste helps make lowering cholesterol a non-challenge. just see specially marked boxes for details. htoi switched to a complete0,ol multivitamin with more.

the president held a series of meetings, including one with billionaire investor warren buffett. and today, the white house touted new numbers, claiming the 862 billion stimulus package has created or saved as many as 3.6 million jobs. but jon karl found that some of that money is ending up by the side of the road. >> reporter: there are nearly 11,000 construction projects like this now underway funded by the president's $862 billion economic stimulus program. creating jobs and also creating a lot of these -- signs, popping up all over the country, touting projects that are putting america to work. spending on these signs varies from state to state. illinois officials told us they had ordered 950 of them at a cost of $650,000, about $680 a sign. pennsylvania told us they bought only 70 signs, but at a cost of more than $2,000 per sign. some states, including vermont and florida, have opted for no signs, putting the cash into construction projects instead. republicans call it a waste and accuse the administration of using taxpayer money to score political points. >> it's an unnece

what does warren buffett mean to you? >> everything. >> larry: why?es me a lot of advice. >> larry: free? >> free advice, absolutely. free advice. >> larry: is he usually right? >> absolutely. >> larry: so he'll tell you to invest in things? >> well, he will give me -- he will give me a lot of -- a lot of insight on business ventures and things like that and tell me that, you know, some investments are better than others. and the best advice he gave me is to kind of truly follow your gut. you know, don't -- if this is the decision you're going to make, go with it and don't second-guess yourself. >> larry: what about president obama? do you like him? >> absolutely. >> larry: supported him? >> absolutely. >> larry: have you talked to him since he's been in office? >> once or twice. i had an opportunity to go by the white house. i think he's a great person. i mean, he does a lot. he's continued to do a lot for this country. and i think the first full term for him is going to be a rebuilding term. and i think, you know, and then he's going to be able to p

but you don't have a warren buffett in haiti. there is a potential right now to capitalize on a unified spirit like has never been there before. it's part the reason there hasn't been so much social unrest and violence. yet if we don't make the move now, i think there will be more death than life in hai. and whetr it's be by disease or social unrest or whatever it is. so i think there's got to be an incredible momentum created now and i think it's possible. >> rose: a perfect known note to end on. thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> rose: sean penn for the hour. if you want to know more about his n.g.o., it's jphro.org. thank you for joining us. tomorrow night picasso at the metropolitan museum. see you then. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org ow! of course. thank you. i'd call her honeydew goodbody, not lisa. the very fact that she is called lisa proves that she exists.

warren buffett said that he pays tax at a lower rate than his receptionist because of the way we taxns, truly rich people in the country according to a study last year, 400 richest people, pay taxes at a lower rate than firefighters, than police officers, than shop clerks. that's why we need to raise taxes on the very wealthy to cover the deficit. guess what? the tax increases on the wealthy do not have an anti-stimulate effect. barack obama was smart to do that. he needed to do that. democrats will be in trouble if their own people don't turn out. right now rick santelli's tea party mass motivated a lot of people on the right. administration and democrats have to do a lot more motivating on their side. >> let me get your thoughts about fiscal responsibility but save me 30 seconds to talk about charlie rangel. >> my view of fiscal policy and the economy is not that strong. you can pump a lot of money and won't get short-term buzz and think long-term. what can we do long-term to get fair taxes, simple taxes, structure, innovation. i think the idea we'll fix the economy on fiscal polic

community -- not just wall street, the business community -- and the meeting that took place between warren buffettnd the president this week on wednesday. and an interview i did with valerie jarrett on wednesday right after that meeting in which she basically said to me, "how do you characterize?" she said "it's ok." >> i'm not sure it's ok. i still think that the rhetoric over the past several months has stung -- especially wall street. but also, corporate america. i think there is a feeling -- not necessarily in the legislation that you are seeing itself so much as in how obama and the administration is projecting their views about business and big business -- >> charlie: is the issue demonization? that's it? it's not that they are -- >> you know what it is? >> charlie: somehow have policies that we think are -- harmful to the american interests and to the business interests? >> i talked to a fellow on wall street whom you know very well too and he said to me, "i worked my whole career trying to do the right thing, i thought i had done everything right and here i am" -- he's in a very senior pos

. >> rose: i'll ask it one other way, are you prepared, as warren buffett is, additional taxation of people who make more than $250,000. >> absolutely. >> rose: and that's a good idea. >> absolutely. >> rose: to generate more revenue and you will not somehow whether capital gains or ordinary income, you will not somehow reduce the amount of or the inclination of the wealthiest among us to spend money on things that do good for the economy. >> first, taxation is designed to provide revenue for governments to accomplish certain things, and people have recognized since we have the income tax, when it came into effect in 1911, i think it was, when the constitution amendment was passed, that it has to raise revenue but it has to be fair. and i think it's recognized if you're only taxing a certain part of society it isn't fair. right now, roughly 50% of the americans do not pay federal income tax. i think it's very important that everybody pay something or do something. now,, obviously, some people can't afford very much. but i do think that probably the sense that everybody is suffering a

and it prudently regulates the inherently dangerous derivatives that warren buffett, and i call, weapons of financial mass destruction for the ability to bring down entire economies when bets go bad. should a major firm still find itself on the verge of collapse, this bill insulates the rest of the economy and keeps taxpayers off the hook, off the hook for any future bailouts. mr. speaker, tremendous amount of irresponsibility in washington and on wall street went into the crisis from which we are still struggling to recover. that crisis, of course, started in december, 2007. actually, it started long before that, as i said, in the late 1990's. middle-class family -- families who worked hard paid the price. but there is a consequence even worse -- a failure to learn. we know what greed and neglect can do. no one can plead ignorance. let's show, mr. speaker, ladies and gentlemen of this house, that we learned something from the crisis. let's keep it were happening again. -- let's keep it from happening again. let me tell you what i hear from my constituents. they want us to stop it from h

this renaissance culminated earlier this year when warren buffett made his $34 billion investment in the railroad. despite the fact that shipping rates are much lower today than they were in the 1980's and freight rates are half as what they are in europe and japan, the same play is in today. it will force the railroads to spend $12 billion in positive train control, a price that continues to grow at an alarming rate. positive train control has a cost benefit ratio of 20-1 and prevent less than 3% of rail accidents. we should work together with the railroads to identify areas of safety improvements that can be accomplished at a reasonable cost. and i believe we should re-examine the scope of the train mandate. i know this is the first time that congress has considered a resolution recognizing and honoring the freight railroads alone. i think it's very appropriate because the national train day resolution we passed earlier this year was changed from previous years' versions to focus solely on amtrak and passenger rail. amtrak operates primarily on private freight track. without the co

secondly, do you believe there's any merit to a recent characterization by warren buffett that there is potentially, quote, a terrible problem, end quote, ahead for municipal bonds? >> well, first, the -- it's certainly true that states and localities are under a lot of fiscal and financial stress. their revenues have fallen considerably and they're trying to maintain services and so on. clearly we've seen some deficits and some cuts at the state and local level. my view, though, is that first of all that the municipal debt market is functioning pretty well. that at least state and localities that -- states and localities that have good credit or seem to be sound are not having any difficulty accessing the municipal market and that yields are pretty low. which is, i think, fortunate because there are a number of states and localities that being forced to borrow in the current circumstances. certainly there may be some localities in particular that -- that will have trouble, but i would draw a distinction between, you know, say, california and greece, which is that because of these bu

and it prudently regulates the inherently dangerous derivatives that warren buffett, and i call, weapons of financial mass destruction for the ability to bring down entire economies when bets go bad. should a major firm still find itself on the verge of collapse, this bill insulates the rest of the economy and keeps taxpayers off the hook, off the hook for any future bailouts. mr. speaker, tremendous amount of irresponsibility in washington and on wall street went into the crisis from which we are still struggling to recover. that crisis, of course, started in december, 2007. actually, it started long before that, as i said, in the late 1990's. middle-class family -- families who worked hard paid the price. but there is a consequence even worse -- a failure to learn. we know what greed and neglect can do. no one can plead ignorance. let's show, mr. speaker, ladies and gentlemen of this house, that we learned something from the crisis. let's keep it were happening again. -- let's keep it from happening again. let me tell you what i hear from my constituents. they want us to stop it from h

secondly, do you believe there's any merit to a recent characterization by warren buffett that there is potentially, quote, a terrible problem, end quote, ahead for municipal bonds? >> well, first, the -- it's certainly true that states and localities are under a lot of fiscal and financial stress. their revenues have fallen considerably and they're trying to maintain services and so on. clearly we've seen some deficits and some cuts at the state and local level. my view, though, is that first of all that the municipal debt market is functioning pretty well. that at least state and localities that -- states and localities that have good credit or seem to be sound are not having any difficulty accessing the municipal market and that yields are pretty low. which is, i think, fortunate because there are a number of states and localities that being forced to borrow in the current circumstances. certainly there may be some localities in particular that -- that will have trouble, but i would draw a distinction between, you know, say, california and greece, which is that because of these bu