This is real money, you are the most important part of the show. Join the live conversation for the next half hour on twitter or facebook how are you . I want to know how youre feeling. The u. S. Economy depends on americans feeling confident enough about their jobs and the Labour Market that theyll spend money. Thats why people like me are obsessed with how many jobs the economy created in december. Well get the number tomorrow and ill dissect it for you then. In the meantime i want to look at Something Else that tells the tail of how consumers are feeling. More are feeling confident enough about the Labour Market to quit their jobs. The recent data for october 2013, when 2. 4 Million People voltairily resigned. Up 15 . That tells me folks are optimistic about finding another job. Economists who watch the number of quits closely, janet yellen will get data when the next opening of jobs and labour turn over is released next week. In addition to your job, the value of your home is key to how wealthy you feel and how much you spend. We have more evidence of the damage done by the bursting of the housing bubble is receding. The number of borrowers owing 25 more on their mortgage than their home is worth fell to 9. 3 million, down from 10. 9 million in january. Rising home prices reduce the number of underwater mortgages, helping more to avoid foreclorm. A stronger job market and higher prices help americans get the rest of their house in order. A measure of delink when sis fell to a low. The index released by the American Bankers Association tracks payments that are 30 days late on everything from home equity to car loans and personal loans. The delinquency rate fell. Some of the decline in late payments reflects consumers who are cautious about spending and debt. Its another reminder that the recovery has a way to go. Here is another sign that consumers are cautious. An increase in home equity is translating into less spending than it used to. For every dollar that home equity is rising, americans are spending a third less money than they did a decade ago. That is a tangible sign of a lack of confidence, and, according to mark zhannedy, chief economist at moodys anna littics confidence is missing for a stronger u. S. Economy. Mark joins me. Good to see you. This confidence many things can drive it. Jobs probablile the main one, the spoke market. Why do we not see this confidence. Unemployment is high. Its 7 unemployment. A good economy wed have a rate close to 5. 5, 6 . Theres a lot of unemployed workers. Theres a lot of underemployment, so people have jobs but are not working as much as theyd like to. Pay scales have been depressed. Of course, the recession itself, that was almost five years ago. It was debilitating and its hard to overcome that. It will take time to get over that. Its a tale of two economists. As an economist who studies in great detail. Gdp is no longer a measure that feels universal. Is it good or weak. Its two americas. Particularly those in the top third. You are doing well. Have you a job, prices are rising. If you have debt at all, thats a thirdyear, fixed place mortgage. You are in good shape. If you are in the bottom part of the distribution, they are incredibly different times. Its two americas. We are now getting to a part informant Business Cycle where unemployment will be lower and the benefits of the economy will be distributed more widely. Not everyone will benefit but more will in the future. Does to give you concern about the state of the middle class, where you have two americans, where you need a little on the fringes, but most in the middle with good incomes. And others that can afford health care and nice house. Are we eroding the middle class. It is a significant problem. The high end is doing well. Therell be jobs for the low skilled workers. The jobs for middle Income America will be tough. They are driven out by technological change. The only way to improve it is to raise the issue of the population. We are not doing a good job of that. What happens if we erode the middle class for long enough. What is the consequence to the economy. Our economy is built on the middle class. Its egal tarian economy, we are going in the same direction, moving up, and its our economy flourishes when we all do well. If we leave the middle class behind we wont have the same american economies as we have in the past. Ultimately, if this begins to affect the political process, this will become selfreinforcing, and i think that will be a problem for higher income households. The economy cant grow without everyone participating in it. You are good at explaining things in simply terms. Explain the taper. The fed is pulling back by 10 billion is month. The signs are that the economy chugs along, theyll pull back more. What is the consequence u. D. Interest rates will rise. There are rising longterm rates. If you go back a year ago. You get a 30year fix. They are rising. What the fed is doing is trying to manage the increase in longterm Interest Rates consistent with an improvement in the job market. This is a tricky balance. Its part of the tapering process. This is the biggest threat to optimism. I think the fed has the tools that they need to get this done in a graceful way and the will to do it. I think theyll pull it off. Thank you for being with us. Mark zhannedy, chief economist at moodys analyst. Coming up we go in a community picked as one of president obamas promise zones for a look at what could be done to give struggling americans a chance. Later, a little home cooking with a sausage entrepreneur who sees the whole world as a meat market. That story and more. Keep it here. This week marks the 50th anniversary of president Lyndon Johnson declaring war on poverty, at the time 19 of americans lived in poverty, 23 of children. In the 50 years since the u. S. Government spent 16 trillion to assist the poor. Today 15 of Americans Still live in poverty, for children the rate is 22 . Numbers like this have the Barack Obama Administration pushing plans to combat income inequality and poverty. Part of it kicked off when president obama named five promise zones. The areas will see federal assistance because they are entrenched in poverty. Including regions within los angeles, san antonioio, choctaw nation, and kentucky. We will help them succeed. Not with a handout, but as partners. With them, every step of the way. We are going to make sure it works. We are going to hold them accountable to make sure its making a difference in the lives of kids. Administration officials have not said how much the program will cost. It aims to assist a total of 20 regions over the next three years. For a look at how the area is selected to receive a helping hand lets head to the white house. What kind of federal assistance are we talking about here, mike . Everything from tax money, tax credits, federal expertise, streamlining red tape, this is something that the president talked about in february in a state of the union. His next state of the union comes up in two weeks. Hell propose 20 promise zones. The first five its not really a new idea. Theyve been around. Jack kemp line was the hot secretary in enterprise zones, empowerment, mixed success in stimulating growth. The Obama Administration with the promise zones wants to extend that into rural areas, smaller towns that have seen the Industrial Infrastructure decay, factories that have been closed for years. Now, there is a tax credit component. It is a big component. The question is is it going to fly in congress. Perhaps one positive sign in that regard, and no coincidence, Eastern Kentucky was a promise zone that was named. Mitch mcconnell and rand paul are republican senators from kentucky. All of them rand paul, paul rip, marco rubio, all proposing their own version. It perhaps stands a chance of getting somewhere in congress, but there are no promises, safe bets. Interesting that some republicans are supporting. Others are not supporting the idea. What is the politics selected. Everyone looking under the stones to determine whether there was a pattern. There was a democrat in every state within prochl imenty to the zone. I dont think you can draw a line. Mitch mcconnell said that he wrote to the president asking that Eastern Kentucky be included in the initial five promise zones. The criteria, where they had to have average poverty of 20 in the region affected, the zone selected. There can be variant ranges in terms of population, 6,000 on the low, 200,000 on the top. They have to have a jobcreating institution. The mayor in West Philadelphia, they have a university pushing to cooperate, bringing in the education aspect. Thanks for clearing that up. Mike viqueira at the white house. Philadelphia is one of the first five promise zones. West philadelphia with federal funding. The poverty rate in that community is 51 . Unemployment at 13 . Philadelphia mayor was at the white house and joins us from philly. Some of my viewers this is a new show dont know i split my life between new york city and philadelphia. Its a great city, but its a bifurcated city. Theres a rich wonderful philadelphia, and a poor philadelphia. Thanks for having me on and congratulations on the new show. Philadelphia is a dynamic diversity, and we have a wide range of democratic elements to the city of philadelphia. What we are focussed on with the promise zone is, as the commentator mentioned. The partnership with the university. And certainly our own antipoverty organization, community empowerment. Thats headed by eva glad stephen. So we believe that there are great assets in that part of West Philadelphia, and the lang as fieldcarter. There are high rates of the poverty, high rates of unemployment in those areas, but still good Housing Stock in many areas while theres vacancy in some. The elements are all there. The team worked hard, put together a fantastic application. My reporter and a group of folks working on this. We are fortunate and proud to have been selected. Ultimately for us, part of the Selection Process was we had a plan to deal with poverty in philadelphia released last year, the shared prosperity plan which is city wide. Obviously the promise zone is a defined area. When you do the model. This is a problem. We saw, mayor, in 50 years we have hardly reduced the percentage of People Living in poverty, the population is larger. Far more are living in poverty. What kinds of things will make a difference in traging people out of the poverty giving them a shot at being working class, not middle class. First and foremost everyone has to work together. There are multiple Funding Sources coming into the cities, towns. Coming from different departments and agencies. In this concept everyone has to work together. Theyve been targetting them at the toughest areas in a particular section of a neighbourhood as opposed to spreading it all over the place. Poverty is intergenerational in many snaps, very complicated, its about health care, educational atapement, crime, violence, safety issues and skill sets. And, you nope, in some of these areas we have people over the age of 25, 10 of whom have a bachelors degree. How do you get people back into the educational part of their lives. This partnership is critical to the plan. I am optimistic about it. The president has been pushing this idea and issue for some time, he is right. As was mentioned earlier we need the congress to step up in this regard, provide those tax incentives and credits program to snint vis businesses to come into this area, a gate way to much of West Philadelphia. How do you see it materializing. If we look at what you implement as a result of West Philadelphia parts of it becoming a promise zone. What do you see different five years from now. Is it the strip having more businesses, is it new housing developments. What does it look like . Its those two things, and i think more. Its people going to school, whether they go to the university or get ipp spired and go to our Community College or Something Like that. Some additional education and training, job training. It is more businesses coming. Businesses come, they higher more people. It lowers the unemployment rate. It increases the economy in the community. Replacing the Housing Stock or building now or revitalizing the homes, someone has to work there. That improves the economy of the city of philadelphia. I think youll see a transformation in this part of the West Philadelphia, and people will see it happening in front of their eyes, and the strength of the Community Organizations in that particular section of the city, it both well for coordinated plan, a targeted amount of activity over the long haul. This is not like something is going to happen in the next month, and suddenly total revitalization. It will take time, but it will take a coordinated effort and you have to institutionalize this change and get people thinking in a different way. Have you a challenge ahead of you. You have been working at it for years. Good to see you. I will enjoy watching philadelphia get better. Coming up. The next chapter for a sausage person and a reason why theyve surged to a new level. Think goat. Yes, i said goat. Ill explain more when we return. We lost lives. That make a difference. Senator, we were hoping we could ask you some questions about your legal problems. That open your world. It can be very dangerous. I hear gunshots. The bullet came right there through the widdow. It absolutely is a crisis. Real reporting. This. Is what we do. America tonight, next only on al jazeera america. Consider this. The news of the day plus so much more. Answers to the questions no one else will ask. It seems like they cant agree to anything in washington no matter what. A already 194. 9 billion, the Commerce Department shows thats the value of all of the goods and services that the United States exported in november. That includes stuff sold by Small Businesses like home style foods. Exports account for 20 of his sales. We last spoke to david in late august just as he was kicking off a new company that sells goat meat. Lets get an update. David good to see you again. You and i have talked for some years now about manufacturing and being a Small Business person and the fact you export things. Now you have gotten into this new business. You were exporting sausages to other countries, and now you are getting into the goat business. Tell me about this. Well, what happened when we looked at the opportunity of expanding. We thought about the possibility of doing a goat sausage. Realized that maybe goat didnt have enough fat to create a sausage, but goat is the most widely eaten meat in the world. So we are doing a fresh product, a frozen product, and additional valueadded products. Jerky. 20 of your business is export. Is it worth the hassle . It is obviously a lot more complicated to export your sausages, the ones you already export. Is it worth it . Yes, it is. One of the things you have to consider is that in the United States we are moving forward in trying to do some sales. However, there are some impediments, one fuel costs. Fuel costs are really putting a damper on our business. However, the Global Market gives us an opportunity to reach out and extent our Product Offerings to other places. This gives us an opportunity to expand our bottom line and also to hire new people. Lets talk about this business. Last time you were on, i followed my discussion with you with an economist who said, wow, its unbelievable that an american is exporting Meat Products to brazil which is a meatexporting company. Were always talking about how america is not competitive with other countries who have lower wage rates. How are you successful to export to other countries that have lower wages and lower cost of product. One of the things that makes a difference is our usda and usda program. When we went into brazil, we went into a Grocery Store and looked at the ingredient list. You had milk serials, all kinds of fillers they are using. Our product is all meat, no filler, no water as well. And that makes a substantial difference when you look at the quality of the meat. A lot of people want a cheap product, and based on the economies in those countries, they have to create a very cheap product, thereby when we come in as an imported item, they realize it has quality and can be sold at a higher price in their community. In brazil for instance you have a growing middle class who can afford to buy imported products and they want to give them better quality products. What a great story of a successful business that is now able to go out and sell American Products to the rest of the world. David, i look forward to continuing to follow your success story. Well, ali we appreciate it. Tell people to go buy goat. All right. Well follow up with you on that. David martin is the president of gotcha goat and the widget trading company. Here is a story about food and health that doesnt sound to healthy. Americans are eating more butter. The trade group chalks that up to people embracing Natural Foods and turns away from processed foods that can be high in transfat like margarine. However, butter isnt exactly health food, so take it easy folks. Sales of traditional desktop and Laptop Computers fell 20 . Gartner cited the shift to mobile as the main reason. Pc sales dropped 7 . Lenovo remained the top pc seller followed by hewlettpackard. It was just seven years ago that steve jobs unveiled the iphone proclaiming that today, quote, apple is going to reinvent the phone. Until then you couldnt get one device that combined all features. Since 2007, apple has sold about 421 million iphones worldwide. That said iphone is not the world leader, samsung is. But here in the United States it is still half of the market. We have gone through the worst economic crisis since the great depression, but on this day, lets pay tribute to steve jobs and the phone he helped america create. Thats our show for today on friday. The health of the job market and hello, welcome to al jazeera america. Im thomas drayton, here are the top stories we are following. A dangerous Chemical Spill in west virginia, a dangerous chemical used for processing coal leeked from a factory into the elk river. A state of emergency has been declared in and around the capital. Nine counties have been affected. A diplomat from india has been indicted by a grand jury. She was granted diplomatic immunity and left the county. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says sorry about a scandal involving a top