voters are split, however. look at this, on whether a gop-led congress would move the economy in the right direction. 47% say yes, 49% say no. look at the democrats, though. 56% say the democrats won't move the economy in the right direction. so, christine romans joining me now. christine, it's clear that voters seem to think the republicans if they win in the midterms will help the economy. realistically, what changes if the republicans take either the house or the house and the senate? >> well, first, nothing changes right away. it takes a lot of time to repeal legislation. and that's one of the things you're hearing on the campaign trail. they're going to repeal health care reform and every kind of expert said that's impossible if they could do it. and the other thing, what do the american people think about this, ali? i think the american people are saying they don't want the economy to be like it is right now. that's what they're saying. they don't know who can fix it. >> the question asked, if it'll move in the economy in the right direction, there's a whole lot of dispute amongst smart people what the right direction is. i think the right direction is positive, growth, higher markets, home prices, more jobs. candy crowley, chief political correspondent, take a look at this poll. last october, 57% of americans believed that president obama had done a better job than president bush had. this was october of 2009. take a look at the tremendous shift now. voters almost equally split on whether bush or obama has been a better president. does this mean that voters have fully transferred ownership of politics and this economy? from the last administration to this administration? >> not fully because we do have other polling showing that most people still blame the bush administration. but that number is falling, as well. what you're seeing is d dissatisfaction with either, a, how long it's taking to get back on track, or b, the policies the president's put in place to do that. he's increasingly being seen as responsible for the economy, but being responsible for the economy for the last year and a half as opposed to how we got into it. >> well, some -- one group that would like to associate this administration and president obama with the bad things that have been happening in this economy is the tea party. and to some degree, they have had success with that. but there are issues with that. jim ellis is the assistant managing editor of bloomberg business week, the cover story this week attempts to explain why business, why the world of business does not trust the tea party. what did your reporters find, jim? >> we found that even though a lot of business people -- even most business people consider themselves to be republicans and somewhat fiscally conservative. they're really worried about some of the things the tea party people are against. they don't like the notion that, you know, a lot of tea party advocates want to get rid of the federal reserve, which a lot of business people think will throw the financial system in a turmoil. a lot of people want to get rid of health reform, which a lot of business has invested in. a lot of tea party people want to get rid of subsidies. and washington is is basically a place that business feels it knows how to maneuver and doesn't want to get rid of tax breaks and things that will help them. they're sort of worried this is a mad as hell kind of thing that can get out of hand. >> clear it up where business stands in washington. a number of libertarians, people who don't think there should be too much regulation. these are some of the same people that don't think there should be a fed either. some business likes that. yet we continue to hear that president obama is too cozy with wall street. then we hear that president obama is too anti-business. collectively, what does the business community feel about who has their best interests at heart? >> well, a lot of that depends on which part of the business community you're looking at. it's not monolific. a lot of people tend to be small businesses and entrepreneurs. big business, however, has a lot invested in regulatory agencies and sort of the long-term view of what's going to happen. businesses hate uncertainty and therefore they're really terrified by this notion of what could be sort of economic anarchy that comes when you don't know what's coming from washington. >> candy, i want to ask you about the federal reserve. jim just brought it up. on friday, federal reserve chairman ben bernanke, he spelled out the threat of something we're beginning to understand. a jobless recovery. here's what he said. he said high rates of unemployment, especially long-term unemployment impose a heavy burden on the unemployed and their families. more broadly, prolonged unemployment would pose a risk to consumer spending and the sustainability of the recovery. candy, he has certainly learned to speak in a way that people with understand. but basically, he's saying something we all know. until we get significant job growth, how does this administration, how does president obama when he's out there tout it as a victory without appearing out of touch? >> he can't. he's tried to thread that needle and it's been really difficult. and you see sort of this, well, but we've had however many months of growth in the private sector, but it's like 64,000 or 35,000, it's never a big hefty number, the 200,000 to 250,000. people say we just need to keep afloat with the new people coming into the market. and i will the tell you something else, there have been democratic strategists who put out a memo to democrats saying stop talking about economic recovery. stop saying the economy is getting better. because it tends to drive people towards the republicans. so they are getting that message. and what you're seeing now is you don't hear that much anymore. now you're hearing about all this outside money coming into politics, that kind of thing that stirs up the base. they're no longer trying to sell the economy. >> but christine, in fairness, none of us are running for anything. in fairness, there are a lot of indicators out there that suggest slow but steady and possible recovery. we've got -- we've still got low interest rates, it's still a good deal to buy a house in most markets. we've seen remarkable returns on the stock market. we're seeing an increase just friday in consumer confidence and retail spending. there are a lot of things on the positive side of the ledger. >> but the two things people feel are their jobs and house. and those are the two things that haven't improved. and also where people are seeing those improvements, ali, in the economy, it's companies, corporate profits are doing better, a great snapback for corporate profits, but they're having discussions in the board rooms about whether they should be buying back their shares or whether they should be giving a dividend to their investors, not necessarily about whether they should be hiring a lot of people. so the thing that people feel still haven't turned around. and on the recovery front, yes, there has been a recovery. we know there's been a recovery, but even the fed is concerned that recovery now is slowing. even that recovery is slowing and trying to figure out how to fight that, how quick through and how exactly to do it. >> the difference between now and the weekend of october 16th and 17th, 2008 two years ago, there's credit available today and companies have money. more people are unemployed. stay right where you are. voters clearly eager for a change. less clear on what they want that change to be. is it possible that things are already turning around? a conversation i just started with christine. we'll go deeper into that when i come back. 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specifically more jobs? >> i don't think it's that specific. i don't think they think if i vote this guy in, jobs will come. i think they think -- i think this guy will be better to look after what i need him to look after. but this is not a midterms as we say all the time because it's true, midterms tend to be a referendum on party in power. this is not as much as i think republicans will be much better about handling the economy, this is about the democrats haven't done very well about handling the economy. it's not as much as a positive vote, you know, for someone they think can handle the economy as it is a vote against someone they don't think has handled it well. >> all right. jim, there are some people who think the republicans will do a better job of the economy, specifically on an area that they have targeted. reining in spending. if the gop controls congress. 43% say yes, 54% say no, but 69% say no to democrats doing it. both parties preach fiscal discipline, neither wants to allow the tax cuts to expire. if republicans win, jim, does it change how this country is going to deal with its deficit and its debt? >> well, actually, it doesn't change a lot. simply because there's so little maneuvering room there. about 65% of all of our federal outlays go to things we can't change much. entitlements like medicare, social security, medicaid, federal pensions, and the debt. and so by the time you're talking about only dealing with a third of your actual cost, so much of that politically can't be touched. that what we spent a lot of time about is dealing with, you know, little cuts around the margins. dealing with directional cuts and trying to slow the growth in federal spending, not actually cut it. i think that the longer term issue is are there ways to actually expand the economy enough to, you know, mean that we'll have greater revenues in the future? and those are investments in education, investments in industry that can get out there and compete on a global -- >> music to my ears. if we had unemployment at 5% and had growth at 5% or 6%, we could solve this problem. why is it that jim's very logical argument is not successfully delivered by this administration or by the democrats to be able to say, guys, everybody else is preaching crazy change, crazy change is not coming our way under this -- under these economic conditions. >> i don't know, ali. i can't speak for the message coming out of the white house and the kind of tone that they're trying to set overall. but i think jim makes a very, very good point about the challenges we have here and how do you get some traction? this is -- i guess to switch gears a little bit. this is what it all comes down to. people are going to go into the ballot booth. it doesn't matter what they hear somebody say on the campaign trail, the only thing that matters is what's happened in their own family. that's the bottom line. >> all right, christine. stick around. jim, good to see you, thanks so much. candy, thanks for joining us and giving us your insight. does your town outsource jobs? we're going to tell you how to find out and how that could impact the midterm elections. i said "sure." 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and i ask you with this caveat. we have lost manufacturing jobs in this country for more than 15 years. that's not got to do with this administration or the bush administration. this has been a long-term policy that's seen jobs in the united states lost. we're not getting a lot of those jobs back. union management now 12% of the workforce. what's the answer? >> we can get those jobs back, by the way, if we change tax policies that reward companies from taking jobs overseas. stop the outsourcing, negotiate trade deals that benefit us and give us a fair playing field. the answer's about four or five fold. one is we have to have a long-term investment in infrastructure. it makes us less competitive. if we have a long-term policy, we can then begin to bring in private money and we can address that deficit, create jobs, and make the country more competitive. the second thing is, there are 40 something states right now in deficit spending. any of the extraordinary spending done by the federal government to stimulate the economy is being negated by the contraction of state and federal, i mean state and local governments. and that threatened 900,000 layoffs. so we have to continue to provide some laid to state and local governments until they get balanced. the third thing we would say is unemployment benefits. there has to be continued extension of those so that they can continue to be consumers. so if 6 1/2 million americans or totally 15 million ultimately stop consuming, it's a big drag on the economy. it pulls us backwards. the fourth thing would be take t.a.r.p. money that's been unused and repaid, get it into the hands of regional banks so they can lend to small and mid-sized companies so they can start creating jobs. and the fifth thing would be target areas of high unemployment and match some job creation with those high unemployed areas. >> you know the next two guys i'm going to talk to, eliot spitzer, former attorney general of the state of new york and of course, one-half of "parker-spitzer." nobody knows more about wall street and how it works except maybe steven moore, our good friend with the "wall street journal." gentlemen, steven, let me start with you. richard trumka makes an argument for the place and policy of labor union when it comes to job recovery. it is a view that many americans do not share with hum. >> well, i'd say he batted 1,000% in your interview. he got everything wrong. i think if you look at the agenda of the obama administration in the last 20 or so months, it has been the richard trumka agenda. everything we've done are things that richard trumka wants more of. one of the things i think that's interesting, he talked about the bankruptcy facing states and cities, hooe exactly right about this. there's 40 states with big deficits. one of the reasons these states are in big deficits is precisely because of the public sector employee unions that have bankrupted states and cities with these enormous pension and health deficits that states can't deal with right now. >> eliot, this is a hard circle to square. and that's -- this is a problem. there are some people who think that unions have been the problem. bottom line, unions are now a very small part of the workforce, and they are in a challenged workforce. an environment where people continue to lose jobs and some people are thankful for the little protections they get. where do you stand on this? >> i think it's grossly an oversimplification. globalization has led to a declining wage scale for many manufacturing workers across the united states and we need to become competitive. and i think richard would say and i would agree with him that many of the private sector unions in particular in the steel context, for instance, have worked with businesses to remain competitive. and we have seen some revitalization in small mini mills. we have managed to see sectors come back where private sector unions have worked with business to make ourselves competitive. what we are facing right now in the united states is a demand crisis. there simply isn't enough demand to get businesses to invest to make more stuff. whatever that stuff happens to be. that is the rationale for a keynesian desire to have a stimulus. that's what paul krugman, nobel-winning economist. put together a stimulus that will create short-term demand. we, of course, need to make ourself competitive, which means the start of investment that richard trumka was talking about and smart deals between unions and workers to make ourselves competitive in an international context. that is what this is all about. >> okay. two a minute, that's how many homes were taken by the banks last month through foreclosure. eliot and stephen are going to talk to us a little bit about this. and we're going to get to the bottom of a nationwide investigation that could put a freeze on foreclosures next. i don't want you going out on those yet. and leave your phone in your purse, i don't want you texting. >> daddy... ok! ok, here you go. be careful. >> thanks dad. >> and call me--but not while you're driving. we knew this day was coming. that's why we bought a subaru. just got more powerful. introducing precise pain relieving heat patch. it blocks pain signals for deep relief precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol. 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do you think that would help? yeah. priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.90, only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. 5 million homes in america at or near the point that they are ready to be foreclosed on. a record 102,000 homes were repossessed in september alone. highest ever. now comes word that attorneys general from all 50 states are investigating possible fraudulent practices with home foreclosures. we have talked about the story for weeks. christine? despite, despite the misinformation that i have heard consistently in the media, this is not likely to save people whose homes are being foreclosed upon. it may delay the process a little bit. but it's not going to change things for most people. >> and we've said from the very beginning if you are listening to this story about a freeze on foreclosures or investigations in the foreclosure process, it doesn't mean you can stop paying your bills if you're at the beginning of this process. it doesn't mean you should stop working with your bank. in fact, i've spoke to a housing activist earlier this week working with community lenders that says the banks are stepping forward to people in the beginning part of the foreclosure process to try to get them -- just as soon as they default to try to get them back on track. nobody wants this to go on. what it means is more uncertainty, frankly, right? it means if you were ready to buy a foreclosed house, that sale is not going to happen right now. it means if you've had the padlocks put on the front door, that padlock is staying on the front door. right now what's happening is states led by iowa's attorney general tom miller are trying to figure out exactly what kinds of shoddy paperwork happening at the end of the process. in many cases, in most cases we're told these are people who stopped paying their bills a long time ago. >> congratulations on getting iowa in that, i'll work on getting canada. >> as a former attorney general, christine and i talked about this all week, we are very, very frustrated that once again the banks have been shown to have done something that was wrong, insensitive, maybe even illegal, who knows. but the bottom line is, while we think the book should be thrown at them, doesn't a prolonged legal process initiated by all of these attorneys general, isn't that just going to delay the recovery while these houses that otherwise would have been sold are not getting sold? >> look, ali, you obviously think about many different factors when you proceed with an investigation of this sort. and i think the question should be asked is what else is lurking beneath the surface? because i hate to say, it every time you pull back the layer of the onion, you find something else and you can't conclude this is the end of it. and i would generally agree there are not going to be a lot of houses not being in it, but you never know. and i will tell you, i worked with tom miller, all of these ags. i think the banks need to clean up their act. it is so clear that the servicers, the banks haven't been meticulous. the question what happens in the housing market is a real one. that's something that treasury's got to deal with. the white house has not been doing the right thing in this regard. the banks have utterly failed to be meticulous as they should have been. >> everybody's tripping over themselves to do a worse job, except, stephen, that interest rate. every time i say they couldn't go lower, they go lower. i have been saying for a full year on the record it was time to buy a house last year when interest rates were 5%. now they're a smidge above 4%, home prices are up higher than they were a year ago. there are a whole bunch of people who are ready to buy a house. christine's done it, i've done it. there are a whole lot of people say when do we hit the bottom? >> i'm going to go on the record and say now is the time to refinance your loan. why am i not surprised that my friend eliot's eyes light up over the idea of lawsuits. >> the rights of people taken advantage of. >> here's my position on this because it is a big story. i think, first of all, it is inexcusable these banks are sending out notices. and eviction notice is a serious thing. this is, i fear, going to delay hitting the bottom in the housing market. i do fear that if there is moratorium in certain states or banks themselves put moratoriums on foreclosures, you're going to have people, unfortunately, i think that people may think this is an invitation to stop paying their mortgage. >> i've just got to say this. of all the ways to resuscitate the housing market, now saying we shouldn't worry about the rights of people who perhaps -- >> i'm not saying. >> let's be clear. the housing market is in a tank because the banks, because of fannie and freddie, because of the treasury department, not because of these poor people. so let's not make it -- make them the victim. the banks have been scoundrels. let's be clear. >> i agree with you. >> we all agree. >> they should not be -- >> but here's the point. if they can't make foreclosures. if people are six months, nine months behind, ali, and paying their mortgages and you can't get them out of the house, that means the banks aren't getting payment. remember, we spent $700 billion to bail out these -- >> we were right getting these two guys on would be an exciting time. >> wall street put all the cdos together, i want them to step up and pay the mortgages. >> you guys are always terrific. thanks for being with us. great to have you here. eliot, great to have you here, as well. congratulations on the show. remember to watch parker-spitzer right here on cnn. fantastic show where you can get into some of these things and you get the best of eliot spitzer, what you just saw right now. listen, the number of americans unemployed. that remains the biggest problem in this economy. it is staggering. jobs, however, can be created. tlgs t exchange traded funds. some firms offer them "commission free." problem is they limit the choice of etfs to what makes financial sense to them. td ameritrade doesn't limit you to one brand of etfs... they offer more than 100... each selected by investment experts at morningstar associates. only at the etf market center at td ameritrade. before investing, carefully consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. contact td ameritrade for a prospectus containing this and other information. read it carefully before investing. 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[ male announcer ] it's luxury with fire in its veins. bold. daring. capable of moving your soul. ♪ and that's even before you drop your foot on the pedal. ♪ the new 2011 cts coupe from cadillac. the new standard of the world. okay. i want you to take a look at this chart. right now, we're 11 1/2 million jobs short of the pre-recession unemployment rate of 5%. it was about 4.95%, that's according to the economic policy institute. now to fully recover within five years, the country would need to add 300,000 jobs every month for that entire period. so that line on the bottom, that's where we are. the line on the top, the straight one going at an angle, that's where we should be. we need to add 300,000 jobs a month. at the rate we're going, that's not happening. how do we create jobs? the holy grail of this economy. david newton, a friend of of mine is a professor at entrepreneurial finance in santa barbara. he's the author of of a book that's going to answer that question "job creation: how it really works and why the government doesn't understand it." david, good to see you, welcome back, thank you for writing this book. here's what i take from what you said. you said job creation is a business decision based upon expansion and growth, modernization of plant and equipment and infrastructure. it involves a return on investment, economies of scale, improved productivity, new market opportunities, and strong profits, and cash flow. that's why people create jobs. because they get a return on what they put into it. what do we have to do to make the businesses of america create jobs? >> well, good to see you again, ali. and the main issue in our book that we cover throughout every chapter is the issue of what we call the certainty factor. and the certainty factor is really how you look at the near term and intermediate term as a private sector and you -- you are looking for stability. you're looking for opportunity. what really contributes to a great certainty factor is low taxes, low government regulation, less government spending, and smaller deficits, less on the debt side, and no more new programs or pending programs are going to have an adverse affect on your business. >> let me take you up on that for a second, david. you know i respect you and in a minute i want to talk about what you do to help businesses create jobs. but low taxes. our business taxes are not particularly high. low regulation, the only thing we've regulated here is the financial service industry. low deficits and low debt, we're all in agreement, we need to get that. but it's tough to do in this environment. and health care costs for small businesses, at least, might go down under this new plan. so what is this administration doing that is so offensive to the businesses, particularly small businesses that can be creating jobs right now? it doesn't seem like they're so far off the rails. >> actually, no, it's the exact opposite. the office of management budget just released in september their findings that 21% of u.s. national income goes toward taxes and 13.5% of u.s. national income goes toward regulation and legislative compliance. and so more than 1/3 of u.s. national income is ultimately consumed by government requirements and regulations and taxation. from a small business standpoint, the national federation of independent business has looked at surveys of small businesses throughout the nation and consistently a lot of the small business owners who look at the health care that's coming don't see it as something that's going to actually be -- >> they don't see it, but -- the other evidence doesn't bear that out. they don't see it as that, but the evidence doesn't bear out. small businesses who wanted to cover their employees did so at great expense prior to the advent of this health care. so we're not sure. the only issue is people are going to have to cover people. that's fair, right? >> well, but here again, we have in our book, we sitecite a coupf examples. we have a company, a small business owner in new jersey who has been in business for 35 or 40 years, he talks about hiring somebody in his company for $50,000 salary and this gal is a mid-level manager in his sales team. and the cost to have her for $50,000, his out of pocket cost is as an employer is $74,200. and then on her end, getting a job for $50,000 only translates to about $31,300 of take home pay after all the expenses involved there. think about that gap. you've got $74,000 committed as payments by the company to only end up with $31,000 in the pocket of the employee. >> david newton, a good friend of mine. and the author of a new book called "job creation: how it really works and why the government doesn't understand it." good to see you, thanks for being with us. >> you bet. thanks, ali. coming up next, divorce is already complex and the economy is making life that much more difficult for folks who are splitting up. but first, succeeding as a ma small business can be a tough task. but successful viral marketing gave one brooklyn design company a recipe for success. hi, welcome to dynomighty. it's actually my company i started eight years ago. it was the whole concept evolved out of a product essentially that i'd found by rummaging through the garbage of all things. but what i was doing was working at the museum of modern art at the time. and i stumbled upon, literally stumbled upon the idea for this magnetic bracelet. it took me a year to invent this product and then i started selling it as modern art and eight years later, here we are. based on the success of the jewelry, i did other organizers in magnets. this is called the desk organizer. it's all magnetic beads that hold your business cards together or use it for your pictures or whatever. then we had our youtube success which changed and redefined the business entirely. and i did all these tricks and put them on video on youtube that lasted about a minute. and within a month, we were featured video on youtube. and we had just an enormous response. and within the space of three months we had sold $130,000 worth of jewelry. now we have almost 140 videos online and youtube is our number one referrer beyond other referrers. to have a dream from, you know, the point in which i was working at my day job 9:00 to 5:00 to have an idea for a product and to bring that to fruition. and now eight years later i have a company that our biggest problem is our rapid success. i mean, that's the thing i'm most proud of. ♪ [ ted ] for years, i was just a brewer. until one of the guys brought in some fresh bread that he'd made from our pale ale. and from that first bite, i knew my business would never be the same. 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"thank you very much, i don't need your help any more." you know now, i can actually say i bought my home. i knew that the more i dedicated... the harder i worked, the more it was going to benefit my family. this my son, mario and he now works at walmart. i believe mario is following in my footsteps. my name is noemi, and i work at walmart. ♪ hiwhere we build eachre it all sof o customersns. my name is noemi, and i work at walmart. a better banking experience. here, we're working on something really speci in our family department. hey, mike. hey, sam. (rings bell) bell works. love that bell! regions recognizes the unique needs of families. and we want to make su y have exactly what u ed - from the right checking account, to a mortgage, to loans for just about anything. those are for the kids, mike. so if you're ready for a bank that can give your family the financial freedom you want, switch to regions. well, this recession has changed about the way americans have thought about a lot of things, including marriage. the number of adults choosing not to marry has surpassed the number of young adults 24 to 35 who have chosen to marry. and of the couples who are getting married, many people are protecting their assets more than they have in the past. nearly 3/4 of divorce attorneys polled have seen a number -- seen a rise in the number of prenups and that's according to the american academy of matrimony lawyers. christine romans joining me again, something she touches on her fantastic new book called "smart is the new rich." >> one thing about marriage, as well, is more people are initiating prenups, but it's more women are initiating prenups. also in terms of saving the marriage, research shows that paying down debt is a very good way to stay married. believe it or not, high levels of debt right up there with alcoholism and abuse for reasons that people say that they are splitting up. so financial disagreements can be very hazardous to your health. mean while, i want to tell you about a woman we spoke to. we spoke to a woman who put her emotions on the back burner for her family's financial well being after her divorce. >> oh, good girl. >> we first introduced you to sally gibson 18 months ago and found out that breaking up is hard to do. sally and her husband of 15 years were getting a divorce but still living under one roof. >> my husband lives in the guest room and comes home on wednesday nights early to have dinner with the kids and the other nights he comes home late to give me my space. so it's not perfect. it's been difficult. >> reporter: as legal bills for two divorce attorneys piled up, the couple switched to a less expensive mediator. but the situation with the house wasn't as simple. >> right now there are 20 houses on the market in town that are in our price range, and there are no buyers. so my broker has pretty much prepared me that the house is going to sit for quite a while. >> reporter: for sally, remaining financially sound meant remaining under the same roof as financially sound meant staying under the same roof. for some getting a divorce isn't the option. they say 57% of attorneys polled reported fewer divorces during the recession. the couples stayed in the home for a full year before deciding emotion trumped finances. >> it was a very difficult time, very emotional time, and we made the decision to sell the house and it could have easily sat on the market for a year. i didn't want to put my kids through that because it was tough enough. i priced it to sell, and we sold the house right away. and i'm not going to lie. lost a lot of money, and that hurt. >> she started off changing back to her maiden name, she downsized and started a small business as an interior designer out of the new home. >> i discovered a niche where i'm working with all the clients are divorced or separated, and so it's kind of nice to boshg with people that are in similar circumstances. >> if there's a silver lining, in their smaller home -- >> we spend a lot more time together as a family, because there are fewer places for them to scurry away to. >> gabrielle is a certified divorce analyst, and she's featured in my new book. how do you prepare in this situation or if married thinking of divorcing. she joins us to help through sticky financial situations that come along with divorce. if you're in this situation and stuck together because the economy has kept you stuck together, what should you do? what's the most important advice ? >> protect yourself financially from the spending habits of your former spouse. >> have your own credit card and have your own mortgage and maintain all of your own business accounts as you were just -- just as if you were a single person. >> you mentioned this pent-up demand for divorce is coming through. people have been stuck as deer in the headlights for too long, and you see more activity on this front. >> absolutely, absolutely. people are fed up. they're not expecting to get as much for their house as they expected a few years ago. the reality has settled n-and nothing is going to change. the economy has only gotten worse for them in some cases. >> divorced couples, divorced people they have a harder time getting a mortgage. is that true? >> it is. >> what is your advice for people that got from under the house and from the marriage they didn't want to be in and can't get a house. >> it's very difficult. it's true. the mortgage rates for people who are currently divorced or newly divorced, it's very difficult to get mortgages because they can't show that stream of income for a period of six or eight months, and that's what the mortgage companies want to see. they don't trust it. there may be a court order, but until she see the check hit the bank on a monthly, consistent basis they're not going to -- >> from my own reporting, your credit can be dinged during this process because one person isn't paying the credit card bills, one person is. there's all of the things that can happen. most important thing here, what do you say to people when they're doing the divorce settlement? how do you make sure you protect yourself for the uncertainties of 10, 20 years down the row. a lot of people say i don't have health care, and now there's not as much in the 401(k) as i thought and they have to re-open it up. >> long-term financial planning before you sign your settlement agreement. you have to think about it to run the numbers. you have to say, how is this going to look after the divorce? when you're in the middle of divorce there's crisis, drama and emotion. it's difficult to think clearly about the finances on the other side of the divorce, but you know what? five years, ten years down the row, you're going to say i wish i got the retirement asset as opposed to an investment asset. i wish i had not taken the house and sold it at a timt when i could have used the money to now buy a condo or something else or maybe rent for a few years. >> very difficult decisions. a lot of people are deciding to rent for a few years because there's so many uncertainties out there. those are tough decisions when breaking up is hard to do literally because ut can't get out from under the house. a lot of folks team as though a couple of years have passed since the initial crisis, home prices have stabilized. now nare starting to move on. >> maybe some marriages were saved. some are not going to be and better to move on with. "smart is the new rich." it's a new book. it as all sorts of stuch like this. another financial pressure particularly on moms and dads. we know education slr addition the price of education is a burden. that burden does not seem to be ending after graduation. ♪ ♪ [ engine revs, tires screeching ] we give to you the all-new volkswagen jetta. we have one more surprise for you. fifteen-thousand nine-hundred neunzig dollar? [ sobbing ] [ camera shutters clicking ] ♪ whoo-hoo, yeah ♪ whoo-hoo, yeah one month, five years after you do retire? ♪ client comes in and they have a box. and inside that box is their financial life. people wake up and realize i better start doing something. we open up that box. we organize it. and we make decisions. we really are here to help you. they look back and think, "wow. i never thought i could do this." but we've actually done it. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. desperate for nighttime heartburn relief? for many, nexium helps relieve heartburn symptoms caused by acid reflux disease. and for the majority of patients with prescription coverage for nexium, it can cost $30 or less per month. headache, diarrhea, and abdominal pain are possible side effects of nexium. other serious stomach conditions may still exist. ask your doctor if nexium can help relieve your heartburn symptoms. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. ♪ now the healing power of touch just got more powerful. introducing precise from the makers of tylenol. precise pain relieving heat patch activates sensory receptors. it helps block pain signals for deep penetrating relief you can feel precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol. 85% of college graduates move back home with mom and dad, 85%. that's according to market research by 20-something, ink. that's a 20% jump from four years ago. this group has a new name, the boomerange boomerangers. it's starting to take its toll. >> at 15% unemployment rate for 20 to 24 year olds, that doesn't include the kids that just graduated. it's an even bigger group of kids, young dauladults under 24 of work. they're called generation y. shouldn't be out working? it's happening more and more. baby boomers surveyed felt they'd done it to themselves. they told their kids you can have anything, study what you want. you're bright and brilliant and live in this big world with opportunities, and now those kids are home again. wait a minute, i'm planning for my own retirement and get this kid off the ground. we came of age in a time when 24 million jobs were created in this country over 10 years. generation x had it easy. there are a lot of jobs. generation y coming of age when we're losing jobs. that's a tough place to be. >> there were people