was doing a lot of retail politics, sitting around, doing the grip and grin. is this part and parcel of the same phenomenon? i think it is. when you see rick perry at the iowa state fair, you see mitt romney anywhere, you don t have them surrounded by these sort of staffers/bodyguards. if there s a security risk presumably it would be one of those other very recognizable candidates we re dealing with as well and they don t have the kind of perimeter, the kind of bubble that michele bachmann has. alex, the article is in politico today. thank you for being with us. thank you. a political programming note. we invite you to wash the nbc news politico republican debate at the reagan library three weeks from now, wednesday, september 7th, right here on msnbc, 8:00 eastern time. nbc s brian williams will moderate right here on msnbc. coming up, rick perry unplugged in new hampshire, getting an earful from angry democrats. plus, america s greatest generation, the new greatest
consumer price index which shows prices are up. essentially, americans paying more for things like gas, food, clothing, at the same time unemployment is high. dare we say the s word, stagflation? i think that s premature. if you go back to the period in which we really suffered from stagflation, we had interest rates, unemployment and inflation all in double digits. right now, we re talking about consumer prices that are still just above 2% or 3% and it s high relative to what we ve become accustomed to, and i think the bigger worry honestly is deflation and the risk of another recession. that s what has the markets so upset. and the fact that like in washington to a certain extent, there are no adults in the room in europe right now. they are letting rome burn and fiddling quite happily as this crisis gets worse and worse and they have yet to come up with a credible solution. give us a perspective here on the dow. one day it s up hundreds, next day it s down hundreds.
consumer prices that are still just above 2% or 3% and it s high relative to what we ve become accustomed to, and i think the bigger worry honestly is deflation and the risk of another recession. that s what has the markets so upset. and the fact that like in washington to a certain extent, there are no adults in the room in europe right now. they are letting rome burn and fiddling quite happily as this crisis gets worse and worse and they have yet to come up with a credible solution. give us a perspective here on the dow. one day it s up hundreds, next day it s down hundreds. i mean, overall, what kind of drop are we talking about, if you took it from the perspective a month or two or even so far this year? well, so far this year, the losses are contained to single digits for all major market averages. we have seen the dow from its peak at the end of april to the low we saw recently fall about 20%, same for the s & p. that is either a correction or on the fringe of a bea
voting for her in the polls or say they will, are those who know her from cable and love her. well, we are keeping an eye on the president, alex, as we said, and he is speaking about the economy. we will keep an eye on the event. thank you, alex, for the analysis. appreciate it. now, to the high profile case of casey anthony, and her mother and father and brother were all called back to the stand one after the other. first george took the stand and repeatedly denied finding his granddaughter caylee dead in the swimming pool, something that the defense has been saying since the trial started. he also denied telling a woman who claims the two had an affair that caylee s death was an accident. i never found my granddaughter, and to this day, i have never found her. and to say that i had said something to her about it has been stated or even by you here that something might have snowballed out of control, and that conversation was never
congresswoman michele bachmann who was in iowa monday and new hampshire today is headed to south carolina. tim pawlenty delivered what he called a major foreign policy speech in new york. and jon huntsman is about to make an appearance in salt lake city, utah, and newt gingrich conducted a series of live radio interviews, and guess who is also in the mix? sarah palin who is preparing for the are premier of her documentary called the undefeated and it is about her rise to national prominence. joining me now politico reporter alex byrnes to talk about all that is happening. thank you for your time. thank you. and the question is who is upstaging who at this point? you have the president at iowa and it is tough to upstage him at any event when he has the mike, but the michele bachmann and sarah palin connection there and who is taking the attention when you see them and tim pawlenty in the same state? well, after a poll this weekend that showed that michele