i m erin burnett. outfront tonight, stocks tanked. the dow plunged 2774 points today killing all the gains of this year. it s the biggest drop since november. it was really bad day. the reason was a terrible jobs report. usually using adjectives like this are sometimes much for the markets but it s the way it was today. american employers add add meager 69,000 job, which is about half the number needed just to keep up with current population growth. it was the weakest month of hiring for the year and the unemployment rate went up to 8.2%. it was a grim day for the president. today we re still fighting our way back from the worst economic crisis since the great depression. the economy s growing again, but it s not growing as fast as we want it to grow. now, according to bianco research, no president has been re-elected in this country with an unemployment rate this high since the great depression. that was when fdr won and at that time unemployment was 13.7%. what s happ
$25,000 in college loan debt. college tuition up 368% in the last 30 years leaving students furious. and politicians making promises. congress needs to act right now to prevent interest rates on federal student loans from shoothding up. if it doesn t, loans subsidized by uncle sam rises on july 1. extending the current rate would cost the federal government and ultimately the taxpayer $6 billi billion, but something the president and hiss gop opponent agree on. i would like to extend the low interest rate on student loans. governor romney and the president out today both in favor of keeping interest rates low on subsidized loans, but some say that doesn t go far enough. welcome to the program, nice to meet you. i know you have had a very busy week. you say the student loan debt is morally unsustainable and we should forgive this debt. isn t that essentially asking people to pay for their neighbor s education? i wouldn t put it that way, no, education is a public goo
more than a decade. the economy has added jobs. that s the most important thing, for 17 straight months. more than two million jobs in the last year alone. so there are real signs the economy is improving, but gas prices have been soaring. the cost of living rising. the most in more than ten months. some americans may be feeling left out of this economy. diane swonk, diane, as gas prices have increased, the president s approval rating has decreased. i m not one to make direct correlations, but there s been really nothing else that might have caused this. there s a clear breakdown based on where americans fall in the economy. your thoughts let me show you a poll first. a cbs/new york times poll shows among those making more than $100,000 a year, the president s approval rating has replamained relatively flat. meanwhile the approval rating for those making 30 to 50,000 a year dropped by 16 points. diane, is this a clear illustration that we ve got two americas on two very dif
the united states is ready for the challenge. as we ve discussed, the united states and china will continue to compete and as americans, we welcome competition it s part of our dna and propels our citizens to rise to the challenge. cooperation as you and i have spoken about, can only be mutually beneficial if the game is fair. perhaps we welcome competition, but are we ready for it? business professor peter navarro is the author of the book death by china. peter vice president biden says the u.s. welcomes competition. you say china is using in your word, quote, weapons of job destruction against america. what is that and what needs to happen for the u.s. to at least compete fairly with china? we had ten years now since china joined the world trade organization of unfair trade. the weapons of job destruction are clear. there s five. start with currency manipulation. it acts as a huge subsidy for chinese goods coming in and huge tariff on our products to china. you have
president mahmoud ahmadinejad is in pakistan for a regional summit. he joins pakistani prime minister gilani who is facing a contempt of court charge before his country s supreme court. hamid karzai is there as well, saying his government is holding talks with the taliban, a claim the taliban denies. police in thailand are seeking an arrest warrant for a fifth iranian suspect in connection with a bomb incident in the thai capital on tuesday. they re looking to detain javad, a 52-year-old man who was last seen leaving the building where the first explosion went off. four arrest warrants have been issued and three men are in custody following the blasts which blew one of the men s legs off. those are the top stories from cnn. i m monita rajpal. world business today starts right now. good morning from cnnland done, i m charles hodson. and a very good afternoon from cnn hong kong, i m andrew stevens. welcome to world business today this friday, january i should say fe