regard to whether or not markets are sustainable at their current levels. you hit on one big point. oil is one huge concern. traders say if oil prices continue to fall it will weigh on some of these oil companies in terms of their earnings. that s going to be a huge head wind for some of those companies going forward. another concern is what s happening around the world with greece and specifically how far it affects the rest of europe. greece not a large economy but whether or not greece exits the euro at least provides some commentary on whether or not the eurozone or monetary union can stay cohesive. there are demonstrations all over europe with regard to what they are going to do about the situation there. germany is a specific point fear for a lot of traders because germany is seen as the core of the european economy. chancellor angela merkel is deciding whether to step in. greece not a huge economy but a big deal. this is translating in to these
our president would be a comment. obviously the economy, quarter after quarter of growth. oil may not be his doing but all time low. opening up cuba. saving the auto industry. killing osama bin laden. taking a hard line on immigration. passing most important legislation whether you like it or not. one could argue this has bean very successful presidency. hand across the aisle, can you give any credos to our commander-in-chief? some are good and some i disagree with and so does the american public in large part with these successes that you state. one thing i would give him which you talk about the biggest piece of legislation in recent history, obamacare. i don t support it neither does the american public.
does that lead to higher unemployment? all of these things are structural. these oil and gas companies spend billions of dollars on capital expenditure items. things like drills equipment. cnbc s dominic chu. good explanation. we re talking about the volatility of the markets let s talk about the volatility of mother nature. torrential rain is causing massive flooding and mudslides in washington state. take a look at invideo. mudslides knocks a home off of its foundation and blocking the road of this town. red cross opened shelters for 200 residents. coast guard are on stand by. i want to bring in bill karins. it s raining out west but this arctic blast that s coming east that should get everybody bundled up and a little bit worried. that video is pretty amazing. wasn t even that heavy of a rain. must have been something that was leading up to that and about
losses that we re seeing. it s a worry for trades because we haven t seen this type of volatile markets over the course of the past four or five years. reminds a lot of people there are down markets to be had and just one idea what we could see. let me go back to oil for a second. what the low price of oil people see in the united states gas aaa announced 2.19 a gallon. that feels like good news. why does the dow drop. it is good news. good news for the consumer. gasoline prices are about $1.10, $1.12 lower than they were a year ago. that translates in to a huge boom for consumers. they can save a lot of money. that s a short term fix, though. because consumers can do that for a while but what happens when the companies that churn out this oil or have these jobs that pay these people start to maybe feel a little bit of that pressure? does that hurt job growth going forward?