troops without leaving chaos in its wake? next up, debt, shedding real light on our present situation in the united states and europe. we have the author of a phenomenal new book, phillip kogan. i ll explain. first, here s my take. some of you regular viewers will recall that at the start of the first show of this year i predicted hopefully that the u.s. woo economy would recover nicely in 2012. i m returning to that topic with some preliminary good news. if you look around the industrialized world, the u.s. economy is the most promising of the bunch. the american recovery is not as vigorous as one might hope, but it is remarkably broadbased. manufacturing is up, including for the first time in 30 years nontechnology manufacturing. retail sales are up. consumer confidence and spending are growing. consider sales are up. the stock market reflects this. two areas of the economy that continue to lag are jobs and housing. both critical areas. generating economic growth and prof
with koran burnings the united states alone in the industrialized world is demo graphically dynamic. it adds 3 million peoples to the numbers every year and at some point, kids don t want to live with their parents and that will produce demand for housing and at that point, the recovery will gain full steam. the new potentially game-changing trend for the united states is the rise of shale gas, thanks to the new process of fracing, american now has 75 years of natural gas and most important, it is the world s low-cost producer of natural gas. the rise in gasoline prices and petroleum prices has obscured this much more important fact. energy costs are plummeting in america. that s why manufacturers like dow chemical are actually opening new factories in the united states. you see, asia has an advantage, lower labor costs, but now the u.s. has an advantage, lower energy costs than asia. and this is a process that has just begun. add all this together and you have the prospect
down for this long before. and even if pakistani lawmakers wanted to reopen these supply routes now, there s real pressure on them not to. pressure on them from the taliban, the pakistani taliban, which threatened lawmakers and their families last week. if they resume shipping supplies to the afghanistan through pakistan, the pakistani taliban said, we will start attacking all the particliamentarians and their families. on the afghanistan side of the border, our guest tonight for the interview reports that it is the taliban in afghanistan, the taliban of afghanistan who have been initiating and trying to participate in talks with the united states about how the american war in afghanistan ends. joining us now for the interview is ahmed rashid. he s got a brand-new book out called pakistan on the brink. mr. rashid is essentially the premiere journalist living and working in packston today.
extremists have targeted truck con voice, bombing them, setting them on fire. and this isn t the first time that pakistan has shut the supply lines down in anger. but they have never shut them down for this long before. and even if pakistani lawmakers wanted to reopen these supply routes now, there s real pressure on them not to. pressure on them from the taliban, the pakistani taliban, which threatened lawmakers and their families last week. if they resume shipping supplies to the afghanistan through pakistan, the pakistani taliban said, we will start attacking all the parliamentarians and their families. on the afghanistan side of the border, our guest tonight for the interview reports that it is the taliban in afghanistan, the taliban of afghanistan who have been initiating and trying to participate in talks with the united states about how the american war in afghanistan ends. joining us now for the interview is ahmed rashid. he s got a brand-new book out called pakistan on the
wanted to reopen these supply routes now, there s real pressure on them not to. pressure on them from the taliban, the pakistani taliban, which threatened lawmakers and their families last week. if they resume shipping supplies to the afghanistan through pakistan, the pakistani taliban said, we will start attacking all the parliamentarians and their families. on the afghanistan side of the border, our guest tonight for the interview reports that it is the taliban in afghanistan, the taliban of afghanistan who have been initiating and trying to participate in talks with the united states about how the american war in afghanistan ends. joining us now for the interview is ahmed rashid. he s got a brand-new book out called pakistan on the brink. mr. rashid is essentially the premiere journalist living and working in packston today. it is an honor to have you here. thanks for coming back. thank you very much. you report that it was the