even specify what the cuts will be! neil: or when they take effect. most take effect past 2007. guest: now we are arguing who will be a member of the super committee and it will be politically balanced, so we won t agree on anything. neil: are you frustrated for your country? guest: i m frustrated america is in the process of falling behind asia. i was in asia and the asian view of america is we are the past. neil: but we speak out against the chinese. guest: the view in asia the minimum growth rate for g.d.p. is 6 percent or 7 percent or 8 percent and we are growing at 1 percent and excited if we have 3 percent. growth is everything, it creates wealth and opportunity and creates obviously jobs and creates export markets and we have not agreed that the country on a growth strategy. what the politicians should point out is the issue of joblessness.
question recovery. guest: i assume you are talking about geithner but he is just a staffer and he is giving obama bad advice but obama put geithner in that position because he believes that. you get rid of geithner and bring in another who is around the resolving door of wall street you get the same bad as vice. neil: we are getting word that the senate banking committee is looking into the s&p downgrade and people are shooting the messenger. where does this go? guest: well, s&p and the other rating agencies do not exactly have a go track record. they have miss sod many big calls going back to enron and worldcom and fannie mae and freddie mac and greece and portugal, and if you read the s&p report it is politically driven document. i don t put much stock in them,
reading headlines you would think this means we will pay more for each. not quite. not yet. and now from the cato institute, it has notice materialized but you say just wait. you say, maybe not. guest: we have a lot of money in the world that need as place to go and if investors think they have a reasonable chance of getting paid back they will be happy to lend you money and will not depend or demand much interest from you, they simply want to as your previous guest indicated, they want to preserve capital, what investors don t want to do, they don t want to lend money to italy and spain and countries like that unless they are pretty sure the germans or other taxpayer is becoming its up. neil: i wonder whether we are re-entering either a recession or this time, something where there is a buyer and borrower revolt? guest: well, we do have two
there are other bigger fish, try france and england. and now president and c.e.o. of accent management. france and england? guest: are you ready for frog legs? france better watch out, because if you look in the credit default swap market which for people at home it is the risk of default for sovereign debt, french rates are way off the charts. in fact, as a triple a nation, france rates of default in the credit default swap market is three times as of today, that of the united states, so, france is going into recession, they don t have a great capital structure for collecting revenues and they anticipate a lot of flow from foreign countries and they are first, second, is the u.k. neil: and my last guest said to your point it is about responsibility and leaders taking responsibility. we don t see a last it here and we see little of it in some of
medicare and medicaid and aging of america. private sector job is to go create jobs, create businesses, and sure holder value and we can do that. the government has to spend less money or figure out where they are going to put it. neil: they have a hard time deciding how to do that and the s&p is saying you are not doing enough and when you do you fight like crazy doing it. so what i ask you as the most respected business leaders on the land it, does this get in the way of you wanting to hire? in other words, i talked to a number of c.e.o. s last week who said why would i in this environment. guest: we hire because people come to our company to make new products that improve the world. the issue of credit rating is for businesses that are interest rate sensitive, depending on bank financing and small businesses. there is a real problem in america around access to capital for small business since 2008. and this could affect that.