now "my take." the european crisis you have been reading about in the newspapers is worth watching very carefully. it has now morphed into something much bigger than a european crisis. it could batter the entire global economy, which is pretty fragile anyway. you read a lot about greece. the real problem is italy. you see, greece is a nano state and makes up about 2% of the european union's gross domestic problem. italy, on the other hand, is one of the seven or eight largest economies in the world. its debts are greater than those of spain, portugal, ireland, and greece combined. and it has long been governed in an almost cartoonishly bad manner. italy is too big to fail, but it also might be too big to bail. even germany may not be able to credibly bail it out along with all the other troubled countries. so what can be done? i don't think the leading proposals will work. creating eurobonds or giving brussels broader powers to tax and spend. those things won't happen. governments oppose it in europe. people oppose it in europe. and anyway, creating a tighter european union will take about ten years to sort out. markets need reassurance now. so, i have a proposal. we need a bazooka. a big bazooka. you see, facing a similar crisis in 2008, treasury secretary henry paulson talked about the need for a sum of money large enough to scare markets into submission. >> if you have a bazooka -- >> he called it a bazooka. but the problem is this -- all of the e.u. combined doesn't have a big enough bazooka. who has the money italy and spain would need? take a guess. they have $3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves alone. yep, china. in fact, today there are $10 trillion of foreign exchange reserves sitting around the globe. that is the only pile of money large enough from which a bazooka could be fashioned. the international monetary fund could go to the leading holders of such reserves, china, but also japan, brazil, saudi arabia -- and ask for a $750 billion line of credit. the imf would extend the credit to the troubled e.u. economies, italy and spain particularly, but would insist on closely monitoring economic reforms and granting funds as restructuring occurs. the credit line would more than cover the costs of italy and spain for two years. the imf terms would ensure the two nations remain under pressure to reform and set them up for growth. now, the chinese would have to devote at least half the funds. what's in it for them? a new global role. this could be the spur to giving china a much larger say at the imf. in fact, it might be necessary to make clear that christine lagarde would be the last non-chinese head of the imf. in a world awash in debt, power shifts to creditors. it's happened before. after world war i, european nations were battered by debt. germany was battered by reparation payments. the only country that could provide credit was the united states of america. for america, providing desperately needed cash to europe was its entry into the councils of power, a process that ultimately brought a powerful new player inside the global tent. today's crisis is china's opportunity to become a responsible stakeholder in the global system. and if this doesn't happen, by the way, hold onto your seat because we are in for a rough ride. let's get started. for the last eight months, jeffrey immelt has held two jobs. he is, of course, the chairman and ceo of general electric but also moonlights as the chairman of president obama's council on jobs and competitiveness. in other words, his second job is to get a first job for the one out of six americans who are looking for work. so what is he going to do? i talked to him about jobs, the american economy, and general electric. when president obama asked you to head up his jobs council, what did you come in hoping to achieve? what's the one thing you thought you would be able to get done? >> i took it just as pure play, and the one thing i hope to get done is to create more jobs. you know, in other words, fareed, i have tried to stay focused on this in a very tactical way and really, i think, building the amount of confidence that's required to actually improve job creation in the united states. >> taking this position, have you learned something about the difficulties, the opportunities of job creation that's different from just running g.e.? >> you know, one of the things that this made me do is reach out more and try to see it through the eyes of small business. and when you really try to put yourself in their perspective, they have all the problems g.e. has, only on steroids. so in many ways, you know, one of the roads out of this is there's got to be some simplification of regulations in the united states. the fact is that g.e. and ibm and jpmorgan, we're big enough companies that we can muscle through regulatory, you know, pressure. we can comply, do the things we need to do. if you're a $50 million business it's just so much harder. i become much more aware of the challenges that basic fundamental small businesses have in the united states. it's given me a much better appreciation of what they go through. >> what is it like working with president obama? >> he's a good listener. he's tough-minded. i tell colleagues in the business community it's not like your first shot on goal is going to get through his pads. he's tough-minded, and he's a good listener. >> you know, a lot of people in the business community think he's an empty capitalist or too left wing to be president. you see him. you talk to him about capitalism, jobs, the economy all the time. >> look, i know he cares deeply about job creation. i know he cares deeply about the united states. do i agree with everything that the president says or everything he stands for? probably not. in fact, definitely no. but at the same time he's my president. and i believe when the president asks you to do something you say yes. so that's the context with which i took the jobs council assignment. i like president obama, i respect president obama. >> you are a republican, right? a registered republican. what do you say to republicans where you now see the entire party largely unified around the idea that the only thing that the government can really do to create jobs is to cut the budget, cut the deficit, slash spending? there is very little appetite for any kind of affirmative government policy, let alone investment. is that the right path? >> look, in my essence, i make aircraft engines and gas turbines and sell them to customers around the world. i'm not really a politician. you know, i don't really want to set public policy. but i believe in balance. does the debt, deficit need to be reduced? absolutely. right? is government too big in many ways? absolutely. but does the country still need to invest in education? does the country still need to invest in infrastructure? does the country still need to invest in the types of innovation and r&d that are going to make this country competitive in the 21st century? yes, we do. the advantage i have is i live my life in beijing, in rio, in paris, in moscow and i see the rest of the world investing in competitiveness. i see the rest of the world wanting to gain share versus the united states. and so i think a balanced approach ultimately is what most business people, most ceos would like to see. >> you know that a lot of people look at ge as a poster child for the problem with the corporate tax collection. they say -- >> look, we paid tens of billions in taxes over the last decade. we wrote off massive amounts during the financial crisis in ge capital, and our tax rate year to date this year is over 40%. so like many ceos, i am dramatically in favor of a new corporate tax system that lowers the rate, ends loopholes and puts us on the same basis with germany, uk and japan and everybody else around the world. i completely agree with where the simpson/bowles commission came out on the tax system. let's get after it. >> what about investment? you're sitting on piles of cash, and people say you're opening businesses in china, hiring people in china, but you are not hiring people -- >> we're hiring 15,000 people in the united states this year. you know, we are investing in the u.s., but we are also investing in china, we're also investing in india. look, more than 60% of the companies outside the united states, 70% of our backlog -- i wish all my customers were in chicago. really, i do. it's the easier way to run the business, but my customers are in brazil. my customers are in canada. my customers are in japan and china. we are one of the country's biggest exporters. i think the country should applaud that. you know? that's nothing to be criticized. and so, look, i'm just not going to apologize. but we are also going to create jobs in the united states. we are also one of the best exporters. we are one of the biggest r&d spenders. every one of my competitors is global. we are a 130-year-old company. we compete with hitachi, siemens. we compete with toshiba. we don't have u.s.-based competitors anymore. and believe me, all of them get government support, from the german government, from the uk government, from the chinese government. i just think, you know, we criticize global companies like ge when in many ways we can help build competitiveness in the united states. >> tell me about the jobs council. what specifically can the united states do? you have divided the challenge in a sense into a short term and a long term. tell me about the short term first. what can we do to create jobs? >> we are going to do an industry-wide sector by sector jobs plan and we'll finish it by the end of the year. we didn't want to focus on legislative solutions. it was kind of nonpartisan, nonlegislative. nobody on the council -- and there are 26 of us. none of us believe there is a silver bullet for job creation. there will literally be dozens of ideas that go into creating jobs. early on what we try to do is focus on supply and demand, reducing regulatory burdens. we wanted to put people back to work quickly. so we had ideas in education. create 10,000 more engineers every year. we had ideas around reducing cycle time, so getting visitor visas, shorten cycle time to put together -- to create jobs for 100,000 or 200,000 travel and leisure workers. very simple, very focused to build confidence. those things are all under way. >> back in a moment with much more with the jobs czar, jeffrey immelt. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." 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because the last few years what you have seen was an increase in productivity by shedding jobs. >> again, in the end you need demand. you know, in other words, none of our names are above the door, right? we all work for investors. and investors want us to invest in growth, but they don't want us to run operations that are less competitive or that are inefficient. but if you look -- you know, fareed, we've got 60%, 70% market share in the commercial aviation business making jet engines. our plants are full. we are adding people in every factory. we're adding people in the supply chain. now, 80% of the products go outside the united states. they go to the middle east, to china, india. the airlines that are growing are going there. so, if you can see growth the tendency is to want to hire people and not to be unproductive but to fulfill demand. i think people need to see more certainty of demand. now, you know, i personally would say, would i like there to be more certainty on tax rate and health care policy? sure. i'd like to see all those things. but none of that's stopping me from investing. to a certain extent that's a crutch. >> what would it take to make bigger investments in the united states in manufacturing, in areas like that for companies? what would convince you to do it more? >> i think it's about having good, educated well trained work force which we have many times but still needs to be in place. having good, stable understanding of what tax policy is going to be. now, look, some states -- in the u.s. you have 50 different let's say ceos and you have different incentive packages and things like that. those are important, but they are rarely the single reason why people put factories anyplace. just certainty of education, certainly of tax policy. a well-trained work force. really, i personally think at the right wage level, $15, $20 an hour, lots of work could come back to the united states in manufacturing and be competitive with other parts of the world. >> tell me about the role of government. you travel around the world. you notice that south korea, china, the governments are active in promoting businesses, industry, sectors. you face this in the wind turbine business where clearly the chinese government is making a powerful push to get market share from general electric. do you wish that the united states government were more active? >> i believe in the american way, the american system. now, the government in the u.s. has always been a catalyst to drive growth. always. always. this is not president obama versus president bush or things like that. the nih has been a catalyst for the world's best health care system. the department of defense has spawned the internet, has spawned modern transportation technology for generations. the nuclear industry was built on the back of the department of defense. so for generations, more than a hundred years, the government has been a useful catalyst to drive this great capitalist system. so, number one, there is a role -- i think a small role -- to be played by the government in risk-taking and helping to evolve where we go, right? number one. number two, it just so happens that the biggest competitor in the world today has a system where the government fundamentally runs the play. i mean, i have been going to china since 1984. i get the five-year plan from the chinese government. i make our team digest them, study it and analyze it because they actually do it. so we now have a new competitor who runs a different play. and i have always been paranoid about competition. i think it's good for the united states to be paranoid about competition, to study and say, okay, a, do they have a way we should understand? b, how do we beat them, compete with them or what do they do? we need to be reflective. i'm not sure. i know what the right answers are for ge. i'm not sure i'm smart enough to figure it out for the entire country, but we have to recognize that competition has changed, that the biggest competitor plays the game in a very state-driven way, and we need to understand that. >> are you optimistic though that we will -- a lot of the problems you see that need to be fixed to get american employment up, to really transform the jobs situation, these are big changes, the long-term challenge, educational system, whole system of reforming the bureaucracy, getting much more deeply invested in infrastructure. we are not doing most of these things right now. are you confident we'll be able to do them? >> i'm optimistic and confident because i believe in the end our system works. i look at where we are today as a natural progression of economic crisis, anger, fear, anger, all that's kind of playing out. in the end, we've got to work together. in the end, we have to find ways to drive common solutions to bigger problems. i think that's true for the private sector, businesses working together. i think it's true between the public and the private sector. but ultimately there is a sense of teamwork that's very much a part of the american culture. there is a sense of partnership that's very much a part of the american culture that i think is -- will ultimately play out. >> my thanks to jeffrey immelt. you can see more of this interview with immelt and with the ceos of general motors, dow chemical and starwood hotels and senator hutchison of texas all on "restoring the american dream: getting back to work." that's my special airing tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern and pacific. there is a lot of talk in washington about fixing the unemployment problem. we'll tell you where we need action. quick ways to get people back to work. we'll be right back. [ indistinct talking on radio ] [ tires screech ] [ crying ] [ applause ] [ laughs ] [ tires screech ] [ male announcer ] your life will have to flash by even faster. autodrive brakes on the cadillac srx activate after rain is detected to help improve braking performance. we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. to help improve braking performance. it feels like help is never far away. it feels like you're protected against life's little mishaps. it feels like you'll make it home. that's what it feels like to be a member. the healthcare law gives us powerful tools to fight it... to investigate it... ...prosecute it... and stop criminals. our senior medicare patrol volunteers... are teaching seniors across the country... ...to stop, spot, and report fraud. you can help. guard your medicare card. don't give out your card number over the phone. call to report any suspected fraud. we're cracking down on medicare fraud. let's make medicare stronger for all of us. now for our "what in the world" segment. can you remember what explosive crisis america and the world was fixated on last summer? it wasn't the deficit, jobs or europe. it was an oil disaster. remember the bp spill? tons of crude gushing into the gulf of mexico? well, in the weeks and months that followed, there was a lot of discussion about how to make sure it didn't happen again. but what struck me this week is that we have a new dangerous drilling zone right on our doorstep. cuba. estimates suggest the island nation has reserves anywhere from 5 to 20 billion barrels of oil. the high end of the estimates puts cuba among the top dozen oil producers in the world. predictably there is a global scramble for havana. this chinese-constructed drilling rig is owned by an italian oil company and is on its way to cuban waters. norway, and india will use the rig to explore for oil. petro giants from brazil, venezuela, malaysia and vietnam are swooping in. of course we can't partake because we don't trade with cuba. but what about at least making sure there are some safety procedures that are followed that would protect the american coastline? you see at