have the companies that are being judge of paying the bill and they could live around in a big old berkshire the mr buffett also pointed out the market requires it because these ratings agencies has been around forever so they're in shrine by government regulations which oh yeah they have a stake in test for objectivity frank legislation the financial reform has restrictions on rating agencies and the rules that are yet to be written and they care a huge deal about what those rules end up looking like saw it would surprise me if they were trying to curry favor with certain politicians in fact they've spent a combined total of one point seven six million dollars this year lobbying washington over the regulations which brings us full circle to the downgrade of u.s. credit the u.s. was downgraded by s. and p. because of government debt burma or the government ran up that debt in part because they bailed out the big banks and a.i.g. back in two thousand and eight remember the one saddled with all of those bad mortgage bonds which the ratings agencies graded triple a when in reality they were a d

yes we've heard papa talk about it before but why don't people actually start to listen to head of berkshire hathaway also know the tax disparity in our country here at the mega rich pay income taxes at a rate of fifteen percent on most of their earnings but pay practically nothing in payroll it's not that it's a different story for the middle class typically they fall into the fifteen percent twenty five percent income tax brackets and then are hit with heavy payroll taxes to boot so no matter how you break down to figures and crunch the numbers it's clear we're going to the growing wealth disparity that is bad and getting worse and i'll tell you what something needs to be done otherwise examples like the one that we just showed you in chattanooga tennessee those are become the norm in this country a race to the bottom all for average americans or for average americans while wall street continues to race to the top. i am last month army suicides hit a record since the army began releasing those figures in two thousand and nine thirty two potential suicides were recorded twenty two were acti

gregg: warren buffet, the legendary head of berkshire hathaway will invest $5 billion in the struggling bank of america and the shares of b of a are spiking on that. of course, they've lost a lot of their value as they struggled for the acquisition of essentially a black hole, countrywide mortgage company. so we'll have more on that in a moment. >>> in the meantime, the courts, about to rule on what could be the toughest immigration law in the united states. we'll have a fair and balanced debate straight ahead as we wait for a federal judge to decide its fate. martha: we've got a lot of breaking news that is brewing. some things that we're seeing crossing that we're working on that we want to bring to you when we can get those reports verified, but potential big news coming out of tripoli, so stay tuned for that. this is a look at the celebrations that have been there all across the week as the big question remains, where is qaddafi. and we're going to have more to report, coming up right after this. >> the message expressed, guns, cars, anything at hand, it's clear, we've won the war.

the united states government that has a credit rating gets downgraded its insurance companies kraft berkshire hathaway even put on negative watch there's going to be a trickle down effect there's even talk of the states being downgraded obviously spain and italy are struggling right now. italy's actually going for a balanced budget amendment so they may get by but it may get to the point where spain just has to get downgraded and they can't continue to fight on there's a it's actually really unknown i think what's going to be the telling sign is over the next three days we have a larger treasury say a treasury note and treasury bond sales for ten and twenty and thirty years sales over the next couple days and how well those do not what the prices are how much demand there are for those i think is going to tell us a lot about what the investors think about standard and poor's rating and if investors are not running really if today is an anomaly and they are running into those and they're running away from us but it's investors signaling to a new standard course that's right the political syste

the number of people filing for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level in months, and news berkshire hathaway will invest $5 billion in bank of america. live to new york stock exchange in 15 minutes. >> this morning, traders may be focused on one specific stock, apple, for the first time in 21st century, the ceo isn't someone named jobs. many wonder what it means for the iconic company. terry mcsweeney joins us live from berkeley store. >> reporter: a lot of people are saying how stunned they are that he is stepping down. some are saying they kind of expected it. not leaving apple he will be the chairman of the board but no longer ceo, not running the day to day operations. he hasn't been running the day to day operations for years now. let's take a look at some pictures of steve jobs the man who has been described as a modern day thomas edison, man who runs the number one tech business in the world. he brought us the ipods, ipads and iphones. sit a health issue driving him away? there is month mention that he submitted yesterday. he is a cancer survivor. had a liver transplant but h

buffet's company berkshire hathaway has 40 billion dollars in short treasury bills he has no plans to sell. he doesn't expect the downgrade to have much effect on the markets monday. >> how will this downgrade affect the already volatile market when it reopens monday. lauren, good to see you, what do you expect? >> all i have to say is pack your dramamine if you are an investor monday. it is going to be another wild ride. the past two weeks have been volatile. we've been up and down and in between. here's the thing, standard & poor's did this downgrade friday evening. it was smart of them. now investors have two days to mull it over to think about what they are going to do before they overreact. so it might not be that bad monday but you can expect volatility. the dow lost 700 points last week. s&p and nasdaq down for the week. many people are saying it might already be priced into the market. we are hoping for that. but you never know. we have no economic data monday, no jobs report, no gdp, manufacturing report. this downgrade is what the traders are going to be trading on. it will

debt including 32 banks, berkshire hathaway got a haircut yesterday. >> thank you very much, mr. buffet. what does this mean for your money? "wall street journal" senior economic writer steven moore joins us now. any doubt that fannie and freddie were going to get downgraded? we've been funneling hundreds of billions of dollars to these two, i don't know, quasi government agencies for years? >> well, good morning, steve, and eric. my answer to your question is what took them so long when it comes to fannie and freddie? the big losses that fannie and freddie took back in 2008 and 2009 when the market really collapsed. what's scary about this story is how it impacts the average american, i was looking at the statistics. 90% of the mortgages over the last year that have been initiated are either guaranteed by fannie and freddie or fha on the government presence in housing is enormous right now. >> yeah, when you're talking about things being guaranteed, you are talking about our money is backing up. great. >> exactly. trillions of dollars of mortgages that are being guaranteed by ta

take a look at berkshires and catskills, getting 12 inches of rain. that is going to cause widespread flooding. people think i'm not going to live on the coast, i'm not beginning impacted but that is not the case. >> shep: at one point, long island, they are scheduled to get 3 inches of rain. >> this model is tracking farther to the west. most of the rain is in the center part of it. that is where the bull's-eye is going to be if you are in part of cape islands, they are not going to get it. they will get storm surge same thing with eastern end of long island. but if it tracks to the west which some of the models i like, that is what they are doing, it drys it out. >> shep: the whole country will laugh at it if we get stuck in a hurricane. they will enjoy it immensely. >>> live pictures coming from storm chaser. in north carolina, rick, look at this watch tower. it has not stopped raining as long as we've been watching the pictures. >> it started this morning when they got the bands of rain. winds have been consistent in the outer banks 70-80 mile-an-

even warren buffett's berkshire hathaway was downgraded. not only our company losing that rating but other companies have lost it. four left, kyra. >> wow. poppy, thanks. >>> the opening bell on wall street is moments away. markets around the world sold off overnight after the dow plunged more than 600 points. how will wall street open today? we are all watching. we will take you there live. yeah. 24 bucks later. that hurts. it's not like i really had a choice. snack on this. progressive's "name your price" tool showed me a range of coverages and i picked the one that worked for me. i saved hundreds. wow, that's dinner and a movie. [ dramatic soundtrack plays ] this picture stars you and savings. but mostly savings. out there with a better way. now, that's progressive. >>> do you make big changes or do you sit tight? ryan mack is with us. seems like the same discussion every single day. we have to have it because there are still a lot of people out there wondering what the heck to do. and you are actually taking an interesting approach here

on paper, buffet's investment looks to be shrewd for his company berkshire hathaway. full disclosure, i have stock in that company. is he stallworth for the democratic party and supports the income redistribution companies that president obama and the left champion. however. sea brilliant businessman. that's what makes it so confusing. president bush's economic policies have failed. spending spree racked up debt and employment is worse. level more taxation on the affluent and business owners while his enthusiasm for spending cuts is muted to say the least. warn buffet has to know that. raising taxes on spending in tough economic times is very risky. buffet has to know it buffet also has to know that the zort of americans are losing faith according to a new rasmussen poll, just 14% of likely voters say the country is heading in the right direction. an astounding 79% believe the u.s.a. is on the wrong path and that number has to include many democrats. yet, even before knowing who barack obama's challenger will be, buffet is putting his hesitate teenage and money behind

. >> and the sa and p do-- s&p an have been downgraded with fannie and freddie -- >> and berkshire hathaway. >> yes, and it is like another issue. and downgrading fannie and freddie 2 1/2 years after the mortgage crisis is odd in that there is gambling at casablanca and thank you for informing us of that. and more importantly, there is a lack of confidence in the markets because of the shock. s&p did not draw any attention to anybody who didn't know, but a psychological effect, and inappropriate one. sxwlt f >> for people with the portfolios and the immediate future and what should be the concern as we look to see what happens in washington. >> right now is totally impossible to do what you will do, and no one can call a bottom and this won't go down another 5%, but it is a time to be fearful, because everybody is fearful, but it is not the time to take radical action because of it, because historically, it rarely proves effective. >> thank you, zachary care kara >> and now back to details of the helicopter that was hit by a rocket, and killed 30 people. they say this is not a signal that t

around massachusetts and the berkshires. the rain still falling at rapid rates and causing big problems for them still. >> shepard: rick reichmuth live in the fox extreme weather center. we are supposed to go a town break and we are going to. sea side heights new jersey is a place you might have heard of on that tv show and appears that they are coming back to sea side heights so the world is saved. we'll be right back in just a moment with continuing coverage of what is left of the storm. i'm shepard smith shepar. ohill nice to have you in. defends al constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with the strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] unlike some car companies, nissan is running at 100% which means the most innovative cars, are also the most available cars. nissan, innovation for today. innovation for all. what if we designed an electric motorcycle? what if we turned trash into surfboards? whatever your what

the other thing that is really misleading is berkshire hathaway, his company doesn't pay dividends. what is the tax on unrecognized gains in america? zero. he doesn't need the cash flow like his secretary or somebody else might. he can make millions and millions of dollars on a daily basis, get no tax because it's rating assets. >> which of the republicans at the moment -- we're seeing a clear pattern beginning to emerge, romney, bachmann, perry and so on. who do you think fundamentally has what it takes in the overall package to seriously challenge barack obama? >> i think that the primary system will winnow that out. >> what is your gut feeling? what would you say? >> you're trying to get me to pick a horse. >> i'm saying you're in the paddock, and these horses are being shown around. >> yeah. >> what is an early feeling you're getting for who could beat him. >> how about this. what i would say is i think there are a couple of attributes the american public is in search of. one is paul ryan's sort of technical expertise of the budget. a lot of time platitudes are talked about in t

the berkshire mountains, significant flooding earlier. i'll change this out. show you the rain moved away. look at this graphic right there. that's just not flash flooding. that's all flooding. rivers that aren't flashing meaning they're not going up in one hour and down in one hour. almost every county from maine down through almost boston down into new jersey. some place there has flooding going on's at this point in time. now, the storm's wind is starting to slow down for the most part. although i just saw a wind gust to 48 miles per newark and 45 add jfk. the storm is spinning like this where most of the southerly wind coming into nova scotia into the bay of fundy, the wind's coming down across lake an te ontario e catskills, where most of the cree tries are falling with wind gusts at 50 miles per hour. guys? >> thanks chad very much. >>> thousands of people who didn't evacuate part of north carolina's outer banks are cut off from the mainland. the national guard did an aerial tour with some 2,500 people stayed behind. brian todd was on that flight and joi

berkshire hathaway. a lot of credibility. he came out and said i think s&p was wrong. as far as i'm concerned, u.s. is still aaa, if you own $40 billion in bonds you might say that. >> we kept the aaa rating but said, we're watching you. think you're sketchy. >> fitch the third one. they have not followed them. at this point it's kind of a bad -- this proved bad for s&p brands. they have politicians of all sides attacking them. they're fighting back. i think for moody's and fitch, they are happy to sit on the sidelines and see all of these air res flung at their competitive. >> now the onus is on us, the u.s., to retain that aaa rating? get it back. >> two things. obama gave the speech about the need to compromise talking about process. we need declarative statements from s&p. what does it take to get that rating back? what number are we talking about divided between taxes and cuts by what date? president obama should come out and say, talked about i'm going to talk with my advisers. form this committee. they know what you can do to bring the deficit over control in te

financier warren buffett's conglomerate-- berkshire hathaway-- will invest $5 billion in bank of america. buffett endorsed the struggling bank in a statement today, calling it a strong, well-led company. bank of america's stock has lost more than half of its value in the last year, over its mortgage problems and concerns it lacks sufficient capital. the prime minister of india called today for parliament to discuss demands by an aging activist on a hunger strike. 74-year-old activist anna hazare has been fasting for nine days to highlight his crusade against corruption. prime minister manmohan singh addressed lawmakers today on hazare's plan. he also urged the activist to halt his hunger strike. >> he has made his point. it has been registered with us. i respect his idealism. i respect him as an individual. his life is much too precious and, therefore, i would urge sri anna hazare to end his fast. >> holman: in response, hazare greeted thousands of cheering supporters at his protest camp in new delhi, surrounded by indian flags. they want an ombudsman with sweeping powers to investigate,

insurance companies, also making the ratings of warren buffett's berkshire hathaway negative. the selling continues into asia this morning. >> listen, asia, mike, getting absolutely pounded. the president came on yesterday -- >> why? >> some people say it's maybe a little much. >> why? >> he's the president of the united states. this is a near catastrophic occurrence, your 401(k)s, your losing your retirement funds, the huge companies get in trouble. the president of the united states comes on and has absolutely nothing to say. >> that's not true. >> what did he say. >> do you want me to tell you? let's roll it. let's talk about when the president said yesterday when the closing bell rang on wall street, the dow finished down 634 points. that was the sixth worst point loss in the index history, the s&p fell 80 points while the nasdaq dropped 174 points. president obama reaffirmed his belief in the strength of the nation's credit, but added that the rate cut could be useful in future deficit talks. >> markets will rise and fall, but this is the united states of america. no matt

we'll have horrible in the berkshires and upper vermont and new hampshire. we'll have what we call major rivers and minor rivers, then streams and creeks. those are the problems, the smaller rivers and creeks. >> bill karins, thank you so much for that. we're going to stay on top of the story about the flooding in the state of new jersey as well as the state of new york. we have crews fanning out. >> alex, let me point out, if there's people on the delaware river, send us your imaging, so we can tell the stories. >> you can send us tweets, also against i-87 got a mudsideline on the new york stay freeway, but in the meantime let's go to massachusetts, where ron allen is standing by. he's in new bedford. oh what a difference a day make for us, rowan. you had people leaving the mar that martha's vineyard area. >> we can send bill karins this image. can you say perfect storm, the movie? look at the fishes ships in the harbor. that's all that comes to minds. as you know it's moving up the coast in slow motion, in a way. it just started to rain here in the past co

there's significant flooding in new york, parts of vermont, also the berkshires of massachusetts. flood flooding in every one of these red zones is at least significant enough to cause fast water or swift water rescues to go on right now. some even including helicopters where people are on top of their homes. we said this yesterday. this will not be remembered as the windiest storm. but a lot of people, especially up here, will remember it as the big floodmaker. because the water is still going to -- it's going to take days for this water to get down into the ocean. days for the rivers to finally go down. we have flooding rivers in new jersey, in virginia, in north carolina and also into maryland. and that's just the rivers that caused -- rainfall caused these floods. not even this flash flooding we're seeing now. the rain is almost over. but let me tell you, the flooding will continue for at least five or ten more days, depending on where you are on that river system. >> chad, i have a question, though. back to the wind, if you're talking about how this one is part of the back pa

jersey up towards area of upstate, new york, in and around places like the poconos and the catskills and berkshires adirondacks. and all of the water funnels down quickly through the canyons and mountainous areas. big problems. still dealing with the rain here. just now not across area like the big cities. we will see another band i think move through philly and then maybe one move through new york again. northern, vermont, northern area of new hampshire and a lot of maine still have probably another six hours before this is gone and moves in towards parts of canada. >> martha: rick reichmuth watching it with his help throughout. he will keep us posted. >> bill: we heard about a new warning about a health hazard churned up by areason called sea foam. washing the foam up along the east shorelines and it can be dangerous because of what is in it. dr. mark siegel, professor at nyu medical center here in new york. have been watching this. what is in the sea foam. >> looks funfy to watch it but can be dangerous stuff. also called the red tide. it can kill birds. it has pollutants and bacteria and protei

we did see the markets get an initial pop at the opening bell thanks to berkshire hathaway. bank of america is surging 12%. apple is lower 1.75%. they are not concerned about the future of apple after steve jobs. stock is trading at $371 a share. a majority of analysts have a price of $500 a share or higher. investors know apple is a sound company without jobs at the helm. since he announced the leave this year. apple shares have gained 17%. >> it is tim cook that will take over that job from jobs. is there a feeling that apple will remain the same? >> reporter: there is that feeling. you know, tim cook, fredricka, has been running the day-to-day operations since jobs took medical leave in january. he has 30 years experience in the computer industry. he worked at ibm and compaq. he was named coo in 2005. he negotiated with wireless networks that carried the iphone. one thing cook is responsible for is the retail store strategy. everyone knows the apple store when they see one. cook sent out an e-mail to employees saying apple will not change. he wrote that steve built a comp

but a lot of rain will move into the adirondacks and the berkshires and those are mountainous terrain and you'll see it funnel down and cause bigger flooding concerns, across the areas into new england. >> i want to show our viewers something now, this is elms fern new york, a rescue underway right now. the editorial guidance is limited here, but abc-7, our agreement with abc-7 is we can take their legislators but not their live report and we showed you a rescue, one of the things that happened -- i have been guilty of this myself as a one-time coastal resident. let's watch again, the rescue is underway, i don't know the particulars but one concern police had and have is so many people who made the decision not to evacuate when they told you to. and, the emergency managers are we think this area will flood and this is elms ford new york, the name of the town, pictures from wabc, and the abc flagship station in new york and our network news affiliate and, if everybody would evacuate they wouldn't have had to do these rescues. >> rick: category-2, category 1 and people think it will not

he is the principal owner of his company, berkshire hathaway. if you count taxes of the company that he owns pays, he is paying a fairly high tax rate. if we want to get this debt down and get the tax revenues up, we to create a lot more rich people. i'm tired of the idea in washington about the idea that it is ignoble to be rich. we need more warren buffetts. he is a great american hero. host: the number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week below400,000, assigned the job market is improving slowly after a recent slump. guest: that is good news. when unemployment insurance claims for, that is an indicator rates will come down. perhaps we'll see the unemployment rate falls below 9%. that is still a disaster. we're supposed to be in an economic recovery right now. we have had 9% unemployment now or ball for 24 of the past 26 months. a tweet. have 8 guest: i don't understand that. it does exactly the opposite. if you are an american company, a car company, afford. ford produces a car in the united states. there is no tax applied t

should weak ton a tropical storm by that time and mostly just a wind event for the berkshires up down the time line for you of any specific questions. you can e-mail mike barnicle. >> sunday sox game will be rained out? >> yes, your baseball game, they'll have to make that one up. all right, bill, thanks very much. democratic governor of delaware, jack markell, governor, i don't know whether you could see on the monitor, but it appeared from looking at the monitor, that the heaviest winds and the heaviest rains are going to hit rehoboth beach and bethany beach. where do you stand in terms of preparation, and is there anything left to be done? or that you can do? >> well, i did not see the monitor. but i heard the report. i thought it was a great report. i thought the most important part of bill's report was to say that the preparation really has to be today. and early tomorrow. and if people are waiting any longer than that, it's a big mistake. so, yesterday we issued a state of emergency, mandatory evacuation for visitors, likely to be extended in a few hours to a mandatory evacuatio

buffett berkshire hathaway owns a main stake in moody's. how progressive of mr. obama. he thinks one of the country's richest men is an oracle but small town farmers are domes who have been duped by special interests. the larger pattern is that mr. obama ms. everything said by anyone engaged in profit-seeking business except when the comments support his policies. >> that's again from the "wall street journal" editorial page. lee in atlanta, you are on the air. what do you think is the impact of the bus tour. >> caller: i think it was very good in a sense but it missed an opportunity. one of the opportunities is for the president to restore the system. the buck may stop with the president but it begins in your local area. and most area does not have job creation type ordinances. it does not create the kind of environment where the individual, where their company that is having problems can go to competent people at the local area that can help make plans and do what they can do at the look area and then if they forward that up, the chain of command to the federal level

he is the principal owner of his company, berkshire hathaway. if you count taxes of the company that he owns pays, he is paying a fairly high tax rate. if we want to get this debt down and get the tax revenues up, we to create a lot more rich people. i'm tired of the idea in washington about the idea that it is ignoble to be rich. we need more warren buffetts. he is a great american hero. host: the number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week below400,000, assigned the job market is improving slowly after a recent slump. guest: that is good news. when unemployment insurance claims for, that is an indicator rates will come down. perhaps we'll see the unemployment rate falls below 9%. that is still a disaster. we're supposed to be in an economic recovery right now. we have had 9% unemployment now or ball for 24 of the past 26 months. a tweet. have 8 guest: i don't understand that. it does exactly the opposite. if you are an american company, a car company, afford. ford produces a car in the united states there is no tax applied to