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Stock Markets Down; Atlanta Clean up After Tornado; McCain in Iraq; Crane Collapse in NYC

Aired March 17, 2008 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: And I'm Tony Harris. Stay informed all day in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's what's on the run down, too dangerous to commute. Many downtown Atlanta workers told to stay home. Post-tornado troubles linger.

COLLINS: The dollar drops again just when you're planning your overseas trip. We'll tell you how to make the most out of that travel money.

HARRIS: And candidates keep the focus on Iraq. Hillary Clinton delivers a policy speech. John McCain is in Baghdad and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Our top story this hour, the economy and your money. We are watching Wall Street of course. It got off to a really dismal start about a half an hour ago when everything opened up. But right now the Dow Jones industrial averages stand down about 90 points or so, obviously well below that 12,000 mark we continue to watch. Markets in Asia tanked overnight. Japan's Nikkei closed down 3.7 percent. One of the reasons, the stunning collapse of Bear Stearns, one of the world's largest investment banks. Its rival JPMorgan Chase has agreed to buy it for a fraction of what it was worth just days ago. The concern, America's credit crisis only getting worse.

Also overnight oil prices hit another record in Asian trading and the Federal Reserve shows how serious the concerns are. It took the extraordinary step of lowering its discount rate this weekend and it's expected to cut interest rates again when it meets on Tuesday.

All this bad news brings us to issue number one, making the most of your money in this rocky economy. Here to break it all down for us, CNN's money team, Gerri Willis is CNN's personal finance editor and Ali Velshi is our senior business correspondent. Ali, let's begin with you. I don't know. Where do you want to start? It's just bad and more bad.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'll give you a little bit of good. Part of the good is that the Dow is off 96 points. Why is that good? Because it was supposed to be off about 200 right now. You talked about the Japanese market. The Hong Kong market I think ended down about 6 percent. European markets were up. So this is actually not as bad as it could be. That's part of the good news. Maybe that's betting that the action that JPMorgan and the Federal Reserve took to bail out and buy Bear Stearns is good news. Let me tell you a little bit about Bear Stearns.

Bear Stearns is the fifth largest investment bank in the United States. A week ago, one week ago it was worth about $70 a share. It had a lot of risky investments. One of those was in a hedge fund called Carlyle Capital. On Tuesday, we were all talking about Carlyle Capital being in trouble because it couldn't pay its bills. It couldn't redeem its investment money. On Wednesday, the CEO of Bear Stearns, BSC on the screen, stands for Bear Stearns, on Wednesday, the CEO said never mind all those problems. Bear Stearns is fine. We have no liquidity problems, lots of money, all that's good. By Thursday, guess what, investors had taken money out of Bear Stearns. The stock had dropped from $70 to $57 and it looked like it was in serious trouble.

On Friday the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan agreed to loan Bear Stearns money to keep it going. It ended up on Friday at $30, so $70, $57, $30. Then we go into the weekend and last night, JPMorgan agrees to buy Bear Stearns for $2 a share, 1 percent of what it was worth about two weeks ago. So Bear Stearns gets to survive. Now, part of that is the Fed told JPMorgan that they will sort of create a credit facility to help out with any problems that exist in this transaction or problems that they don't know about at Bear Stearns.

Some people are calling it a bailout. Others are saying, boy it would be a real problem if Bear Stearns would have failed. So now one other piece of the picture, good news, last night the Fed cut the rate at which it loans money to banks so if there are other banks in trouble, the rate has now gone down to 3 1/4 percent to 3 1/2 percent. And tomorrow we're expecting the Fed to cut rates -- the main interest rate that is connected to the prime rate that affects so many of the loans that we have. So I think when you take it altogether probably investors are saying this isn't as bad as it may have looked on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

COLLINS: The glass half full. I like that approach. Absolutely.

VELSHI: Come back to me in an hour. I'll change it.

COLLINS: I'm done with you. Gerri Willis standing by to talk a little bit more about what Ali was just mentioning, Gerri. This Fed cut later this week, what it means for consumers when we take all this information in and we look at our own finances, what do we do at this point?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ali's got the good news today, the silver lining. I have the bad news. The Federal Reserve expected to cut rates tomorrow by as much as a half percent to 3/4 percent. That's a very big cut, but I have to tell you, at the end of the day, this may not mean a whole lot to consumers and as Ali mentioned, it comes on the heels of a discount rate cut this weekend.

The good news is the Fed funds rate is the one that really affects consumers. It's the one that affects prime and rolls into your mortgage. It rolls into adjustable rate credit cards. You name it. If you're paying an interest rate, it will impact it but only slowly. Now only other thing to mention here about the Federal Reserve's action tomorrow, it takes a while for this all to impact the economy, a lag of nine to 18 months. Remember, we just first started cutting these rates six months ago, back in September, so it takes a while for this to actually impact the economy.

COLLINS: All right, well, obviously you guys, people have so many questions about all this, people really feeling nervous about all the activity that's going on, so we have this show that's going to help. Issue number one, tell us a little bit, Gerri, about what you will be bringing in particular to the show.

WILLIS: We're interested in hearing your questions, what are you concerned about? What are you worried about? Are you worried about 30- year fixed rate mortgages? Is it more about your debt? What questions do you bring to the table? We want to answer them. We will be answering e-mails live on air. You definitely want to tune in, see what people are asking. Send us an e-mail. We want to hear from you.

COLLINS: OK, very good. Ali, what are you going to do for us?

VELSHI: I'm going to wait until Gerri tells me it's OK for me to talk.

COLLINS: What to say. No, really, what are you going to contribute to the show?

VELSHI: We're going to try and put this all in perspective. We're going to take the issues that are going on because the issue with currency rates and Bear Stearns and investment banks and the price of oil, where does it all connect into how you can do better with your investments as Gerri said, your debt, your housing and what it means for job creation, the economy right now. We're going to get very specific about how these big picture matters affect your financial situation.

COLLINS: OK, very good because we really don't want to cause hysteria. It would be better to keep people calm if at all possible. Issue number one you saw; we're going to be seeing it today at noon and all week long. Great show guys, thanks so much.

WILLIS: Our pleasure.

HARRIS: Parts of downtown Atlanta still a danger zone this morning. Police want people who work there to take the day off really while cleanup from the weekend tornado continues just east of downtown. The historic Cabbagetown neighborhood was particularly hard hit. CNN's Cal Perry is there showing us what's going on. And Cal, I hope you have a little rope with you there, a little leash so that you can sort of walk us around, not just tell us, but show us what the damage looks like there.

CAL PERRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, that's exactly what I'm going to do and I was here Saturday. I can tell you, this house, for example, had a huge oak tree that split it literally in half. As you said, this area of Cabbagetown is about 100 years old. That's when they planted these trees. These trees, you can see here, Tony, are absolutely huge and the houses had no chance of surviving and all up and down this street, these trees came down crashing on these houses, absolutely crumpled them, splitting them in half. In fact, the gentleman who lives in this house was at home when it happened. He told me it was absolutely terrifying. Luckily, he wasn't injured.

Now as far as the eye can see, these houses looks like this, I'd say between 30 and 40 houses in this neighborhood were totally destroyed. There's not a house in the neighborhood that didn't take some kind of damage, but this is what people are most concerned about. What people are also concerned about is the fact that this damage is so awestruck. It's just something -- you can see how impressive it is. People are coming by. They're driving by. They're gawking. They're taking pictures. They're log jamming the street full of traffic and, in fact, that's something that the police spokesman here in Atlanta had a problem with earlier yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDY POWELL, ATLANTA POLICE: If you don't have to be in the affected areas tomorrow or the next day, please stay out of the city and stay out of those areas if you don't have to be there. There is a lot of public safety personnel, emergency services personnel and private businesses trying to clean up their area, so if you don't have to be down there, we certainly appreciate you not coming down. People are getting great visuals from the media. If you want to look at these things, please go to those Web sites and look at them. Please don't come down on your own if you don't have to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERRY: There you have it, Tony, don't come down if you don't have to. Let the police do their job and let these experts get these trees off their houses. It's going to be weeks, if not months for neighborhoods like this, residential areas. We saw downtown, lots of wind damage. Here it's tree damage and the trees have absolutely ruined these houses, Tony.

HARRIS: Boy, well, you have shown us a sight there, these big trees just collapsing there into homes. That is horrible. I think we just hope for the best for those homeowners. Cal Perry with us this morning, Cal, appreciate it. Thank you.

COLLINS: Obviously still a whole lot to talk about. We've got Reynolds Wolf standing by to take a look at the weather situation. I was going to say Reynolds, when we came, all three of us came in this morning, I think we were all driving around like this to see exactly what we were going to be getting into.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: Great, thank you, Reynolds.

Iraq back in the political spotlight this morning. Vice President Dick Cheney showed up unannounced just hours ago in Baghdad. He's meeting with Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki and the U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus. Republican presidential candidate John McCain is there too. He flew in with the congressional delegation over the weekend. McCain says he's there to see how the so-called surge is working. Senator Hillary Clinton in Washington delivering what she calls a major policy speech on Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As president, one of my first official actions will be to convene the joint chiefs of staff, my secretary of Defense and my National Security Council and direct them to draw up a clear, viable plan to start bringing our troops home within the first 60 days of my taking office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Meanwhile, Clinton's Democratic rival Barack Obama will be out mining votes in Pennsylvania today.

Following events in Baghdad today our chief national correspondent John King.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After two days here in Iraq, the man who will be the Republican candidate for president back in the United States says he is more convinced than ever that the so-called surge policy is working and has produced dramatic security gains here in Iraq. Senator John McCain says he comes to that conclusion not only from his briefly from General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces here, but also from walks on the streets in Haditha, in Mosul, here in Baghdad and in Ramadi as well.

Senator McCain will go back to Washington knowing that the next big debate in the Congress and on the campaign trail will be what next in Iraq? The United States is bringing home the 30,000 surge troops who came here over the past year and the Democrats want to go further to try to get U.S. troop levels down to about 100,000 or fewer by the time George W. Bush leaves office early next year, but Senator McCain says once the United States gets down to about 145,000 troops, it should stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We probably should hold with 15 brigades for awhile and see how the progress goes. There's a big fight going on up in Mosul right now and although it's progressing, I think it's al Qaeda's -- if not al Qaeda's last stand, it's al Qaeda's place where they feel that they need to keep Mosul in order to survive.

KING: This is your eighth visit to Iraq. Based on what you've seen on the ground as you travel to Mosul, to Ramadi, al Anbar, your conversations with General Petraeus and others, do you see an end in sight?

McCAIN: A lot of progress has been made. When Harry Reid and the Democrats said the war was lost last April, they were wrong. They were dead wrong. Now the question is will we be able to continue that progress to the point where the Iraqis take up more and more of those responsibilities than we would draw? We're not there yet, at least in my assessment.

KING: Well, today back home, one of those Democrats, Senator Clinton, who could be your opponent in the fall election, is giving a speech in which she is saying if she is elected president of the United States, she will start bringing home the troops within 60 days.

McCAIN: Well, all I can say is that she obviously does not understand nor appreciate the progress that's been made on the ground. The surge is working. So I just think what that means is al Qaeda wins, it tells the world -- they tell the world that and we fight here again and around the Middle East and their dedication is to follow us home. All I can say is that this will be a big issue in the election as we approach November, because at least a growing number of Americans though still frustrated and understandably so, believe that this strategy is succeeding.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ' KING: While quite optimistic on the security front, Senator McCain was much more sober when the conversation turned to the pace of political reform here in Iraq. He said the government of Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki in his view is riddled with corruption and should move much more quickly and much more boldly to implement a number of political reforms including a stable judiciary system and the rule of law here across Iraq. But Senator McCain says his message to the American people back home will be if more U.S. troops were taken out now, not only would the security situation deteriorate, but the climate to allow those political reforms to take place finally would deteriorate and collapse, as well. John King, CNN, Baghdad.

HARRIS: And very quickly now, let's get you to CNN's Jim Acosta in New York. Jim has new information on Saturday's deadly crane collapse in the city. At last word, Jim, three people were believed buried under that, all the brick and metal.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Tony, but we just heard from city officials here on the site of the crane collapse that one construction worker's body was recovered just a few moments ago. That means that there's still two people believed to be trapped in this debris. That would be one other construction worker and a woman who was visiting this area, visiting New York City from Miami up here in Manhattan for this city's St. Patrick's Day parade and overnight, one reason why this development has occurred is that overnight, construction workers were able to remove the main part of this crane that collapsed on Saturday.

And according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and he was right about this, they felt that as soon as they removed that main section of the crane, that that would speed up and intensify their efforts to recover these two other individuals. We should note that emergency crews are still calling this a recovery -- excuse me, a rescue operation because they still have hopes of finding these other two individuals alive, but as the moments go on, Tony, as you know, it becomes much more difficult to remain optimistic out here. Just a few moments ago, we saw the construction workers who were on the site here sort of come together and have a quiet moment with one another knowing that they had found one of their own in this wreckage here.

HARRIS: And Jim just very quickly, for folks who may just be getting up to speed on this story, where exactly are you? Where did the accident happen and how many buildings were damaged and I understand one was completely destroyed.

ACOSTA: That's right. This all happened Saturday afternoon and for some reason officials still don't know why, the top bracing of this construction crane at about 19 stories up came loose. That caused the entire crane to fall almost pancake down on top of itself and then during that spectacular collapse, the crane knocked into a number of buildings and completely crushed one town house which is why they believe they will find eventually that missing woman inside of that town house. She was apparently visiting the owners of an apartment in that building for the St. Patrick's Day parade. But this was an enormous calamity that occurred here and city officials at this point are still trying to figure out exactly why this happened. They still don't know at this point.

HARRIS: Boy, there are hundreds of cranes, I understand, like this throughout the city. One would imagine that all of those operations are being checked out today.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. And it's standard operating procedures for all those construction sites. This is midtown Manhattan. There are big skyscrapers going up here all the time, especially in the building boom the city has experienced in recent years. All you have to do is read the local newspapers this morning, there is a lot of anxiety about all of those sites and whether they are safe but the city is saying keep in mind. These are rare occurrences, when they happen they have complete confidence that these sites, as precarious as they look, are safe, Tony.

HARRIS: CNN's Jim Acosta for us in New York this morning. Jim, good to see you, thank you.

COLLINS: A nearly $50 million divorce settlement putting an end to a bitter divorce battle that dominated the British tabloids.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Nearly $50 million, just minutes ago we got word that is the amount a judge awarded Heather Mills in her divorce battle with Paul McCartney as CNN's Phil Black is live outside the courthouse in London now. So, Phil, what was she awarded exactly? What are the details that we know of this?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, we do, as you say, the figure we know is approximately $50 million. It's a little bit less than that. Heather Mills after some three hours in a private court hearing this morning came out and she had a lot to say. She gave a long rambling press conference covering a lot of issues where she said she was very pleased but exhausted after this ordeal. She said the figure was close to $25 million but during the course of the press conference, she actually gave a number of different figures, some $23 million, some $24 million. So we wait to hear precisely what the final amount is. There is a division there between cash and property, as well. But we can hear a little bit of what she had to say now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEATHER MILLS: I'm so glad it's over and it was an incredible result in the end to secure my and my daughter's future and that of all the charities that I obviously plan on helping and making a difference with, because you know that's been my life for 20 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: Heather Mills had some advice for people too. She said anyone going through a divorce, she believes that they should try to settle as soon as possible. Heidi?

COLLINS: Phil, any words from Paul McCartney?

BLACK: No, no official comment from Paul McCartney at this stage. Heather Mills made a lot of claims about Paul McCartney and his legal team and the way they conducted themselves during the court hearings. There were six days of private hearings last month. He says his legal team made it as difficult for her as possible, remembering that Heather Mills represented herself in this matter. She was advised not to do it by other lawyers, but she said that her legal team wanted to charge her about $1.2 million just for the six-day hearing.

She decided to go it alone and she believes the system was significantly stacked against her as a result. She feels that she had to do it very tough. She's not going to appeal the judgment, although the judge has made a decision to publish the judgment itself. She doesn't want that to happen because she says the court proceedings have lots of personal details about her and her daughter, Heidi.

COLLINS: All right. Well, CNN's Phil Black giving us the latest there from London this morning. Thank you, Phil.

HARRIS: The nation's credit crisis, the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates. When will it all trickle down to you? Answers in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: There we go. Coming up on the half hour, welcome back everyone to the NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.

COLLINS: Hi everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. I guess the first order of business is to look at this (INAUDIBLE) That's good news, the Dow Jones industrial average is down about eight points at this time. Trading has been open, as you know, for about an hour. Still below the 12,000 mark but we'll continue to watch those numbers. A lot of activity on the economic side of things, so we'll keep our eye on all of it for you.

HARRIS: The credit crisis, worrisome enough that the Federal Reserve took rare action over the weekend and the policymakers could be on the verge of making another cut in interest rates. What will all of this mean to your wallet here? CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis has some answers. Gerri, good to see you again.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you again Tony.

HARRIS: You know, we've been talking about the Fed hasn't been sitting on the sidelines at least recently.

WILLIS: No.

HARRIS: What have all the cuts actually meant and done for the economy?

WILLIS: Well, first off you want to get the big picture. The consensus is that the Fed will make yet another cut tomorrow by half a percent to even 3/4 of a percent. That will be huge. It would come just a couple of days after the central bank announced a discount rate cut, which is a different interest rate that the Fed takes and this is the one that banks pay to borrow directly from the Fed. They cut it by a quarter percentage point.

Coincidentally, the Fed's meeting tomorrow marks the six-month anniversary of the first cut in this easing cycle. The Fed is responding, of course, to serious drags on the economy. We've seen problem with housing, oil prices higher, joblessness, bad credit markets. Remember, it may be some time until we see actually what the rate cuts do for the economy. Rate cuts by the Fed are only affected with the lag that might be anywhere from 9 to 18 months, so it takes a while for them to really get baked in.

HARRIS: I'm wondering, once we get this rate cut, what could it really mean for you and me, the average consumer?

WILLIS: Well, sadly, not much. You know, Fed rate cuts are not likely to help mortgage rates here because those rates here because those rates are more closely tied to investor sentiment and market conditions.

In September when the Fed started cutting rates, a traditional 30-year mortgage with six percent, a little over that. Now it's 6.37 percent. So not a big change there.

If you have an adjustable rate credit card, you won't see much relief, unfortunately. So we're really talking about a $1 or $2 savings at most for those adjustable rate credit cards. And despite a cut of 2.25 points in the Fed funds rate since September, some of the more popular cards have barely budged. Remember, even if the Fed cuts rate, credit cards don't have to pass that on to you -- Tony.

HARRIS: Oh, boy. All right. So, where is there any relief for consumers?

WILLIS: Student loan rates will see some decreases. If the Fed cuts rates half a percentage point this time, and then we get another cut in April, federal loans have among the lowest interest rates available. If you have a private loan, your interest rate will generally go down in lockstep with the Fed rate cuts. And if you have a variable rate loan, your best bet consolidate after July 1, Tony.

HARRIS: What advice do you have, Gerri, for folks who were hoping for some kind of relief from the Fed cut?

WILLIS: Well, you know, look, if you live in an expensive housing market, we have some good news, the federal government recently increased the size of jumbo mortgages that are -- can be backed by the federal government. And this will lower the interest rate on those loans and help homeowners buy homes and refinance out of existing mortgages.

For details go to hud.gov. If you're a saver, you're going to want to shop around because your returns with these Fed rate cuts are going down, down, down. So make sure you do that.

HARRIS: And, Gerri, if you would, give us a preview of the big program today, noon Eastern time, "ISSUE No.1."

WILLIS: "ISSUE No. 1" at noon Eastern -- we're going to be taking your questions from if you're worried about your credit cards, if you're worried about housing, mortgage debt, investments. We're going to be answering all of that and also talking about the big issues of the day, what's going on with the stock markets, what's going on out there with gas prices.

You have question, we have answers. Join us at noon.

HARRIS: Can't wait. All right. CNN personal finance editor, Gerri Willis with us this morning. Gerri, great to see you. Thanks.

WILLIS: My pleasure.

COLLINS: Traveling to Europe? Pack one bag for clothes and a carry-on for cash. How to make the most of the weak dollar, an expert's advice, coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Travels and travails. Will the weak dollar keep you close to home this summer? If you travel overseas, you may need a little extra bag for your greenbacks.

The euro hit a record high against the dollar; it climbed as high as $1.58. A British pound will cost you more than $2. And even the Canadian dollar will cost you more than a buck.

Our next guest has tips, though, on stretching that weak greenback. Former CNN editor, Stephanie Oswald, is now editor in chief of "Travel Girl" magazine.

Love the magazine.

STEPHANIE OSWALD, "TRAVEL GIRL" MAGAZINE: Thank you.

COLLINS: A lot of people out there right now saying, I'm really going to have to tighten my belt. I had this trip in mind to go to Europe but now, boy, you know, the dollar is worth nothing. I'm not going to go.

OSWALD: Well, I wouldn't plan any shopping sprees to Europe right now. But if you are looking for the travel experience, there are some great deals to have -- to be had out there. And I've got some Web sites that you can go to to start your research.

COLLINS: OK. Well, give us the headline. Where should we go? Ireland would be good today.

OSWALD: Well first of all -- I was going to tell you. Because it's St. Patrick's day, I did find a few trips to Ireland. Travelzoo.com is one place to look -- under a thousand dollars. One trip was only $650 and some of these are escorted. Some of these are not escorted. But you can find something for under a thousand dollars. There was a trip to Greece for about $1,400, a little bit more.

COLLINS: Now, when you say -- when you give these prices, are you talking about airfare and accommodations?

OSWALD: These include airfare and accommodation.

COLLINS: Wow.

OSWALD: And these were pretty upscale places, as well where you're going to be staying.

COLLINS: Not staying in a hut, right?

OSWALD: No, really nice places. And what's good about that -- some of these need to be booked in the next couple of days or by the end of March. So you need to hurry. April is a great time to travel, though.

Also, Eurofly.com is another place to look. They have a deal right now from JFK to Rome, if you want to go to Italy, $399.

COLLINS: You're kidding.

OSWALD: And you know what's funny about that, $210 of that is a surcharge because a lot of people are worried about the gas surcharges --

COLLINS: Sure.

OSWALD: -- the fuel surcharges. So you need to look out for that.

COLLINS: Now, will they throw in Andrea Bocelli on that trip as well?

OSWALD: I don't think so, but you can try.

Also, on our Web site, travelgirl.inc.com, we found some biking trips for under $1,000. That's all over Europe -- the Czech Republic, the Loire Valley in France. All for under $1,000. That doesn't include airfare, but that does include breakfast, bike rental and three-star resort. So that's really good too.

COLLINS: Terrific. That sounds like a lot of fun in you're into fitness vacation.

OSWALD: Little more expensive, the wayfarers.com. These are going to run you about $3,000 to $8,000, but they go everywhere from all over Europe to South Africa and you're going to have really high class accommodations there.

COLLINS: OK. Well, let's say that you decide I'm going to go ahead with this trip and I'm going to do it regardless of where the dollar is sitting right now. Give us some tips on what we can do to make the dollar last a little bit longer.

OSWALD: Well, wherever you're going, look for a deal at a hotel that includes breakfast, because that's important. You find out -- you know, the little things eat up your money. Also, eat your bigger meal for lunch instead of supper. A lot of people don't think about that. But you can get a great meal by some of the finest chefs, just go for the lunch prices rather than the dinner prices.

Also, if you need to get connected, we all go to our computers all the time when we're on vacation. Go to an Internet cafe instead of purchasing the hotel's package because a lot of times you'll spend a lot of extra money on that.

COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. OK, well what about places that you can go to that really aren't Europe, but they feel like Europe?

OSWALD: Well, this is a great time -- Central America, South America have some awesome destinations. Belize is one place where you are going to get a great deal for your dollar right now. That's probably one of the top. Argentina -- you can go to Argentina, learn how to tango.

COLLINS: That sounds fabulous. I already have the red dress.

OSWALD: And then, a little bit closer to home, Mexico and Canada. I know you mentioned -- I know the Canadian dollar is still not great, but it's better than the euro. So, right now Quebec City is celebrating their 400th anniversary, we have a big story on that in our next issues and that's really exciting. You can go to Montreal, get a feel for France and not have to pay those prices.

COLLINS: Yes, sure, sure. All right, well this is some great information because I think people are really starting to say I'm not going anywhere.

OSWALD: No, no. There's always a good time to travel. It's always a good time to travel.

COLLINS: It's a good release, too, from being worried about some of the economic things.

OSWALD: Don't rule anything out.

COLLINS: OK. Sounds very good. Stephanie Oswald from "Travel Girl" magazine. Thank you.

OSWALD: Thank you.

HARRIS: Great stuff, great stuff.

OK -- Hi, Stephanie.

OSWALD: Hi. How are you, Tony?

HARRIS: Nice to hear from you in the NEWSROOM this morning.

How is the economy impacting you, your family and your wallet?

COLLINS: Joe wrote in, this is what he had to say: "I have to work from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Friday just to pay for all my driving to work, every day which can cost me anywhere from $30 to $40 a week. In my opinion, I'm not doing that bad but when you see how a lot of your friends, family members and good people are hurting, it actually puts you in a down mentality."

HARRIS: From Matt in New York state: "I live in northern New York where I just paid $3.92 per gallon for kerosene to heat my home and I gassed up recently at $3.54 a gallon. We are lucky that we have not seen high death rates in the colder parts of the country because of the price to heat homes."

COLLINS: And from Theon: "Because of current gas prices, I only derive where I need to. This not only saves me money on gas, but it also prevents me from spending my money on something I normally may not need."

HARRIS: Wow. E-mail us your thoughts to CNNnewsroom@cnn.com and we will read more of your comments throughout the morning.

Cleaning up and getting back to normal. Atlanta isn't there yet, won't be for a long time. A powerful tornado ripped through downtown over the weekend damaging a lot of buildings, including the CNN center.

CNN's Veronica De La Cruz is here with a look at the damage right in our building.

We know that our wonderful tour guides are busy getting their area back in shape there in the atrium. The atrium took a really hard hit, didn't it?

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really did, Tony. For -- I know you have been down here several times before. But for folks who have never been down here, let me explain what this is.

The CNN center is part of a complex that is surrounded by -- if you go this way, the Phillips Arena, there's the Georgia World Congress center, there's also the Georgia Dome. And then if you swing back out the other way, going this way, there's Centennial Olympic Park. So hundreds of people on any given day, Tony, will congregate here; they might grab some food, they might do a little bit of shopping. There are some retail stores here.

But there's not a lot going on today. Only a couple of the businesses are up and running. If you look this way, there's a Starbucks that's open. There's also Arby's. And, swinging back around this way, inside CNN, this tour -- this tour is a huge tourist attraction. They're normally lines wrapped around the building for this thing. Today it is quiet and that's because of this.

They're calling this the danger zone and they have roped off this area. They want people to stay away. They're saying that it could be somewhat unsafe. If you look up to the ceiling, there is a gaping hole in the ceiling. You see the net underneath where that hole exists. It's been covered up with some plywood.

And we were talking to Turner properties earlier. And they were saying that, if you look at the roof, it comes to a point. When that tornado came through, the roof ripped right off the building and came right back down, accordion style, and that's why those holes formed.

Moving down the wall, a lot of this wall is made of glass. They're saying some 100 windows are going to have to be replaced. They're estimating 65 percent of that roof, Tony, will have to be replaced and they're saying $3 to $5 million in damage estimated done to the CNN center alone.

But you know, it's not just the CNN center that has really bore the brunt of the damage. Also, the Georgia World Congress Center, the Atlanta home show was supposed to take place this weekend and they had to cancel that.

So, again, it's pretty quiet down here. Things are getting up and running again, but it's going to take some time for sure.

HARRIS: Boy, the Georgia World Congress Center, the Georgia Dome where the S.E.C. championship basketball game, that whole tournament was supposed to be played. I guess they had to move a couple games over to Georgia Tech, because that building was damaged, as well. What a mess in downtown Atlanta.

Veronica, good to see you. Thank you.

COLLINS: Two tours of duty in Iraq and four brain surgeries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Slow, hard road out of hell, you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Battling severe injury and government red tape.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Large brokerage firm Bear Stearns has been sold in what amounts to a fire sale. And the Fed act to try to -- contain that is -- the damage. Stephanie Elam is at the New York Stock Exchange now with details on this. I get a little tongue tied when I think about the price, how this whole thing went down, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're right, Heidi. And it's one of those things that we knew it was going to be kind of interesting day here because last night all of our PDAs were going off. We were all hearing that some big news was coming out.

And think about it. Bear Stearns is a company that's been in business for 85 years. It survived the Great Depression and several recessions. But the current market turmoil proved too difficult as the firm faced a classic run on the bank. That's where people demand their money back, but there isn't enough cash for the bank to pay back its obligations.

Then, JPMorgan Chase, they stepped in with a $2 a share offer and basically, you know, got them at a rock bottom price there. Analysts say Bear Stearns had two choices, one, accept JPMorgan's offer or, two, file for bankruptcy. So it marks the end of a remarkable downfall.

In January of '07, think about this, Bear traded at $168 a share. Then, last June, two of its hedge funds started failing. But even last Monday the stock opened at $70 a share and by Friday, the Fed and JPMorgan announced a bailout and shares fell to $30. But Friday's bailout was just a band aid, and not enough to actually prevent Bears' entire collapse here, Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes, so you have to wonder what comes next.

ELAM: Of course, that's the big question everybody wants to know the answer to. And near term, the focus turns to other brokerage firms.

There's another big one that we know, Lehman Brothers, it's getting hit pretty hard right now. I'm taking a look at the stock here, it's moving so quickly. But right now, off about 15.5 percent this morning on fears that it could face similar pressure.

Other large firms like Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, they are also feeling the pressure today. After that, the focus turns to the consumer and whether the credit crunch is enough to sink retail sales which have slowed but actually not collapsed.

The other little thing to tell you about, oil prices. They fell sharply at the open, as well, as traders contemplate a weaker economy. So obviously all of that factoring in, oil right now off more than two percent at this time -- so off about $2, a little bit more than that.

One winner, JPMorgan Chase. And not only was it able to buy Bear Sterns at a bargain basement price, but it got the Fed to back up the bad debt from Bear Stearns books. That means taxpayers are fronting the risk and not JPMorgan.

And JP's stock right now, it's on the upside -- it's one of the few green stocks for the Dow 30 stocks. It's one of the few ones on the upside and it is up right now by about 12 percent, so helping to push the Dow up.

And, speaking of the Dow, look at that. It's up 11 points right now. So, you know, you want to get tied into that. But before you do, keep in mind that there are 30 stocks, the majority of them are down at this time. But it is up right now in the green, while the Nasdaq is off about one percent so -- just to keep that in perspective, Heidi and Tony

COLLINS: One out of 30. I don't know if I like those odds.

ELAM: We'll take it. They are doing the best on the Dow 30.

COLLINS: We will take it. Yes, absolutely.

All right. Stephanie Elam, thanks so much.

ELAM: Thanks.

HARRIS: Protesters in Tibet facing a deadline, give up or suffer more consequences.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: A deadline in Tibet. China is telling anti-government protesters to surrender by midnight tonight or face the consequences. Workers are still cleaning up from several days of rioting against Chinese rules. Shop, schools and businesses are open. But the situation is far from normal. The Tibetan government in exile claims at least 80 people were killed by police in Lhasa. The regional government puts the number of dead at 13. Tibet's governor says protesters who surrender will be given leniency. Protests have been reported outside the capital Lhasa, as well as in three other nearby Chinese provinces.

COLLINS: A suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan kills three NATO troops. The bomber smashed his vehicle into a military convoy in Helmand province. Four others were killed in the attack. Two of the troops killed were from Denmark. The third was from the Czech Republic. Taliban attacks have intensified in Helmand province over the last few months.

HARRIS: Tens of thousands of Americans serving in Iraq and Afghanistan have been wounded. Are they getting the care they need?

CNN's CNN's Kate Bolduan spoke with one family.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two tours of duty in Iraq, four brain operations and a lifetime of recovery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was an improvised explosive device in the wall of a cemetery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I miss the life I used to have.

BOLDUAN: Twenty-four-year-old Marine Corporal Justin Bunce suffered a life-threatening traumatic brain injury in March 2004. Little did he know his battle had just begun.

JUSTIN BUNCE: There are some instances where I feel like we're begging to be taken care of. We're Begging for people to do their jobs.

BOLDUAN: Justin's parents say about a year and a half into his rehab at a VA hospital in D.C., Justin was discharged, far too soon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They told us they pretty much exhausted the type of therapies that they have for him.

BOLDUAN: The Bunce says their case is not unique and that Justin's treatment is one example of an ailing Veterans Affair system. Patty Bunce is an occupational therapist.

PATTY BUNCE, STEPSON INJURED IN IRAQ: My professional opinion was they were not aggressive enough in looking to facilitate the highest level of independence.

BOLDUAN: The Bunces estimate they've now accrued $50,000 in out- of-pocket expenses to get Justin the treatment he still needs, not including a new house to accommodate his disability.

The Department of Veterans Affairs predicts it will treat 330,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009, a 14 percent increase from the year before. A spokesman defends the medical care system, saying, quote, "The VA could always use more money and staffing, but the agency is perfectly capable of taking care of patient needs right now."

Peter Bunce signed a privacy release, but the VA would not discuss Justin's case.

COL. PETER BUNCE (RET.), SON INJURED IN IRAQ: What I really worry about, though, is the families that aren't as blessed financially, and that really have to struggle day to day.

BOLDUAN: Bunce went before Congress pushing for change. Senator Daniel Akaka, the chair of the Committee on Veterans Affairs, agrees the VA needs to do better.

SEN. DANIEL AKAKA (D), VETERANS AFFAIRS CHMN.: Younger veterans of the current conflicts require a new range of services from VA.

BOLDUAN: Meanwhile, Justin Bunce and thousands of other veterans continue their battle every day.

J. BUNCE: It's a long, hard road out of hell, you know.

BOLDUAN: Kate Bolduan, CNN, Arlington, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COLLINS: Squeezing the most out of your dollars when it comes to groceries and gasoline. Advice from "Consumer Reports" coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

COLLINS: Hi there, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Developments keep coming in to the CNN NEWSROOM on this Monday, March 17th. Here's what's on the rundown. Another body pulled from the rubble, a fifth victim of the Manhattan crane collapse. We'll take you there live.

HARRIS: More worries on Wall Street. Big concerns for consumers in a tight economy. We will look at ways you can save on the essentials. We're talking food and gas.

COLLINS: And the tornado is gone, but all the debris is certainly hasn't been swept away. Atlanta's severe weather fallout, in the NEWSROOM.

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