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Your Money
Where are the Jobs?; Fixing Unemployment; 40 + and Getting Hired; Smart is the New Rich; Green Loans; Carbon Offsets; Coupon Comeback; Saving on Healthy Meals
Aired October 09, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, HOST: Less than one month to the midterm elections and the top question on the mind of voters remains, where are the jobs?
Welcome to YOUR MONEY. I'm Christine Romans. Ali Velshi is off this week.
Ninety-five thousand jobs lost in September. No change in the devastatingly high unemployment rate. It remains at 9.6 percent. The first five months of this year, we added jobs each month, many of those were government jobs. The last four months, despite upticks elsewhere in the economy, jobs are again vanishing.
Arianna Huffington is editor in chief of the "Huffington Post" and the author of the new book "Third World America: How Our Politicians are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream."
Arianna, this was the last labor market report before the midterms. Democratic Congress, Democratic president, more terrible unemployment news, especially if you're out of work. What does this mean for Democrats in November?
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, EDITOR IN CHIEF, HUFFINGTON POST: Very bad news, Christine. Very bad news, indeed. The fact, on top of it, that some of the additional job losses, as we see reported now were among teachers and losses by state governments, at the very moment when the new school year is starting, that really shows how much pain there is out there.
I'm here in Atlanta, your headquarters, and I've been talking to a lot of people who are out of work and a lot of people who are still at work but were worried that they're going to be next. That's really why the economic anxiety is so deep, even among people still working.
ROMANS: Right. If you have your job, you're going to feel those - those local and state job cuts because it's going to mean fewer teachers in the classroom for your kid. It's going to mean fewer services. It could mean, maybe, right down to - to going to the - the county park is going to cost more money. All of these things people are going to feel because those state budgets cuts are hurting and meaning more job loss. And from the other side of the - the political tracks, we've got our - our good friend, Stephen Moore. He's the editorial writer for "The Wall Street Journal."
You know, Stephen, voters say the economy, specifically unemployment, is their top concern. What realistically changes if Republicans take one or both Houses of Congress in November?
STEPHEN MOORE, EDITORIAL WRITER, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, first of all, let me say, Christine, you know, just last month the - all the economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research said that the - you know, the recession is long over, and that we're out of the recession. But what this report shows us is that we're still in a jobs recession, and that's what matters most to Americans.
Now, the - you're - you're right. This - these numbers could not come at a worse time for Democrats. They have to face the voters in three weeks.
And so, Republicans are running on an agenda of change, just like Barack Obama did two years ago. And what they're talking about doing is stopping the spending, reversing a lot of the stimulus spending that they don't think and I don't think has worked. And they're also talking about cutting tax rates for businesses to get them to hire more workers.
ROMANS: Well, one of the things that's interesting about these jobs numbers, I'll point out to both of you, is that one - one thing that's disappearing are some stimulus jobs. So some people are calling for, you know, we don't need stimulus -
MOORE: Right.
ROMANS: -- that the stimulus didn't work. Well, actually, the - the pulling back of some of that stimulus is - we're seeing it - we're seeing it in - in these numbers, and that could actually prove, Stephen, that the stimulus did work in some places. There are people who were working for the last two years simply because of stimulus.
MOORE: The problem is, Christine, that you can't keep spending money forever. And - and we did get a little bump up of employment when we spent that $800 billion. The problem is what are we going to do, continue to run deficits for a trillion and a half dollars for the rest of our lives?
I mean, I just think the problem is here we are, two years later after that stimulus started, and we got a higher unemployment rate than it when it began. I think it's a failed experiment, and I do - I do think it's a time with a radical change in direction in policy of cutting spending and getting taxes down.
ROMANS: Arianna, I'm going to let you - I'm going to let you respond there quickly, because I want to make sure we have both sides of this. A failed experiment or was it something that blunted the impact of a terrible economy? HUFFINGTON: Well, first of all, it's absurd for Stephen to say that there's - this is some kind of radical change. What the Republicans are proposing is exactly what they were proposing during the eight years when they were in charge, for most of that time, and they brought the economy to the brink of collapse.
And of course the stimulus helped, but it didn't help enough. The problem with the stimulus is that it was inadequate. It did not really create the kind of jobs that the administration hoped it would create.
So, right now, the solution is not to abandon any government efforts to create jobs. The private sector is sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars that they are not spending to create jobs. So that's why we need to do what FDR did during the Great Depression - infrastructure projects. The infrastructure is crumbling. Why not actually use this time to both create jobs and renew our infrastructure, which is in desperate need of renewal, even if we're at full employment?
ROMANS: You know, well, clearly there's some distinct choices for the midterm voters - or are there?
Let's - I want to look at three major issues that matter to your money - taxes. President Obama and the Republicans both agree that the Bush tax cuts should be extended. Republicans say everyone, including the wealthy, should get the extension. The president wants to exclude the rich.
Which brings us to the budget. Both sides preach fiscal discipline, but neither side is ready to raise serious money through tax hikes. If you're not going to raise more money, you need to spend less, but both sides agree that the government should continue to provide popular entitlements such as social security, Medicare. So the rhetoric is very similar when it comes to slashing debt without specifying real sacrifices.
One area of stark contrast between President Obama and the Republicans - health care reform. Republicans say repeal it. Stephen Moore, you've been a proponent of repealing health care reform.
MOORE: Yes.
ROMANS: What other major differences can voters expect if Republicans win one or both Houses of Congress? And could they really repeal health care reform? That sounds like messy and difficult and almost impossible.
MOORE: Christine, I don't know if they can get it repealed. I know this is a top agenda item for the Republicans I've been talking to, and I think they're exactly correct.
You know, one of the things that ties into this loss of jobs and one reason I'm worried about where we're headed with jobs is, you know, the health care bill is just kicking in, and that adds significant costs to employers. Look at what's happened to the insurance premiums. I - I talk to small businessmen all the time and they say their insurance costs keep rising month after month after month.
And so, I do think suspending that bill or repealing it right now until we get back to maybe six or seven percent unemployment makes a big - would make a big difference in terms of inspiring businesses to hire workers or at least stop firing them.
ROMANS: Arianna?
HUFFINGTON: Well, the problem with businesses is not that they need to be inspired, they need to see where the demand is coming from. They are - they are making business decisions, and, right now, the problem is that while we all came together and spent hundreds of billions of dollars bailing out Wall Street, we have not brought the same urgency to bear to saving Main Street. And even though, for example, we still have about $70 billion left in TARP money, why not begin to spend that in ways that would create jobs right now?
I mean, there's so many ways to do that. Right now in the "Huffington Post", Dan Froomkin has suggestions around the equivalent of FDR's works and progress administration that built our modern infrastructure, green jobs in renewable energy where you actually create public-private partnerships.
What Republicans want, a payroll tax holiday. Basically, we need to bring Republicans and Democrats together and realize that we have a major crisis in this country that is affecting young and old people. We have 4 million young people between 16 and 24 who are out of work, and that is really basically -
MOORE: But, you know -
HUFFINGTON: -- killing the American dream at this most sensitive age.
ROMANS: I want to - I want to -
MOORE: Arianna -
ROMANS: I want to -
MOORE: Arianna, what you're talking about, though - let me just say this. Arianna, everything you just said, we just did that. We just spent a trillion dollars on all those contracts -
HUFFINGTON: Oh, come on -
MOORE: -- and it didn't work.
ROMANS: All right. (INAUDIBLE) for a moment, folks, because we have - we have another - we have to pay the bills here, believe it or not, and then we're going to get -
MOORE: Right.
ROMANS: -- right to this very vigorous discussion.
MOORE: But we didn't get jobs from a trillion dollars of spending. So let's not do it again.
HUFFINGTON: It would be -
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Everyone in the homes, stick around. You've got two minutes to hear - Stephen Moore and Arianna Huffington are coming back right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: All right. When we left off, Stephen Moore and Arianna Huffington were having a very vigorous debate right down in the middle there.
Stephen Moore, we left it off with you. I want you to continue that thought, please.
MOORE: Well, I was just saying that, you know, what Arianna was talking about, about, you know, spending more money on shovel-ready projects and - and more, you know, temporary tax cuts and other kinds of projects to hire teachers, I mean, we did that for the last year and a half. And the one thing my - my daddy always taught me is, if you have a losing strategy, always change it.
And so, this isn't working. I think we should try a radical change in direction. And, Arianna, when you mentioned what - what President Roosevelt did back in the Depression, you know, that didn't do much to end the Depression.
But, what is interesting is the last great recession we had was in 1979, '80 and '81. Ronald Reagan came in and cut taxes for businesses and individuals. We had one of the strongest and lengthiest expansions in American history. Why don't we try that for once?
HUFFINGTON: Stephen, you're rewriting history. The problem with the Obama policies was not that they were not effective, it's that they were inadequate. And because they're inadequate, you are able to say they were ineffective.
First of all, in the stimulus bill, there were $300 billion of tax cuts that you love. On top of it, you Republicans have been complete hypocrites when it comes to the deficit. If you want to add $700 billion to it by extending the tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, that doesn't make any sense.
Let's find one area of agreement that would create jobs.
MOORE: OK.
HUFFINGTON: The StartUP Visa program that would allow immigrants with skills and with ideas to create jobs, to come to this country. MOORE: Yes.
HUFFINGTON: This has bipartisan support.
MOORE: I love it.
HUFFINGTON: Senator Lugar and Senator Kelly. What about something like that?
ROMANS: Good. They agree.
MOORE: I love it. I love it. Hey! Christine, we got an agreement.
ROMANS: I - I want to bring in Lakshman Achuthan. He's the - he's managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute. He's - he was trying to get in there.
LAKSHMAN ACHUTHAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, ECONOMIC CYCLE RESEARCH INSTITUTE: That's a good discussion.
ROMANS: It's hard to compare different - and this is where you really - I saw you out of the corner of my eye getting - getting excited - comparing recessions and the recovery's it's - it's - this one is tough. This one is a - this one's a real bear.
ACHUTHAN: Well, absolutely. But there's actually some - some patterns here that are - that are kind of typical. It's just that what we've had is a jungle variety recession as opposed to these garden variety recessions we've been used to for the last 25 years.
I love talking about the Depression, not because we want to go there, but because there are some interesting insights if you look at what happened. Hoover in - before FDR, in '32, he raised taxes from 25 percent to 63 percent. Nine months later, the recession - the Depression ended and the economy started growing at 10 percent a year. For four years, unemployment fell by 11 percent.
I am not suggesting that tripling the tax rate is going to give us a strong recovery, but what I am saying is that it's more complicated than cutting taxes or increasing spending to get a result out of the economy.
The business cycle is really powerful. It's more powerful than these policies of taxing and spending and interest rates. You can do things on the contours -
ROMANS: Right.
ACHUTHAN: To take off the highs and the lows, if it's politically what everybody wants to do, but you're not going to change or dictate the business cycle.
ROMANS: Oh, but don't - but don't tell that to the - to the - to the political ad campaigns.
ACHUTHAN: Right.
ROMANS: Everybody heading into the next month, because everyone is trying to use the economy for their - for their benefit or to - to hurt their opponent. Right, Arianna?
HUFFINGTON: Well, absolutely. But that's why, Christine, what would be great is if we in the media do a better job at putting the - the flashlight that we have on people's stories. Because talking to real people about what's happening in their lives is going to wake everybody up to the crisis.
I mean, talking to Brenda Carter here in Atlanta, that I write about in my book, who lost her job in human resources, a good job, after 13 years, has not been able to get another job -
ROMANS: Right.
HUFFINGTON: -- for three years now. So she's now making homemade praline cookies and selling them online.
People are trying to make do, and this is spreading. And it's only getting harder and harder, and we need to address this human crisis.
ROMANS: Right.
You know, Stephen Moore, how are the Republicans going to make it any better? How would it be different? How can they make the job situation different?
MOORE: Yes.
You know, I think what they - I think - I hope what they do, Christine, is that they kind of add some confidence to the business sector. The business community in Washington and the - and the employers in the country really feel like there's been kind of a war on business in this administration for the last two years, with the cost of Obamacare and the tax increases and the regulations. A good example -
ROMANS: But they're making money. I mean, front - front page of "The Wall Street Journal" this week say it was a historic turn around for many, many businesses in America.
MOORE: Yes. But those -
ROMANS: They're making money.
MOORE: Those are - yes. Right.
Those are big corporations. I'm talking about small businesses that really have very tiny profit margins and just really feel like, you know, all the added cost of regulations and health care and taxes are making it really difficult to expand their businesses and hire more workers.
ROMANS: Right. Lakshman's going to stay. We're going to have a big discussion -
ACHUTHAN: OK.
ROMANS: -- about sort of the economics of those job numbers -
ACHUTHAN: Well, they are high (ph).
ROMANS: -- after this discussion of the - the politics of these jobs numbers.
Arianna Huffington, thank you so much. The book is fantastic.
HUFFINGTON: Thank you.
ROMANS: Also, Stephen Moore, "Wall Street Journal" editorial writer. Thank you, both of you.
MOORE: Have a great weekend.
ROMANS: You too.
It looks like companies are hiring for the holidays. What that means long-term to the jobs crisis in the country. And who is hiring for how long next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: The economy lost 95,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate remains at 9.6 percent, with the private sector gaining 64,000 jobs in a month. It's not enough to offset a loss of 159,000 government jobs. Those are mainly census workers and local government jobs, teachers, people who you will feel their loss, no question, even if you have your own job.
Bill Rogers is professor and Chief Economist at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. He's the former Chief Economist at the Department of Labor.
Bill, September marks nine straight months of private sector job - private sector job gains, even as the overall number went down. What does this tell us?
WILLIAM RODGERS, FORMER CHIEF ECONOMIST, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR: Well, it tells us that the economy is moving in a good, positive direction. But I think, as many analysts say, you know, we are still, you know, below that important level -
ROMANS: Right.
RODGERS: That threshold, about 120,000, 150,000 -
ROMANS: It's a slog, right? I mean, it feels like a slog.
RODGERS: It's a long, slow slog that's out - yes. (INAUDIBLE) that's out there. ROMANS: Meanwhile, we're looking at another number, Lakshman Achuthan. We look at this number, 9.5 million people are working part time but are ready, willing and able to be working full time.
That's a record high. Nine and half million people who are considered employed -
ACHUTHAN: Right.
ROMANS: -- but they're working under their potential.
ACHUTHAN: Yes. We're - well, I mean, this is the - the hallmark of this recession has been the loss in the jobs market. I mean, over - when you lose over 8 million jobs, you have a lot of people who are underemployed as well. It's not just the job losses, it's all the peripheral stuff.
And you're seeing the - the broader employment rate go back up to - to its recent high of a little over 17 percent. This is all because we are digging out of a huge hole.
ROMANS: And people might be listening and saying, 17 percent? What unemployment -
ACHUTHAN: Well, this is the broad unemployment rate. Yes.
ROMANS: But you're talking about - this is the number of people who don't have a job or don't have a -
ACHUTHAN: Underemployed as you're saying.
ROMANS: Underemployed. Right.
ACHUTHAN: As you're saying. But the same -
RODGERS: That's sometimes called the real unemployment.
ACHUTHAN: The real -
RODGERS: You know, and to - well, there's a lot of -
ACHUTHAN: I mean, the statistics are a little imprecise still, but - but the general picture is extremely clear.
We have a huge hole that we're digging out of. We are digging out of it slowly. When they say the recession ends, all that means - it doesn't mean anything great is happening right under your feet. It's just that you've moved the economy into the recovery room, and anyone who's made it into a recovery room knows it still hurts a lot.
And that's where we are now. We're slowly slogging out of that.
The private sector jobs growth, getting - getting nine months in a row, that means something, you know? That's not about simply stimulus, that's also about employers being scared that if they do not increase their capacity - which means hiring another person, in many case - that they are going to lose out.
ROMANS: But, losing out, there's a big chunk of people in the middle losing out. Forty - gosh, I think forty percent of the unemployed Americans have been out of work -
ACHUTHAN: Almost half.
ROMANS: -- for six months or longer. That is an unbelievable number. And you and I have talked before about these people being left out, even as the hiring comes back.
Are we at risk of a big chunk of people who are going to be left behind, jobs that aren't coming back?
RODGERS: Well, it's - it's not so much an issue, I think, of the jobs that coming back where we had the 1980s and early 1990s outsourcing, and that still is going on. It's just because they've been out of work for such a long time they're probably not going to go back to that original job.
And so, I think the - the challenge for us, going forward, is whether or not we're going to really see an unleashing of inequality in coming across, and that -- and that is going to really depend upon when the administration and Congress is trying to do their focus of maintaining the social safety nets. So, the adverse effects, the long-term cost of the scarring of being in a recession wouldn't be as great, and also improving education and training opportunities.
As I tell my students, you know, now is the right time, in a slow economy, to be adding to your skills. And, just the other day, I was at the White House, meeting with a host of economists, to talk about job creation strategies, and this was a group that was much more focused on minority issues.
ROMANS: Right.
RODGERS: And so, along with, I think, getting the broad economy growing. So it's the tax cuts - once they're getting (ph) - it's the tax cuts, it's probably continued - more continued stimulus. But there's starting to be a growing chorus of people in that room who were saying we - if we're - if we get past this election and unemployment is still high at 9.5, 9.6 percent, which means -
ACHUTHAN: You can bank on it.
RODGERS: I'm sorry - which means it's going to be in the 16 to 17 percent for minorities, you're going to have to really consider public sector -
ACHUTHAN: You can -
RODGERS: -- type of employment.
ACHUTHAN: You can bank - you can bank on it.
(CROSSTALK) ACHUTHAN: Look, let's say these rough numbers, 10 percent or so unemployed. About half of them are long duration unemployed. That that means is you've been out of a job for six months or more. Those half of the unemployed are being left behind.
Make no mistake about it. This recovery - if it should strengthen, OK? And that's an if. But if it should strengthen and start to get more sustainable, more believable and businesses start hiring, they're still not hiring that half of the long term unemployed.
ROMANS: Right.
ACHUTHAN: The shorter duration unemployed, OK? They are actually getting hired faster than we've seen in any recent recoveries. If you go to the shortest duration -
ROMANS: Right.
ACHUTHAN: -- and what that means is you lost your job and then you get hired back in under five weeks. And a lot of people, about 20 percent of the unemployed, fall into that group. They are approaching, today, the lowest - or they're approaching record lows in history. The record low there is 1.5 percent. It's about 1.8 percent right now.
So, you see, if you don't have the skills that the businesses want, you are left behind. And, I agree, you might need some policies to try and do that, but it's not going to happen fast.
ROMANS: Yes. And we need education system. I mean, there's - there's a whole host of issues that will have to be addressed, and that's what makes this a - a problem for our generation, not just a problem for this recession.
We've got to leave it there. Bill Rodgers, thank you so much. Lakshman Achuthan. Gentlemen, as always, a fantastic discussion. Jobs day with these two is always a - it's always great to have those guys around.
Job openings are rare. If you're older, the odds are against you, but you can find a job if you're over 40, and we're going to tell you how. We'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: All right. Take a look at this.
Over the last 12 years, the number of older workers staying on the job has steadily increased. We're now at 18 percent. By the year 2018, an estimated 22 percent will delay retirement and keep working.
Ted Fishman is the author of "Shock of Gray." Ted, put this into perspective for us. What does this mean for the workforce?
TED FISHMAN, AUTHOR, SHOCK OF GRAY: Well, it means you are getting more workers. The baby boomers are moving into the workforce and many of them want to stay at work.
ROMANS: And they a direct -
FISHMAN: They don't all want to stay at work for the same reason. Yes.
ROMANS: Well, some are doing it because they have to. Some of them are doing it because they - they like to. Am I right?
FISHMAN: Yes. Exactly so.
But the numbers who have to are going up. And, you know, that's one of the shocks of the numbers you talked about in the last segment.
ROMANS: And that's the shock of gray.
Why are young workers directly competing with these older workers now when it comes to jobs?
FISHMAN: Well, it's a global phenomena. And what happens is that older workers are being eased out of their full-time employment, their regular employment, their lifetime employment, a little bit younger than they had in the past, but they still need work. So they reenter the workforce as temps, as self-employed, as part-time workers.
But they have a track record. They have been vetted by the workforce and sometimes they are underwritten by a small pension or by social security so they can get by for less.
When you pit them against a younger worker who comes in and really needs to live on his paycheck and has no track record at work, a lot of times employers are going for this relationship the older workers where they can take them on contract, not pay them so much and still get the proven worker.
ROMANS: We're also seeing a shift between the older worker and entrepreneurship in this country. Those over 55 years of age almost twice as likely to found successful companies when compared to younger workers and with entrepreneurship being the growth engine of America, are these older folks actually maybe a good hope for economic growth?
FISHMAN: Yes, I mean, there's two subsets of the self-employed. There are the really capable entrepreneurs, and they are always capable, and when they are older they have great networks.
They've got skills. They've got people they've done business with. They can charge and create businesses, but there are a much, much bigger number of people who are just becoming self-employed because nobody wants to hire them.
They are not the growth engine for the economy, although they do take some of the economic burden off supporting the older population.
ROMANS: All right. The book is fascinating. It's called "Shock of Gray." Ted Fishman, thanks for coming to us from Chicago. Have a great weekend.
FISHMAN: You, too. Thanks.
ROMANS: Well, so that last graphic looks promising, starting a company it isn't a reality for many older folks out there. So how do you go about your job hunt the old-fashioned way without looking dated?
Robin Ryan is the author of "Over 40 and You're Hired." Robin, Ted just mentioned there's this direct competition between these older workers and these younger workers in terms of pay. What are some other reasons older workers are having such a tough time?
ROBIN RYAN, AUTHOR, "OVER 40 AND YOU'RE HIRED!": Well, employers are sending a very clear message. Don't look old if you want to get hired. That means not just your appearance. Your appearance does count.
But don't look old on your resume, in the way you use technology, in the skills you bring to the job, the kind of innovations, and accomplishments that you have.
So it's very complex because they've got to worry about, well, how do I sound old in my interview? What do you mean my resume is old looking? How do I fix it?
ROMANS: Robin, I have a friend who, believe it or not, in her 40s, who works for a top tech company and she does not carry "Wall Street Journal" and "Financial Times" in her briefcase when she goes to headquarters because all the young guns there do not have newspapers the way we mature journalists do.
Everything is on PDA. She said that you look around -- I think PDA might even be an old-fashioned term, but let's talk about -- OK. Let's start with appearance. You have a list here for us. Your appearance, you -- tell us about that.
RYAN: You have to look vibrant and contemporary so make yourself over. First find a suit. If you're a woman, you can wear a dress with a nice jacket.
If you're a man, maybe a blue shirt with a tie and suit is going to look better than stark white, but the fit is critical. It can't be pulling the buttons apart.
I recommend you do anything you can to make yourself look more appealing and that means vibrant, smiling, showing energy, showing enthusiasm.
As we get older, we sometimes get a little jaded. Because they haven't interviewed very much, they are oftentimes are looking robotic. They've looked, you know, uninterested and worn out.
So making sure that the makeup is light and you've got a contemporary hair style. Diet, if it makes you look younger. If you do dye your hair and you're a man, remember, moustache and beard, you should dye that or better yet, shave it off. Employers like clean shaven.
ROMANS: Good advice. You also say update the resume. That's incredibly important. You know, also in my new book I just wrote I've got examples of cover letters as well. Cover letters are incredibly important. You have to sell yourself in the first line.
RYAN: You have to use the power impact technique, which says this is what I'll bring to your job. But for a lot of older workers, they are writing something that was a long time ago.
You've got to get them fast. Use bullet points. I bring 10 years of experience or over the last 10 years, I've been doing this and that.
Notice how I don't say I've got 25 or 30 years of experience. That's too much. Focus on the last 10 years.
ROMANS: That's good. Yes, 25 or 30 years of experience immediately to a 35-year-old hiring manager says, wow, that person is my dad's age or mom's age.
Because we know that there are almost five workers for every available job out there. So you have to beat out four other people. These are some valuable tips to do that if you're over 40, how to get hired. Robin Ryan, author of "Over 40 and You're Hired! Thanks, Robin.
RYAN: Thank you.
ROMANS: Next, Paula Deen. Paula Deen is here. Plus a new way to get funding for that small business you've always wanted to start. We'll tell you all about it next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: From television to books to magazines, the incredible Miss Paula Deen has done it all. She's got a new fresh look to her own magazine.
Paula, you're going to come back later in the show with some wallet friendly tips and healthy for children, but you're going to have some new recipes for us.
PAULA DEEN, CELEBRITY CHEF & AUTHOR: Absolutely, yes. Meals that are easy on the pocketbook and easy on the labor.
ROMANS: This the third time I've interviewed you. I was so inspired by the first two, I included you and some of your great advice about families and kids in my new book, "Smart is the New Rich." You bring way more books than I have, but --
DEEN: Thank you, Christine.
ROMANS: I'm really pleased to have you on the show to talk about some of those things.
DEEN: My gosh. Thank you so much.
ROMANS: So stick around, everybody because we're coming right back for that. We want to show you this incredible segment. If you have an idea for a business, finding the money to get it off the ground isn't always easy.
DEEN: No.
ROMANS: The first order of business though, you need to know where to look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS (voice-over): Vadim Akimenko isn't your grandmother's butcher. More than 200 people showed up on a Wednesday night to watch Vadim and a handful of Boston area chefs demonstrate how break down a pig.
VADIM AKIMENKO, BUTCHER, AKIMENKO MEATS: It's always good to get the name out there, keeping up the buzz, keeping up the anticipation.
ROMANS: The anticipation is over Akimenko Meats, the butcher shop Vadim hopes to open by the end of the year featuring locally owned, sustainable meats, but raising money has been a challenge.
AKIMENKO: Financing has been hard right now.
ROMANS: After liquidating a 401(k) in the spring, Vadim connected with a site called kickstarter.com. The concept is simple. Send this site an idea.
If it's approved, you set up a page with a fund-raising goal then backers, every day internet users, they donate cash and receive rewards in return. Yancey Strickler is the co-founder.
(on camera): It's not charity.
YANCEY STRICKLER, CO-FOUNDER, KICKSTARTER.COM: It's not charity. It's somewhere between patronage and commerce.
ROMANS (voice-over): More than 200,000 people from all over the world have given $20 million to projects in the year and a half kick- starter has been around.
STRICKLER: Sure, well, there's another one right now that's going crazy. It's called Glif and it's basically a really clever iPhone stand.
ROMANS: The makers raised $36,000 the first day online.
(on camera): Wow! And so what do people get in return?
STRICKLER: So here they get the stand for 20 bucks.
ROMANS (voice-over): In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Vadim Akimenko raised more than $16,000 from 200 backers online, enough to secure a five-year lease for his shop.
AKIMENKO: The majority is from Boston, but we've got people as far away as Finland donated. It's really humbling to see that many people want to have your idea.
ROMANS: Sites like kick-starter, textstars.org, and the so- called pier to pier lenders like Prosper, Virgin Money and Lending Club are intriguing alternatives when banks and private investors aren't handing much out.
PAUL KEDROSKY, SENIOR FELLOW, KAUFMANN FOUNDATION: These kind of services can be great in terms of truly kick-starting the business. That was never available before because you were spending most of your time wandering down dark alleys trying to find someone who would give you money.
ROMANS: It's not for everyone. Both borrowers and lenders should do your homework. Vadim Akimenko still needs a few more investors to open shop by December, but he hopes drawing crowds like this one will help.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced the United States will provide $50 million over the next five years for clean burning cook stoves in Africa, Asia and South America.
But a company by the name of Energy in Common is bringing clean energy to the third world in a slightly different way. The founders took a trip to Ghana recently to see how things are panning out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUGH WHALAN, CEO, ENERGY IN COMMON: Without energy you can't pump clean water and you can't pump clean water to where it needs to be. Energy for education. You can't allow classrooms and children to study after dark.
You can't bring classrooms into the 20th let alone the 21st Century without energy. Energy for health, you can't have modern medicine, refrigerate vaccines. All of these things revolve around energy, but energy receives virtually no attention.
I'm the CEO of Energy in Common.
SCOTT TUDMAN, PRESIDENT, ENERGY IN COMMON: We allow people here in the developed world to connect with people in need in the developing world and facilitate loans and allow them to the energy that they really need.
WHALAN: The people in the developing world, the vast majority of them really struggle day to day to get the energy that they need. They spend up to 30 percent of their household income on very expensive polluting fuels like kerosene, firewood and charcoal. Those fuels kill them slowly through air pollution, which kills more people every year than malaria. We have loans for LED lamps, solar home systems, clean burning stoves, anywhere from $20 to $1,000.
GIFTY BAABA, CEO, DAASGIFT: Since we built those stoves for them, they don't have any pains in the eyes or the chest. So we believe while it's solving the environmental problems, it's also solving the health problems.
TUDMAN: There are 2.4 billion people in the rest of the world that don't have that access to energy. If you think about sustain ability and going forward, you think about 2.4 billion people lifting themselves out of poverty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has this light made a difference to you?
EVELYN AKOTO-BONSU, SEAMSTRESS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How has it made a difference?
AKOTO-BONSU: It helps me to sew in the night. That increase my money.
WHALAN: The only thing that we do is attract attention to the need for more resources for energy for the poor than success.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: It's important to note that all entrepreneurs involved in Energy in Common plan to pay back the loans in full after the loan has been repaid the emissions reduction created by the entrepreneur available to the lender as carbon offsets.
The term carbon offsets is one we're hearing more and more about, but we suspect many people only have a vague idea of what all this offsetting is all about.
Here to break it down for us in the simplest way possible is Dan Roam, back of the napkin fame. Welcome to the program.
So what is carbon offsetting show us on the back of the envelope, if you please?
DAN ROAM, AUTHOR, "THE BACK OF THE NAPKIN": Good morning, Christine. It's my pleasure. You know, I believe that we can solve problems with pictures. The problem we're looking at now is what is a carbon offset?
So it all comes back to one big root problem, the world is heating up. The reason that the world is heating up is because we're putting lots of carbon into the atmosphere.
Now there's two ways we could deal with reducing that carbon. From a business perspective, the first one is just tax people. The more carbon you put out, the more tax you pay. The second model, and this is where cap and trade comes in, says, the government decides on a total cap, the total amount of carbon that can be released into the environment in any given period of time by any given industry or nation or organization.
So what happens is since it's a cap, everybody is allocated a certain amount of carbon that they are able to put out. It is a cap. So you cannot put out anymore than what you've allocated.
Where a carbon credit comes in, you'll see this company over here isn't using all of its allocation. So if you're this company that's got too much, you are going to buy this free allocation, which we're going to call a carbon credit.
That's where the trade part of cap and trade comes in, the idea being under this cap you set up a marketplace in which these two companies trade back and forth, one who needs to put out carbon with one who has the carbon off sets.
In a way, back to the earlier story, you can think about these carbon offsets as cash because people will pay money to get them.
ROMANS: All right. Dan Roam, thank you very much. Paula Deen, I'm so pleased about this. Paula Deen is all set. She's ready to go. She has combined next with some healthy meals for your family without dropping much cash.
Right in here, healthy and good for you, but first, who doesn't like to save a little? Once thought of as taboo, coupons are becoming a big "it" thing to do.
In this week's "Turn Around," Stephanie Elam takes a look at one online coupon site trying to separate itself from the rest of the bargain pack.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): James Moran and Vin Vacanti wants to make you deal, but only if you really want it. The two are the brains behind Yipit, an online coupon site that sends you daily discounts based on your preferences.
VIN VACANTI, CO-FOUNDER, YIPIT: The problem with some of the daily deal services there right now is everyone gets the same deal.
So you get a lot of sort of the e-mail in your inbox that's not relevant to you and what we try to do is organize all of that and then make it so that if you only want health and fitness deals, you only get health and fitness deals.
ELAM: Starting Yipit in 2009 with their savings. The former finance guys had a trade in their suits and secrets.
JAMES MORAN, CO-FOUNDER, YIPIT: We were in the business of confidentiality and servicing clients in a very discreet manner. And then when you're in the entrepreneurial world, it's completely different.
No one actually cares about your idea. You have to tell everyone about your idea, even to get advice, giving the people to test it out to get feedback.
ELAM: With so many coupon sites out there, Yipit wasn't gaining traction. So in February, the guys took a risk and changed their business model by pivoting, as Moran calls it. They started by just listening.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did you first get out of that?
MORAN: Whenever anybody hit the subscribe button, we will personally e-mail them. Offering them a $10 Amazon gift card and asking why they unsubscribed. Many of them would hop on the phone with us and quietly give us lots of lots of feedback.
ELAM: And their pivot paid off.
KRISTIN MAVERICK, YIPIT CUSTOMER: They take feedback really, really well and I think that's so important now because there are so many sites, new ones are coming back every day.
As long as they keep changing as far as being able to customize what people want, because there are so many out there, they'll be super successful.
ELAM: With over 60,000 subscribers, the goal is to recommend deals in 40 U.S. cities and go international. Making money through commissions and a new round of funding from investors has also allowed them to expand their offices and their employees.
MORGAN: We used to be two people, now we're five and it's actually a nice place where we can all go, and really enjoy ourselves and actually try to build the company.
ELAM: Stephanie Elam, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Paula Deen, we are so happy you could be with us today. Contrary to popular belief, she does cook without butter occasionally.
These are recipes that don't include butter that are healthy and economical and good for a tired mom like me who has to use a crock pot when she gets home.
DEEN: Right, Christine. You know, the crock pot can really be your friend. And in this issue of the magazine, "Cooking with Paula Deen" and we talk about crock pot cooking.
And this is a three-bean soup. It's made up of three different types of dried beans. Everybody knows how healthy --
ROMANS: Right.
DEEN: -- dried beans are.
ROMANS: Flavor, too.
DEEN: Yes. Your flavor, yes, and it will -- if you pull it apart, it will give you enough meat that your family will feel like, if they're real meat lovers.
You'll get a chunk of meat, but here's the deal. These beans are so rich in protein for the children, and it's quick, easy and delicious.
ROMANS: So take me over here because you have something here that is a twist on your normal, easy, boring spaghetti sauce. This is vegetables, another way to get the veggies to the kids.
DEEN: It's so easy. Listen, just put everything in this crock pot. Plug it in. Cover it up.
ROMANS: Is it going to turn into go if I keep it in there too long or it's going to stay good?
DEEN: My goodness.
ROMANS: Delicious.
DEEN: How delicious is that? And you got your little parmesan cheese.
ROMANS: Serving it over linguine.
DEEN: And most children love pasta. You know, I think they're born with a macaroni and cheese gene. It really is all about moderation because there's so many different types of food that we need. First one more than the other, and you want a lot of balance.
ROMANS: Is that your message for parents trying to struggle with jobs and busy days and feeding their kids? Healthy balance?
DEEN: Yes, yes.
ROMANS: Moderation.
DEEN: Yes. Healthy balance, and, Christine, there is -- we do have problems in our country right now. So many people are unemployed, and I'm partners with Smithfield Hams. Yesterday we in Jersey, and we brought in to the food bank 30,000 pounds of protein.
ROMANS: Fantastic. I knew were you involved with this same group last year around thanksgiving. Wasn't than the famous flying turkey episode or something?
DEEN: Flying ham. Swine flu.
ROMANS: Thank you so much for stopping by. DEEN: Thank you.
ROMANS: The recipes are fantastic. The magazine looks really nice.
DEEN: Thank you. I'm so proud of this magazine. We just celebrated our fifth anniversary. "Home Cooking with Paula Deen."
ROMANS: Love it. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
DEEN: Thank you, darling.
ROMANS: Thank you for being game for -- I'm going to give you the book where we talk about our --
DEEN: I want a copy of your book.
ROMANS: I got it for you.
DEEN: I want you to keep a copy of this magazine.
ROMANS: We'll do it.
DEEN: Because it's important to me that I can help you young mothers out there juggling a lot of balls in the air.
ROMANS: You've been there. You have been there.
DEEN: I think this is going to solve some of your problems.
ROMANS: All right, Paula Deen. Thank you so much, Paula. Thanks. It's so nice to see you again.
DEEN: We both have on red.
ROMANS: Yes, we do. All right, that's a wrap-up for this show. We're totally out of time. We hope you connect with us on Twitter at alivelshi and christineromans.
I'm going to get these recipes for you on my Facebook page folks so you can pick up a copy of the magazine. Go to my Facebook page, I'm going to give these two recipes for you.
Make sure you join us everybody week for YOUR MONEY, Saturdays 1:30 Eastern, Sunday's at 3:00. You also log on 24/7 to CNNMoney.com.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
