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Politics of Money; The Lame Duck Factor; Heavenly Fireworks; I- reporters, E-mailers Are Against the Big Three Bailout; What's Really at Stake for the Big Three; The Plight of the Big Three Automakers Affect Other Job Sectors; Hong Kong Car Dealer Offers Bargains

Aired November 22, 2008 - 17:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to talk about at the top of the hour right now leadership vacuum. President Bush is in Peru. President-elect Obama is in Chicago. They both say they're working on the economy, but who is in charge here?
Also...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have no other choice but to go down, because there's nowhere to send the material.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: How does that make you feel, sir, for your employees?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it hurts like hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: We're going to be talking this hour about the heartbreak of America. One Ohio town prepares to lose its economic lifeline. We will take you there.

Hi, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Don. Record temperatures invading the Southeast today. How long will it last? Plus a preview on your holiday travel.

LEMON: And hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live here at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

The markets are closed, and holidays are just ahead, just around the corner, but there's no rest for this weekend for anyone worried about the nation's financial crisis. For starters, federal regulators have taken over three banks, two in southern California and one in northern Georgia. The big three automakers are hard at work trying to come up way plan to convince lawmakers that they deserve a federal bailout.

And don't look to the markets for any optimism here. This month has been dismal for stocks. The S&P 500 index is down 20 percent since Election Day.

The economy tops the agenda for both the president and the president- elect. Our Juan Carlos Lopez is in Lima, Peru, where President Bush is meeting with 21 other world leaders.

And there you see him, Ed Henry in Chicago -- Ed, I hope you have on a big coat today -- where President-elect Barack Obama has some released early details about his economic plan. We'll get to Ed Henry in just a bit.

We want to start with President Bush at the APEC snumt Lima, Peru, and CNN's Juan Carlos Lopez.

Juan Carlos, this is booked as the farewell tour? Every trip he's taken overseas they've been saying about that.

JUAN CARLOS LOPEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But the White House says it's not, and the president was telling these leaders of APEC that the solution to the financial crisis lies in free trade.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOPEZ (voice-over): In the waning day of his presidency, President Bush is making an aggressive pitch. The financial crisis is global, he says, but the United States will continue setting the course for answers.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Nations are feeling the painful effects of the financial crisis. I understand that. And so all of us need to be involved in the solution.

LOPEZ: That solution, according to the president, needs to be mindful of the past.

BUSH: One of the enduring lessons of the Great Depression is that global protectionism is a path to global economic ruin.

LOPEZ: President Bush is insisting on more trade, not less, and says he will pursue the Doha Round, a worldwide free trade agreement, reminding APEC leaders he'll do whatever he can while still president.

BUSH: I recognize I'm leaving office in two months, but nevertheless, this administration will push hard to put the modalities in place so that Doha can be completed, and so we can send a message we refuse to accept protectionism in the 21st century.

LOPEZ: Bush once again criticized Congress for adjourning for the year without passing pending free trade agreements with individual countries.

BUSH: We've concluded with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. And it is extremely disappointing that the United States Congress adjourned without passing these three agreements.

LOPEZ: Trade wasn't the only item on the agenda. North Korea was a major topic during a meeting with the leaders of Japan and South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LOPEZ: So far a busy day for the president, but he's speaking to a friendly audience, and so far no big protests against his presence in Peru -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Juan Carlos Lopez, we appreciate it.

Well, here in the U.S., the president-elect preparing for the day when the struggling U.S. economy is his responsibility. Barack Obama talked about the challenges ahead in the Democrats' weekly radio address.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENT-ELECT: While I'm pleased that Congress passed a long overdue extension of unemployment benefits this week, we must do more to put people back to work and get our economy moving again. We have now lost 1.2 million jobs this year, and if we don't act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

LEMON: CNN's Ed Henry is in Chicago watching the Obama transition.

Ed, what are we learning about Barack Obama's economic plan today? And where's your coat, by the way? Are you wearing a coat?

ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I've got a coat. This is a nice cashmere coat. I picked it up in Chicago.

LEMON: OK.

HENRY: I'm trying to stimulate the economy, Don.

LEMON: It needs it. It needs it.

HENRY: Well, you know, what's interesting is there were some very blunt warnings. I think that's what's significant, first of all, about these remarks today, is that the president-elect was much blunter than he's been recently about how this economic crisis could get worse before it gets better.

So you had some blunt warnings in there, as you just mentioned, about how there could be millions more jobs lost next year. And the second point to make is that's setting the stage for the president-elect to try to make the case for a bolder economic stimulus plan that he even laid out on the campaign trail.

What he promised today was basically restore or create a total of 2.5 million new jobs in the first two years in office. I mean, that's a big promise. In order to deliver on it, he's going to have to get his economic team in place, and get this plan going, because, as you said, there's sort of a leadership vacuum right now.

President Bush is a lame duck. Barack Obama has actually not taken power yet. And so there's a lot of confusion in the markets now -- Don.

LEMON: Hey, Ed, tell us more about Obama's team and Timothy Geithner.

HENRY: Well, you know, as the head of the New York Fed, he's a known quantity on Wall Street. And that's why, as you saw on Friday afternoon, when this news first started leaking out that he's the likely pick to be treasury secretary, we saw the Dow go up almost 500 points.

People on Wall Street know him, and that's what the Obama team is trying to do by getting this out as early as Monday here in Chicago, is to try to restore some more confidence in the markets. They also may be bringing in Lawrence Summers, the former Clinton treasury secretary, for a different economic, maybe an adviser in the White House. There's some talk of that.

And also, Bill Richardson. The New Mexico governor wanted to be secretary of state. It seems more likely right now he's the leading choice to be commerce secretary. Another important economic adviser for the incoming president.

And so the point is that Barack Obama is trying to get his team in place to send a signal to markets all around the world, not just in the United States that, look, I haven't taken power yet, but I've got my team ready to go and we're going to hit the ground running on January 20th of next year -- Don.

LEMON: All right. One more question before you go. What about all the news about all these leaks, Ed?

HENRY: Well, you know, the campaign was run so smoothly by the Obama operation. They prided themselves on not a lot of leaks.

In the last few days they've been getting a little upset. Some of us have been breaking some of these stories about who's going to be this secretary or that secretary.

They're starting to sort of clamp down, and that's because they realize that all of this information is getting out there before the president-elect himself can make it official. The whole point of having these events next week and beyond is to let him get some credit for rolling out this team.

I think they're a little frustrated with it. In fact, today they officially named Robert Gibbs to be the White House press secretary. It's going to be his job, I guess, to enforce some of that, to make sure that all the information's not leaking out, Don. But you have a lot of reporters, as you know, and you're one of them, who wants this information.

So there's a lot of pressure, push and pull, back and forth, Don. You know this city very well.

LEMON: I do. I was trying to figure out where you're standing. I can't tell. But yes, there have been a lot of leaks and a lot of false information given out. One about Penny Pritzker earlier this week and the vetting process, and commerce secretary, and what have you. So I had to call her myself and ask what the real story was.

So you know exactly what's going on. By the way, where are you?

HENRY: Millennium Park. That's where we've got the CNN Election Express. I guess we're going to have to call it the Inaugural Express at some point. But it's still rolling through the country -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Thank you very much.

Ed Henry in Chicago.

And with President Bush on his way out and President-elect Obama in transition, there is a leadership vacuum right now in Washington, and it is causing a lot of uncertainty in the markets.

CNN's Mary Snow takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (voice over): In a sign of just how desperately the markets are looking for direction, stocks lurched higher, gaining nearly 500 points on news that New York Fed Bank president Timothy Geithner would be tapped as Barack Obama's new treasury secretary.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: They needed some reassurance from Barack Obama not only of what direction that he is going to be going in, but who is going with him? Who is going to be captain of the team and who are going to be the co-captains and the other players on the team?

SNOW: The rally follows a steep sell-off this week triggered by a renewed sense of fear and continued uncertainty.

DIANE SWONK, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MESIROW FINANCIAL: We have got a lame duck Congress and a lame duck administration that have decided they no longer have a job to do.

SNOW: A major source of angst is whether the big three automakers will survive. After coming hat in hand to Capitol Hill and leaving with no resolution, Congress is taking a recess. Another question mark, what is next for the federal bailout program that outgoing Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson engineered?

ARTHUR HOGAN, JEFFERIES AND COMPANY: The unknown, Wall Street abhors it. You always see a sell-off, you always sell (INAUDIBLE) and buy on the news on Wall Street. That's exactly what is happening right now.

SNOW: Obama has said there is only one president at a time, but former presidential adviser David Gergen says it will be up to Obama right now to lead from behind the scenes.

GERGEN: I think that he can push along a couple of things -- a bridge for the automobile industry to ensure that it doesn't fall apart or go into bankruptcy before he becomes president, allowing himself time to think through, what should the future of that industry be? SNOW (on camera): David Gergen says other potential action could be some form of help to homeowners. Bottom line, Obama doesn't want to take office with an economy that's in total collapse.

Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Well, like any parents moving to a new town, the Obamas are concerned about the right school for their children. And the soon-to- be first family has made a decision on where 10-year-old Malia and 7- year-old Sasha will go. It is the Sidwell Friends School, a private Quaker school in Washington. Chelsea Clinton is a graduate and Vice President-elect Joe Biden's grandchildren go there as well.

Hitting the road for the holiday? Our Jacqui Jeras is keeping a close eye on your travel forecast.

Also, we have this for you. A huge fireball hurdling toward the Earth. No, it's not the plot for a Hollywood movie. It happened. And it's caught on tape.

And of course, we want to know what's on your mind today. It's getting close to this holiday season. I'm sure you're concerned about the economy, what you're going to be talking about at your Thanksgiving table. Make sure you log on to Twitter or Faceback, MySpace, ireport.com, and tell us what you're thinking and we'll get it on the air for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

LEMON: Hey, Jacqui, I've got some video for you as well. I want you to take a look at this.

JERAS: OK.

LEMON: You've seen the movie "Deep Impact." Have you seen that with Morgan Freeman?

JERAS: I don't think so.

LEMON: All right. Well, we have video to show you of a giant fireball. It's lighting up the evening sky as it hurdled into Canada. Scientists are confirming it was, Jacqui Jeras...

JERAS: A meteor.

LEMON: ... and our viewers, in fact, a meteor.

JERAS: Yes.

LEMON: And two men at the right place and at the right time in Alberta caught it all on tape. Catherine Hillerud from our affiliate Global TV Edmonton has the story for us. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW BARTLETT, WITNESS: I don't know what the hell that was.

CATHERINE HILLERUD, GLOBAL TV EDMONTON (voice-over): Andrew Bartlett can't believe his luck. He can't stop watching the video he just happened to capture of a falling meteor over our city.

BARTLETT: Boy, it was something unbelievable. One in a million chance that I'd be standing here looking at it.

HILLERUD: Andrew was trying to take a picture of planes flying into the airport.

HILLERUD: ... when all of a sudden out of the corner of camera comes this flashing light. Just a bright light, and I just held the camera right there and then it just disappeared.

HILLERUD: Adam Baxter, a peace officer in Devon with a dashboard camera captured a similar sight.

Pulling away from the curb, and this bright light shot straight across the sky, and the first thought was, that's towards the airport, so it might be an airplane.

HILLERUD: But it wasn't a bird or a plane. Experts are confirming it was a meteor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This one was bright enough that there's a decent possibility that there could be an actual fall of meteorites somewhere to the east of us.

HILLERUD: And that has scientists, even general observers, excited.

Certainly we're hopeful that one came down, and we're very hopeful that it came down it in a nice, safe place, in a farmer's field or something where it can be recovered.

HILLERUD: Whether meteors are collected or not from those who saw it, like Global One Chopper Pilot Slade Smith, it was a special sight to see.

SLADE SMITH, GLOBAL ONE CHOPPER PILOT: Oh, yes. Definitely once in a lifetime, that's for sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty cool. It's something you're not going to see every day. That's for sure.

HILLERUD: Catherine Hillerud, Global News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Well, talk about bad timing. The L.A. Auto Show is under way amid the big three mess and plummeting auto sales, but that's not keeping us away. We're looking up a deal for you, trying to find one. A live report, straight ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. Well, looking for a Mercedes-Benz? Go to Los Angeles.

The dock there is a huge parking lot of imported cars. Normally they'd be trucked immediately to dealerships around the country. But right now, there's no demand for buyers for these cars. So the cars are just sitting idle with simply nowhere to go.

Well, not far from where all cards have piled up in the L.A. Harbor -- I should say near the L.A. Harbor, but not in the harbor, another automotive spectacle. It is the annual L.A. car show. But this year something is missing. Enthusiasm.

Our Ted Rowlands joins us now from the car show.

Ted, you know, I was telling you in the break the irony in all of this with the bailout. And then you're at the car show. Are folk there's talking about it?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, you know, there is enthusiasm. I just don't know if there's a lot of cash to actually purchase some of these cars right now. So it's a very bizarre auto show, when you compare it to other ones.

You know, usually it's a celebration. You've got the companies out here throwing parties on the off days, or at night. None of that going on.

They are showing their products. Some of them at a higher level than others. Like this display here at Ford. They've spent a lot of money here.

And I talked to the Ford folks. They say, well, why not? Even if the customers are not really here for us now, they eventually are going to come back, we hope. Hopefully we'll be around, and when we are, we want our products to be on their minds at least.

That said, it is a strange, strange day. I mean, literally this morning in Minnesota, 400 people woke up without a job because of a huge dealership closing down there.

Denny Hecker's (ph) been in business for years. He closed six of his dealerships. Four hundred people got pink slips yesterday.

In Montgomery, Alabama, Magoo (ph) Dealers, they've been in business for almost 100 years, 90-plus years, a family-owned business. They closed their doors today. Fifty people shown the door. They just can't do business.

You showed the Long Beach Harbor, all those cars lined up. It's not just the domestic operators that are having problems, everybody is. It's a down market, there's no doubt about it.

But the big three, of course, are looking for money. They're looking for a handout in Washington, D.C. We've been asking people around here their thoughts on it. Here's a couple of opinions.

This is Bennie.

The big three, should they be bailed out?

BENNIE MAYBERRY, ATTENDING AUTO SHOW: I think they should be bailed out. We're talking about thousands of jobs. We're not talking about just regular low-paying jobs, we're talking about good-paying jobs.

That's directly going to affect the economy. The housing market, if we don't have those good-paying jobs how are we going to make our mortgage payment? I think it's really important that we do have a bailout.

ROWLANDS: All right.

Patrick, that's a good point. But you disagree.

PATRICK NELKE, ATTENDING AUTO SHOW: I disagree. I think the best businesses need to survive by adjusting to the marketplace. I think it's important to be able to make product that the American people can afford, even in a downturn environment and economy.

I really feel that businesses, they need to adapt to the environment and do a better job of going after the marketplace. And I think that getting a big cash infusion to the people who have run the business poorly is not the way to do business.

ROWLANDS: All right. Both of you guys are here at the auto show. Are you going to buy a car? Are you in the market?

NELKE: I'm just look and having fun.

MAYBERRY: I wouldn't mind picking up a Bentley. We just have to see.

ROWLANDS: Don -- all right. It looks like you're not alone in your love of Bentleys.

LEMON: Or Maseratis.

ROWLANDS: Maybe between the two of you, you can come up with the cash.

LEMON: Maybe.

ROWLANDS: Or a Maserati. All right. Yes.

A lot of looking here, Don. A lot of enthusiasm. But I don't know if these things are going to end up in people's garages, at least in the short term.

LEMON: Yes. I was going to say, Ted, me, him, you and about four or people, maybe we can pull enough money to afford it. But you know what, Ted?

ROWLANDS: Yes, 400 other people. LEMON: This guy was talking about them adapting. And I just want to tell you, Ted, thank you very much for your report.

I want to tell Ted and all of our viewers, ICampbell444 (ph), which is from Twitter here, says, "Being from Detroit, my family worked for Chrysler for many years. I understand their fears, but need to learn from mistakes."

And that's exactly what the person in Ted Rowlands report said.

So thank you very much for your comments. Keep them coming: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, ireport.com. Tell us what you're thinking, we'll get it on the air.

Again, our thanks to Ted Rowlands in California.

The big three CEOs, they weren't too proud to beg for a bailout, but why couldn't they fly coach? Or better yet, drive for their day on the Hill?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN NEUGEBAUER, IREPORTER: OK, big three, here's our deal. Take it or leave it. You get a bailout and you get the help that you need under one condition. You shut down all plants that are not in the U.S. and bring those jobs back and give them to the American people. If you do that, then you can have your money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN DULAC, IREPORTER: As much as I'm against using taxpayer dollars to bail out private industry, I think it's important that we do it in this case with strict rules and regulations and new emissions standards that force the auto industry to retool their manufacturing lines, produce more fuel-efficient cars, and create sustainable solutions to the driving pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JACK QUAVIS, CNN I-REPORTER: All right, let's talk about the auto bailout. The big three need to get bailed out. They come to our government for billions of billions of dollars. You know what I say? Let the oil companies do it. Let the big three go to the oil companies begging for money. Let's face it, if it wasn't for the auto industry, the oil companies wouldn't be as big as it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Thank you very much, I-reporters. The big three bailout, one of the hottest topics among our I- reporters. And it's easy to understand why. The U.S. auto industry has long been considered the backbone of the economy. The collapse of even one of the big three could be absolutely devastating. It's not just a number of people who work directly for Ford, for G.M. or for Chrysler. It's all the peripheral jobs, the parts suppliers, the dealerships, the vendors and the countless mom and pop businesses that rely on auto workers. By one estimate the auto employees, directly or indirectly, three million Americans.

It is a $25 billion question. What's really at stake with a taxpayer finance bailout for automakers?

Here's Tom Foreman with the breakdown for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The problem is that the economy right now is in the deep woods. No one has a reliable map to safety, and economic analysts say new dangers are arising every single day that we delay picking a path out of our trouble.

(on camera): So let's look at one these paths. We'll call this one over here the path to bailout town.

(voice-over): If we go this way, and a deal is pulled together to save the big three automakers, we might avoid a potential loss of three million jobs, and stabilize a cornerstone industry.

But down the trail, this could be next, more cries for more bailouts from Internet firms, insurance company, telecommunications, airlines, local governments. That list is growing fast.

And on top of that, many economic an legitimates say on this path, we could be throwing our dollars away if we give these bridge loans without insisting these businesses change the way they operate.

PETER KAUFMAN, GORDIAN GROUP, LLC: Taxpayer money can be used here and I think it can be used effectively, but only if all the problems are fixed. And I think we all need some intestinal fortitude if we're going to do it. Otherwise, it will be a bridge to nowhere.

FOREMAN (on camera): So let's look at the path over here, the one to marketville. The idea here is to let the companies fail, get bought out, restructured and our economy will emerge stronger.

(voice-over): But the dangers here are also multiplying. You saw that what the market did at the lowest level in more than a decade, unemployment keeps rising. Farther down the trail, those trends will do nothing to ease the concealing wave of loan defaults that started this whole mess. Remember, that problem is not over. And possibly looming ahead, a frightening prospect -- deflation.

Just this week leading economic indicator, showed all sorts of prices either falling or rising very little. That sounds good, but economists say it can signal a downward spiral that is difficult to stop.

Under this scenario, companies slash prices because no one is buying. Then slash jobs. Then those unemployed workers buy even less.

(on camera): That is why it is so hard for lawmakers to pick either one of these paths right now, because, even though many of them truly believe the economy woods are getting darker by the day, they just don't know which way safety lies.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Tom Foreman, thank you, sir.

The heads of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors went to Capitol Hill to pitch for a $25 billion bailout. All the CEOs were passionate about needing the money to avoid collapse. But it was no sale. They left empty-handed. It didn't help that three CEOs flew into Washington in a private corporate jet. I should say private corporate jets. The public fallout has been harsh. General Motors responded giving up two of its jets.

Josh Levs responded. He reported on that story and is monitoring your responses for it -- Josh?

JOSH LEVS, CNN BUSINESS ANALYST: Yeah.

LEMON: You know, we're sitting up here joking about Lamborghinis or whatever, but nobody can afford it. It's just a joke. But when you're asking that amount of money and then you charter a plane and you fly privately.

LEVS: Look, CEOs travel this way, but here they were traveling to Congress to ask for taxpayer money.

LEMON: They're begging for money.

LEVS: Exactly. You Twitter people on MySpace and Facebook are going to be all over this.

Obviously, a lot of people were throughout the week.

I want to show it something, Don. Check this out. Let's zoom it on the board. This is the story we did this week, big three, auto CEOs flew private jets.

Check this out. I am going to scroll down. Every time you see a block of text like this, it's another response. It kept going and going and going. They were coming in literally until the second I closed it off. It's incredible.

I pulled out a few to get a sense of what we were getting this week.

Let's start out with this one. It comes to us from Sandy Hallowell, who said this: "No payment should be made to the CEOs if we have to bail them out. They refuse to retool for better performing models or go green. It's time to say no to the greed." Now from mike, who says this, "Government officials occasionally fly commercial. Surely, their considerations aren't as high as these gentlemen's." He's referring there to the fact that they said that one of the reasons they fly privately is safety and security. He goes on to say, "This is a missed P.R. opportunity or their part, pure and simple."

Another one now. This one comes from John: "They just do not get it. America's fed up with the same old same old. Change is coming."

I looked for some defending the CEOs and I did find this in there. Jamal Jamarkus wrote us this: "I can't believe this is actually an issue. CEOs of multibillion drawer corporations are expected to ride public airlines? CNN, this is absolutely ridiculous."

But I will tell you, I read through probably more than 100 of these and I can only find about four that were anywhere near what Jamal was saying.

Overall, people very disappointed, very discouraged about what they saw with the private jets. And as we know, there's been fallout. And who knows, there might continue to be.

Don, I know that during this hour you're inviting your folks to weigh in as well. Probably coming that way now.

LEMON: I'm sure. I'm glad the CEOs either logged on themselves and said something positive or got friends to, because I don't think anybody -- it's a bad -- it's perception. If you're asking for billions of dollar, begging for it, flying on private jets -- that security thing is a bunch of bull. No one knows who these guys are by face anyway.

LEVS: Look, you can get on a plane -- they might now. They might now, yeah. But we're talking about a specific situation, asking for taxpayer money. That changed everything. Obviously, a lot of people, very angry about it. You got it.

LEMON: Malarkey. Sorry. That's just a truth and that's what I'm getting from viewers.

LEVS: Wow. I bet you are.

LEMON: So anyway. So, what is on your mind? Tell us if you think it's malarkey. Or maybe you disagree with me. I don't know if I should be saying that, but I think it is. I think most people are outraged by it. Go to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, ireport.com, tell us what you're thinking. We'll get your responses on the air. Keep it clean.

All right, belt tightening, old penny pinching and plain old -- it's going out of style.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I used to have a bartender plus three waitresses at lunch. Now we have one bartender and she waitresses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Hmm. We take you to one small town that is suffering right along with the auto industry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The plight of the big three automakers has consequences far from Detroit. The rubber is not meeting the road at a Goodyear tire plant in Laughton, Oklahoma. The factory is now rolling out fewer tires due to falling demand. It is an ominous sign of the times.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the biggest employer second to Fort Sill and that's where most of the people that have the higher incomes work at.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the production slows down just weekends, that wouldn't hurt much, as long as the plant stays here because they have scaled down over the weekends before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Plant management says, no layoffs expected at least for now.

Unfortunately, that is not the case in Lorraine, Ohio. The town is already hard-hit by layoff as a local G.M. plant. And now it's set to see it close, two days, just two days before Christmas.

CNN's Gary Tuchman went there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When a decision is made in the sky scraper in Detroit, it can change life in towns far away, very badly, very quickly.

In the small town of Lorraine, Ohio, near Dayton, it's easy to figure out what industry is the lifeblood here. And that's even before you see this place, the G.M. plant, the town's dominant employee where more than 4,000 people worked in its heyday, and 1,000 now.

But a decision has come from Detroit. This factory is closing, forever, two days before Christmas.

What does that mean for the rest of this town? Cain (ph) Goodwin is a local union leader.

CAIN (ph) GOODWIN, LOCAL UNION LEADER: It's really bad, very bad.

TUCHMAN: At a different factory, the Jamestown-Lorraine plant, not owned by G.M., they store and transport car parts to the G.M. facility. Certainly, they can ship parts to other G.M. plants or other car companies. Right?

TONY MURPHY, R.M. SUPPLIER EMPLOYEE: What am I going to do? That was my very first reaction.

TUCHMAN: One, Tony Murphy works here as a forklift driver. When that G.M. plant shuts its door on December 23rd, the plant where he works will also close forever. He and more than 60 others will have to find new jobs in a region where there are fewer and fewer.

(on camera): Have you started working for a job already?

MURPHY: Oh, yes. I've been to an interview before.

TUCHMAN: How did they go?

MURPHY: I don't know. They haven't called me back, so I guess it didn't go too well.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): The labor contract at the small supply plant has no provision for any severance. And the cheap medical insurance disappears the day after they walk out of the factory for the last time.

MINCHELLE WASHINGTON, G.M. SUPPLIER EMPLOYEE: I might end up losing my car. I don't want to lose my house, but I know I might end up losing my car.

TUCHMAN: Minshelle Washington is a single mother.

WASHINGTON: Drawings, Jada (ph) made a drawing at school.

TUCHMAN: A scared single mother.

(on camera): So what happens if you get sick or your daughter gets sick?

WASHINGTON: That's the bad part because, if I get sick, it's downhill because I have diabetes. And I've got enough medicine probable for an extra month after my insurance is gone.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Even for businesses that have nothing to do with cars, the future is frightening. The Upper Deck Restaurant and Bar right next to the G.M. plant used to be jammed every day at lunch. Now you can almost hear crickets.

UNIDENTIIED OWNER, UPPER DECK RESTAURANT AND BAR: I used to have a bartender, plus three waitresses at lunch. Now, we have one bartender and she waitresses.

TUCHMAN: Back at the parts factory, the employees seem to understand why this man, the owner, is pulling the plug.

UNIDENTIFIED FACTORY OWNER: We have no other choice but to go down because there's nowhere to send the material.

TUCHMAN (on camera): How does that make you feel, sir, for your employees?

UNIDENTIFIED FACTORY OWNER: Oh, it hurts like hell. TUCHMAN: What the employees don't seem to understand...

(on camera): Who are you angry at?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The executives at G.M.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): ... are the decisions made in the skyscraper.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Lorraine, Ohio

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Status symbols on wheels, or just another used car lot? It depends whether you're buying or selling.

Plus, more CNN I-reporters weigh in on the big three bailout debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DULAC: I think it's important that we do it in this case.

JENNIFER LEMAY, I-REPORTER: If we let the auto industry go under -- there goes our economy.

DAVID J. WHITE, I-REPORTER: If you have the technology to burn a cleaner fuel and make that vehicle available to the American public within the next five to ten years, great. Other than that, if you're going to continue to ideology, and putting tanks and large SUVs on the streets, I'm not giving a dime.

BARBARA RADEMACHER, I-REPORTER: And now, it's like their karma is hitting them in the face.

JOHN SEVENS, I-REPORTER: The big three bailout, don't do it. Please, don't do it. They don't deserve it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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LEMON: Gas below $2 a gallon. Did you ever think you'd see that again? Did you ever think you'd see me again? Sorry, I went away for a second. Four months after we shelled out more than $4 a gallon, the average national price, now $1.95, and is expected to keep dropping. The big reason, a major drop in demand amid a global economic slowdown.

Here's some good news if you are shopping for a luxury car. It is a buyers' market. You can pick up a used Rolls-Royce, Bentley or Mercedes for less than the cost of an ordinary new sedan.

Hugh Rimington found a man in Hong Kong with a parking garage full of luxury vehicles eager to make a deal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) HUGH RIMINGTON, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hey, you want to buy a Rolls-Royce? How about a Bentley? In Hong Kong these days, they're going cheap.

VINCENT CHAN, HONG KONG CAR DEALER: This company is losing money.

Reporter4: For nearly 30 years, Vincent Chan has been selling secondhand luxury cars. These days, he says he can't ship them.

(on camera): This is just like an elephant's graveyard of Rolls- Royces.

CHAN: Yeah.

Reporter4 (voice-over): Many in Hong Kong, who lorded it up at the top end of town, are dumping the very symbols of their own supremacy.

CHAN: This is a Bentley. This is a Bentley. This is -- this is Rolls-Royce and Bentley. You can have a look.

Reporter4: Vincent Chan believes it will be a long wait before the buyers return.

CHAN: Now, maybe two year, maybe every two year, maybe one and a half year. Nobody knows.

Reporter4 (on camera): This is the way to see a Bentley? Sitting in the back.

(voice-over): In the current market, this perfect-condition turbo Bentley is yours for $3,000. Less, if you drive a bargain.

(on camera): So it must hurt when you have to sell these cars?

CHAN: Yes. But the sales are -- sell the car, sell the cars, they are hot rocket.

RIMINGTON (voice-over): There's an even bigger glut in what Vincent calls vanity cars.

(on camera): You'll take an offer for $15,000, $16,000 U.S. dollars for this car?

CHAN: Yes, because I need the cash.

RIMINGTON (voice-over): Showing off has never come cheaper.

(on camera): I will be back in three days. Thank you.

(voice-over): But every car sold for a fraction of it's former worth is a story of jobs and income lost.

CHAN: Bye-bye.

RIMINGTON (on camera): All right, truth be told, I didn't buy it. But Hong Kong is the kind of city where you don't really need a car anyway.

Let's take this escalator which takes thousands of commuters every day from the central business district up into the apartment belt on the slopes of the peak known as mid-levels. Even here, though, it's hard to miss signs of the downturn.

This is where they hand out all sorts of real estate fliers. And here's an example. You just see the prices come tumbling down. $16 million, these are Hong Kong dollars, down to $10.79 million. This one, $10 million, down to $6.2 million. Financial tsunami, it says. More risks, more opportunities.

RIMINGTON (voice-over): This apartment is for sale for a million U.S. dollars less than its owners paid just six months ago.

UNIDENTIFIED APARTMENT OWNER: They got three big bedrooms, right? Plus...

RIMINGTON: And still no buyer. Hong Kong's luxury property market has plunged 30 percent since July. And one of the cities sharpest real estate players says there is further to fall.

SHIH WING-CHING, CHAIRMAN, CENTRALINE: You will be U-shape recovery. You have to stay in the bottom for quite a long time. I think at least two to three years.

Reporter4: In the last three weeks, his real estate agency has laid off 1400 staff, meaning more apartments needing to be sold, more cars being ditched at any price.

Hugh Rimington, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Everybody, even the super rich.

So we have been asking what's on your mind tonight. I've been telling you you're going to get your responses on. So here's what we learned from you. We asked if you were scared about the economy.

She's The DJ says, "More afraid of not finding a job. I graduate next month, but I'm going to apply to grad school since Cali has a horrible economy.

Hawk 521 writes, "Fortunately, for me, I have job security in the prison system. However, I feel sorry for those that are jobless. What a shame."

Manicsocratic says, "The auto bailouts will only reinforce bad business decisions. Honda's profitable. G.M.'s not. One runs better than the other."

Keep your comments coming. We appreciate it.

One person said they are having to cancel everything, even going to the movies, their children's soccer, dance. They said they will be talking about that in their Thanksgiving table.

Thank you very much for all of your responses. And make sure you logon to any of those platforms right there and we will try to get them on the air for you.

Home improvement, high above the earth. They are still at work on the international space station. And it is a messy job.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(FIT NATION)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Home repair work is never easy, especially if you are 220 miles up into space. Two shuttle "endeavor" astronauts are in the middle of their longest and toughest job outside the international space station. They have got at least two more hours left in a grueling seven-hour space walk aimed at fixing a gummed up joint on that station. And they might have more fixes ahead of them. A $154 million machine they brought up to convert urine into drinking water was shut down for the third day in a row. Hope they brought some extra water there.

Talk about a scaredy cat. Look at that. Police in Rio Rancho, New Mexico say a dog chased a bobcat up their electric pole. They tried to scare it back down, but the bobcat wouldn't budge. and when it got dark, the cat eventually slid down the pole and took off. So I guess, what, eight more lives?

We have been asking are you what's been on your mind tonight, if you are scared about the economy, especially with the holidays coming up. What are you going to be talking about around your Thanksgiving table with your family and friends?

Icampbell444 said, "I don't have a job so I'm not worried about losing one. I'm more worried about not being able to find one.

Tom Matt, "We are definitely cutting back on holiday spending. Sorry, retailers."

Pundit Mom says, "Discussion at Thanksgiving? How we can make sure our retired parents can put enough food on the table after Thanksgiving day," or T-day, as she says it.

Keep your comments coming.

We are going to be on a little late this evening and so we'll be joining you at midnight eastern time.

I'm Don Lemon. I'll see you then. Thanks for joining us.

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