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Senator Burris Answers Donation Charges; Answer to E-mail Questions About the Economy.

Aired February 15, 2009 - 17:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: There, you're looking at Senator Roland Burris there who is defending himself against the latest inference that he is inconsistent with his earlier testimony during the impeachment hearing there in Chicago. Latest inference that he contradicted himself that indeed, he had contact with Blagojevich, the former Illinois governor or staffers in that office, or perhaps even the brother of the governor about campaign contributions just prior to his appointment.

And he there, in a very combative environment with the reporters there, is trying to clarify that he was never inconsistent about his testimony, that he did say to lawmakers during that impeachment hearing that indeed he did have contact -- was reached out to by the governor and governor staff members as well as others for money. And he says and I'm quoting now, that he told them it would be inappropriate and a major conflict because he had already expressed his interest in the Senate seat. Bottom line, he says, quote, "I did not donate one single dollar," end quote, to the governor. And he says, any allegations that he acted inappropriately is, in his words, "partisan politics."

Let's check in with our legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin.

The reason why is because we're also hearing, Jeffrey, out of this press conference, and even prior to the press conference that there's been talk of -- is this perjury? Should there be a resignation? Is all of this pertinent? Are these pertinent questions to ask? Did he do a good job of clarifying that he was never inconsistent?

VOICE OF JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think Senator Burris has a political problem. I don't think he has a legal problem. I don't see any way that this situation, regarding his testimony, is going to lead to an indictment or even probably even an investigation of him.

WHITFIELD: So, it sounds like you're saying he is making a good argument, that he is clarifying. He did reveal all of these during the impeachment hearing. But he may be right when he says that this is partisan politics, that the political problem about all of this is simply trying to still fight for this seat.

TOOBIN: Well, I don't know how good a job he did. He -- I think what he is likely to be accused of is being cute in his testimony at the impeachment hearing, because it does seem like -- it does seem like he downplayed the number of contacts he had with the people in the inner circle of Rod Blagojevich, the former governor. But, in order to make a perjury prosecution, you have to make an explicitly false statement, a misleading statement, a vague statement, a circular statement. None of that can lead to a criminal prosecution. It has to be an absolutely false statement.

And I think Burris did a pretty good job in showing that his statement wasn't false, but -- so I think he's probably going to be in the clear on -- from a criminal perspective. However ...

WHITFIELD: So ...

TOOBIN: ... voters may say, come on. You were being cute there. You were downplaying what your connections to the governor. So, that remains a problem if he, in fact, runs for re-election in two years.

WHITFIELD: So, from a legal and political perspective, I almost think I'm hearing from you that this was a smart move on his part to come out with this kind of clarity to respond to these questions well before it could possibly be a legal battle, which you already see that it won't be.

TOOBIN: Well, I certainly think he was smart to come out and answer the questions. I think it was kind of vague and at times meandering, his presentation. I don't know whether -- I don't think he did the best possible job.

But, you know, he's United States senator, he's a public figure. When you have accusations, you have to come answer them, you can't go in the hiding or people are going to think you are guilty. So, I certainly think he did the right thing in coming out and answering the questions.

But as I say, I think, this is going to be a continuing political problem for him. It will lead to further associations with him with Governor Blagojevich in the public's mind. So I think it definitely raises questions about his political viability if he, in fact, wants to see a seat to seat for six years in the 2010 election.

WHITFIELD: All right.

TOOBIN: But as a legal matter, do I think he's going to be prosecuted? I think that's a really, really remote possibility.

WHITFIELD: OK. And real quickly before I let you go, Jeffrey, since we're looking at pictures of the former governor right now. Any inside scoop that you may have on where the federal charges, the case may be, against Blagojevich?

TOOBIN: Well, the interesting thing about the case against Blagojevich, he was arrested in December, but he has not been indicted by the grand jury.

WHITFIELD: No charges, yes.

TOOBIN: For that, presumably will be the next step. I anticipate it will happen by April. But it is -- his legal case is a long, long way from resolution. He probably won't even go to trial in 2009. That's how far things are off with him.

WHITFIELD: All right. Senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, thanks so much. Appreciate it -- to help button up what was a pretty fiery press conference there taking place out of Chicago. I know we're going to hear much more about that battle throughout the week.

Meantime, we're also keeping a close eye on the investigation involving that Buffalo, New York, plane crash. Here's a press conference taking place right now involving the National Transportation Safety Board. Let's listen in.

STEVE CHEALANDER, NTSB: Some up to 57 miles an hour in the New York/Newark area, had nothing to do with what was going on in Buffalo is the point. The weather information is still being compiled. What we do know is that they were -- when this flight left Newark, they were told that the weather in Buffalo was light to moderate icing in the area. The visibility was three miles snow and light mist. And so it was really not a bad weather day, and they chose to launch.

We talked yesterday and a lot of questions on when the de-icing system on this airplane was turned on. It was turned on 11 minutes after departure from Newark. And it remained on the entire rest of the flight. The FDR data that we have on the gear down, flaps down, I said landing gear were down, at one minute prior to the end of the recording, and the flaps came down 20 seconds after. We'd like to fine-tune that just a little bit more with a number and tell you that the flaps coming to 10 and the upset that started to happen at that point was 26 seconds before the end of the recording.

And now, I -- oh, we also saw that the -- of course, I told you the autopilot disengaged. I told you the stick shaker activated and the stall -- and the pusher. The power was advanced, as all -- at this 20 second point -- and there we also see on the flight data recorder that the power was advanced and, as a matter of fact, it was put to full power to try to get some flying air speed back.

I told you about the pitch and roll motions, and I told you also that I would give you the numbers of the pitch. The first motion of the airplane when the upset started was a pitch up of 31 degrees. I'm giving you the maximum numbers now. I'm not giving you each of the snapshots. We have snapshots of the flight data recorder every five seconds. And what I'm giving you are the maximums that it attained.

So, it attained a 31-degree nose up pitch altitude. Then it went to a 45-degree nose low pitch altitude. It rolled at the same time it's going nose low. It's rolling to the left. It rolled to the left 46 degrees and then it rolled back to the right 105 degrees -- bank angle.

The G-forces that the flight data recorder picked up -- and I can explain G-forces if anybody needs further explanation on that. It's sufficed to say, as we all sit here today, we're experiencing 1G. So you can compare that to what I'm going to give you. The range of G- forces that were experienced by this aircraft are 0.75 to 2Gs.

The last plot we had on the flight data recorder was at 900 feet MSL. The accident site is 650 feet MSL, give or take. That's not exact. We do know Buffalo's hill elevation is 725 feet. The accident was somewhere in the vicinity of 650 feet.

We'll have more exact information on that as the FBI finishes their documentation for us. The last plot we had was at 900 feet MSL. And it was the -- the heading was -- the heading was 053 degrees magnetic. The roll was, a right roll, of 26 degrees. The pitch attitude was 30 degrees nose down and the air speed was 100 knots.

We also correlated a lot of air traffic control radar hits that were given to us from their plots. We correlated those with the flight data recorder. And one of the things that I'd like to point out was the fact that they had a radar hit of -- at 1,800 MSL and then again at 1,000 MSL.

And that timing between 1,800 feet MSL -- and MSL is "mean sea level," I'm sorry, which is height above sea level. And that's how it was measured here. From between 1,800 feet and 1,000 feet, the 800-foot altitude loss took five seconds.

The on scene, we're still in a recovery mode, still removing victims from the site. At the same time, we're removing significant parts of the aircraft that we can remove. Again, the priority is to the victims and we're removing significant amounts of the airplane parts. One of the things that we're trying to do, we have a crane on site, that is going to lift the engines and put the engines up on the road so we can further examine those.

I know that there were some conversation and some questions about the propeller blades on this airplane. And whether or not anything came off in-flight and those kind of things, and I'll just tell you that we have found all six blades of the engage number two and engine number one was consumed in fire. But we found fragments of four of the six blades thus far from engine number one burned very badly and there were composite blades, so they kind of melt down and burn up. But this is indicating to us that the airplane doesn't seem to have lost anything prior to impact, that it came down intact.

I've got some information. We've had several discussions about flying and icing, recommendations made by the NTSB, and autopilot usage in icing and those kind of things. And what I would like to do, instead of just going through a couple of things I had on my notes, my head is kind of full of all of those facts and figures and information, I'd like to leave that and answer your questions about those different areas.

So at that time -- at this time, I'd like to go ahead and open it up for questions. Yes, sir. Way in the back.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yesterday you talked about how it was in autopilot and that this is a fairly common occurrence. Today, we're reading that perhaps it shouldn't have been in autopilot because of the weather conditions. Can you elaborate on that?

CHEALANDER: OK. This is exactly what I was talking about and I'll try to elaborate on that. The NTSB, as a result of an accident that we investigated, recommended that in icing conditions, it might be best to disengage the autopilot and fly the airplane manually so that you have the manual feel for what might be changing in your flight regime because of the ice. The autopilot is keeping up with all of that, but you don't know what the autopilot is doing. You don't know that the trim is being changed. You don't know that it's steering differently because of different -- differences in the wing structure and so forth because of ice. So we suggest that you take it off of autopilot to better feel the airplane and better be able to stay ahead rapidly of those changes because of icing.

So the way -- but then I'd like to go back a little bit to the process of NTSB, FAA and air carriers. We recommend to the FAA that air carriers conduct their business this way with the autopilots and so forth. The FAA looks at that and makes their own determination as to how much rule and regulation they want to put out there to the air carriers.

So, we get in a letter-writing campaign at the NTSB. We call it a mail control system where we write them and tell them what our recommendation is. They write us back and tell us what they are going to do about it. And we write back and say whether that's unacceptable or not. And this goes back and forth for quite a period of time, hopefully, to get the recommendation implemented.

In this one situation, the FAA sees things a little differently than we do because they see that for some reasons, that you may need to be flying with the autopilot. Workload is one of those. And I answered the question last night from over here that, asked is that normal to be flying on autopilot when you are coming into a weather situation, and the answer I gave was yes, because it is normal. And you are encouraged to use the autopilot to help you with the workloads of these intense -- high intense weather situations that we fly into all the time.

Now, the FAA is the one that makes the call. The FAA is the one that, you know, either makes the regulation or not. And we can only make the recommendation. We have no enforcement power. No regulatory power.

So, to say that they should not have been flying on autopilot is not correct. I mean, it's up to the airlines. It's up to the FAA. It has not been change -- you know, become a rule yet that you will disengage the autopilot.

Now, I will tell you that several of the airlines have changed their procedures and policies as it comes to icing. And I have -- I have the aircraft or airplane flight manual for the Q400 Dash 8 which this aircraft was. I got a copy of it right here. And it says, the only restriction that they see, the manufacturer of this airplane and that they write about, is that disengage the autopilot in severe icing conditions.

Well, we've seen so far of this situation that took place on Friday the 13th, that night, or Friday the 12th, I'm sorry -- Thursday the 12th, was that, thus far, we haven't determined it's severe icing. So, so far, we see that everything seemed to be normal in using the autopilot. We also have some CVR data that tells us the trim motors were not trying to trim and keep up with things and so forth. So, it didn't seem like it was a real severe icing event.

That answer your question, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes.

CHEALANDER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Trying to get some clarity their on the issue of -- should this aircraft been on autopilot or not. We're hearing from the NTSB saying that the NTSB recommendation is -- in severe icing situations, that pilots should refrain from maintaining the autopilot, but he says in no way, shape or form does it mean that it is in violation in which to use autopilot. He says, as far as they could tell, it appears as though this aircraft was using autopilot from the point of departure from Newark and all the way to the point of it crashing.

He went through some details of the speed that the plane was going, its roll, its pitch, et cetera -- and that it took just seconds to plunge. But once again, he says, it's up to the pilot or perhaps even the FAA to use discretion as to whether to continue using autopilot, even in the case of icing.

We're going to continue to watch the investigation there. Again, 50 people died there near Buffalo, New York, one person on the ground, including the 49 on the plane when that plane simply plunged.

Meantime, during this hour, we're also going to focus on something else -- the economy. We had such a huge response yesterday when we asked you to join in on a conversation about your habits or your worries in this tough economy. So, we've extended it to yet another day. So practical answers to your questions this hour about short and long-term money issues -- where to save, where to spend, how to manage debt, et cetera.

Joining us this hour, our panel here: Dave Kansas, the editor of FiLife, an online personal finance Website; Jordan Goodman, the author of several bestselling books on personal finance; and, of course, our Josh Levs is here, to be taking your e-mails.

And, of course, we appreciate all the e-mails that have been coming in all day. We're going to take a short break, and then, we'll address some of your questions right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back to the NEWSROOM. We're devoting the rest of this hour to your money.

You've been sending us so many questions about how to manage, whether it's your job that you've lost, your health care coverage, all that. And then we know the stimulus package is going to be signed on Tuesday. So, what does it all mean to you?

We've got a great panel here. Jordan Goodman, editorial staff of "Money" magazine for 18 years. We've got our little "Brady Bunch" box here again. His latest book is, "Fast Profits in Hard Times: 10 Secret Strategies to Make You Rich in an Up or Down Economy" -- joining us from New York.

And we also have Dave Kansas, also with us. And you are the author of so many books as well, including "The Wall Street Journal Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know It." We're going to be delving into that a little bit later on. He's joining us from New York.

And we've also got Josh Levs, who's been fielding so many of your e- mail questions.

So, let's just kind of have a broad stroke issue here. Stimulus package -- to be signed on Tuesday. So, Jordan, your point of view, how might I or you, anybody, feel some benefits of it right away?

JORDAN GOODMAN, AUTHOR, "FAST PROFITS IN HARD TIMES": Well, there are going to be some things right away. For example, you'll have a $400 per person tax credit, $800 for families. So, you'll start to get money that way. If you are getting Social Security, you'll get $250 earnings credit.

Obviously, in the long run, they want to create jobs through infrastructure in various ways. Things that are -- might have had trouble are going to continue, unemployment insurance. It's going to be extended an additional $25 there. Food stamps, Medicaid -- a lot of programs that might have been in danger otherwise are going to get money ...

WHITFIELD: OK.

GOODMAN: ... from this will remain in decent shape.

WHITFIELD: All right. So, Dave, some clarity on how does that stimulate the overall economy?

DAVE KANSAS, EDITOR, FILIFE: Well, the idea is that by getting people more money into their pockets, they will spend that money, which will help increase demand. President Obama has talked about a $1 trillion demand hold, basically. And so, the idea is to use this stimulus package to get money to people, get money to state programs ...

WHITFIELD: Yes.

KANSAS: ... and get people spending that money to get the economy moving forward again.

WHITFIELD: OK. So, Josh, you've been fielding all of these e-mails.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes.

WHITFIELD: Everything from questions to comments. What are folks saying about this? LEVS: We are getting so many questions. This won't surprise you at all. You'll take a look at this.

But let me start off with one thing here. We're going to zoom in on the board because we'll pose this to Jordan. But I don't know if you, guys, can have a simple answer.

So many people are asking -- look, you got a limited amount of money, right? Do you put it into your debt, your 401(k), try to pay down that mortgage, or do you actually try to create some savings in case you lose your job? What's the order in this economy?

Jordan, to you first.

GOODMAN: You have to do some debt and some equity. You know, if you spend all your money paying down debt, you aren't going to ever get the savings and have your money grow for you. So, I would say a combination.

Certainly, if you have very high interest rates on your credit cards, that you know you're going to get a guaranteed rate of return. If you're paying 18 percent or 25 percent on your credit cards, and you pay that down, you are getting a guaranteed 18 percent or 25 percent, which you're not going to get for sure in your 401(k).

WHITFIELD: Yes.

GOODMAN: So, certainly, start with that. Also, if you have a 401(k), particularly if it's being matched, make sure you are doing that as well. If you are getting a match, that's a certain amount of free money. So, you want to do that.

Savings ...

LEVS: OK.

GOODMAN: It's nice, but you're getting almost no return on it today. So, that would be my lowest priority.

LEVS: Focus on the return, even if there's this risk out there of losing a job for now and make that your last option, at least for now. That helps a lot -- a lot of people.

Let's go back to the board. We go over to -- Dave, to you. A lot of people are asking whether anything in the stimulus impacts them right now. Should they do something differently in 2008 because of what we're seeing here? Including this maybe this -- does it affect whether you should file together or jointly? Anything differently come this April?

KANSAS: Well, Jordan mentioned the big things -- the tax credit, $400, $800 per family.

LEVS: Right.

KANSAS: There's also a provision that is going to push the ATM, which is the alternative -- or AMT, alternative minimum tax out for 26 million families.

LEVS: These things are just happened. Is there a way to file differently this April because of what's there -- something you need to know to file differently?

KANSAS: Nothing specific that you need to know.

LEVS: OK.

KANSAS: But I think that, you know, most people need to talk to their tax preparer to find out if there are specific things they can tap into. One is there is some college tuition cost benefits and also increased children -- child income tax credits that could help people in their current file.

WHITFIELD: Because you know, Dave and Josh, a lot of times, people wonder whether filing individually or jointly best benefits them, even if you are talking about, you know, a married couple. So, it sounds like that's what that e-mailer was looking for.

LEVS: Exactly.

KANSAS: Well, I think, a lot depends on the different incomes. If one spouse has a much lower income, filing jointly can help even that out. So, that can be an advantage.

And if you are about the same, then it's -- you are probably best off talking to a tax preparer because they're going to have the most advice to your particular situation. It's really hard to give a blanket answer for individuals versus couples because there are so many specific things.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

LEVS: A lot of number crunching to do there.

Really quickly, let's go to Jordan -- just really quickly -- a lot of people asking us for more specifics on how the latest stimulus that is going through can affect people who are on pensions, people who are retired, people who are in older years. What should they know -- something to look forward in there, some tremendous help that we haven't gotten to mention yet?

GOODMAN: Well, basically, the $250 for people collecting Social Security will be an additional amount of earned income for them. That's one thing. It's hopefully going to boost pension stability to some extent, but it's not going to produce any additional income for anybody who's already retired right now or disabled for that matter. So, that's not really where most of the money. They are trying to create new jobs ...

LEVS: Right.

GOODMAN: ... with people who are in the working, not already retired.

LEVS: So, it doesn't do that much. Just a little bit. OK. GOODMAN: Right.

WHITFIELD: All right, gentlemen, coming up after this break, we're going to focus on jobs. Six hundred thousand Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. So, where is the hope?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Here's what's happening right now. Just minutes ago, the National Transportation Safety Board revealed details about the crash of Continental Flight 3407. The NTSB says pilots were using autopilot on their approach to the airport. Company policy and the NTSB recommend that pilots fly manually in icy conditions, but it's not prohibited to use autopilot.

The victims of that crash, meantime, were remembered today at a church service in Clarence Center, New York. Flowers, notes and other items have been left in a makeshift memorial.

And last hour, Illinois Senator Roland Burris discussed the revelation that he was approached by former Governor Rod Blagojevich's brother about fund-raising before being appointed to the Senate. Burris denies that contradicts statements that he made to an impeachment panel. Illinois Republicans are calling for the senator to resign.

But you heard from our Jeffrey Toobin earlier who says, he thinks this is more political matter and not a legal one.

Meantime, GOP leaders are still steamed about the stimulus bill. Senator John McCain said president Obama was off to a bad start while South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said, quote, "If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country is screwed."

We'll get back to your "Money Matters" and your e-mails in a short break.

Meantime, Galileo gazed into the stars with his telescope almost 400 years ago. But it wasn't until 1990 that the first major telescope went into space. We know it as Hubble. Now its replacement is in the works.

Gary Tuchman has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Hubble space telescope showed us galaxies, planets, even exploding stars. Things we'd never seen before. In 2013, its successor, will take you to infinity and beyond.

PAUL GEITHNER, JAMES WEBB SPACE PROGRAM: It's going to see the -- that part of space and time when the very first south galaxies and very first star is born. More than 13 billion years ago.

TUCHMAN: Named after the man who pioneered the first moon land, it's called the James Webb telescope or the JWT. It consists of 18 foldable mirrors, each two stories high. To protect those mirrors from the sun, the JWT is equipped with a shield the size of a tennis court. All these giant parts fold up into the nose cone of a rocket that will blast it a million miles into space.

Since the JWT is too far away for repairs, scientists have designed options on board JWT so problems like the Hubble's blurry lens are less likely to happen again.

GEITHNER: We designed in enough adjustability that we can get it all aligned on orbit.

TUCHMAN: So experts expect the JWT to keep us tuned in, perhaps delivers as many surprises as Hubble, maybe more.

GEITHNER: When we look at nature with a new tool, with new capabilities, we always discover amazing things. And that's the promise of the James Webb telescope.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: More jobs being cut and more people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time. It's also top of mind for a lot of you who have been sending us e-mails yesterday and even today. We'll continue our conversation and hopefully find some hope for a lot of people looking for work.

Dave Kansas, the editor of FiLife, an online personal finance web site joining us again.

Jordan Goodman, the author of several best selling books on personal finance.

And Josh Levs, who has been fielding a lot of your e-mails.

Josh, let's begin with one of the first e-mail questions about jobs.

JOSH LEVS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I'm going to smush two of them together. They get at the same idea. Let's zoon in on the board.

Somebody is asking about good fields to enter in this economy. "We ran a small business that thrives on misery. Unfortunately, my income has decreased by $70,000. Bad debts are getting harder to collect." This is a debt collector who is struggling. Looking for a different field.

I want to connect it to this one below it. "I'm a mechanical engineer. How can an entry level candidate get into this industry? There seem to be only opportunities for well-seasoned engineers." And that's Tom.

The reason I present that is we can hear about fields but that doesn't mean anyone can just apply for it, Fred. That's what we should hear from our guests, not only what are the fields open but how do you get there. WHITFIELD: All right, Jordan, you first then. How do you distinguish yourself?

JORDAN GOODMAN, AUTHOR: As far as mechanical engineers, if you are lower priced, you may get a better chance than if you are higher priced. That's what people are looking for, companies, lowering their costs any way possible. So if you are younger on the food chain, that might be an advantage in this environment.

WHITFIELD: Even though you are the seasoned worker who has a lot to offer and you, too, may be willing to take a pay cut simply because getting some kind of paycheck is better than no paycheck. It's hard to sell yourself still to a lot of employers. Why?

GOODMAN: That's right. The other thing is outsourcing is still very big. A lot of companies don't want to pay benefits. You could be a consultant or somehow help them, not being on payroll, you might have a better chance than the other way around.

As far as the other thing, I would say a lot of companies will continue to lay people off. We've had -- you can go through the numbers, 7,000, Home Depot; Microsoft 5,000. Companies that weren't laying people off now are laying people off. So I'm saying I think you have to be your own self. I call it the era of me, inc. You have to be your on entrepreneur to some extent. And not be reliant on whether the company is going to keep an employee or not.

I'm involved in one myself, which has actually helped a lot of people, which is called Financial Destination, Inc., FDI. There's a website people can find out about that, which is fdimember.com/moneyanswers. They help people with their personal finances. And they have all kinds of ways...

WHITFIELD: One more time on that web site?

JOSH: Yeah, one more time.

WHITFIELD: You have a huge volume of websites. One more time on that one.

GOODMAN: Fdimember.com/moneyanswers. And it has a series of all kind of financial personal services that help people get better deals on their medical costs, getting out of debt in various ways, personal financial plans, retirement building.

WHTIFIELD: Josh has another e-mail for Dave.

LEVS: I do. I have two things. You said so many web sites yesterday. You both did. We got a lot of requests about them. So you'll be able to get all of them. If you're on Facebook, I've listed every web page we've mentioned so far. We'll be putting more. Just go to my page, Joshlevscnn. We have all these web sites that you mentioned yesterday. Everybody is asking how to reach these.

Really quickly. Let's get one more question here. This is to Dave. We'll ask you, if you know you are going to be laid off from your job in the next few weeks -- this is Diana -- what do you do right now to prepare?

DAVE KANSAS, EDITOR, FILIFE: Well, a number of things. You want to start work on your resume right away because you want to get that in good shape so you can start looking around for another job. Check your savings and debt situation. Ideally, you've built up savings to weather that storm. Look into COBRA benefits, the health care extension that happens after you leave your job, and figure out how you'll be able to afford that and budget for that, because that's an important benefit. Those are some of the things to do if you look like you'll get laid off.

WHITFIELD: Very good.

We know this week the Obama administration, the president is to sign the stimulus bill. We also anticipate this week the administration will be addressing the issue of foreclosures. And we have a whole lot of e-mails asking about that right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We're focusing on your money now for another almost 20 minutes or so. We've got a great panel here.

Say you do have a little bit of money. What do you do with it? That's at least what one person is asking, Josh.

LEVS: Exactly. Let's zoom in. I'm going to show you a couple of e- mails to get right to that point. We'll present it to the guests here.

Some people are asking about bonds. Look, stocks are down. What about bonds.

Check out the second one from Lynette. "How can I keep my dollars safe in this downturn in the economy or learn about my choices."

You know, Fred, you and I, I think, both know people who said, I'm putting everything in cash and sticking it under my pillow. So this is what we're looking for from the guests now.

WHITFIELD: Jordan, what do you think?

GOODMAN: Putting it in your pillow doesn't get you any return whatsoever. You are guaranteed never to make it grow. So I don't think that's the right thing to do.

WHITFIELD: No insurance on that either.

GOODMAN: No insurance on that. Even the FDIC doesn't cover your pillow. That's right. No, there are better places to be. I do think gold. It makes sense in this environment because it's gone up some. It's about $900 an ounce. With the money we're printing, it makes sense to do gold. They can either do physical gold. You can do gold exchange traded funds. 112gld, for example, which is a very pure way to do gold. You can do gold mining shares. Those have done it and will continue to do well. There's a website which is called crushtherecession.com, which is a series of newsletter specifically designed to help people do well in this environment.

LEVS: That's on the list.

GOODMAN: And the book I did, "Fast Profits in Hard Times," has loads of suggestions that do well when the economy is going down. Just to give you one idea, Inverse ETFs. Those are exchange traded funds that go up when the stock market is going down. They're doing well right now.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dave. You have 30 seconds. Where do you put your money?

KANSAS: I think another option is to treasure -- is treasuries that are inflation protected, called TIPs. You can go to treasurydirect.gov to check out information about various treasuries. They are safe. They give you a return. Like Jordan's point about gold, there's a lot of fear about inflation and TIPs are protected against inflation, so you can make a return on your money, and not worry about potential inflation, which a lot of people think the deficit spending will lead to. Treasurydirect.gov is a place to learn more about treasuries, including TIPs.

WHITFIELD: OK, Dave, Jordan, Josh, thanks so much.

We have lots more e-mails coming your way.

Here's another little something, if you have a little bit of cash why not think about a budget vacation? Yeah, in this bad economy, you can actually find some pretty good deals.

Geneve Brown of Travelocity says such great rock-bottom prices you can easily think about places like South Africa.

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WHITFIELD: It's all pretty depressing, lost jobs, lost money, lost homes as well. Now we are getting a little encouragement from some of the big lenders that they'll continue a moratorium on foreclosures, but is that enough to ease the worry of many of our e-mailers?

Josh Levs is here along with Dave and Jordan.

Josh, what's the first question on home life?

LEVS: You know what, Fred? A lot of people wrote us. They keep hearing about how hard it is to buy in this economy. What about how hard it is to sell.

Let's zoom in on the board. This comes from Bobby. "We're trying to sell our home. It's been a hassle for the last year or so. A lot of money has been wasted towards this." So let's hear from our guests on this, Fred. What do you do best to sell in this economy?

WHITFIELD: Jordan?

GOODMAN: You have to be realistic about the price. People have in mind the price it was in 2005 or 2006. We're in 2009. If you're really going to sell it, you have to lower it to a price that's going to be affordable.

WHITFIELD: People are also thinking about what they've invested in into their homes. They don't want to lose that.

GOODMAN: They don't. But if you want to sell, you have to be what the market is today. The other you can do to help is to offer seller financing. There's a lot of people who would like to buy, but because they can't afford or get mortgages, they can't qualify for mortgages, they'll be able to get seller financing. That's a way to move if you can get some interest and get it as a price that people are willing to buy it for.

WHITFIELD: Josh, do you have another question for Dave?

LEVS: We do. Let's look at the flip side, if you want to buy.

We'll zoom back in on the board to this simple question from Kurt. I'll skip to the end. "Can you recommend a credible mortgage company that I can reach out to?"

You know, there's a lot of places out there that are making a lot of offers, but let's bring this to Dave. Where do you go first special if you are looking for are a mortgage you can trust and afford right now?

KANSAS: I think the best thing to do is try to focus in on a local financial institution.

LEVS: Local first.

KANSAS: Locally, they'll generally give you better service and know who you are and your community better. They aren't the big behemoths that are dealing with issues across the country and the globe. A lot of local providers actually dodge some of the toxic problems that hit some of the bigger banks. They might be in a better position to evaluate your mortgage on a more personal level. I would start local when you're trying to find a mortgage.

LEVS: While we're on mortgages, quickly, to Jordon, I want to show you this from. This comes to us from Eric, asking what you should do about a reverse mortgage at this point. They have about $80,000 available from their reverse mortgage. Talk to me about the role of a reverse mortgage in this economy. Is this something people should be jumping on? What should people do there?

GOODMAN: Possibly, a reverse mortgage is when you have equity built up. You can get money out of it. You pay it back when you sell the house. There is a web site for that. arcreverse.com, can help you.

And by answering the previous question, there is a good local mortgage that works all across the country which is what I have myself, which is called the automatic rate cutter, ARC loan. People can find out about it at arcloan.com. It comes down automatically every six months if rates fall, but it never goes up. Mine has come down six times from when I got it originally.

WHITFIELD: Wow. So it never goes up like an adjustable would?

GOODMAN: It never goes up. It keeps going down, down, down. It will never go up, that's correct. Arcloan.com can help some folks there.

WHITFIELD: Got any other e-mails there?

LEVS: We do. Let me tell you, really quickly. You keep hearing all these web sites they mentioned, I promise, before the end of the show, I'll tell you how you can get to every single one. There's a list on facebook.com and my page, joshlevscnn, but also you can reach Jordan. This is all you're going to need to know. Moneyanswers.com, to reach Jordan.

Right, Jordan, moneyanswers.com?

GOODMAN: Correct.

LEVS: To reach, Dave, filife.com, f-i-l-i-f-e. All of this is on my web page at Facebook, joshlevscnn. If you're on there, search me. I'm putting a link to every single site I just mentioned.

WHITFIELD: And it is so much information, you can't possibly write fast enough. I've been trying. So it is good to back and refer to your web site, your favorite locations.

All right, thanks so much, guys. We're going to talk some more right after a short break. What is your financial health if you don't also secure your own personal health? Straight ahead.

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WHITIFLED: Health coverage costs money, but sometimes not having it can cost even more.

Jordan, Dave, Josh, all here now.

And, Josh, you have an e-mail question to our experts?

LEVS: Yeah. This is the most moving one we've received today. We have to be really fast. Let me get right to it.

From Lynn Webster, check this out. "My son's a single parent with one child. He lost his job and does not quality for unemployment, does not have any health insurance, and he's a transplant patient, and his medication is exuberant." This, to me, says right here about our health situation in America. WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh.

LEVS: How does he get help? This is what we need to hear.

WHITFIELD: Jordan?

GOODMAN: Basically, what's called medical repricing. He can get a preferred provider organization -- PPP, where all the expenses he can get can be reduced dramatically, 50 percent, 60 percent. Something I use myself all the time. In a case like, this he won't qualify for health insurance because he has preexisting health conditions. The best he can do is lower the price on those things with a PPO.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dave, offer him some hope.

KANSAS: There's some other things he can do. He can set up a health savings account where you can use pre-tax money.

WHITFIELD; Savings account. He's just lost his job.

KANSAS: Well, I know, but, you know, there is an opportunity if he can get any money into a health savings account, he's going to need some money to pay for something. The only other option -- this is difficult -- this is basically an emergency room because that's where they have to give you care.

The health care situation is brutal. People who don't have a job really face a very difficult situation, even if they have COBRA, which this gentleman doesn't qualify.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

LEVS: It is so wrong to be in that situation at all. We shouldn't have to have that.

But I have a way to end on a more positive note, because this is interesting.

We have one question -- I'll be really fast here -- that's more about what you know can do for your country. Check this out.

"How can we come together as citizens in order to make this stimulus package work? From Denise.

Jordan, really quickly, what can people do if they want to help?

GOODMAN: I think they want to spend the money. If you want to get job going, get the retail economy moving, that's the best thing to do. That's what the government wants you to do is go spend it and make the economy better.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh, such a contradiction, spend money, but then you never know, the rainy day, don't spend money, save it.

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GOODMAN: Try to be patriotic.

WHITFIELD: Dave? Quick.

KANSAS: Maybe treat yourself to a quick meal out, a dinner out. That might help get something sparked.

WHITFIELD: OK, out of time.

All right, Dave Kansas, Jordan Goodman, Josh Levs, thanks so much.

And thanks to you for all of your e-mails. Appreciate it.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks for being with us this hour.

Much more in the "NEWSROOM" and other headlines later on this evening.

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