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Did Obama Achieve Goals at G-20?; Spain Has Largest Number of Temps; G-20 to the Rescue: Leaders Pledge New Money, New Rules; Property Tax Protests; An Autistic Boy's Friend; President Obama: Live From the G-20 Summit

Aired April 02, 2009 - 13:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's push it forward now with Kyra Phillips in the CNN NEWSROOM.

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Tony, thanks so much.

President Obama and his fellow world leaders close the books on the G-20 summit. Their blueprints for economic recovery, a huge boost for the International Monetary Fund. A stimulus program for world trade, and new regulations on hedge funds, tax havens and other financial minefields.

President Obama due to hold a news conference in 15 minutes. We'll bring that to you live.

Then it's on to a NATO summit in France.

Other stories you need to know about, as well. Check out the swirling colors. You know that can't be good. Flash floods, the threat of twisters. People in the South, look out.

Plus, what's your congressman or congresswoman doing? What are they making? Who are they schmoozing? You can find out right now.

And danger could be lurking behind your walls. If you don't know where your drywall comes from, you'd better find out quickly.

Now back to London, where hours of G-20 wheeling and dealing add up to what, exactly? Let's go to CNN's Suzanne Malveaux. She's joining me with more on the bottom line and where we go from here.

Hi, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.

Obviously looking at a communique. And there's going to be a lot of questions at this press conference about 15 minutes away. But the big question: whether or not President Obama really did get what he was hoping for.

He was talking about, encouraging a huge economic stimulus package, all these countries weighing in and contributing money to their economies to help grow. From the communique, we're looking at about $5 trillion. But it's hard to pick it apart to see what goes to what country, whether or not it was the kind of thing that the Obama administration was looking for.

But one thing that they did pledge very definitively here is this number, $1.1 trillion. That is the amount of money that's going to go to the World Bank as well as the IMF. It's not economic stimulus, per se, but it's the kind of money that they allow for loans to poor countries, a kind of bailout money.

Another thing in the communique that we saw is that these individual countries decided that they would, at least in their own countries, crack down when it comes to hedge funds, when it comes to tax havens. Also new rules applying, linking executive pay to performance.

Those are good things. Those are things that the Obama administration was looking for. But more importantly, it's what France and Germany were really seeking. They wanted those tougher regulations on financial institutions, because they say that's what got us in this mess in the first place.

The final point here when looking at the communique is the one thing that France and Germany didn't get that the Obama administration did was that they were hoping for perhaps an international group or even an individual who would be able to enforce those kinds of tough regulations. The Obama administration did not think that that was actually a good idea. They didn't want some sort of international body to impose and enforce rules over our own financial institutions. So that was scrapped.

So if you take a look at the communique, this is really something for everyone. Everyone kind of comes out in the winning end here. Nobody got everything that they wanted, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Of course, we'll keep following it. It's not over yet. Suzanne, thanks so much.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five, six, seven, eight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop the killing, stop the hate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop the killing, stop the hate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop the killing, stop the hate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And this isn't over yet either. Not far from the center ring, the side show. Another day of protests over war, greed, corruption, pollution, you name it.

Today's backlash is a lot smaller than yesterday's. But it's had its moments, including this one. The French daredevil known as "Spider-Man" scaled the Lloyd's of London building, supposedly to spotlight climate change. And then back in the U.S., we're expecting a bit of relief in the job market, but right now, no relief in sight. Six hundred and sixty- nine thousand people filed first-time claims for jobless benefits last week. A 26-year high and up 12,000 from the week before. Economists had expected new claims to drop.

Also, there's more evidence that finding a job is as tough as ever. The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits has risen to 5.7 million, a tenth straight record.

Let's go ahead and look at the Dow Industrials right now. It looks like the numbers up 283 points. Pretty good.

Now, we're also talking about the damaging hail, the drenching rain, the threat of tornadoes now. They're all possible today across parts of the southeast. The region's gotten so much rain lately, as much as 17 inches, actually, in some areas. And there's also a big threat of flash floods.

It already looks like a lake in Georgia. It's a small city there getting more rain today. Florida's also getting drenched. The latest storm system caused street flooding and wind damage in West Palm Beach.

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PHILLIPS: Well, do you recognize this guy? He's tracking billions of your tax dollars. We're going to take you on the beat with the bailout cop.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Live pictures now from London, England, at the Excel Centre. That's where we're waiting for President Obama to step up to the mikes and brief reporters, brief the world, basically, on some decisions that have been made among him and the G-20 financial -- or 20 leaders, rather, at the G-20 summit. We're going to take that live as soon as it happens.

"Well, it wasn't me." Former AIG chief executive Maurice Greenberg says that he's not responsible for the company's collapse, the biggest corporate failure in U.S. history. Instead, he claims his successors for risky business practices, and he tells a House panel that the government bailout of AIG has left you, the taxpayer, well, with a pretty bad deal, an investment in a still-declining company.

Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings, a long-time AIG critic, says that many of those risky business practices happened before Greenberg left in 2005. But Greenberg pointed the finger right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAURICE GREENBERG, FORMER CEO, AIG: I share your concern and the concern of the American people at the terms of the AIG bailout and its tremendous burden on taxpayers. All plans so far advanced by the U.S. government to date have failed, and the current plan, in my opinion, will not succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, that's your taxpayer money that he's talking about. So what's going to happen to it? Well, the guy you're looking at is trying to find out. But following the money trail sure isn't easy.

Here's CNN's Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lashing out at bankers is all the rage these days.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When do we want it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now!

ACOSTA: Much of the outrage is over the taxpayer bailout on Wall Street and how several bailed-out firms have doled out big executive bonuses and bought lavish corporate jets, all of it begging the question...

(on camera) Where has this bailout money gone? Do we know?

NEIL BAROFSKY, BAILOUT SPECIAL INSPECTOR GENERAL: We're finding out.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Neil Barofsky is determined to find out, as the Treasury Department's special inspector general investigating the bailout, or TARP, as it's known in Washington. He's been called the bailout cop.

(on camera) So you don't mind being referred to as the bailout cop?

BAROFSKY: No, that is actually one of the most important parts of my job.

ACOSTA (voice-over): He knows the job well. As a federal prosecutor, Barofsky took down Refco's CEO, Phillip Bennett, who went to prison for defrauding investors.

BAROFSKY: I'm honored to appear before you today.

ACOSTA: Just three months on his new beat, Barofsky has launched an audit of those AIG bonuses. And he says he's opened up at least a dozen criminal fraud investigations into bailout recipients, based on tips from whistleblowers. He wouldn't offer details, but he explained what he's after. BAROFSKY: One example, a bank lies. In order to get funding from some of these investments that you've heard about, they have to present financial information to the treasury before they can get that money. If there's a lie, or they're cooking their books, they're shaving away at their accounting for those assets, that's a crime.

ACOSTA: Because the banks were never told just how they could use the bailout money...

BAROFSKY: It was left up to the banks what to do with the money.

ACOSTA: ... Barofsky cautions those corporate jets may not amount to a crime. He's asked 364 banks and financial firms to reveal just how they've spent their bailout funds. Some of it, he adds, has gone to legitimate purposes.

BAROFSKY: Part of the problem is, is that when banks received this money, they weren't told to keep track of the money. We've made a recommendation that they should be required to do so, but they weren't. And some banks...

ACOSTA (on camera): They weren't told to keep track of this money?

BAROFSKY: They were not. They were not. And...

ACOSTA: So it's possible at this point that we may never know where all of this money has gone?

BAROFSKY: We're going to do our best to find out.

ACOSTA: Neil Barofsky says any tips on bailout fraud should go to his Web site, sigtarp.gov. If Barofsky and his team of attorneys are able to make a criminal case, he says he will turn it over to the Justice Department for prosecution. His next report on the bailout is due out in three weeks.

Jim Acosta, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, if you want to know what the heck those men and women are up to on the Hill, boy, do we have a Web site for you. It's called LegiStorm.com, and it's creating quite a storm. It claims to be totally nonpartisan and dedicated to making Congress as transparent as possible.

It's got all kinds of sections on salaries, earmarks, trips. It even tells you where lawmakers' spouses work. Pretty much everything except what they had for lunch.

Check it out. There's one section here that you actually go to, talking -- and it breaks it down by every member of Congress and trips they have taken, how much they've spent. It's divided by Republicans and Democrats. It goes all the way from Aachen, Germany, to Aiken, South Carolina, and that's just the "A's." It takes you all through the alphabet, every single leader.

And what we're going to do, coming up in the next hour, we're actually going to talk to the mastermind of this Web site, Jock Friedly. He's going to join us next hour in the NEWSROOM to show us what else that you can actually find on here.

Take a look at this awesome place. You know you want to go there on vacation. Right? And then you just realized, well, once you see the big plans that some designers have for washed-up oil rigs, you might have second thoughts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, we're going to find out tomorrow how many Americans lost jobs last month. And economists expect the nation's unemployment rate to actually jump from 8.1 to 8.5 percent.

For laid-off workers the world over, temp work can be a road to rescue, or at least an on-ramp, but it's not a final destination. CNN's Al Goodman reports from Madrid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Patricia Frutos is an unemployed flight attendant who collects government jobless benefits, but she's very busy -- working. In downtown Madrid, she's just left a job teaching aspiring flight attendants. She took us along on a day she works three part-time jobs while being officially unemployed.

PATRICIA FRUTOS, UNEMPLOYED FLIGHT ATTENDANT: We're going to my next shop today. We come from the air host school where I teach, and now we're going to a children's school where I teach, too.

GOODMAN: She's stuck in a revolving door of temporary jobs, like 4 million other Spaniards. Even as an air stewardess, she works six months on, then a year off, then six months on.

(on camera) Spain has the highest percentage of temporary workers in the European Union. About a fourth of the work force here owns temporary contracts that last just months or for a few years. And the financial crisis is hitting these people very hard.

(voice-over) This economist says it costs a Spanish company three times more in severance pay to lay off a fixed contract worker than a temporary one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what's happening with the crisis basically, this dual structure, means that the brunt of all the adjustment is taken -- being taken by those who have the temporary jobs.

GOODMAN: Frutos collects about $1,000 a month in jobless benefits but doubles her income with her part-time jobs that the government doesn't know about.

(on camera) You feel like you're cheating the government?

FRUTOS: Yes, in a certain way I am. But else can I do? Stay at home with nothing to eat? Or it's like, no.

GOODMAN (voice-over): But her unemployment payments end in just three months.

FRUTOS: I'm thinking about leaving, leaving here and following up the road (ph) and looking for a job maybe outside.

GOODMAN: But first a quick lunch before her third part-time job.

FRUTOS: The problem I have is that I'm always in a rush. Always in a rush. So stressful.

GOODMAN: Soon it's back in the car for a 25-minute drive south of Madrid, where she tutors a teenage boy in English. It's not as exciting as flying.

Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Facebook, a place to reconnect with old friends, keep up with new ones, and help out total strangers. Kreg Graham got a new job, but he didn't have the right clothes for is. So he told one of his Facebook friends. She told one of her Facebook friends, and on and on and on. And now Greg's got a brand-new wardrobe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KREG GRAHAM, GOT NEW WARDROBE THROUGH FACEBOOK: I'm excited. And then they said, "We go by the books, and by the books, you have to be in suits."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, Kreg says that the hardest part was just asking for help. And once he did, he realized there was tons of people out there just waiting to help him. Now he's paying it forward. He's asking people with clothing -- or people that have clothing needs just to contact him at SuitsForOthers@gmail.com. And he's going to give back.

Well, this is what happens when you have a contest to see who has the most radical new idea for hospitality. A group of architects in Houston dreamed this up: an abandoned oil rig out on the Gulf of Mexico. Well, it's been turned into a swanky hotel powered by windmills and wave energy. It's like an island vacation without the beach.

Designers say it's a good, green way to make those rigs useful, once they're all pumped out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a hotel on an oil rig. It's a little surprising.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like it, something that nobody else has done before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think there are people that would probably be very interested in it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, this is still just an idea, but the designers say they'd love to meet with an oil company to talk it over.

Well, for years after a South Carolina man died, awful rumors floated around town, rumors that 6'5" minister James Hines's legs were cut off so he could fit into his casket.

Well, authorities finally did exhume the body. And while they didn't release details, here's the quote: "We found undesirable evidence." And a criminal investigation has been launched against the funeral home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUTH HINES, WIDOW: I'm just going through quite a bit. It's like starting all over again. And is definitely -- it's hurt and numbness.

DET. DONNIE HUTTO, ALLENDALE, SOUTH CAROLINA, POLICE: It was pretty tough to sit and look at something like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Pretty tough? Outright wrong. No comment so far from the funeral home. Mr. Hines's body has been reburied, by the way.

All right. We don't have any video for this next story, but it's probably better that way. Listen to this.

Some British high school students got quite an eyeful in a very special sex ed class. A group of naked men lined up in the school's gym as the kids watched a live feed and inspected the guys' bodies.

The interactive lesson was part of a TV program called "The Sex Education Show." And yes, all the students had to get Mom and Dad's permission.

The southeast is getting soaked again, a powerful storm system dumping torrential rain and hail, with the threat of tornadoes. We're following it for you.

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PHILLIPS: Once again, waiting for President Obama to step up to the mike, since he's getting ready to hold a news conference in London, England, over at the Excel Centre, talking about some of the agreements made among him and other leaders there at the G-20 summit. We'll bring it to you as soon as it happens.

Severe weather across the southeast. Tornado watches and warnings have already popped up across the region today. Bonnie Schneider, busy day for you, tracking all the danger zones for us.

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PHILLIPS: A trillion dollars for developing economies, regulations in place if anything goes, limits on executive pay. The G-20 summit yielded all these things and more in a campaign to conquer the worldwide recession and unify the U.S. and Europe in the process.

From London, CNN's Jim Boulden joins me now to sort of try to attempt to push this agreement forward.

You know, I appreciate this, Jim. You're out in the middle of all the protestors with your riot gear, and at the same time you've got your suit and tie ready to talk policies.

So, you know, where do we start? Because there are a lot of things that they decided on. What do you see as something that both Americans and Europeans will be looking to as, "OK, that's what I want to hear"? Would it be more regulation on these banks?

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think the regulation. They said specifically they are going to regulate hedge funds or regulate them more. They said they are going to regulate rating agencies. These are the agencies that tell us whether the banks are safe or unsafe and how much money they have. And it used to -- they think there was a conflict of interest there, so they're going to regulate them.

They said they're going to clamp down on bonuses and executive pay, certainly something people in the states would be very happy to hear about.

But what we don't know is then how they're going to actually implement this. Because this is the idea that all the countries say, "Yes, we're going to do it," but of course, there isn't a global regulator to do that. Each country will have to then go in and make specific decisions of how to meet that target.

PHILLIPS: So OK, and you bring up a good question. There isn't one entity to regulate. Right?

BOULDEN: Yes, yes.

PHILLIPS: Like how they have the Interpol for intelligence, you know, globally.

BOULDEN: No.

PHILLIPS: So is it possible that that could be created? Or would some leaders come forward and say, "OK, now wait a minute. We've got to have some sort of freedom here, some availability to do our own thing"? BOULDEN: Exactly. And there's no way the U.S. Congress or the Parliament here in the U.K. is going to hand that over to some global regulator based somewhere in Europe. And that's not going to happen.

The idea is that the leaders have -- have come together and said they will do this, but then it's going to be up to the countries to actually implement it.

But you know, we heard this from Mr. Brown, the prime minister, here today. And even the presidents of -- the president of France and the chancellor of Germany all say that this is extraordinary, this is historic. Major achievements that they didn't even think could happen.

And Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, "Could you have imagined, five years -- five months ago coming together and saying they're going to do this, they're going to clamp down on these tax havens, these places that people hide their money?"

So we're going to hear about some tax havens later today that aren't cooperating. And they're going to clamp down on those as well. That's an extraordinary achievement, if that can actually be achieved here.

PHILLIPS: Also, too, they said, OK, from this point forward, these decisions that we make absolutely means no more rewards for failures.

So I guess my next question is, how do you gauge what's failure and what's not failure?

BOULDEN: Well, you know, if the Congress or someone can implement a rule, a law that says that banks and financial institutions and large companies cannot just give bonuses depending on lofty goals. They have to have bonuses actually based on performance. You know, we had the share prices ballooning of some of these companies based on false accounting, and then the executives got bonuses based on the false accounting.

And so, if they can put in some measures that would actually stop that, curtail it, that's the kind of thing they said today they have decided to do.

PHILLIPS: Jim, final question, apparently Gordon Brown came forward and said, OK, we're going to review all these decisions in a year. So does that mean within a year we're actually going to see some guidelines, maybe some legislation, some decisions on paper that these countries have to stick to?

BOULDEN: I don't know about, "have to stick to." Of course, you know, we did hear some five months ago when they all met in Washington say they weren't going to have protectionist measures, and then we saw some trade protectionist measures.

So I - apparently, they're going to meet again in a couple months and they could actually meet in New York in September at the U.N. General Assembly and sort of have a G-20 side meeting. That's what the president of France said is going to happen.

So if that happens, all the countries will have to get together then and say, this is what we've done in the meantime, this is the steps we've taken.

The other important thing we should note is this is billions and billions, up to a trillion dollars into the IMF. That's very significant cause that's a serious amount of money the IMF will be able to pump into struggling economies, whether in eastern Europe, in Africa, in Asia. And that will help keep the recession, maybe, from growing.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, Sarkozy is mentioning hooking up in New York. I guess that means he won't walk out any time soon like he threatened, Jim.

(LAUGHTER)

BOULDEN: And he didn't walk out today.

PHILLIPS: Exactly. That's good news. Jim Boulden, we'll keep tracking it. Thanks so much, Jim.

And of course, we're waiting that live news conference at the ExCel Centre in London where President Obama is going to speak about these decisions that have been made. We are going to take that live as soon as it begins.

Meanwhile, homeowners across the country are seeing their property taxes rise while local governments scramble to cover budget shortfalls. Meanwhile property values are dropping and outraged homeowners are launching protests saying, enough is enough.

Kitty Pilgrim reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Iowa, a public pact hearing turned into chaos as citizens were thrown out of the house chamber for disrupting the proceedings. Eyewitnesses say the booing and shouting went on for ten minutes. According to public watchdog group Iowans for Tax Relief, changes in the state governments budget will result in more than $100 million more in property taxes at the local level.

Across the country, many local governments overspent in boom times.

JOSH BARRO, TAX FOUNDATION: Now those municipalities are finding that higher taxes are necessary to catch up with the high spending that they already put in place.

PILGRIM: In Hoboken, New Jersey, a massive property tax hike prompted one realtor to put up this sign urging residents to cut their taxes by 47 percent by moving out of the area. In Montgomery County, Ohio, thousands of property owners lined up to meet the deadline to challenge property tax hikes on their homes; on average, up 14 percent. The value of the homes in the county was reassessed in January 2008. But since then, the property values in Ohio have fallen by 13 percent, according to Realty Track.

KARL KEITH, AUDITOR, MONTGOMERY COUNTY: Values that were probably good values in January of '08 are now somewhat below that, and so people are coming in and filing complaints.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm disappointed that they wouldn't use more common sense in how they evaluate properties.

PILGRIM: It's now up to the Montgomery County Board of Revision, all three of them, to review the complaints.

(on camera): The real question is why taxes would go up when home prices are falling? Nationally, home prices are down 19 percent.

Kitty Pilgrim, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: He's the best friend a boy could have. How a specially trained dog is making life a lot easier.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, folks, I'm sorry to interruption your commercial break. I know that's rude.

In fact, interrupting leads the list of rude behaviors in the workplace, that's according to careerbuilder.com and it's become a number one story on CNN.com.

Not saying, "thank you" to your colleagues, another faux pas.

And of course, everybody works with a Pigpen, somebody who leaves a mess in their wake and the break room. So from dirty habits to dirty language, cut out that gosh, darn cursing, would you?

Then there's those obnoxious, loud phone talkers. Right? How many times have you been around -- and people in the workplace -- Jim, thanks for illustrating our flashpoint tool walking past your co- workers and not even acknowledging their presence. Nicely done!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Still waiting for the president of the United States to step to the mikes there at the ExCel centre in London, England, waiting to hear about how he and the G-20 leaders came together to tighten financial regulations to fight this global economic crisis. Some decisions have been made. We're going to talk more about it and listen to the president as soon as it happens.

Well, President Obama's nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services is taking questions at a Senate hearing today. Kathleen Sebelius said she thinks everyone should have health insurance, but she did not endorse any specific plan to make that a reality. Sebelius has not addressed her disclosure from earlier this week that she and her husband recently paid $7,000 back in taxes, by the way.

Experts say that autism affects one in every 150 children here in the U.S. And today on this World Autism Awareness Day, there is a new bill in Congress to increase funding for autism research. It also would require insurance companies to cover the treatment of autism disorders.

The advocacy group Autism Speaks has endorsed that bill and the group says that most states let insurers exclude autism treatments which can cost up to $50,000 a year.

Well, the staggering financial costs are just one challenge facing families living with autism. But one way that they're finding help is by adding a new member of the family, one whose only job is keeping watch over their child with autism.

Here's our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Justin Kinninger loves to play hide-and-seek.

JUSTIN KINNINGER, LIVING WITH AUTISM: We're ready, mom!

COHEN: It's not just a game. It could save his life.

SHANNON KINNINGER, JUSTIN'S MOM: We've done so many Code Adams (ph) in Walmart, Toys "R" Us, in the mall. It's just been very, very scary.

COHEN: But now it's less scary.

J. KINNINGER: Hey, you guys!

COHEN: Justin has autism and now if he wanders away from his parents, his best friend is always the first to find him.

S. KINNINGER: Luke, where is he? Go find him.

COHEN: Luke is Justin's specialty trained autism assistance dog. He's learning how to pick up Justin's scent. Now next time he gets lost in the mall, Luke will be there to find him.

Another advantage of an autism dog? He helps calm Justin down.

S. KINNINGER: He knows the signs when Justin's about to have a meltdown. And he will go up to Justin...

J. KINNINGER: And well, he kind of helps me. When I get sad at school, he kind of helps me calm me down. COHEN: If Justin feels sick, Luke is there.

While we were visiting, Justin had a terrible headache.

S. KINNINGER: He helps Justin out more than me and my husband can.

COHEN: Sometimes other kids make fun of Justin at school and he comes home upset. And Luke is who he turns to.

S. KINNINGER: He helps Justin feel better about himself. He gives Justin the opportunities to teach people about autism, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Elizabeth Cohen joining us more now on this. So how much - well, first of all, how much do the dogs cost?

COHEN: Twelve thousand dollars.

PHILLIPS: Oh my gosh.

COHEN: That's what the family has to pay. They've got contributions and a lot of help to pay for that dog.

PHILLIPS: OK, all right, so usually it comes from contributions. Cause, not everybody could afford...

COHEN: Yes, very few families can probably afford that themselves. They need help.

PHILLIPS: So before you go, we have "Empowered Patients" today. Right?

COHEN: That's right.

PHILLIPS: And you are talking about...

COHEN: Dudes. Men. Not you and me.

PHILLIPS: Well, wait a minute. We're talking about dogs. That may be a segue.

COHEN: Prostate cancer screening, what's a dude to do? Not clear whether or not men should get this screening. So, if you're a man or if you love a man, go to CNNhealth.com and all the tips you need for making that decision.

PHILLIPS: All right, thanks, Elizabeth.

Well, how can you help fight autism? Go to CNN.com/impact as well. There, you'll find links to organizations that are supporting research, raising awareness, and providing resources for families living with autism.

Also too, we are waiting for the president of the United States to step up to the mikes there at the ExCel Centre in London, England. He's going to be talking about what he and other leaders across the nation have decided on with regard to trying to save this world, basically, from economic destruction.

We'll take it live as soon as it happens.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We're going to Obama?

All right, we are going to President Barack Obama now stepping up to the podium there at the ExCel Centre in London, England, talking about decisions that he and members of the G-20 summit came to.

Let's listen in.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Earlier today, we finished a very productive summit that will be, I believe, a turning point in our pursuit of global economic recovery.

By any measure, the London summit was historic. It was historic because of the size and the scope of the challenges that we face and because of the timeliness and magnitude of our response.

The challenge is clear: The global economy is contracting. Trade is shrinking. Unemployment is rising. The international finance system is nearly frozen.

Even these facts can't fully capture the crisis that we're confronting, because behind them is the pain and uncertainty that so many people are facing. We see it back in the United States. We see it here in London. We see it around the world: families losing their homes, workers losing their jobs and their savings, students who are deferring their dreams.

So many have lost so much. Just to underscore this point, back in the United States, jobless claims released today were the highest in 26 years.

We owe it to all of our citizens to act, and to act with a sense of urgency.

In an age where our economies are linked more closely than ever before, the whole world has been touched by this devastating downturn. And today the world's leaders have responded with an unprecedented set of comprehensive and coordinated actions.

Now, just keep in mind some historical context. Faced with similar global challenges in the past, the world was slow to act, and people paid an enormous price.

That was true in the Great Depression, when nations prolonged and worsened the crisis by turning inward, waiting for more than a decade to meet the challenge together. Even as recently as the 1980s, a slow global response deepened and widened a debt crisis in Latin America that pushed millions into poverty. Today we've learned the lessons of history. I know that, in the days leading up to the summit, some of you in the press, some commentators, confused honest and open debate with irreconcilable differences.

But after weeks of preparation and two days of careful negotiation, we have agreed on a series of unprecedented steps to restore growth and prevent a crisis like this from happening again.

Let me outline what I think has been most significant.

Number one, we are committed to growth and job creation. All G- 20 nations have acted to stimulate demand, which will total well over $2 trillion in global fiscal expansion.

The United States is also partnering with the private sector to clean out the troubled assets, the legacy assets that are crippling some banks, and using the full force of the government to ensure that our action leads directly to loans to businesses, large and small, as well as individuals who depend on credit. And these efforts will be amplified by our G-20 partners, who are pursuing similarly comprehensive programs.

We also agreed on bold action to support developing countries so that we aren't faced with declining markets that the global economy depends on. Together, the G-20 is tripling the IMF's lending capacity and promoting lending by multilateral development banks to increase the purchasing power and expand markets in every country.

We've also rejected the -- the protectionism that could deepen this crisis. History tells us that turning inward can help turn a downturn into a depression.

And this cooperation between the world's leading economies signals our support for open markets, as does our multilateral commitment to trade finance that will grow our exports and create new jobs. That's all on the growth front.

Next, we made enormous strides in committing ourselves to comprehensive reform of a failed regulatory system. And together, I believe that we must put an end to the bubble-and-bust economy that has stood in the way of sustained growth and enabled abusive risk- taking that endangers our prosperity.

At home, back in the states, our efforts began with an approach that Secretary Geithner proposed last week, the strongest regulatory reforms any nation has contemplated so far to prevent the massive failure of responsibility that we've already seen. Today these principles have informed and enabled the coordinated action that we will take with our G-20 partners.

To prevent future crises, we agreed to increase transparency and capital protections for our financial institutions. We're extending supervision to all systemically important institutions, markets and products, including hedge funds.

We'll identify jurisdictions that fail to cooperate, including tax havens, and take action to defend our financial system.

We will re-establish the Financial Stability Forum with a stronger mandate.

And we will reform and expand the IMF and World Bank so they are more efficient, effective and representative.

Finally, we are protecting those who don't always have a voice at the G-20, but who have suffered greatly in this crisis. And the United States is ready to lead in this endeavor.

In the coming days, I intend to work with Congress to provide $448 million in immediate assistance to vulnerable populations from Africa to Latin America and to double support for food safety to over $1 billions that we are giving people the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty.

We will also support the United Nations and World Bank as they coordinate the rapid assistance necessary to prevent humanitarian catastrophe. I have to say, though, that this is not just charity. These are all future markets for all countries and future drivers of world economic growth.

And let me also underscore my appreciation to Prime Minister Brown, his entire team, and all my colleagues from around the world who contributed to the summit's success. You know, it's hard for 20 heads of state to bridge their differences. We've all got our own national policies. We all have our own assumptions, our own politically cultures.

But our citizens are all hurting. They all need us to come together. So I'm pleased that the G-20 as agreed to meet again this fall because I believe that this is just the beginning. Our problems are not going to be solved in one meeting. They're not going to be solved in two meetings.

We're going to have to be proactive in shaping events and persistent in monitoring our progress to determine whether further action is needed.

I also want to just make a few remarks about additional meetings I had outside of the G-20 context. While here in London, I had the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings with leaders of Russia, China, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and India as well as Great Britain. These discussions were extraordinarily valuable and productive.

Of course, we spoke about additional steps to promote economic recovery and growth, but we also discussed coordinated actions on a range of issues: How we could reduce the nuclear threat, how we could forge a coordinated response to North Korea's planned missile launch, how we can turn back terrorism and stabilize Afghanistan, how we can protect our planet from the scourge of climate change.

I'm encouraged that we laid the groundwork for real and lasting progress on a host of these issues. Ultimately, the challenges of the 21st century can't be met without collective action. Agreement will almost never be easy, and results won't always come quickly. But I am committed to respecting different points of view and to forging a consensus instead of dictating our terms.

That's how we made progress in the last few days. That's how we will advance and uphold our ideals in the months and years to come. You know, at home, I've often spoken about a new era of responsibility. I believe that this era must not end at our borders. In a world that's more and more interconnected, we all have responsibilities to work together to solve common challenges.

And although it will take time, I am confident that we will rebuild global prosperity if we act with a common sense of purpose,persistence, and the optimism that the moment demands.

So I appreciate your attention. And I'm going to take a few questions. I've got a list of a few people I'm going to call on, and then I will intersperse some folks I'm calling on randomly.

Helene Cooper?

QUESTION: (OFF MIKE)

OBAMA: Well, I -- I -- I think we did OK. You know, when I -- when I came here, it was with the intention of listening and learning but also providing American leadership. And I think that the document that has been produced as well as the concrete actions that will follow reflect a range of our priorities.

We wanted to make sure that we had a strong, coordinated response to growth, and that's reflected in the document and in the actions that will be taken. We thought it was important to make sure that we had a strong, coordinated regulatory response. And many of the details of the regulatory response draw from principles that we had developed prior to coming here.

We felt that it was very important to strengthen our international financial institutions because developing countries, emerging markets are threatened even though they not have been the cause of this crisis, they are threatened by capital flight, they're threatened by reduced trade finance, drops in consumer demand in developed countries that were their export markets, and so we knew that it was going to be important to provide those countries with assistance.

And we have created as -- as fundamental a reworking of the resources available to these international financial institutions as anything we've done in the last several decades.

So, overall, I'm pleased with the product. And I'll leave it to others to determine whether me and my team had anything to do with that.

All right. Chuck Todd? Chuck? QUESTION: What concrete items that you got out of this G-20 can you tell the American people back home who are hurting, the family struggling, seeing their retirement go down, or worrying about losing their job, what happened here today that helps that family back home in -- in the heartland?

OBAMA: Well, as I said before, we've got a global economy. And if we're taking actions in isolation in the United States but those actions are contradicted overseas, then we're only going to be halfway effective, maybe not even half.

You've seen, for example, a drastic decline in U.S. exports over the last several months. You look at a company like Caterpillar, in my home state of Illinois, which up until last year was doing extraordinarily well. In fact, export growth was what had sustained it even after the recession had begun.

As a consequence of the world recession, as a consequence of the contagion from the financial markets debilitating economies elsewhere, Caterpillar is now in very bad shape.

So if we want to get Caterpillar back on its feet, if we want to get all those export companies back on their feet so that they are hiring, putting people back to work, putting money in people's pockets, we've got to make sure that the global economy as a whole is successful.

And this document, which affirms the need for all countries to take fiscal responses that increase demand, that encourages the openness of markets, those are all going to be helpful in us being able to fix what ails the economy back home.

All right. You know, let me -- let me mix in a -- Justin Webb, BBC. Where's Justin? There he is. Go ahead.

QUESTION: Mr. President, in the -- the spirit of openness (OFF- MIKE)

OBAMA: Why don't you get a microphone, so -- see, everybody's complaining. I'm sure that's all your fellow British journalists.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: They're extraordinarily well behaved, Mr. President. In the spirit of openness with which you say you're going to run your administration, could you give us an insight into an area or areas where you came to London wanting something and didn't get it, where you compromised, where you gave something away to achieve the wider breakthrough agreement?

OBAMA: Well, I think that, if you look at, you know, the language of the document, there are probably some areas where it wasn't so much of a sacrifice as it might not have been our number-one priority, but it became clear that it was very important to certain other actors. I'd rather not specify what those precise items would be, because this is a collective document. But there's no doubt that, you know, each country has its own quirks and own particular issues that a leader may decide is really, really important, something that is non- negotiable for them.