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President Obama on Economy; Shrinking Pay Checks; Rebounding From the Oil Leak; Wall Street is Hiring; The Help Desk; What's Hot; Facebook Update Tips Off Burglars

Aired August 06, 2010 - 12:00   ET

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

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama is in Washington. He's just taken a tour of Gelberg Signs, a business that's expanding with the help of two Small Business Administration loans.

The president, you'll note there, he's not standing outside. I believe he's standing in front of some signs that are made at that company, signs you often found around downtown Washington, D.C.

Let's listen in to the president.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But the fact is, we have now added private sector jobs every month this year, instead of losing them as we did for the first seven months of last year. And that's a good sign.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, meanwhile, our manufacturing sector that's been hit hard for as long as folks can remember has actually added 183,000 jobs so far this year. That's the most robust seven months of manufacturing growth in over a decade.

(APPLAUSE)

Just this morning, there was a report about the growing trend of manufacturing plants returning to the United States from overseas instead of the other way around. The same time, each of the big three automakers, Ford, GM and Chrysler, two of which were on the verge of bankruptcy a little over a year ago, a liquidation bankruptcy that would have destroyed those companies, all three U.S. automakers are now posting a profit for the first time since 2004.

And since they emerged --

(APPLAUSE)

Since they emerged from bankruptcy, the auto industry as a whole has added 76,000 jobs. So there's some good trends out there. That's the good news.

But for America's workers, families and small businesses, progress needs to come faster. Our job is to make sure that happens. Not only to lay the foundation for private-sector job creation, but also to accelerate hiring, to fuel the small businesses that are the engines of economic growth, and to speed our recovery so it reaches the people and places who need relief. Not a year from now, not six months from now, but now. Right now.

That's why I welcomed the news earlier this week that after a lot of partisan bickering and delay, the Senate passed a bill that will not only keep at least 160,000 teachers in the classroom this fall who would otherwise be out of a job, but will help states avoid making other painful layoffs of essential personnel like police and firefighters. One of the areas where we have been losing jobs, even as we're gaining in manufacturing, has actually been in state and local hiring, because their budgets have been plummeting. All the city council members are nodding here.

And so this bill will help. Speaker Pelosi said she's going to bring the House back in session to pass this bill, and as soon as they do, I'm ready to sign it into law.

(APPLAUSE)

ACOSTA: So there's the president talking about a couple of items there.

Obviously, the jobs picture not as great as he would like, but the president putting the best face on it. The jobs market not doing so well this last month, according to the latest figures.

And you heard just a little bit there, the president putting in a pitch for a new jobs bill that he would like to see passed up on the Congress. So that is the deal from the president in Washington at that sign factory, an event earlier today.

Now, new numbers out. They still point to an anemic job market. The private sector added just 71,000 jobs, and that was offset by a loss of temporary Census positions. The result was a net loss of 131,000 jobs. The unemployment rate held steady at 9.5 percent, and last hour I talked with Georgia Tech economist Danny Boston about the sluggish job market.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROF. THOMAS "DANNY" BOSTON, GEORGIA TECH: We're caught in what John Maynard Keynes, who was one of the most famous economists of all time, called a liquidity trap. And we can think of that really as a cash trap.

And so the healthiest sector is the corporate sector. Their profits are going great. But right, now they're sitting on $1.8 trillion in cash, not hiring anymore, not spending a lot of money in investment. That hurts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And when the jobs do start coming back, they may not pay as much. Alison Kosik joins us live from New York.

Alison, say it ain't so.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'll tell you what, you know the days of those fat paychecks and those big promotions, those days, Jim, are really over, at least for the foreseeable future.

I mean, economists are saying that salary growth has dramatically slowed since the recession over the past year. Average hourly earnings have only gone up less than two percent. And that's pretty meager.

And let's face it, with unemployment sitting at 9.5 percent, workers, they lose their bargaining power. There is really little incentive for employers to pay them more when they've got five other people lined up for every job opening outside their door. And with so many people out of work for those prospective employees, they're willing to take a pay cut just to go ahead and get that job.

Now, we have already seen salaries getting squeezed. I want you to look at this from salary.com. Fifteen percent of the more than 300 companies it surveyed have cut wages for employees, and half of those have frozen their salaries.

Overall, though, the government says salaries fell by more than $5 billion in June. And we're also seeing a trend. Employers are also bringing back temporary or contract workers instead of taking on full-time workers, where, you know, they would have to pay benefits. And experts say in the next few years, 40 percent of the workforce could wind up being made up of freelancers -- Jim.

ACOSTA: OK. That is not encouraging news. But what is the impact on the economy, Alison, if this becomes the new normal?

KOSIK: The new normal would be, of course, because if people are getting paid less, they're going to spend less. So think of it this way -- if someone was making $40,000 a year before they got cut from their job, and then they find a new job, but that pays $10,000 less, that could really hurt the recovery, and that's because consumer spending, it's really the lion's share of economic activity. It drives two-thirds of the activity in the economy.

And if jobs are paying less, then the spending power of Americans as a whole would go down. And economists say this trend is going to be with us for a while.

The Congressional Budget Office is predicting that we're not going to be getting back to five percent unemployment until the year 2016. That's six years from now.

I'll tell you what. In this kind of market experts say job- seekers really need to be aware of their marketability and their value, and be prepared tore flexible for a good job opportunity.

And Jim, that looks like that means being ready to take that cut in salary -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Wow. Alison, not a lot of encouraging news there, but we'll take it on this Friday.

KOSIK: You got it.

ACOSTA: Alison Kosik joining us from New York.

Appreciate it. Thanks, Alison.

Well, one of the president's key economic players is calling it quits and heading home to California. Christina Romer will hurricane to her teaching job at U.C. Berkeley. She helped craft the president's stimulus package and notoriously predicted it would keep the jobless rate below eight percent. Romer is the second top adviser on money to leave the White House. Peter Orszag resigned as budget director in June.

And BP's broken Gulf oil well is, for all practical purposes, dead in the water today. Engineers hope to confirm cement pumped into the top of the wellbore has hardened today, but BP won't declare victory until the well is also sealed from the bottom. And that is expected to happen in the next week or two.

A measure of BP's confidence in the well kill. Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles is returning to his regular job in Houston. He has been on the coast more than three months, managing BP's response to the leak.

Here is Suttles speaking in the last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG SUTTLES, COO, BP: The cementing following the static kill occurred, just like the static kill -- that operation went very well and appears to be performing as expected. We'll be doing more testing of that cement operation later today, and between Admiral Allen and Kent Wells, they'll provide more update. But that has gone well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: No significant oil has leaked into the Gulf for 22 days now. That's when BP effectively shut down the well with the containment dome.

It was thought the oil leak in the Gulf could damage Louisiana's fragile shoreline for years to come, but a fly-over shows some surprises. We'll take a closer look at this week's assessment by a federal agency that much of the oil is gone.

First, though, our "Random Moment" in 60 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Well, mistakes happen. And sometimes they become our "Random Moment of the Day." Look at this sign at Coconut Palm Elementary School outside Miami. Yes, school starts August 23rd. And yes, school is misspelled.

Before first grade teachers gasp in horror, we can tell you the transposed letters have been moved back to their proper places today, not quick enough to dodge the "Random Moment of the Day."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: The marshes and wetlands around Grand Isle, Louisiana, are showing remarkable signs of a turnaround after getting hit hard by the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

CNN's David Mattingly took an aerial tour of the region to see just how it's recovering.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Barataria Bay was among the first and worst-hit areas in Louisiana when the oil started coming ashore. You'd never know it looking at it now.

(on camera): I'm only seeing an occasional piece of sheen out here. Is that all there is now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is it.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): This is my second trip over the Gulf in less than two weeks with federal clean-up coordinator Rear Admiral Paul Zukunft. He says the Gulf's oil eating microbes are working twice as fast as predicted. Oil that was expected to linger for a month is gone in half the time.

REAR ADMIRAL PAUL ZUKUNFT, FEDERAL CLEANUP COORDINATOR: So what we are seeing is a very rapid biodegradation of this oil. Faster than what you expected. Certainly, we were prepared and of course, we are prepared for the worst. But now in three weeks when the NOAA trajectory shows little to no oil in the surface, we were expecting to see more than what we see right now.

MATTINGLY: What we do see are marshes growing back fresh green grass and flocks of feeding pelicans, all signs of an ecosystem on the rebound. (on camera): Did you ever think you would fly out over this bay again and see this water this clean?

CHIEF AUBREY "T. BLACK" CHAISSON, GRAND ISLE FIRE CHIEF: No. I thought we would have problems for years. But actually --

MATTINGLY: I'm amazed. This is the first time I've seen it in probably over a month. I can't believe it.

(voice-over): Getting the public to believe it is a challenge for the Coast Guard and local officials like Grand Isle fire chief T. Black Chaisson.

(on camera): Are you still struggling with that question though, where did the oil go?

CHAISSON: Yes, we have a lot of people that ask that question. And I think our next challenge is to educate the public. We just need to educate them.

MATTINGLY: Where do you think it went?

CHAISSON: I actually believe that, you know, when you disperse it, mother nature takes its course. Microorganisms eat it up. It breaks down. Mother nature takes care of itself.

Mattingly (voice-over): But no one is prepared to drop their guard. Federal reports indicate there's still potentially over a million barrels of oil still unseen and in the environment. Its long- term effect on these seemingly resilient ecosystems is unknown.

David Mattingly, CNN, Grand Isle, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(WEATHER REPORT)

ACOSTA: The chilling call a killer made to 911 just after his rampage at a beer distributor in Connecticut. Omar Thornton explains why he shot and killed eight people. Before the shootings, police say Omar Thornton's bosses showed him security video that featured Thornton stealing beer. He had just been fired.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

OMAR THORNTON, KILLED CO-WORKERS AND HIMSELF: You probably want to know the reason why I shot this place up. This place here is a racist place.

OPERATOR: Yes, I understand that.

THORNTON: They treat me bad over here, and they treat all of the black employees bad over here, too. So I took it into my own hands and I handled the problem. I wish I could have got more of the people.

I'm not coming out. I'm not coming out. They're going to have to find me. Probably use some dogs or whatever. I don't know what they'll do.

Anyway --

OPERATOR: How much ammunition do you have with you?

THORNTON: I've got -- I shot -- uh-oh.

OPERATOR: What's that?

THORNTON: It's all right. I guess when this conversation is over I have to take care of business.

Tell my people I love them. And I've got to go now.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't think I was going to have an arm because of the way it was -- it was just skin attached to it. So, yes, I was actually really amazed when I woke up and seen an arm there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And we're now moving on to critically wounded American troops heading home from a war zone. We'll get an exclusive look at the final part of their journey.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Top stories now.

President Obama is talking jobs this hour. He's touring a small business in Washington that's hiring new workers. The company is taking advantage of an act President Obama signed in March. It provides employers with a refund on payroll taxes paid on any unemployed workers they hire.

As the cement hardens in the crippled oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, there is a change at the top for BP's Gulf Coast restoration efforts. Mike Utsler is replacing Doug Suttles as the new man in charge.

Police say the bodies of four people have been found in a house in Riverdale, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. There is no word yet on the circumstances of the deaths.

More top stories in 20 minutes.

The final leg of the journey home. CNN's Barbara Starr, our Pentagon correspondent, takes us aboard an airborne hospital with critically wounded troops. Her exclusive report following wounded heroes from the war front to the home front.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: This is what it's really all about in the world of the air medical evacuation community. You can see the plane now is full of the combat wounded from Afghanistan.

These troops have all suffered injuries from IED, roadside bomb explosions, mortars, artillery, small arms fire, gunshot wounds. They have gotten their initial treatment here in Germany. Now we about to make a nine-hour flight back to the United States. Finally, they are getting back home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Remember that other guy that we took the antibiotics on --

STARR (voice-over): Air Force medical teams tend to every need on the final leg of the journey home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You saw that tape (ph), buddy?

STARR: Captain Chris Watkins, a nurse, has worked evac flights for seven years. He sees the rising number of wounded first hand.

CAPT. CHRIS WATKINS, U.S. AIR FORCE: Unfortunately, it's a lot of blast injuries. We have a lot of amputations, a lot of significant trauma patients that require some sort of a continuous monitoring care or obviously surgical treatment. IEDs are probably the number one player followed by small arms and indirect fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just wanted to see a drop.

STARR: Private First Class James Darlington hit by a rocket- propelled grenade in the arm a few days ago now hours away from seeing his family. Doctors have eased initial worries that he may lose his arm.

PFC. JAMES DARLINGTON, U.S. ARMY: I didn't think I was going to have an arm because the way it was just skin attaching to it. But I was actually really amazed when I woke up and seen an arm there, and I had feeling in it and everything, so, yes.

STARR (on camera): So the medical care is pretty amazing.

DARLINGTON: It's really amazing. I was really surprised.

STARR (voice-over): Twenty-two wounded on stretchers, some just hours off of the battlefield. There is constant worry about infection, many still on morphine for pain, some in extremely critical condition, on ventilators.

WATKINS: We haven't sat down since about 8:00 this morning Germany time, and that was almost 11 hours ago. It's hard seeing these catastrophic injuries.

STARR: On some flights the most critically wounded are kept alive long enough to be brought home so their families can say good- bye. Sometimes the best cure just being together. On this flight, three young soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division hit in the same attack just a few days earlier.

Specialist Aaron Knuckols and his buddies were on patrol in the eastern Afghanistan when their vehicle hit a 300-pound roadside bomb.

SPEC. AARON KNUCKOLS, U.S. ARMY: Everything got red and we went upside down.

STARR: After a near-death experience like that, Specialist Knuckols says he could not imagine going home without his friends.

KNUCKOLS: We have been together the whole trip, ma'am. STARR (on camera): That's good.

KNUCKOLS: It's awesome.

STARR: Yes. You keep an eye on each other.

KNUCKOLS: Yes, ma'am. I know my two guys back there, and I can't see, but I know they are getting the same care I am getting, and it is a very good feeling. I can't see them, but I know they are getting taken care of.

STARR (voice-over): Fellow soldier Private First Class Mike Garcia broke two vertebrae in his back, his knee and his ankle in the attack, but his priority, his brothers in arms.

PFC. MIKE GARCIA, U.S. ARMY: Ma'am, that's what makes it personal, because we go over there, and we're such a small group to begin with. And we see pretty much nobody else for the year we're over there, and we just bond. A lot of bonding, pretty much, and especially when you get hit.

STARR: The third man, Staff Sergeant Benjamin McGuire's broken jaw, is wired shut, but he doesn't need to talk for us to understand how grateful he is that they are all together.

(on camera): It means a lot to you. Do you think that it actually helps?

"Yes, ma'am. Without a doubt in my mind, it made my injuries seem not so bad."

"You went to Afghanistan together, you fought together, you got hit together. Now, you are coming home together."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tower, reaching (ph) 612 --

STARR (voice-over): For many of these soldiers, the journey home is almost complete. Many we have spoken to have already reenlisted and are anxious to get back to Afghanistan to stand beside their fellow soldiers, even as the cycle of war wounded continues.

Barbara Starr, CNN, Andrews Air Force Base.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Well, on CNN Saturday night, injured soldiers, critical medical care. Barbara Starr shares amazing stories of the doctors and nurses who get the wounded out of the war zone, sometimes within hours of being hit.

"The Journey Home," a special report, Saturday night at 7:00 and 10:00 Eastern.

No more speculation. A hip-hop superstar says it's true, he wants to be the president of Haiti.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: It's official. Grammy-winning hip-hop star Wyclef Jean has formally submitted his paperwork to run for president of Haiti.

He talked about his candidacy on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE." Wolf Blitzer was filling in for Larry last night.

Let's listen to part of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WYCLEF JEAN, MUSICIAN: Yes, it's my first time announcing live, that today I went in and I signed, and I am running to be the president of Haiti.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The election is scheduled for the end of November, November 28th. You have a few months to campaign right now.

You're 40 years old. Most of your life, you've lived in the United States. You were born in Haiti, you feel strongly about Haiti.

Why do you want to be president? Why have you made this decision?

JEAN: Well, after January 12th, I would say over 50 percent of the population is a youth population. And we suffered for over 200 years. Now that our country has toppled, it's a chance to rebuild from the bottom on up, and I don't even say I'm trying to be president. I'm being drafted by the youth of Haiti.

Right now is the chance for us to bring real education into the schools, infrastructure, to security, and proper jobs. So this is some of the reasons that I'm running.

BLITZER: What qualifies you to be president of Haiti?

JEAN: Well, what qualifies me to be president of Haiti? When I look at the past 200 years, with what our people have suffered, Wolf, political instability, coups after coup d'etat, I feel that me running, it brings a neutral situation, meaning that Wyclef Jean can sit with any political party, have a conversation. I'm coming in neutral.

I think 200 years we have suffered the exact same thing. And what I'm saying is, when you vote for Wyclef Jean, you basically try something new. I represent the voice of the youth, which is 50 -- over 50 percent of the population.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: To read more stories that matter to all of us, pick up the latest issue of "Essence" magazine on newsstands now.

Well, plenty of Americans need a job. There's one place in the country that is in the middle of a hiring boom. Can you believe it? It's Wall Street. We'll have that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Well, we're looking at the markets right now, trying to see how things are looking on Wall Street. And you can take a look at cnnmoney.com. The stock market is not looking so good. The Dow is down about 150 points.

A lot of this driven by some disappointing jobs numbers that are coming out today. And you can see that still trying to get back into positive territory doesn't look too good right now. But this July jobs report finds businesses are still skittish about hiring right now.

But according to head hunters, Wall Street is in the middle of a hiring boom, if you can believe that. CNN's Maggie Lake takes a look at what's behind this and what it could mean for the broader economy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Richard Stein has been placing executives in high-powered finance jobs for more than 25 years. He's seen boom years and busts for his industry. He says 2010 is definitely one of the good years.

RICHARD STEIN, PRESIDENT, GLOBAL SAGE: Well, we're seeing a lot of rapid growth since the second quarter. This is traditionally a quiet time for Wall Street, but we've never been busier. We've been contacted by the CEOs of a number of Wall Street firms that are hiring in a number of areas.

LAKE: After shedding more than 25,000 jobs during the worst of the recession, Wall Street firms added 2,000 workers to the payrolls between February and June. Stein says global giants like Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are all beefing up staff in New York, as are smaller, boutique firms, like investment bank Centerview Partners.

BLAIR EFFRON, COFOUNDER, CENTERVIEW PARTNERS: We're hiring. Others are hiring as well. And with (ph) anything, that is a reflection of the mood improving in the financial community. Slowly, but certainly steadily.

LAKE: The hot jobs in demand include private banking and asset management. Also, risk compliance, as necessitated by the recently passed financial reform bill. But despite this hiring uptick, experts say there is little job security, even at the senior level. And the mood on Wall Street, while bullish, is far from buoyant.

STEIN: There is a kind of irrational exuberance in terms of hiring 12 people and writing blank checks. There's a lot more due diligence in the process. And I think with Washington and corporate governance and the regulations, there's also a growing emphasis on actually doing it right this time.

LAKE (on camera): Are they just sort of getting back to basics to try to make up the extreme cuts we saw? Or do you have the sense that this is actually sort of building for the future in those momentum here?

STEIN: I think it's a bit of both. I think it depends upon the institutions. A lot of the U.S. domestic institutions, and (INAUDIBLE) banks are in catch-up mode.

LAKE: If they're out and they're hiring, do you think that bodes well for the broader economy, or is this just -- do you think it's a distinct pocket and we can't make that correlation anymore?

STEIN: I do think that Wall Street is a precursor of things to come. The leaders of Wall Street, the CEO of Wall Street, are bullish on this country. Their investments in their businesses I think bode well for main street.

LAKE (voice-over): Every job placement here Stein believes is a sign of hope for the economy as a whole.

Maggie Lake, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: So when will corporate America start hiring again? Last hour I talked with Georgia Tech economist Thomas Danny Boston about the anemic job market and just when things might start turning around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROF. THOMAS "DANNY" BOSTON, GEORGIA TECH DEPT. OF ECONOMICS: When we look at the numbers, although the unemployment rate remained the same, there are these other factors that were more troubling. That is we're not creating as many private sector jobs as we thought. We want it to be at least 30 percent above what we actually created. And so there's some challenges there.

ACOSTA: And what are the challenges? I mean how do we turn this thing around because this has been pretty flat for a few months now.

BOSTON: It has been. It has been. Well, there are a lot of challenges. You know, we just can't move the economy forward. Part of the problem, I think, is we are caught in what John Maynard Keynes, who was one of the most famous economists of all time, called a liquidity trap. And we can think of that really as a cash trap.

ACOSTA: Right.

BOSTON: And so the healthiest sector in the economy is the corporate sector. Their profits are going great. Bur right now they're sitting on $1.8 trillion in cash, not hiring any more, not spending a lot of money on investment. That hurts. That doesn't create jobs.

ACOSTA: And we know corporations are not going to just hire people out of the goodness of their heart. They're going to hire people when it makes good business sense.

BOSTON: Right. ACOSTA: So what's it going to take for those big Fortune 500 companies out there to start hiring people in droves, get people back to work?

BOSTON: Well, they're -- right now they are being driven by expectations. They don't -- the uncertainty of what's going to happen in the future and --

ACOSTA: They just took a big haircut --

BOSTON: Right. Right. And --

ACOSTA: When the markets crashed.

BOSTON: Right. And they are not going to go back there again.

ACOSTA: Yes.

BOSTON: When they went through the last recession, and ran out of cash, almost went into bankruptcy, and they're making sure that they have as much cash as possible. So we have to do something to reassure them.

But the other part of that is that the low interest rate -- this interest rate now, short-term rates are like a quarter of a percent. Almost zero.

ACOSTA: Exactly.

BOSTON: Those rates are conducive to corporations borrowing as much as they can and holding it for as long as they can. That's what that whole liquidity trap is about.

ACOSTA: So do you think if the Feds started raising interest rates, slowly but surely, that that might prompt a little spending, a little spending of that cash --

BOSTON: Well, you know, if I --

ACOSTA: While it's still cheap?

BOSTON: Yes, it's interesting. I'm thinking that. But if I say it, you know, it will sound like haracy (ph) and I'll be drummed out of the economics profession.

ACOSTA: Exactly.

BOSTON: But, you know, it's not helping. It's conducive to doing exactly what it's doing. And we're not getting money to individuals who need it. For example, small businesses and consumers. Because they -- their credit profile is so bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Hey, you bailed them out. Now AIG may be facing a challenge in paying you back. What? What's that all about? The numbers in top stories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: All right. Time for a quick check of today's top stories.

The July jobs report, not so good. It shows the overall economy cut 131,000 positions last month. Much of that can be tied to the loss of temporary census positions. Private sector gains, 71,000 jobs, enough to keep the jobless rate at 9.5 percent.

Insurer AIG, remember them, they reportedly -- a quarterly net profit of 7. -- excuse me, $2.7 million due to the sales of some of its divisions. The company is undergoing a restructuring following its government bailout. Its core insurance companies almost doubled their earnings.

A power failure leaves dozens of people dangling above the Wisconsin state fair. It's not supposed to happen this way. They were stuck for about an hour last night on a ride called the Sky Glider. Firefighters had to use cherry pickers to get them back on the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: All right, guys. You may want to add some red to your wardrobe. I didn't get the memo. I don't have that on my tie. But according to a new study, letting your date see a little red on you is a good thing. Take a look over at this picture over here we're going to share right now. This is our CNN tour group that's coming through. They are dressing red, and it's a good thing, because women in China and the U.S., England and Germany said they found men wearing red or surrounded by the color more sexually attractive. So for all you guys out there wearing red, right now you are much more attractive. Sir, you in the orange polo, not so much. I hate to break it to you there. But, hey, at least they're on TV and they're happy about it, right?

They also consider men wearing red to be more upwardly mobile. So I'll be taking this tie off now. The study was published in "The Journal of Experimental Psychology." And we could use a little psychology there on that.

The beginning of the fall semester is just weeks away. Can you afford the tuition? And how much bargaining power do you have when buying a foreclosed home? CNN's Poppy Harlow and "The Help Desk" team have some answers to your financial questions.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: It's time now for "The Help Desk," where we get answers to your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Manisha Thakor, a personal finance author, also John Simons with "Black Enterprise" magazine.

First question for you, Manisha. This comes from Ann. Ann wrote in, "my daughter is transferring to a new college this fall. She received a merit scholarship from the new school but we still need more money to pay it. She's applying for a SallieMae student loan with me as a co-signer for the balance. Is there another place that she should look for the money?" MANISHA THAKOR, PERSONAL FINANCE AUTHOR: So three basic areas. First, the student loan component. There's Stafford loans, subsidized and unsubsidized, and Perkins. Don't forget to overlook those. And then on the parent's side, the Plus loan. Then as our your last resort, taking a look at private loans.

I really worry because student loans stick to you like fly on fly paper. They don't go away. So I actually prefer, once you've exhausted all of those options, to see students take on a second job while they're in school to help offset the fees rather than take on more loans.

HARLOW: Sure. Good advice, pay it off as soon as you can.

John, this question comes from Lupe. They wrote in, "when purchasing a house using a short sale program, what should I be concerned about?" A lot of folks doing that with all these foreclosures.

JOHN SIMONS, BLACK ENTERPRISE: Yes, there are a lot of things to be concerned about. The major thing to be aware of is that Lupe is not necessarily going to get the deal of the century. In this case, a short sale, of course, is a case where the bank is allowing the seller to sell the home for less than the seller actually owes the bank.

HARLOW: Right.

SIMONS: So you're not dealing with a desperate seller in this situation. You're dealing with a very shrewd financial institution that is potentially losing a lot of money. So they're not going to be willing to negotiate with you on price. You're buying the house as-is. So any problem that exists there is your problem.

HARLOW: Right.

SIMONS: That's really the main thing.

HARLOW: All right, so look out for all of those things. But you can get a great deal. I've had friends get great deals on some of these short sales, but keep your alerts up on those.

SIMONS: Yes.

HARLOW: Thank you both so much.

"The Help Desk," of course, all about getting you answers. Send us an e-mail to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com or you can log online to cnn.com/helpdesk to see more of our financial solutions. You can also pick up the latest issue of "Money" magazine. It is on newsstands now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: All right. Four words you've never heard before, Twitter to the rescue. It's true. And a woman in Pennsylvania you could call a secret agent of kindness. It's what's hot on the Internet today and Ines Ferre is tracking that for us. Ines, what do you have?

INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well let's start with this one, social media and Twitter really coming to the rescue.

ACOSTA: Yes.

FERRE: This one's so hot on Google and everything right now. And it's --

ACOSTA: People are talking about this kid, right?

FERRE: Yes, a 10-year-old boy who was traveling from Canada to New York City to participate in a -- it's a charity event that he was going to participate in because he's got muscular dystrophy. OK, well he has a specialized wheelchair and Air Canada put apart the wheelchair. When he got it back it was damaged. So they -- so then --

ACOSTA: Oh, my gosh, they took it apart as he was traveling?

FERRE: They took it apart when he went on the airplane.

ACOSTA: Oh, my goodness.

FERRE: And then it came back -- and then in New York it was damaged. So then they gave him another wheelchair, but that was no good because he needs a very specialized wheelchair.

ACOSTA: Right.

FERRE: So his aunt went on Twitter and talked about this and there was a huge response about this.

ACOSTA: Oh, wow.

FERRE: People that were sending him wheelchairs and that really sped up Air Canada to fix the wheelchair overnight and then the next day they gave him the wheelchair back fixed.

ACOSTA: I bet there were no delays in that one.

FERRE: No.

ACOSTA: Yes.

FERRE: And, in fact, also they're saying, to make amends, that they're going to take him to Disneyworld, because he wants to go to Disneyworld. Yes, so that's nice.

ACOSTA: Oh, that's great. Fantastic. Happy ending.

FERRE: And then this other one is -- this one's been really hot on cnn.com. She calls herself Secret Agent L, and she's not a secret any more, but she was leaving gifts, $5 Starbucks cards, some inspirational magnets for people. And she was this person --

ACOSTA: Just trying to make people happy.

FERRE: Trying to just do good, yes. And she now has 80 affiliated secret agents because of this.

ACOSTA: Wow. Awesome. Well, we could all use a secret agent who does nice things for us, right? I mean, you know.

FERRE: Yes, yes, let's do that over the weekend, people. Go out and do some nice things.

ACOSTA: Exactly. There you go. Paying it forward.

Thanks Ines, appreciate it.

FERRE: Yes, no problem (ph).

ACOSTA: And a simple status update on Facebook. Here is the other side of the social media world. A status update can be an open invitation for burglars. Don't do this at home. A couple in India found this out the hard way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Here's a warning, there could be criminals lurking on Facebook. Some of them could even be your friends, which makes them privy to everything you post. Randi Kaye has more on how an innocent status update is now a cautionary tale.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're watching a burglary in progress. What the bad guys don't know is that a security camera inside this Indiana home is recording their every move. Even when they get this close, the camera's blinking red light goes unnoticed.

On the night of the break-in, Keri McMullen did what she'd done hundreds of times before, she posted a Facebook status update from her cell phone. She and her fiance, Kurt Pendleton (ph), were going out for the night to see a band. "Heading to the hill with Kurt to see Fire Department," she wrote at 5:46 p.m. Within hours, Keri's sense of security would be shattered.

KERI MCMULLEN, HOME BURGLARIZED: You never think it's going to happen to you. And then when it does, you know, anything could happen to you.

KAYE: At about 8:45 p.m., March 20th, about 45 minutes after Kurt locked the doors that night, these guys busted in.

KAYE (on camera): In a stroke of luck, Keri and Kurt had just set up security cameras in their home six days before the break-in. One outside and one right here in the living room. In fact, the very same camera recording me right now captured the bad guys on videotape too.

KAYE (voice-over): When they returned home that night, what they saw on their security camera tape stunned them. They watched as the burglars tore their 50-inch plasma TV right off the wall.

KURT PENDLETON: You can see him just manhandle it and just rip it right off the wall with all the drywall falling down.

KAYE (on camera): And that night, did you watch this together?

PENDLETON: Yes, several times.

KAYE: Were you just stunned?

MCMULLEN: It's violating.

KAYE (voice-over): Keri and Kurt reported the break-in but did their own police work, too. They posted snapshots of the suspects from the video on Keri's Facebook page. Within hours, another Facebook friend recognized one of the suspects.

PENDLETON: Someone contacted Keri and said, I know who that is, and so do you. He's on one of your friends.

KAYE: That's right. One of the men on the tape, Keri says, is her Facebook friend, Sean South (ph). Police have charged him and the other suspect with a felony. Both are still on the run. Keri says she and South were childhood friends. She's known him since she was seven.

KAYE (on camera): You didn't recognize him, or did you?

MCMULLEN: I did not. I've not seen him in 15 to 20 years. Once I went into his page and all of his pictures, I started looking, then -- I mean it's the same posture. It's definitely him.

KAYE (voice-over): Floyd County Sheriff Darrell Mills says South faces criminal charges in at least 25 other cases in his county, including burglary, battery and stolen property. He says people need to be more cautious.

SHERIFF DARRELL MILLS, FLOYD COUNTY, INDIANA: You don't know who all is looking at your private information there because it's really not private if you're on Facebook. You're posting it for everyone.

KAYE (on camera): One Internet security expert told me updating your status on any social networking site before you go out for the night or on vacation is as good as leaving a key behind for the burglars. In Keri and Kurt's case, all the suspects had to do was call the bar she said she was going to and find out what time the band was coming on. Then, police say, they knew what time would be safe to break in.

MCMULLEN: I was kind of sad that someone I trusted enough to put on my page, you know, would take advantage of me like that.

KAYE (voice-over): Before it was over, the burglars had stolen about $11,000 worth of goods. Keri would have defriended Sean South, she says, but after the burglary, he deleted his Facebook profile.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New Albany, Indiana. (END VIDEOTAPE)