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CNN Saturday Morning News

The President's First Stop: Mumbai; Putting Retirement on Hold

Aired November 06, 2010 - 07:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good morning to you all. We'll hit the top of the hour on the CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Some retirement dreams having to be put on hold, because of this economy? Baby boomers who thought they'd be on the beach right about now having to stay in the work force a little longer. We are going to be hearing from them, but also giving you some financial advice.

Also, trick or treaters, you want M&Ms or you want Snickers? You want ribbed too or you want regular? Yes, some kids actually getting condoms when they go trick or treating. This is not a joke. You are going to hear from some of the parents. Also, you'll hear why these condoms were being handed out.

Again, from the CNN Center, this is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING for this November the 6th. Glad you all could be here. I'm T.J. Holmes.

We're going to begin this hour overseas with President Obama on an American job hunt, but doing it over in Asia. The president landed a few hours ago in Mumbai. That is India's financial hub. This is his first stop on a 10-day mission to Asia. Along for the ride with the president, executives from some of America's biggest corporations hoping to help spur economic partnerships in India.

Also, take a look at this, billboards greeting the president. They're all over the place. A lot of people want to welcome the president, but also it seems like everybody wants to get in on the action and do some business with America especially since India's emerging economy makes it a powerful trading partner.

Our White House correspondent, Dan Lothian, is along for the trip with the president as well. He joins us live from Mumbai.

Dan, I've talked about the economic mission that the president is on. But he started out this morning talking about terrorism and security and partnership between the U.S. and India.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

And, as you know, terrorism in this part of the world, because of what happened here two years ago, very front and center in the minds of the people here. And so, the president wanted to show that the U.S. and India stands shoulder to shoulder. India, of course, experiencing what they referred to as their 9/11 when they have those Mumbai attacks where 166 people were killed. So, the president today were saying that India and both the United States are very focused in the defense of their people.

Take a listen.

(VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: The senior adviser, he told what the president wanted to do was to show that, you know, here is the United States, who has been through something like you are going through. When he really wanted to honor those who have gone through this and to show that you can go through something that's difficult like this but still recover. That was the sort of the focus of the president today.

But, as you pointed out at the top of the report, the president also is here to talk about business. The U.S. sees India as a booming economy, expected to grow by 8 percent over the next few years. And so, the president sees this as a major market for U.S. goods.

And while there's so much concern in the United States about outsourcing jobs, the president believing that this is a two-way street.

We heard that from the president in opinion piece that he wrote in "The New York Times" today where he said, quote, "We want to be known for what we consume, but for what we produce. And the more we export abroad, the more jobs we can create in America. In fact, every $1 billion we expert exports more than 5,000 jobs at home. It is for this reason that I set a goal of doubling America's export in the next five years. To do that, we need to find new customers and new markets for American-made goods. And some of the fastest-growing markets in the world are in Asia, where I'm traveling this week."

And, of course, one of the places is right here in India, and the president is hoping that this will be a bright spot in terms of exports, announcing a multibillion dollar deal by Boeing to sell airplane and airplane parts to India. Just the beginning of what the United States hopes will be a long-term economic partnership here -- T.J.

HOLMES: So, like you say, the president not just there doing some talking, actually some concrete announcements to make as opposed to spur the partnership and the economies between these two countries.

LOTHIAN: That's right.

HOLMES: Dan, we appreciate you, as always. We'll talk to you again soon.

The president, of course, is just on his first stop of this 10- day trip. He's going to be heading to Indonesia as well, Seoul, South Korea, part of this trip, Japan as well. We'll continue to follow the president.

Meanwhile, back here at home, the president is not saying a whole lot about Nancy Pelosi's future. She is the outgoing speaker of the House, of course, after the midterm elections on Tuesday. She says now that she is going to run for the minority leader job.

Officially, the White House says it does not get involved in or comment on leadership elections.

Pelosi says she wants the job to help protect health care, Wall Street reform, Social Security and Medicare. However, some are starting, already, to line up against her. So, we could see a battle in the House over whether or not she will keep a leadership role.

Also, we'll turn to the competition, if you will, now. MSNBC has suspended, indefinitely, one of its biggest stars. Keith Olbermann. He is off the air indefinitely without pay, the suspension, for violating ethics policy at the company.

He donated to three Democrats who are running for office. And each of those cases, Olbermann contributed the maximum amount to these candidates, $2,400. Network policy requires employees to first get permission to avoid any possible conflicts of interest.

No, we're going to turn to Haiti, again, this morning. Some there dealing with flooding issues. Tomas has now been downgraded from a hurricane, but still has left some damage in parts of Haiti. More on the track of this storm, coming up in just a moment.

But first, before we let you go, the "Forbes" world's most powerful list of people has come out. And how many from the U.S. ranked among the top 10 on the list? Again, this is "Forbes" list of most powerful people in the world. And out of those top 10, how many are actually from the U.S.? Is it six? Is it three, or just one? That answer after the break.

It's four minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Seven minutes past the hour.

Before the break, we asked you a question. How many people from the U.S. ranked among the top 10 of the world's most powerful people? Was it six, three or one? The answer is: three. Yes, the president is on that list in the top 10. But, also, the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, and also, Microsoft's Bill Gates. No other country has more than one person in the top 10.

The complete list, of course, at Forbes.com. It's always good to get some "Tony, Tony, Tony" on a Saturday morning as well.

Here with Reynolds once again. We saw this video a little earlier of our adventurer.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, yes.

HOLMES: You know, young men, everybody wants to fly. Well, he's doing it. This is a Swiss guy. You saw him there, he jumped off. That's a hot air balloon. Took him up, what was it, 4,800 or 7,800 feet? I can't -- 7,800 feet above Switzerland. And if you see -- and, Reynolds, you hit it on the head. I didn't think about it when I first saw it -- it's Buzz Lightyear.

WOLF: It is Buzz Lightyear. It really is. The color is a little bit different. The scheme, a little different. The parachute, didn't expect that, but it is Buzz Lightyear. It really is.

HOLMES: And again, this guy, they called him an adventurer. How you get that title? Bu jumping out of a hot air balloon at 7,800 feet.

WOLF: Unbelievable.

HOLMES: But he has -- yes, that wing on the back with a jet pack. He flew for about 20 minutes. And you see there, he landed safely. But he's considered maybe one of the first to ever fly.

But the video is amazing to see him take off like this. But, he tried this before, Reynolds.

WOLF: Yes.

HOLMES: It's one thing to fly 20 minutes. He tried to go from Morocco to Spain last year doing this. He had to be rescued.

WOLF: You know, I think, to do this, you also have to have a purpose for it. You can't do just the sake of doing it. You have to go, OK, I'm going to put on the jet pack and I'm going to the grocery store to pick up some donuts or something. You got to have

HOLMES: A purpose.

WOLF: You have to make it purposeful. Absolutely. Hey, you need a six-pack of beer, hey, I'm taking the jet pack. Let's go.

You have to make it so that the average person can relate to it, you know, maybe on the way to work. But, yes, when he did stall out last time, it was over at the Mediterranean. Not the best place.

HOLMES: OK.

WOLF: Yes.

HOLMES: But as you say, you had to make it practical. You've got something practical here. Everyone is going to want to know about it.

WOLF: You know, a lot of people have these.

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: Millions and millions.

WOLF: There is a little bit of a glitch. And the glitch is really causing some issues at a time that's really lots of time. Daylight Savings Time this weekend where people are going to roll back their clocks. But the issue that we have on some of the alarm clocks with these great wonderful machines, we have a little bit of an issue.

Let's get you right to it. I want you to see this full screen we're going to pop up in a few moments, just going to give you some tidbits on how to handle this little issue.

OK. Here is the full screen that we got for you. Take a look. There's the iPhone fix.

The issue that we have with is this is a couple simple steps. First and foremost, to fix the issue that we have for the alarm clock, we need to open the clock application. Second of all, you need to click on the alarm icon. Third, you need to click on the plus sign icon. Before, you need to create an alarm and make sure you have the repeat option. You got to have it set to never. And then you select appropriate time and sound and click "save."

The reason why is this clock will not understand. Right now, the way it's set, it doesn't really get the whole Daylight Saving plan. So, you will make up an hour late.

HOLMES: Yes. Your time will reset the way it's supposed to.

WOLF: Yes, it will.

HOLMES: That part will. But if you have a recurring alarm on your clock, we're talking to you, folks, it is not going to reset for you automatically, only if you have the recurring alarm. All you have to do is wait until Daylight Savings Time is over, tomorrow. You could reset it. Everything would be fine. But this is going to throw some folks off. You're hope this thing is going to reset on its own and wake you up on Monday like it's supposed to.

WOLF: Done, done and done.

HOLMES: Got it?

WOLF: You know, the good thing about this system, this little handheld devices, I mean, they're really handy. Sometimes, look, you're not careful. You can destroy them.

I can tell you that during Hurricane Igor, I was in Bermuda. And this thing got ripped apart by salt water. Some people this morning in some of the islands a little bit to our southeast are dealing with the different system altogether. We're talking about Tomas.

Let's stop over here and give you the latest on this particular system. Good news, first and foremost, T.S., a tropical storm. It has weakened just over the last couple of hours. Winds at 70, gust up to 85 miles per hour. And this thing is getting rugged.

A couple of things are happening: one is interaction with land has caused it again to lose some its inner structure. Second of all, it's moving into an area with a little bit of sheer. Some upper level winds that are going to really test the fortitude of the system. An then, eventually, it's going to move into cooler water, which would kill it out altogether. But, still, the threat remains for Haiti. Although Haiti is going to have just a little bit of residual rainfall from some of the outer bands, the biggest issue is going to come from the hillside outside of Port-au-Prince. We have ground that saturated -- very slow root systems. It may happen over the next several days and we can see that some of those hillsides begin to slide and we have the possibility of some mudslides. So, certainly, a big concern.

The problem is, where is the storm going? What can we expect from it? Well, the latest forecast from National Hurricane Center shows it should continue to weaken into Saturday afternoon and Sunday and then further into Monday, possibly becoming a tropical depression and moving out to sea. That's the good news.

Let me give you some other good news for this weekend. Any planes you have on the Eastern Seaboard should be -- well, picture perfect for you. In New York, 53 degrees the expected high; New Orleans, 63 degrees; Denver with 76; Seattle, Kansas, scattered showers. Shocker, I know, in the Pacific Northwest. In Los Angeles, a little bit of a cool down. They've been in the 80s the last couple of days, 76 is the expected high.

Very quickly, one thing you can expect if you happen to be a big fan of college football is a great forecast this weekend. And I'm telling you, the thing would advance -- let me just tell you how the forecast is going to be. It's going to be 100 percent chance of pain if you're going to be watching the LSU-Alabama game. That game is going to be in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Conditions are pretty. It has a 3:30 start, T.J. Very dry conditions on the field.

That's actually the number 16 (ph) in there, but 10 team, each team has one loss. It should be interesting.

Auburn plays a fairly easy game today against Chattanooga. Another interesting game is going to between TCU and Utah. They are playing in Salt Lake City. Each team undefeated.

They are not BCS schools. This is part of the weeding out process. The weather is going to be fine today so there's going to be really no blaming, you know, strong winds for a passing game not working out. But it is going to be a great game for a lot of sports fans.

HOLMES: OK. And famous last words, it should be an easy game for Auburn today.

WOLF: Yes, that's true. We can now remember Michigan losing to --

HOLMES: Appalachian state, yes.

WOLF: -- Appalachian State and James Madison. So, you never know.

HOLMES: You know what, sometimes we sound like we should be on ESPN doing Sports Center, instead of this. WOLF: There you go.

HOLMES: Reynolds, appreciate you as always.

WOLF: You bet guys.

HOLMES: All right. Coming up here, a lot of folks out there, baby boomers work their whole lives. They have been waiting. They want to buy their retirement home in Florida, maybe, kick back, grab a Winnebago, have -- feeling easy street for retirement.

Well, some are having to work longer and longer because of this economy. Some of them are living off their savings.

Our Clyde Anderson is here, he is going to do home schooling for you and how to retire in this economy.

It's 14 minutes past the hour. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Quarter past the hour now.

I'll give you a look at some of the stories making headlines.

Two American universities along the Mexican border are cancelling classes today because of the ongoing drug war next door.

The Mexican military officials say one of the leaders of a notorious Gulf cartel and four of his henchmen died in a two-hour-long gun battle with Mexican naval troops along the border. That prompted the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College to close today in light of violence.

Also in Indonesia, the death toll rises as Mount Merapi volcano there continues to erupt. As many as 76 people died yesterday. Less than a dozen of those have been identified because they are so badly burned. In all, the 120 have been killed since the volcano resumed erupting 12 days ago. Indonesia military is helping the thousands trying to escape from the spewing volcano.

And the Labor Department here in the U.S. says more than 150,000 people landed jobs last month. That is the best gain in business hiring we've seen in some six months. October's job report didn't budge, though. The national unemployment rate remains at 9.6 percent.

Well, some who are working right now are having to work longer than they thought. Our Clyde Anderson, he's here with retirement options that will help you as you hit the senior years. We're talking to him right after the break. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: This tough economy is forcing many baby boomers, age 55 and older, to put their retirement dreams on hold. Some are actually living off their savings. Some have used up all their savings and being forced back into the workforce, that is if they can find a job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

DOROTHEA REED, FACING RETIREMENT CHALLENGES: My name is Dorothea Reed, I am 63 years old. I have thought of retiring at 62. Through my work career, I was planning early to retire and when the housing crisis hit, a lot of the stock disappeared and some of my life savings disappeared with that. So, it has forced me to continue to work right now.

MARIE CAPE, FACING RETIREMENT CHALLENGES: My name is Marie Cape. I am almost 65 years old. I worked with the DeKalb Medical Center for 37 years.

And I thought I was prepared, knowing that I had the 401(k) and was not really as financially set as I thought I was. Lost insurance when I retired from nursing, and, therefore, I need extra money to help pay for insurance.

REED: Last year, I was a trooper and I survived breast cancer. If I want to try to get another insurance company to cover me, they will consider my former cancer a preexisting condition and a lot of the insurance companies will not carry me. I have to wait until I'm 66 to get Medicare/Medicaid.

CAPE: Being able to work here has given me the opportunity to be able to do other things that I would like to do as a retired person. To be able to save a little bit better financially and be more prepared.

REED: Looking at the benefits package the federal government sends me every year, if I retire now, before I reach 66, I only get about a third of the benefits that I have worked for. It's just the thought of I have worked long and hard since 16 years old and it's time for me to take a break. I just wanted to be able to do some traveling and enjoy this time of my life.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HOLMES: Oh, Clyde, that's heart breaking.

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: Yes, it is.

HOLMES: Because these folks have, they have worked their entire lives. They get to this point, they think they're -- you know, some of it has to do with benefits falling off and economy and whatnot. But how much of this -- I mean, how do you know when you are in trouble? Some just don't budget it well enough and don't plan ahead well enough.

ANDERSON: A lot of people just don't think prepare for it. I mean, we think it's so far away. So, we're not thinking about that. And who knew what the job market was going to do, what the housing market is going to do, and what was going to happen to 401(k)s. Nobody had the crystal ball to be able to see that. And so, when it hit, it hit hard. HOLMES: OK. To earn a little extra money. We talk about folks going out and getting jobs, but it's tough as the job market is now.

ANDERSON: Right.

HOLMES: I mean, how many companies, I mean, sad as it is, they don't want to hire and invest in an older worker necessarily.

ANDERSON: Exactly.

HOLMES: What are these folks supposed to do?

ANDERSON: It's hard because they think about, companies are thinking, how many years are you really going to work for me? And so, you really got to think outside the box. I mean, there's a lot of customer service jobs.

We talk to some people there. And they were working on the places doing customer service, doing assistance, admin assistance, doing something that they liked to do. Maybe it's not as strenuous as maybe what they were doing before and maybe not as stressful as what they're doing before and kind of thinking outside the box to find something.

See, the unemployment rate is skyrocketing, you know? And so, it's hard for everyone. So, you can imagine how hard it is for someone in that demographic as well.

HOLMES: That's a good point. I mean, we still 7.2 right now. That's lower than the national average and whatnot. But look at where it usually is, if you will.

ANDERSON: Exactly.

HOLMES: You don't have that many older Americans out there trying to work in the first place.

ANDERSON: Right.

HOLMES: But they want to (INAUDIBLE), they can find jobs. I mean, what should people do? I mean, bankruptcy, am I hearing this right? That actually can be an option before retirement?

ANDERSON: Well, it is. And bankruptcy can always be an option. But the thing is, you got to look and see if it's right for you. You know, you really got to look at your situation and see where you are in the situation. Is it that bad that you've got to file bankruptcy? I mean, it takes years to recover from a bankruptcy.

So, we are talking about, you know, you're constricting so many years of your life to do that. But if you're in a situation, you really got to do it on a case by case basis and determine is there another way for me to get out of this.

HOLMES: Can you throw into the mix as well, just like poor lady said we were talking to, I mean, a lot of older folks have medical issues.

ANDERSON: Yes, exactly.

HOLMES: I mean, how do they suppose to hold and maintain as well if you got -- I mean, unfortunately, have a serious health problem like that -- that's a major expense.

ANDERSON: Major. It's major. And a lot of people didn't realize that the ages got moved up. So, you know, you're talking about being 66 before she can even get Medicare, you know, to be able help with her existing condition. As we were talking, you can't retire from CNN until your 67 now, because of your age and when you were born. So, 67 is the age for our generation now as far as being able to retire.

So, you really got to know when you can retire and you got to have a plan for that to know exactly what do I have and what is my budget going to look like once I do retire. What am I really going to need and who am I taking care of as well?

HOLMES: Is it always -- as we wrap up here -- is it always, we see for commercials for this, you need to know your number?

ANDERSON: Yes.

HOLMES: Do people need to know how much money I need to have in the bank to hold -- so I can hold on for the rest of my life? Is that important?

ANDERSON: You do. You do. And I think it's important for everyone. It's important to know what you need right now in your budget, yearly -- year to year. But it's also important to have a picture of what am I going to need once I retire? Am I taking care of parents? Am I taking care of children still, like children in college? You know, what does it look like for me? How much am I going to need?

So, we look at some of the healthy tips. You know, find out how much you Social Security is going to be and develop a retirement plan. Max out all you can on your 401(k).

And even they say pay off your mortgage. And this -- it can be a good thing for several people because that's one less thing you have to worry about. Now, especially with the housing market taking such a dip, sometimes it may not be as much as you have to pay off but it definitely is still a good position to pay off that mortgage and not have that debt to worry about.

HOLMES: All right. It's heartbreaking to hear. Really, those folks work all their lives and this is the time they should be hanging out and have good times.

All right, Clyde, we appreciate you. Good tips. Hopefully, that helped some folks out.

Quick break here. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Trick or treating is done. This was just last weekend we were talking about this stuff. And few stories related to it, you know, whatnot.

But we have another one here to bring you that we just got on our radar. Out in Oregon, a family is not handing out candy to kids knocking on the doors, they are giving out condoms. Condoms. Yes, it will confuse --

WOLF: They're kidding?

HOLMES: Yes, not kidding at all. Now, they didn't give them to the little kids, let me be clear. But some of the older kids got them.

Some of the parents -- well, you listen to their reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

DANIEL COTE, DAUGHTER GIVEN CONDOMS ON HALLOWEEN: They have no right to decide when my child is ready or not to be informed from this.

MARCIA BRANSTETTR, SILVERTON RESIDENT: It's the wrong venue. I mean, I want my kids to learn about it. I want other people's kids to learn about it. But that's just not the way to get it across.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HOLMES: Reynolds, but the folks handing them out, they say they are doing a public service, they believe, to hand them out so kids would be safe.

WOLF: I'm a firm believer there's a time and a place for everything. That is not the time or the place just saying that. You know, I mean, the thing is, though, what is the cut-off age for trick or treating? I know they only give them to --

HOLMES: Yes, probably shouldn't be 18-year-olds trick or treating.

WOLF: What 18-year-old in their right mind is going to be trick or treating? I mean, let's be honest with that. I mean, if you are a little younger, maybe that is something that should be left to the parents or left to someone else. But maybe just not during trick or treating.

HOLMES: All right, folks. You heard it here.

We are going to be back at the top of the hour with more live and CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

First, the doctor -- the good doctor, Sanjay Gupta starts after the break. But right now, when is Sanjay -- is it now?