American Morning
Retirement no more
With the current state of the economy, more and more people are being forced out of retirement. Right now the number of people over 65 working is on the rise. The Wall Street Journal reporting nearly a three percent spike over the last decade.
Eva Coffey, 60, was an accountant/comptroller for various companies most of her life. She retired 7 years ago, but after losing about 50% of her Roth IRA, and half the value of two investment properties, she's back at work again – as a school bus driver for $17/hour. But that's only part-time, about 15 hours a week and she needs more to make ends meet.
She and her husband have also had to shelve the idea of financing their retirement by selling their properties in this housing market. Coffey's husband works for the government and has put off planned retirement because of the economy.
The young and the jobless
Here's the harsh reality.
Nearly 3.7 million young people are now out of work.
Before the recession hit there were not enough jobs to go around.
Now that we're in a recession the younger the worker the more likely that worker could get pushed out of the job market.
Young Biz Whiz
Twenty year old sophomore Ben Lewis is busy these days. When he's not studying for mid term exams he is traveling cross country pitching his own bottled water that he says has the power to change the world.
The latest product from corporate America comes from a baby faced University of Pennsylvania sophomore who shares a room with three other roommates. Today he is in Anaheim, California at a health foods trade show pitching his Give water brand to the big wigs from the likes of Pepsi and Coke.
The bottles come in different colors and a dime from each bottle sold goes to charity. Orange helps the fight against muscular disorders, pink is for breast cancer research, green goes to the environment and blue helps children fight AIDS.
Fast Forward
The stories that will be making news later today:
This morning, some people are saying he should either resign or be fired, but Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner still has the full support of President Obama. At 12:30pm Eastern, CNN's Ali Velshi will sit down for an exclusive one-on-one interview with the Treasury Secretary.
At 12:30 Eastern Vice-President Joe Biden attends a town hall meeting at a bus company plant in Saint Cloud, Minnesota. He'll talk about the administration's effort to strengthen the middle class. Biden will be joined by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and other Cabinet members.
President Obama, will push his economic plan again today in California. At 4:30 pm Eastern President Obama will hold a town-hall meeting in Los Angeles with the mayor. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will also be there. Then he'll appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". The President will be sharing the stage with country music legend, Garth Brooks.
A federal appeals court will hear arguments later today to decide whether Bernard Madoff will see a lot more daylight between now and his sentencing on June 16th. He's supposed to remain in a Manhattan jail until then, when he faces up to 150 years behind bars. Madoff was the sole person charged in what is the largest investment scheme in U.S. History.
What's on Tap – Thursday March 19, 2009
Marching along the Road to Rescue… It’s day four of CNN’s special coverage.
The responses have been great and overwhelming. You’re helping us help you. And the verdict is in: You don’t like AIG!
Here’s the lineup of guests helping us make sense of the meltdown today:
- Bill Adair, Founder of Politifact.com. Some AIG fact or fiction today. Does Congress keep bailing out AIG because it’s insured by AIG?? We find out if there's any truth to that internet rumor.
- Former Federal Prosecutor Paul Callan on the latest face of greed and corruption – Bernie Madoff’s alleged “rubber stamp boy.”
- Our own Candy Crowley is dropping by. No one knows the beltway better. With some of the AIG outrage being redirected at Congress and the White House, does the president have the political capital to pass a three-trillion dollar budget and even MORE bank bailouts?
- Plus – the “Fed” is doing something major. It’s throwing another $1,000,000,000,000 right at the heart of the problem. It could make your home payments more sustainable, even more affordable, but are we mortgaging the future for that?
We Listen!
Here’s your daily recap of the best feedback we got from YOU on the blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Email.
And new today: your voice comments! Call 1-877-MY-AM-FIX to leave us a comment/question. We will play some of them on-air and post others right here!
Continue the conversation below. And remember, keep it brief, and keep it clean. Thanks!
American Morning viewers were on the war path for AIG executives’ heads. Questions continued from viewers who remained perplexed by the idea that the company is too big to fail:
Voicemail
Emails
- Michael – I find it hard to believe we don't know who these 70 plus people are. I can understand not finding Bin Laden, one person, but 70 + people???? Come on... this is not acceptable. If it's that hard, contact "Dog, The Bounty Hunter", I'll bet he could. What's being done to get their names besides having these hearings and asking these greedy, unpatriotic AIG Execs? Yea, unpatriotic, self-centered, scum. FIND These People and plaster their faces all over the news let the American people stand outside their home(s) and harass the hell out of them. Greedy bastards.
- Jean – Maybe it's just my stupidity, but someone needs to explain to me why the banks failed or are failing, if AIG who insures the mortgage backed securities, has not been allowed to fail. I thought that it was the mortgage backed securities that caused the banks downturn, but now I find out that these are insured – by AIG. AIG has not been allowed to fail, so I don't understand how the problem escalates if the Government has covered them.
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