captioning sponsored by wp >> paul: just one daahead of a kelabor report, fed chairman bernanke tel congress there are no mag bullets to combat high unemployment. he sees it stiing around 9% through next year. >> susie: when icomes to finding a neleader for bank of america, experts say restong trust is key. coming up: a look at the challeng facing whoever is b. of a.'s ne boss. >> paul:o much for those cash for clunkers gains. the latest ao sales are out, anthe nation's car maker's contin to struggle. we talsales and outlook with

g.m.'s head of market alysis. >> a year ago, we d 27,000 peop registered in our system. last time i chked, it was around 6000. th woman runs a federally funded js program. tonigh a day in the life of a florida employme office. i'm paul kangas. this is "nightly busess port" for thursday, october ightly business report" is made possible by:

this program wasade possible by contributions to yourbs station from viewers like yo thanyou. >> susie: od evening, everne. a sharp ll-off in stocks on this first day of october as investors gothe jitters about the nati's job picture and the onomic recovery. the w tumbled 203 points and thnasdaq fell almost 65 on worries about tomoow's releasof the september employnt report. and in washingto ben bernanke offered no comfort. testifyi on capitol hill toda the federal reserve airman told lawmakers that even if the econy grew at a

ce of 3%, that would not be enou to bring down the unemployment rate. darren gersheports. >> reporr: it is the kind of concern you can expect to he moreften from members of coress. e federal reserve's own focast calls for unemployment of% next year. new jersey's leonardance asked fed chairman ben bernanke whether more could be do to put americans back to rk. >> ian't imagine the american people will conser the country to be in recovy if the unemployment rate ist roughly 9%. >> reporter: the fed chaman was not encouraging. >> i don't have y magic bullets toffer. if i did, i woulhave offered them by no one way to mitigate e long- term damage is to try toake sure thathose who are out of work forn extended period, don't se attachment to the labor rce and that they do get opportunitieto improve their skills and rain employable. >> reporter: with short te inrest rates near zero and a balance sheet nortof $2 trillion, many economists ree thfed has done all it can do. but vince reinrt, a former

senior fed staffer, thinks h old employer cou go a bit further. >> ithe federal reserve kept the foot on thmonetary accelerator at leastor a time, then they could pride some more support to spenng. reporter: reinhart says the fed s two options: delay its now-famous exit plans r a while, or y more long-term bonds to dve interest rates lower. that mht support economic activity, boosting hiring, course, it might also spook investors who e worried about inflatio to calm the fears, reinhart says the fed could s a clear go of keeping inflation low. >> that would probablyelp anchor longeterm inflation exctations. >> reporter: other anasts say any solutions wi have to come from congress. economs writer robert kuttner says he is talki to the obama administration about mor pport for state and local governments; hundredof biions of dollars in additial stimulus spending; ana tax credit for new job creation. kuttner thinks the administration shod aim to bring unemployment down 8%

next yeaand 6% or 7% in 2011. >>hat would be acceptable. i think anythi else than that- - anhing worse than that is wasting humalives, wasting economic resources, and e government can do bett, the governnt ought to do better. >> reporter: the polits may be clrer than the economics. there'bipartisan agreement that hh unemployment tends to make voters very unhappy wh pele in office. darren gersh, ightly business report," washington. >> susie: and vestors are very unhappy with bank america. the stock ll 4% today on concns about who will head b. of a. now thatenneth lewis is stepping dow that leadership vacuum is st one of many hurdles coronting the bankingiant. erika mill explains. >> reporter: no matterho sits in the corr office of bank of america, the chaenges loom large. y.u. professor karen bnner says the biggestne is restoring trust with emploes, customs, investors, regulatorsbasically everyone. >> that will clearly bthe key

objective of anybody comg on board. and given the distrust tt suounded these events of the past year, i tnk that's going to be clearly paramount. without it, it is going toe hardo maximize the value of the firm. >> rorter: having a new c.e.o., and sevel new board members may also me is more difficult fothe bank to execute its siness strategy. add to that, internal tuoil stemming from the ongoing integration merrill lynch and countrywidfinancial. still, analyst stuart esser ys those mergers will timately prove to be gd strategic moves. >>he acquisitions are paying off. merrl is certainly adding to the bottom line in significant way. d countrywide, although it h some legalssues, we can certainlsee the market shares that bank of america is ining in theortgage market because of it. >> reporter: and for all t fl ken lewis has taken, the bank's lal problems don't end th his departure. it still faces probes byew york state attorney genera andr cuomo, congress, and

regulators over whether lewi misled investo about merrill's loes and bonuses. on t of that, the bank has yet pay back the money it owes cle sam as part of the tarp program. that said, psser still think the stock is a good y. >> reporte he thinks the stock will get a big lift as sooas bank of americstarts paying ck it's $45 billion dollars tarp funds. he thinkthat could happen by the enof the year. erika miller, "nightlyusiness repo," new york. >> paul: wl street was hit with a sharp sell-off today,s vestors feared a larger than expected jump weekly jobless benefit claims foreshadowe weakss in tomorrow's release of the september empyment port. a weaker than expeed reading on manufacturingdded to worries that the ecomic

recory was stalling. so two hoursnto trading the dow was off 154 pots and the nasdaqown 52 points. the selling continued righ through to the close. the dow jos tumbled 203.00 pointso 9,509.28. the nasdaqlunged 64.94 to 2,057.. the s&p 500 lost 27.23 to 1,029.85. in theond market, the 10 year climbed 1-32 to 103-24/32 putting the eld at 3.18%. >>usie: call it a cash for

clunkers hangover. the nation's big automaks saw sales mble in september, a month ter the government's wildly popar program spurred a buying spree. sales atoth general motors and rysler plunged more than 40% atord the sales decline was smalle down just 5%. toyota's ses fell 16%. one bright spot:yundai. the south korean autaker's sales surged7%, thanks to heavy incentives. >> susie: meanile, general motors hopespdated models like the buick lacrosseand new marketing campaigns, will lp jumpart sales. diane eastabrook talked to michael digiovanni-- g.m.'s execute director of market analysis-- abo september sales. he saydespite the dippointing number, there is some good news >> we haa tough year over year comparison, but i ink the good news for us is our market are in september this year is gog to run about 21% we estima, whh is tied for the highest montwe've had all year. so that was a ry positive story for .

>> reporte one of the things that you mentioned in ur press release was th inventori were low. th were down because of people going to showrooms for cash for clunkers what are dealeinventories like ght now? >> well, we'ret about 424,000 units which is up from abo 379,000 units at the end o august. we're tryi to rebuild our inventorie as y've said, they've gotten prty low and you're right. i thinthe constrained inventories probably hurthe industry's sales by 3000 to 4000 units. probably hurt about 12,000 units, if we would have d more mid d small compact cars and crossors available in the month of stember. >> reporter: youust a couple of weeks ago announcedhis new 60-day money back guartee for consumers who y a vehicle and if they cide they don't like it, they can te it back to the dealer. i know it's very earlybut can you tell yet... us that progm ining traction with coumers? >> well, thiprogram is

somethinthat you've got to stick with for a long time. it's intended to bld long-term opinn and consideration of your brands and you knowrom third party perts like edmundcom, who tracks this regularly. it's not our data, it's a ird party source. theye shown that consideration for oubrands and our products s gone up appreciably from about 10% tobout 12% in the ddle of the year to around 1 now. so thiis definitely a combination of "may thbest car win" advertisingas well as the fact thaour products are getting better and better an you know, the necamaro, the and i think people are seein that general mots is now on w solid ground and, you know it's aut our products getting better, not about all that wve been tough in the last year in terms ofankruptcy and rurs of bankruptcy. i think we're putting that behind us and that's very positive thing. >> repter: i know that cadillac has done irly well but one of the complnts that

ve heard from caddy dealers that you kind ofulled back a year ago on leasing d they think their sales wod be much better if you would return t leasing and be morgenerous with your leasing program ain. any changef that happening any time soon? >> yeah, that's solutely accurate. we bically got down to almost zero percent leasing wh all of our sales. we're easing back in tit. 're running probably around or 6% of our sales areeasing-- most of thatn cadillac. so we are getting ck into at. were going to do it on a selective bas for our luxury brands primaly. we don't want to goverboard like we diin the past, because when you do too much leasi, those vehicles come backff auction and th cannibalize new car sales and hurt residua vaes for all manufacturers. so we want to maintain again like we're doing with inventories-- the rit balance. >> reporter:r. digiovanni, thks so much for joining us.

>> susie: n.b.c.niversal could soon have a neowner. publisd reports say cable giant comcast is consiring ying a controlling interest neral electric's n.b.c. universal. the deal would also mee the creati assets of the two companies to form a new nture. comcast would take a 51% ske, and e. would own the rest. reports say gotiations are in the eay stages. no cments from either company. the benefit r g.e.: raising sh. it needs the moneyo cushion the blow of risi loan defaults at its g.e. capital it. paul? >> paul: susie, the upside f comcas bigger ownership of the t.v. shows a movies it distribus to cable

subscribers. both companies we among today's most actives. we'll see them as we take look at our stocks in the new tonight.

and ose are the stocks tonight. >> susieben bernanke's comments today on the bs picture are oubling for the nation's 15 million unemoyed. for many of themthe loss of a b isn't just tough on the pocketbook, it tough on the soul. me wind up at the nation's networof federally-funded one- stop careecenters, looking for wo and in some cases hope. d as jeff yastine reports, they don't alwayfind it. >> reporter: this is one pce

thatlmost never lacks for customers. every moing at 8:00 a.m., ere's a line of people waiti toet in. theye here checking online job dabases, and hoping to find mething-- anything-- that wi start earning them a regul paycheck aga. in south florida, this federallfunded, one-stop career center is called "workforce one." the same feder program has different names in differe states: "workfce new york," "micgan works." but no matr the location or the name, the goal is the sa: help pple help themselves to find a j. people like alfonso urcu. >> afirst, i didn't think it would be this lo, but the way the economy is it's really b. >> reporter: urcuyo s come here nearly every day, for yearnd a half. that's wn he was laid off from his last job, a coract position with the state of orida. wi a 9.5% unemployment rate in e fort lauderdale area, there's a lot ofompetition for

work. >>hey have all these companies put their advertisements f enings, you know? and you keep sending theand sending them, and lf the time they don'tven respond. >> reporter: as thfolks who work here wi tell you these are busy times. blue collar. white coar. fr professions in once highly sought-after occupatns, to people fm the construction, tourism, and temarketing industes that once formed the backbone of the south orida economy. workforce one's kelly aln knows the numbs. >> busy is putting it ldly. a year agowe had 27,000 people registered in our syst. last time i chked, it was around 60,000. so there's been a huge incree in t number of people coming in, which is, of course, in ne with what we're seeing wh the unemployment re. hanna kabkina is familiar with that stastic. she's an enomist.

>> i'm optimtic, real optimistic. ( laughs ) >> rorter: an economist who's the logistics firm she worksor is going out of siness. >> i'm trying to create a loof resumes,nd send them to different employs so they can get acquaied with me, get formation about me. i have a doctorate in econics. i have seven years in siness analis, so probably somebody will be interested. >> repter: staying positive is a tougher propition for others, like barbara kaufman she recent lost her telemarketing job and would ke toetrain, perhaps as a paralel. but six eks and counting without a jois six weeks too long. >> being unempyed is not fun. waiting r the checks. the unreliabity of the checks. the low amounts, iean... oh yeah, very diffilt. >> reporter: staffers see th faces of the jless every day-- worried, anxious, the shee

fatigue of lookingor a job. a daily remindero staffers like workforce one's sila thomas. >> there a lot of people who need hel- keeps you in the now, kps you grateful. >> reporter: f those without jobs, the days a long. ma come here to apply for training to learn new jobs. reer counseling. d upgrades to their job hunting skills. anevery now and again, all that harwork, and a little luck, pa off. >> let's just say i was thrilled, d my wife was thrilledbout it, too. >> reporter: rember alfonso urcuyo? heot a job as a customer service rep, ending s 18-month ordeal >> they all say, "year and a half, oh my gosh, are u kidding? how can you dot," they said. and i've been trucki around. ( lahs ) >> reporter:nd it paid off. >> and it paid off. >> reporter: the kind of ns a

lot re people are hoping to hear. >> you're fu of good news this week, aren't ya? >> oh,an, i love it when it's good news. >> reporter: jeff stine, "nightly biness report," davie, florida. >> paul: torrow, our friday market monitor guest is michl hasensta portfolio manager of the templen global bond fund. >> susie: onof bernard madoff's biggest investorss being asked to returbillions of dolrs to victims of that ponzi heme. former nework lawyer jeffery picower may have to give bk $7 billion he me investing with maff. the trustee recoveringadoff's assets wants that money retued to pple who were scammed. picower says that claim has merit. >> paul: if you're thinkin about buying a house or refinancing yo mortgage-- now could be theime. mortgage rat fell below 5% last wk with the 30-year fixed rate at 4.94%. the average te on 15-year home loans dropped 4.36.

that's the lowest the 15ear rate has bee since freddie mac begatracking the numbers in 1991. >> susiethe nation's banks are being asketo pre-pay billions in iurance premiums. night's "two ways to play"

asks the question: what's int for the banks? here's kevin dew of minyanlle and minyanville's kevin depew with some answer >> the f.d.i.c this week, said it is planningo raise $45 billion to help stave ofa cash crunchs it deals with troubled banks. so far, nearly 100anks have been taken over by the f.d.i. this year. how are they goingo do this? by asking banks to prepay ree yes'orth of insurance fees. what's in it for banks? well, for one thing, it mes th'd no longer have to set aside money to cover pottial sses on fdic-backed securities. the relt would be that some banks' capital cushion wou crease almost overnight. remember, the f.d.c., which is ultimaly more important to in street than wall street, suffering from a temporary liquity crisis, not reckless solvency. >> well, that's a niceglossy take on things but it ignore the bizae circular nature of wh's happening. the bankin this case are being asked to pchase an asset-- f.d.i.c. insurance-- and the being told they don't haveo put aside capital toover a potential loss othat asset, cause it's guaranteed by the government.

what's the difference beeen asking banks tprepay $45 billion insurance or to make $45 billion in bad loans? nothing. so put all theargon aside and recognize is for what it is, an admsion that the financial system may be awash in liquidity, but it's dangerousl short of capital. >>aul: recapping today's maet action: stocks tumble as investorworry about tomorrow's employment report. the dow dropped 203 ints, and the nasdaq fell almost 65 points. to learnore about the stories in tonight's broadcast, to wch our streaming vio and to take rt in our daily blog, go to "night business report" on pbs.g. you can so email us at nbr@pbs.org. >> susie: that's "nighy business repor for thursday, ocber 1. i'm susigharib. goodnight, eveone and good nighto you, paul. >> paul: goodnight, sue. i'm ul kangas wishing all of you the best good buys. "nightly busins report" is de possible by:

this program was me possible by contributions to your pbs statn from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsor by wpbt captioned by media access group awgbh access.wh.org