p.m. and 11:00 p.m., eastern and pacific. i'll give you a preview later in the show. plus, america's amazing energy boom and how it will reshape global politics. and finally, an african success story. i'll talk to rwanda's president, paul kagame. it's been graduation season in the united states and i was honored enough to be asked to provide some words of advice at two universities this year, duke and harvard, where i got my ph.d. many of you have been interested in what i said at those events so i thought i would give you a quick summary. this has been a tough year mostly everywhere, but i am less gloomy than most. i think back on the crises we have already come through. remember the fears after the financial crisis began in late 2007? in the 12 months following, the economic peak in 2008, industrial production fell as much as it did in the first year of the great depression. equity prices and global trade actually fell more. yet, no global depression followed. or remember the period after 9/11 when most experts predicted that we had entered an age of terrorism? in fact, groups like al qaeda have been battered over the past decade. why? in both those cases, human beings responded to the crisis. governments around the world cooperated and acted. when we look at our problems, economic slowdowns, debt, terrorism, climate change, keep in mind that these problems are real, but also keep in mind that the human reaction and response to them will also be real. we're actually living in an age of astonishing progress. of the world is at peace, the number of people who have died as a result of war, civil war and, yes, terrorism, is down 50% this decade from the 1990s. it is down 75% from the preceding five decades, the decades of the cold war. this political stability has allowed the creation of a single global economic system in which countries around the world are participating and flourishing. even in the current period of slow growth, the global economy as a whole will grow 10 to 20% faster this year than it did a decade ago. 60% faster than two decades ago and five times as fast as it did three decades ago. the united nations estimates that poverty has been reduced more in the past 50 years than in the previous 500. and much of that reduction has taken place in the last 20 years. the average chinese person, for example, is ten times richer than he or she was 50 years ago and lives for 25 years longer. life expectancy across the world has risen dramatically. we gained five hours of life expectancy every day without even exercising. through recession and recovery, technology continues to gallop ahead touching new fields. consider that today's smartphone has more computing power than the apollo space capsule, or that the human genome, for example, is now being sequenced at a pace faster than anyone imagined possible. a third industrial revolution involving material science and the customization of manufacturing is yet in its infancy, and all these fields are beginning to intersect and pro deuce new opportunities that we can't really foresee. in almost all of our successes, one feature stands out, cooperation. whether in the global financial crisis or against al qaeda or in fighting cancer, when we come together, when we put aside petty differences, the results are astounding. i'm not urging complacency, far from it. we should worry about the terrible problems we face. in so focusing our energies, talents and attention, we will help solve those problems. let's get started. joining me now from the city of chicago, the mayor, rahm emanuel. >> thanks for having me, fareed. >> to take you back to your old job, what does it look like to you? >> i want you to know i'm loving this job, okay? don't do this to me. >> i know. but if you were -- as somebody who's politically engaged, you're looking at this election. how close is it really? >> it's a close election. i'm not saying anything that the president doesn't believe. i mean, it's a close election. and i think it's going to come down to a handful of states. i mean, i say this pithy, i don't mean the exact science, it's five states, 500 precincts. that's what i believe. >> and what do you think moves those -- and you're seeing this with the ads, they're often kind of narrow casting to those people. what do you think moves those people? is it different in every state? >> oh, yeah, it's different. i mean, look, what moves a voter in ohio and even in different parts of ohio, cleveland will be in a different place than cincinnati or columbus or toledo or akron, is different than what would maybe play in virginia. that's just who we are as a country as well as -- but the fundamental, that's kind of -- yes, it is narrow. but the fundamental is, in my view, is which person do you want in the oval office, because who's going to hear the voices that shape things? and i do think it's sentimental on behalf of the president. take the auto industry. clearly mitt romney would have done something different. he's a product of his experience. he would look at the financials and say let it go bankrupt. he said it. the president spent time on the south side dealing with steel workers, who saw their jobs and their lives and their whole communities disappear. everything they built. and he made a different decision against conventional wisdom. everybody -- two weeks to go, that was it. when we walked into the oval office. and whose voices and whose interests do you represent? because you are removed in the oval office and none of the choices are easy. that is the fundamental whether you're in virginia, wisconsin, florida, california, washington, oregon, who is going to fight for who in that oval office? and the auto industry, the financial industry, the housing and mitt romney said let it bottom out. to the president, those are people holding on to their entire american dream, as they see it. and they're really different people with different experiences with different views about how to shape the future of this country. and i think that's going to be the fundamental core piece of what this election is about. >> you talked about the background of mitt romney. do you think the ad about bain capital is a fair ad? >> i think -- look, he is running on his record as a private sector person and, therefore, it's fair for the president and his campaign to run an ad about that. in the same way that mitt romney will run an ad in saying that this is what the president's job creation was and it's all maxed by the first month, something he had no influence on. is that fair? okay. so i don't buy that it's unfair. it is part of what mitt romney talks about in the same way that it's legit for the president, in my view to say, and it's true, that when we were -- when he came into office, we were losing, on average, 700,000 jobs a month. the economy was contracting at 9 or 8.5%. not growing healthy, but it's growing. jobs are being added and not subtracted. not at the pace the president is comfortable with. now, i do think, yeah, there's a healthy discussion we should have which is where are we going as a country? what are the set of choices we're going to make? >> when you look at certainty, and businesses talk about the importance of certainty going forward, what everyone, even you as a mayor, business is confronting is this fiscal cliff that's going to take place. do you think -- you were chief of staff. do you think there's a way to bring the people in washington together and say, guys, we've got to get some kind of deal? >> it all comes down to the election, and here's what i mean. i'm a product of my experience. in 1995, the republicans shut the government down. president clinton beat them back. in '96, we had a rip-roaring debate about the role of government, what was right, what was wrong. president clinton won. the republicans lost seats in the '96 election in the house. nine months later, you had a balanced budget agreement. doubled the size of our national parks, created the children's health insurance program, college for middle class families, created the hope and lifetime learning tax credits, lifetime learning tax credits, i mean, did a host of things progressive, appropriate for government to do because the election had meaning. i believe if the president gets re-elected, everybody will realize, okay, he's here for four years, he got re-elected, we've got to now work things out. i believe elections have meaning. if the meaning coming out of this election is muddled, that's one set of political dynamics associated with that cliff. if the election is decisive in its clarity of meaning, that is the president gets re-elected and other scenarios happen at the state and local congressional level, that has meaning. so i don't -- i think elections have meaning in this system. if there's clarity to definition to this election, i think you can find the solution to all these issue. i think it's in our self-interest in this way. europe is a mess. it's going to be a mess on november 7th. if the united states deals with its issues with an honest compromise, meaning everybody will have to come off their campaign positions into their governing positions, we'll show the world we're ready to tackle our challenge. the entire questions by the financial and worldwide markets are not economics. they're political. and the political system can show its capacity to measure up, you will win the economic pieces. it used to be the other way around. if our political system measures up to the challenges, we will win the economic vote of confidence and then we can make the investments we need to do. >> you know, there are a lot of people who say if only president obama had embraced simpson-bowles. you were chief of staff at the time. why didn't he? >> well, i was chief of staff when we created simpson-bowles and i think what the president has done is in my view right. first of all, a lot of people say that simply they don't know what's in it. but the blueprint of my view here, what i'm trying to do and i think i know this is what the president is trying to do, i'm trying to do it on infrastructure. create jobs today, get the economy with real productive investments, not just money, building our roads, building our bridges, building our broadband, building our airports, making those investments, and then make sure your fiscal health, both medium and long term is structured correctly. but if we as a country, we all of a sudden adopt some of the strategies being advocated in europe, we'll have the same results. they're in a recession. 1.9% gdp growth is not healthy, but it's not 3% contraction. okay? that's a big spread. and so my view is we need to do exactly what the president is saying. >> but the president has proposed a number of things like the infrastructure bank, infrastructure -- other infrastructure proposals. they don't go anywhere. should he run a campaign against a do-nothing republican congress? >> i think the campaign he's running is correct in the sense that they are doing nothing. they're not doing anything and they haven't been productive. this congress under republican leadership, they haven't proud the type of investments. it used to be -- let's take infrastructure. the last infrastructure bill for the country, there were two, one in 2005, the highway bill. hasn't been reauthorized or refinanced since 2005. it's just been kicked along, nine times now for 90-day extensions. and then the stimulus bill. that's it. that's no way to run a modern economy. >> and we'll be back with rahm emanuel, the mayor of the great city of chicago. >> you have to deal with retirement age, you have to deal with benefit structure, you have to deal with contribution, you have to deal with choice. but you're also going to have to deal with what was once an agreement, contractual, that you can't sustain, otherwise, the current employees and the young employees will never get the pension that they're earning. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ and we are back with the mayor of the city of chicago, rahm emanuel. >> thanks, fareed. >> tell me your reaction to the wisconsin election. you have in your own way been trying to take on some of the issues of pension, retirement benefit costs, cost of living adjustments. what do you think one should interpret from that victory? what does it say that governor walker was reaffirmed with such a strong majority? >> i think -- well, i don't go where the interpretation is going, that somehow this is an affirmation for doing that type of politics. i think when you're recalled it's got to be something severe, you've committed corruption or something of that level. and i think that that's where the judgment was, this was not the tool for disagreeing with his policies on collective bargaining or other issues, so i'm not where the conventional wisdom is about, oh, this means it's war on public employees. i think public employees should be partners in solving problems. labor should be a partner. if your view when you sit at the table is i want to get to a yes and work a way that's a win-win, i'll not only pull up the chair, i'll get you a cup of coffee. but if your attitude is we did it this way 30 years, we're going to keep doing it this way for 30 years, that's not feasible. the taxpayers can't support that anymore. >> is there a danger that the democratic party is going to end up on the wrong side of this issue because the public sector unions are such a large funder of the party? >> well, it requires everybody being straightforward and honest with each other. i think the truth is you could say on my side, you're talking about from a partisan or party affiliate, you cannot put your head in the sand and say this will go away and take care of itself. denial is not a long-term strategy, it doesn't work. we have to take on these issues -- i don't want to say man up to them, but deal with them, confront them. but from a position of being honest with people, as painful as it is, no city today can function as if the past and the past responsibilities are going to hold true. and that means saying to people, and i say this when i go to firehouses. you did nothing wrong, this is not your fault. but i can't be your mayor and tell you if we don't change it, everything is going to be okay. that's just not true. you and your spouse have made plans all along the way. i want you to have a pension. not a defined contribution, a defined benefit. i want you to have it. but to have it, if you want it, we're going to have to make changes. and remember, i'm making changes to expectations. that's the hardest thing to do in life. but it starts with it's not your fault, things weren't done right. but we're going to get them right so when you contribute, you know it will be there. >> the biggest piece of this is cost of living adjustments, am i right? >> on the pensions. >> on the pensions. >> that's the automatic increase, i've testified to this. unless you deal with what's happening for present retirees, as part of a solution, you can do everything else on top. if you don't stop the bleeding, none of the other stuff will take hold and really fix the system. and cost of living adjustments are the ones that move the needle the fastest to health. and i think, i'm not going to win popularity points with retirees, but i want to be honest. they're getting an automatic 3%. i think the statistic retired at '95 at $60,000 now makes $100,000 plus. the employee current that is paying that took a furlough. a pay cut where the other person is getting a 3% annually increase. now that's just -- and that's not -- maybe a different era that's sustainable. it's not sustainable now. and that's what i meant when people agree to things, they're not sustainable long term. and you have to deal with retirement age, you have to deal with benefit structure, you have to deal with contribution, you have to deal with choice, but you're also going to have to deal with what was once an agreement, contractual, that you can't sustain, otherwise the current employees and the young employees will never get the pension that they're earning. >> if president obama wins re-election, is there any job in washington -- >> no. >> -- he could offer you? >> no. >> other than his own? >> fareed, i like you. you're pressing it now. no. here is the thing. i love this job. i was honored to work for the president. i was honored to work for president clinton. i was honored that the people of the city on the north side gave me their vote of confidence four times to represent them. this is the best job i've ever had in public life. i love doing this. nothing is more exciting. you can make decisions, see them through. make changes. the truth is, fareed, if i wasn't in chicago, you wouldn't want to sit with me, forget even the chief of staff. this is exciting things and we're showing the way i think forward in a progressive way of how to make reforms rather than in my view the alternatives that are being shown and held up. there is a progressive agenda for reform of the public sector. and anybody that wants to be a partner to that, i'm ready to meet, talk and design. >> rahm emanuel, pleasure to have you on. >> thank you. when we come back, i will explain why shale gas is revolutionizing not just the american economy, but global geopolitics as well. stay with us. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about the cookie-cutter retirement advice ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you get at some places. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 they say you have to do this, have that, invest here ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you know what? 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so i was struck when i saw the international energy agency's 2012 report. gone is the question mark. instead, it simply says "golden rules for a golden age of gas." and the starting point of that golden age is right here in america. it's become increasingly clear that the shale gas revolution here is a game-changer, not just for the energy industry, not just for the united states, but for global geopolitics. the technology behind shale gas production, where shale rock is blasted with a mixture of water, sand and chemicals, is only two decades old. the process is called fracking. and in a short time, its success has led to the drilling of 20,000 wells in america, the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs and