>> so the key now is to make sure there's strong followup, strong execution of the plans that have been put forward. >> as president and candidate for re-election in tough times mr. obama was crystal clear on the domino effect of that euro zone deal. >> if europe is weak, if europe is not grown as our largest trading partner that is going to impact our businesses and ability to create jobs here in the united states. >> a bit more positive news from the commerce department. it reported that the over all u.s. economy grew at an estimated annual rate of 2.5% in the third quarter. now that's hardly a robust rate yet it is nearly double the anemic growth back in the april, may, june quarter. can this rally be sustained? can we finally set aside worries of sliding back into recession? we begin with alison kosic live at the new york stock exchange tonight. was this rally all about europe? >> it was all about europe, john. the european debt deal is what wall street has been waiting for, for a long time. the agreement includes a stronger bailout fund. it's going to force european banks to set aside more cash and includes a plan to reduce greece's huge debt load. it is these debt problems that have been hanging over the markets for many months. for sometime now causing all the volatility we've seen in the markets for sometime. investors have been worried about greece defaulting and what the ripple effect would be in europe and here in the u.s. now it looks like greece is likely going to be able to pay its bills so that brought all the confidence back into the market and investors bought into it in a big way today not wanting to miss the rally for a minute. john? >> so, alison, enough positive data to breathe a sigh of relief or could we be in for another rollercoaster? >> you know, i talked with some analysts and traders and they say, you know, we really dodged one bullet but then we've got lots of bullets left. this plan only topples that. it doesn't do anything to boost growth in europe. greece still has to go through with its austerity cuts. italy is talking about some cuts, too. so some analysts are concerned actually that italy could be the next shoe to drop because italy is swimming in its own pool of outstanding debt so beyond the details and implementation of how this big european debt plan is going to happen there is still the big question of how to get the economies overseas moving and i haven't even mentioned our own debt problems that we have to deal with that super committee still has to come up with an agreement on cutting $1.2 trillion by november 23rd. so, john, what you'll see is that is going to be the next worry to hang over wall street. >> a lot of worries around the world here in washington and wall street. alison kosic live tonight. thanks. more perspective now. mark zandy is the chief analyst for moody's analytics. mark, i want to begin with you. a lot of americans even now, some are still saying why does this brouhaha, this dysfunction in europe affect me? help them understand it. >> well, europe is our largest trading partner. a lot of companies have big ex-poesh tours what goes on in europe and our banks do as well. they do a lot of business with european banks. if europe is struggling, if the european economy is in recession it's going to have a ripple effect on us through trade, through the stock market, through the banking system. you know, we are literally tethered at the hip with europe. i think our economy could digest a mild european recession, but it could not digest a severe recession. it would drag us down, too. >> david, as we watched this play out we know and alison just mentioned there is dysfunction here in washington about the super committee. the u.s. deficit reduction plan. we'll get to that in a moment. we just saw the picture of the key european leaders sarkozy, merkel, berlusconi. they have an agreement on paper now. do you have the confidence? they've had some hiccups in getting to this point. that they can get it to the finish line? >> there is a lot more work to do. implementation is going to be as they say a bear. but the fact is people by late yesterday as the summit was still going none brussels were starting to get a bit pessimistic. would europe come up with the bazooka is what it's called to stop this contagion from the greek debt situation from spreading to italy and as far as us here in the united states. they didn't come up with a bazooka but a blueprint for a bazooka. if you stared at it long fluf it would start to look like one. that was as we saw in the stock market today enough. >> enough for now, mark and david. mark, back to you, we get these gdp numbers out of the commerce department today, 2.5% in a strong economy we'd be worried about that. in a weak economy we celebrate it as better than the last quarter. >> right. >> but not enough to deal with the big fundamental problems of unemployment and if you don't deal with that how are you going to deal with consumer confidence? >> you know, good point. but i'll take it. i mean, just think back a few weeks ago. you know, there were some legitimate concerns that the economy would completely stall out and we'd get no growth, maybe even a negative number. so 2.5% growth in that context isn't too bad. if you look at the details of the numbers, they're also somewhat encouraging and suggest that growth going into the current quarter q 4 is okay but you're absolutely right, john. this isn't enough, i mean if we're going to make any dent with respect to unemployment, we're going to have to have growth that is north of 3% on a consistent basis and we're still a long way from that. >> so, david, not enough to make us feel better about the jobs situation. is it enough to make us set aside the script we're keeping say we might fall back into double dip? >> well, one thing we now know is we did not fall into a recession in the last quarter. that's what the numbers showed today. there were some interesting details as mark points out in the gdp report. one of them is this. got a lot of companies around the country sitting on a lot of cash. they've generated that from their profits. if we could just get them to spend, can't really ask the consumer to spend much more, kind of tapped out, if we can get the businesses to spend that would be a good thing. we saw business investment up 16% in the last quarter. that is good news. consumer spending up. not bad news. what was disturbing though was income after taxes actually down during the quarter meaning we've dipped into our savings. >> and so if we need that confidence, mark, to you, as you know, a lot of those businesses have said some stability out of the governments would help. we see perhaps progress in europe. what about these super committee deliberations, the democrats make one proposal. the republicans say no way. they have a proposal. it may be behind closed doors they're getting something done but publicly they're not inspiring confidence at the moment are they? >> yeah. you're right. the super committee has to come up with something. i mean, if the process completely fails, if the committee is unable to come up with any kind of deficit reduction, i think that would throw our financial markets back into turmoil and that would be the fodder for going back into recession. so i don't know that the committee can come up with the goal of $1.2 trillion at least substantively. i don't think they need to but they need to come up with four or five or $600 billion just to ensure people feel confident that we're going to follow through on this deficit reduction effort that we're now engaged in. so this is very key. the coast isn't clear. this is a hurdle we have to get over. >> christopher freeland the global editor at large for reuters joins our conversation. as we look to the political dysfunction in washington for businesses and consumers and everybody looking for some sign that they get it, are you convinced they get it? >> well, i do think they get it. but i think what they get more is the 2012 election. and what seems to me to be happening is really a lot more about political posturing and lot less about coming to the kinds of deals that mark was talking about. you know, what i would really like to see and what i think business would like to see would be some concrete, practical action on some of those housing proposals that we've heard from the white house this week. i think that would do a lot of good to get the sluggish economy going. i think the jobs situation is still really a crisis. probably the preeminent one for the u.s. economy. >> so, david, if you're the average american out there and watching this wondering what about me, if you accept her logic that they'll cut a deal but it won't be a big, bold deal because politics will constrain that, what is your outlook over the next year? should you be changing your behavior at all based on what's about to happen? >> well, they're always telling us to save and this is a period to save which is the opposite of what the economy needs but it is exactly what many american families need to do given the uncertainty. i think what she said is key, which is something has to be done about the housing market. federal reserve chairman bernanke talked about congress, please, come up with some sort of path to the future when it comes to what to do about these foreclosures and the mortgage market in general. that's got to happen. that could actually happen before you get a budget due. >> if i could just jump in the interesting thing about housing is there are quite a few things the white house could do, that it doesn't need congress for. that's what i would really like to see the white house focusing on right now. we know there is a political log jam so this could be a great moment for some real tactical steps that the president can just do. >> beyond what he has done and promised yesterday? what more can he do? >> well, i think he took a tactical step a couple days ago by proposing some changes to refinancing to allow more homeowners to refinance. i think that's a good, tactical step. but a broader point is i don't think there are any home runs here. there are no policy efforts that you can put into place quickly that will make a big difference so it's got to be things like he did a couple days ago. one other idea would be, for example, we've got a lot of foreclosed properties that are coming to market over the course of the next several months. that's going to drive down house prices, give investors a tax break, temporary tax break to go out and buy those properties. that would be helpful. it's those kinds of things. this isn't a grand plan, grand solution. but if we string enough singles together, then it will make a difference. >> mark, david, chrystia appreciate your insight on what we can say is a positive day. we hope it's followed by more. appreciate your help trying to lay out the path. still to come, tonight's truth looks at rick perry's new strategy. is ducking debates a viable comeback strategy? 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[ female announcer ] the travelocity guarantee. if your booking's not right, we'll help make it right, right away. from the price to the room to the trip you'll never roam alone. more fireworks and tension on capitol hill over the botched gun trafficking program called fast and furious. the latest sign of the mistrust between the obama administration and congressional republicans came as the homeland security secretary janet napolitano was before a key house committee. operation fast and furious was supposed to find out how american guns got into the hands of mexico's drug cartels and actually that program allowed u.s. guns across the border. this week the house oversight committee wanted to know why secretary napolitano didn't act more quickly when some of those guns turned up at last december's killing of u.s. border patrol agent brian terry. >> in the case of brian terry, he was gunned down with two weapons from fast and furious. it has been months. you tell me that you're not -- you weren't doing it because of an ig investigation. let's go through a few questions here, madame secretary. >> wait just a minute. wait just a minute. >> let me finish my question. >> go ahead but that insinuation is not -- >> madame secretary, you -- we could have the record read back and take a few minutes. >> no, it's the insinuation i'm objecting to. >> california republican darrell issa joins us from capitol hill. mr. chairman, let me start first with your premise. do you think she slow walked the investigation? >> i think she would like to have us believe she never talked to eric holder even though she was terribly concerned about the loss of not one but two of her agents in two separate episodes and she did so because of an investigation over at justice. candidly, there were more than two months that went by between the death of brian terry, her attendance at his funeral, and the beginning of the ig investigation. you would think there were a few cabinet meetings and plenty of opportunities to say, oh, by the way, eric, tell me more about fast and furious and how my agent got killed with weapons that you let walk into the hands of drug cartels. >> listen to a little bit more of your exchange with secretary napolitano, a question on the other side. >> i think your insinuation that -- >> ma'am, please answer the question. please don't talk in terms of insinuation. >> may i have the opportunity to answer, please? >> a couple points here. number one, you can see it in her face and hear it in her voice and then you challenge her back. are you concerned here at all that there is a level of mistrust, even enmity that is going to get in the way of this? well, remember, this is a secretary who, her appointees, demanded that freedom of information act documents be brought to them and politicized the process of releases to organizations like cnn and others. this is somebody who thought it started off not wanting to have full and complete disclosure and transparency and we've already seen that. you saw yesterday she can be very thin skinned about being asked very legitimate questions and talks in terms of how dare you ask this question or i don't like your tone. we are looking at dead people on both sides of the border, an estimated over 200 next cans killed by weapons allowed to walk by our administration, our government. all we're doing is what we must do constitutionally and she must do and eric holder must do, and that is hold people accountable who made mistakes and then make sure those mistakes are not repeated. we're not getting the cooperation we'd like. we believe that she should be as concerned and as forthcoming as we are. this shouldn't be a partisan question but how do we keep something from going so wrong in the future? right now we're not getting that level of cooperation in this process. >> the gravity of this underscores the importance of your investigation and any investigation into this which is why i ask if you're worried at all from your perspective that the politics of it, the mistrust of it, are getting out of control. do you, for example, i know how these things get in the back and forth of the committee here but you called her ma'am. protocol in washington would be madame secretary. any regrets for that? >> not at all. i did also say madame secretary. i was brought up in a household with sir and ma'am and certainly madame secretary or secretary or chair, i think, there was no intention, i haven't ever called a cabinet officer by their first name in a formal hearing or anything of that sort. look, i respect her qualifications. she was a u.s. attorney, attorney general. she was a governor. but i am concerned that she made a statement that an ig investigation stopped her from asking her question but that investigation didn't begin for more than two months after brian terry's murder and she characterized it as immediate action. i don't think two months is immediate action. remember, senator grassley and myself had already opened investigations and been thwarted by justice before they ever went to their own attorney or their own ig. >> the president of the united states was asked about this the other day by abc. listen to this. >> this investigation will be complete. people who have screwed up will be held accountable. it's very upsetting to me to think that somebody showed such bad judgment that they would allow something like that to happen and we'll find out who and what happened in the situation and make sure that it gets corrected. >> do you take the president's word? do you trust the thoroughness of the administration's internal investigation and is there any sharing of information? maybe they have information you would like. maybe you have information that could help them. >> i do take the president at his word. i believe he wants to hold all of those accountable. i don't take the attorney general at his word because i get the distinct impression they want to make this go away by blaming low ranking people, the resignation of the u.s. attorney, rather than realizing that plenty of people knew or should have known to stop this program and didn't. and we want to know where the safeguards, not just by name but by position will really be there in the future because we can't bring these two agents back to life. we can't recall the 2,000 weapons. but we can take steps to make sure this wouldn't happen in the future. we owe that to the families and the next administration. because this is not a republican mistake or a democratic mistake. this is a kind of mistake bureaucracies make. and if we don't hold them accountable who will? >> we were trying to shed some light on this issue a few days ago. we had one of your republican members jason the show. you've received a letter from the attorney general who seems to think there is politics behind this. listen to the ranking democrat on the committee. >> i think we have to be very careful as to how we proceed. i mean, i think we need to go where the evidence leads but we've got a subpoena just issued that is literally requesting tens of thousands of documents from the justice department and many of these documents are totally unrelated to fast and furious so you got to begin to ask the question, what is this about? is this about trying to score some political points? >> have you cast too wide of a net, mr. chairman, trying to score political points? >> i certainly hope not. in some cases we did things, like we asked for all of the e-mails of one individual for a three-day period. now, you know, john, if you have e-mails like i do that could be a lot of documents. but we tried to be narrow. we looskd at a window we had been informed by a wh