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In copper prices. and at the time, the minister of finance was under a lot of pressure. he was actually burned in effigy in the streets because the population wanted him to return that fiscal surplus to the people association to speak. and he said no, this is money for a rainy day. so when the financial crisis hit, they were actually able to have the $4 billion tax cut package. in stark contrast when we had a $236 billion surplus, and basically returned that tax surplus. so during the boom years, we were running deficits. now we're in difficult situations. >> right. so we didn't do the thing t...

Here that's out there for us if we form a better relationship with emerging nations and realize their growth is good for us. >> isn't part of that process just looking inward to the united states here, when you talk about discipline, it strikes me part of what we have been undisciplined about is actually saying, we're going to tackle this problem and not kick the can down the road. we've seen this now for several years where, you know, the fights and the, you know, what i would consider obstruction from the republicans have really prevented us from having the discipline to really sit down and ...

We're glad we could help you out. >> delighted to be here. i'll make it up to my wife later on today. >> four boys to get out the door at once. good luck to that. tell us about the book. what are the lessons we can learn from third world countries? >> well, it's an important time in the global economy. first world countries like the united states, western europe are looking a lot like third world countries. we used to call third world countries 30 years ago. slow growth and lack of direction. and -- >> and crumbling infrastructure. if there isn't. >> and a need to invest in infrastructure. >> ...

The economy. not a dramatic dip if you just look at the number itself, but from where we are right now to where it was in the first quarter, quite sacrificing, quite a downturn. >> let's hope the economy is not running on empty. good morning. this is a bit of a surprise. gdp for the fourth quarter, the first look coming in at a negative .1%. it was the first drop in the economy below zero since the second quarter of 2009. the big drop though and i'm going to hedge that number a little bit, the big drop was twofold. number one, 15% decline in federal government expenditures, a lot of concern ab...

Morning, we have the adp private sector payroll jobs numbers showing a gain of 192,000 jobs. >> brian quickly, what did the personal savings rate go up to if. >> the personal disposable income was up $236 billion, a gave 8.7 or 8.18%. so that's a positive. >> great news. >> people making more money. we've got to see if this is an anomaly because of the fiscal cliff in the fourth quarter. everything else has been pretty positive so fingers crossed for the economy going forward into no doubt about it, fingers crossed, the first drop in three years, quite a drop from 3%. blackberry getting back i...