Big Three In Need

CBS

Transcript

while each of the big three is in dire shape general motors is hemorrhaging cash fastest and could be out of money before the end of the year gm's ceo told the detroit tv station the time to act is now there's a high degree of urgency with the clock ticking on gm ford and chrysler congress reconvened today to consider an immediate cash infusion of 25 billion dollars michigan senator carl levin says it's in the national interest do we want this kind of a manufacturing base in america or are we willing to do what no other country is willing to do which is to give up on its automobile industry but senate democrats and the bush administration are deadlocked about where the money would come from democrats want to carve it from the 700 billion dollar wall street bailout package the white house says no because once you start down that road it's a it's a slippery slope to other industries it might say that they need help so it's looking more likely tonight that solving the auto crisis will fall to the next congress and the next president for the auto industry to completely collapse uh would be a disaster in this kind of environment on 60 minutes president-elect obama shut down the idea of a blank check for the auto industry calling instead for fundamental changes as the price of detroit getting help the car makers are mounting a public relations attack casting the threat is america's problem not just detroit's warning of the ripple effect if they fail the big three employ roughly a quarter million people gm 133 000 alone suppliers for the car makers employed 2.3 million more in all 50 states this is a very fragile but very well connected tightly woven web that when you impact it at the very top you start this cascading impact that we just don't want to see and while foreign car makers manufacturing here could take up the slack like honda which opened a new plant in indiana today they share many suppliers with the big three and would be hit hard by the domino effect caused by failures in detroit and that's the argument gm is making here at the white house that if gm and others go belly up the cost to the government in terms of lost taxes covering defunct pension plans is going to be a lot more than 25 billion dollars katie and jim many people including president-elect obama are suggesting a bailout with serious conditions so is that idea gaining traction in washington it certainly is katie i mean the question is what conditions for instance senator harry reid this afternoon throughout something about making sure no auto executives will get bonuses this year there's talking about reworking labor agreements but there will be no blank check that's the growing feeling here katie all right jim axelrod at the white house thank you so much you

Bonuses For Wall Street?

CBS

Transcript

Despite massive layoffs, dismal earnings reports, and a rescue check from the federal government, Wall Street investment firms still plan to hand out roughly $14 billion in year-end bonuses. Now, the industry leader, Goldman Sachs, has announced its top seven executives will forego bonuses, stock, and option awards this year, compensation packages totaling more than $300 million. They've received uh billions of dollars um from the public and uh to receive bonuses in the face of all that would have appeared to be uh pigish. Compensation consultant David Schmidt says Goldman Sachs was under tremendous pressure to cut bonuses. Today, banking giant UBS followed suit, but it may be just a drop in the bucket compared to smaller bonuses thousands of rank and file employees get. In light of Croup's job cuts today, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is calling on Croup and AIG executives to drop their bonuses, too. People are upset and with good cause. You know, you have people who have seen their life savings go out the window. They were then called on for a trillion dollars of tax dollars to bail out the institutions that caused the problem in the first place. More than excess, analysts say the compensation structure itself is partly to blame for Wall Street's meltdown, a system that's encouraged risky behavior for big rewards. The more money you can bring into the firm, the you know, the more you're going to receive in terms of bonus and and hopefully income for the firm. I think for those who are making those deals, um if for some reason those deals don't work out, uh the personal repercussions are are probably not what they should be. Analysts say these executive bonus cuts are mostly PR. A rare case on Wall Street where taking less means more. Pria David, CBS News, New York.

The Cheap Property Boom

CBS

Transcript

what I'm going to show you here John is a three-bedroom one bath Realtor John AI doesn't bother dressing up anymore what he selling these days is decidedly dressed down you got a broken window over here they took cabinets right off the wall the toilet it's all cracked some cockroaches here John now only sells foreclosed homes in this Boom Town near Los Angeles gone bust this is one ugly house he sells twice as much real estate as he used to because despite the garbage and graffiti cheap houses move fast this house once sold for 225,000 now it's 75 grand it's not the nordstr mentality it's the thrift store mentality uh what you see is what you get foreclosures are also big business for those who board up and those creating the sign of the times this is what's keeping us uh busy Dom renan has avoided layoffs at his Sign Company in Stockton California all because this one word now makes up half his business taking up lots of room in his shed did you ever think that this word could become 50% of your business no never would have imagined it here in Stockton one out of every 31 homes is now in foreclosure which means even burnt out lawns in front of vacant homes have some folks seen green Nick turlo got his Bright Idea from Team emblems painted on NFL football field then I thought why can't I paint grass for all these foreclosure homes cuz I'm sitting in the number one capital of the nation for foreclosure homes homes with shabby yards are hard to sell so Banks hire Nick and his waterbased D to bring the lawn back to life it's made the neighbors a little nosy so have you ever seen anything like this never in my life that's why I was looking it takes Nick about 5 minutes to spray a small yard he makes around 250 bucks per yard how much business is this there's let's just say I'm doomed very well for me green is gold all because of a little foreclosure foresight Ben Tracy CBS News Stockton California