Return to Transcripts main page
CNN 10
CNN STUDENT NEWS For July 17, 2002
Aired July 17, 2002 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN STUDENT NEWS seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.
SUSAN FREIDMAN, CO-HOST: Another day prompts another look at the stock markets. We'll have news about consumer confidence in our "Lead Story." Food consumption fills our "Focus" segment. Find out what it takes to stay healthy. It may mean thinking twice before you super size. Place your order in "Perspectives." Then, get ready to hit the streets in search of a job. Student Bureau guides the way.
Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS. I'm Susan Freidman.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says the U.S. economy is on the road to recovery, but he admits the market is still feeling the effects of the September 11 attacks and well publicized corporate scandals at Enron and WorldCom. More on the Fed chairman's address to Congress later.
As for the stocks for the day, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 166 points. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 also ended lower. It's the latest in a downward trend that has plagued the big board for weeks.
Our Joel Hochmuth asked a financial expert why the market has been lingering in negative territory.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOEL HOCHMUTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The news from Wall Street seems to be going from bad to worse. The Dow Jones industrial average, a key index of stock prices, has fallen seven days in a row. That's the first time that's happened since the week after the terrorist attack September 11. Overall, the Dow Jones has lost more than 900 points during this losing streak.
Rajeev Dhwan is an economic forecaster at Georgia State University.
RAJEEV DHWAN, ECONOMIC FORECASTER, GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY: Until this crisis of confidence is resolved in the market, you are not going to have the investors come back and buy the stock; and justifiably so. Why would you want to buy the stock in companies when you're worried about their accounting and their integrity? HOCHMUTH: Dhwan says the well publicized accounting scandals at companies like Enron and WorldCom have further shaken the confidence of investors already jittery after September 11. Investors are paying the price, he says, for unrealistic profits of the late 1990s.
DHWAN: Right now we are going through what you call the excesses of the last bubble that burst. So we're still paying the price of the excesses of the late '90s. So right now there's been a clean up in the market from the excesses of the last euphoria or the bubble.
HOCHMUTH: Downturns on Wall Street aren't just a problem for investors; historically, they take a toll on the entire economy.
DHWAN: If there are troubles with the stock market, if there's trouble in raising the investment, then it's really tough for the businesses to increase their scale of operations, hire people and do investment.
HOCHMUTH: Indeed the health of the economy is a mixed bag right now. For example, some experts fear that the gross domestic product will grow less than 2 percent this year. On the plus side, inflation is relatively low and unemployment seems to have stabilized but that could change.
DHWAN: If the companies keep on having trouble with their cash flows, they will have to cut back further. That's a fear that down the road there may be another round of cutbacks. And at that point when people lose their jobs, it has impact on their families, even if they don't own any stocks.
HOCHMUTH: When workers are afraid of losing their jobs, they tend to spend less and demand for products goes down. That, too, can hurt the economy.
DHWAN: Ultimately the job growth doesn't come back. There's going to be problem with the demand side. Now job growth doesn't come back because the companies are not willing to hire. Now if they don't hire in this their (ph) job growth, then they're worried about lack of demand. It becomes like a self-fulfilling prophesy.
HOCHMUTH: Just where is the stock market headed and will things get worse before they get better? Dhwan is reluctant to predict, but he does say there could be serious problems if the markets fail to rebound in the near future.
DHWAN: But going forward, when the stocks go down even more and they go down more drastically and you don't see the confidence coming back, you know corrections happen, you can live through it. But if you think that this is the new norm that after it goes down and stays over there like the Japanese market for the next 10 years, then you have problems.
HOCHMUTH: Perhaps that is why investors are looking for signs of hope. Expectations were high Tuesday those signs might come from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
For that, we go to Bill Schneider.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): President Bush speaks on Wall Street; the market tumbles.
Chairman Greenspan testifies; the market goes up.
What they said was not really so different.
Mr. Bush:
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need men and women of character who know the difference between ambition and destructive greed.
SCHNEIDER: Mr. Greenspan:
ALAN GREENSPAN, FED CHAIRMAN: An infectious greed seemed to grip much of our business community.
SCHNEIDER: But Greenspan, who has longstanding authority, went on to answer the big question. So what does this mean for the economy?
GREENSPAN: The effects of the recent difficulties will linger for a bit longer. But as they wear off, and absent significant further adverse shocks, the U.S. economy is poised to resume a pattern of sustainable growth.
SCHNEIDER: Corporate greed has infected the stock market. The problem is to keep it from infecting the economy.
There are already signs of trouble. The public's view of the stock market has clearly deteriorated. A bear market outlook has taken hold.
It has contaminated people's views of the nation's economy. With the stock market crisis, the number who think the economy is getting worse has shot up from 40 to 57 percent, the highest level sense last fall.
Greenspan tried to boost confidence in the economy.
GREENSPAN: The fundamentals are in place for a return to sustained, healthy growth.
SCHNEIDER: And thereby contain the infection.
(on camera): The White House won't be out of trouble until those expectations about the economy turn around. In other words, until the economy is decontaminated from the toxic impact of the stock market.
Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: They're advertised as fruity malt beverages, and folks young and old are buying. But some consumer groups question whether the ads for alcopop are reaching the right audience.
CNN's Julie Vallese has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIE VALLESE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Malternatives or alcopops, they are a new category of alcoholic beverages, not quite hard liquor, not quite beer but sweet like soda.
GEORGE A. HACKER, CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST (CSPI): Soda pop brews not only make it easy for teenagers to start drinking, they point the way to liquor.
VALLESE: When they started showing up on store shelves over a year ago, so did their advertisements on television.
HACKER: Seventy-seven percent of 12 to 18 year olds watch television after 9:00 p.m. when booze ads routinely grace the airwaves.
VALLESE: And the fact there are so many underage eyes in prime time has the Center for Science in the Public Interest calling for stricter regulation on alcohol advertising.
HACKER: It's time for broadcasters to stop allowing booze marketers to sneak their liquor brands on to network television disguised as soda pop beers.
VALLESE: The government banned cigarette advertising on television but leaves hard liquor commercials up to industry and broadcasters.
(on camera): Although the consumer group wants Congress to take up the issue of alcohol advertising, they're not willing to go so far as to ask for alcohol commercials to go the way of the Marlboro Man.
HACKER: At this moment, I think that that would have both political, economic and legal hurdles.
LISA HAWKINS, DISTILLED SPIRITS COUNCIL: We all work together on this issue. Absolutely nobody in the industry wants to be seen as being irresponsible and nobody in the industry wants underage as our customers.
VALLESE (voice-over): The alcohol industry says they can police themselves. They have peer review to track advertising and are doing so responsibly. They have no plans to pull their commercials.
In Washington, I'm Julie Vallese.
(END VIDEOTAPE) FREIDMAN: The Federal Trade Commission ruled about a year ago that the beer, wine and spirits industry does have adequate self- regulation. However, it says some products could more clearly state their alcohol content. Later in the show, we'll tell you about some ads the government and consumer groups would like to bolster rather than eliminate.
Well it's not uncommon for teenagers to feel invincible. Case in point, when it comes to wearing seatbelts, many young people are not buckling up. A new report by the Airbag and Seatbelt Safety Campaign says a frightening number of teens are not playing it safe in the car.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK HURLEY, NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL: The study found surprisingly that as risk increases, belt use drops. As more passengers are in the car, particularly teen passengers, belt use drops. As -- after midnight, belt use drops. Presence of alcohol, belt use drops. The risk denial among teenagers is very profound.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREIDMAN: Researchers say laws that allow police to stop motorists for not wearing their seatbelt make a difference in whether teens buckle up. Those laws are called primary belt laws. And you can find out which states have them online at NSC.org. Look at Table 3 for that information. You'll also find the percentage of teens who use seatbelts.
This week we've been focusing on your health. Yesterday, CNN's health correspondent Elizabeth Cohen told us patience is a virtue when it comes to dieting. She also reported that you don't have to go completely without the foods you love.
Today she continues with more tips to remember when trying to shed those pounds.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): My, oh my, oh my! The fat, the grease, the calories, the downright lard of it all! Every where you look, every where you go, food screaming at us, yelling at us -- "Take me, take me! Eat me, eat me! Now!" Is it any wonder that one in four Americans are obese and another one-third of us are overweight?
DR. JIM HILL, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR HUMAN NUTRITION, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: Age by age, group by group, everybody is gaining weight.
DR. RUDOLPH LEIBEL, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: This epidemic has swept the country.
HILL: It's very scary to think about what's going to happen if we don't start changing things quickly.
COHEN: Scary because the fatter you are, the more likely you'll get heart disease, diabetes and a whole host of other diseases.
LEIBEL: Obesity accounts for about 300,000 deaths per year.
COHEN: There is a group of people who have lost lots of weight and kept it off for years.
KAREN BROWN, SUCCESSFUL DIETER: I looked like a completely different person. People treat me so differently.
COHEN (on-camera): So many people have failed. What is your secret?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: Time for another story of sweet success. Pez candy turns 50 years old this year. The treat is sold in 80 different countries.
Anne McDermott gives us a taste of this international pop icon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Don't recognize this candy? Bet you recognize it now. Pez. It gets its weird name from the German word for peppermint, but when the candy came to the U.S. in 1952, it was remade into fruit flavors and repackaged into colorful character dispensers, that you load one by one or you can do it the hard way.
And 50 years later, Pez is still going strong. It's a pop icon. Check out Seinfeld. Check out the movie, "stand by Me."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I can only have one food for the rest of my life, that's easy. Pez.
MCDERMOTT: Pez. There's even a Pez museum just south of San Francisco, where curator Gary Doss exhibits old favorites, like the psychedelic eye from the '60s man, and tons of hot new stuff.
GARY DOSS, Pez MUSEUM CURATOR: Bob the builder and his friend Wendy.
MCDERMOTT: OK, maybe that's not so hot, but how about this customized crystal covered ghost? $150. But at about $1.50 each, most of us prefer our Pez in plastic. So what are you looking for?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Homer.
MCDERMOTT: But hey, don't turn up your nose at the older models. The '70s era change of face Pez is worth about $4,000.
It's something you can collect.
MCDERMOTT: Yes, you can collect them. And here's one Pez head, who says she's never selling. ANDREA SMITH, Pez COLLECTOR: I'm going to be this old lady with a bunch of Pez around me, going yes, my Pez. So crazy Pez lady, they'll call me.
MCDERMOTT: Don't laugh. Pez is such a phenomenon, that it doesn't need to advertise, though it did appear once in this old TV commercial as a prize with the purchase of Cocoa Marsh.
How are sales? Well, at the privately owned company's Connecticut headquarters, they're not talking. They don't sling numbers around just Pez. Still the Pez pres did give us a scoop on the upcoming holiday season.
Santa Clause is changing dramatically.
MCDERMOTT: Gosh, what will they think up next? Well, at Sparky's in L.A., how about clothes and accessories for your Pez pals? How about Pez pets? How about Pez popcorn?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Popcorn comes in orange, lemon, grape and strawberry flavored.
MCDERMOTT: Sounds good, but it'll never take the place of Lisa or Spidey, or Chewy, or...
Anne McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is CNN STUDENT NEWS "Perspectives."
FREIDMAN: If you've ordered fast food lately, you're likely familiar with the pitches "do you want fries with that" or "would you like to super size?" These options may seem like a good deal, but when it comes to food, bigger is not always better.
CNN's Elaine Quijano looks at a new report that breaks down the super deluxe options calorie by calorie.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Americans eat up the idea that more food for your dollar is better.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was looking at their 20-piece chicken McNuggets.
QUIJANO: And fast food chains offer plenty of meal deals.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's great. I got five kids, so it works for me, a lot cheaper.
QUIJANO: But by saving money now, you could wind up paying more in health costs in the long run says the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity. In a new report, the coalition of 225 health groups warns Americans are getting a lot more than they bargained for in unwanted calories and fat, leading to obesity and a host of related health problems that they say can be avoided.
MARGO WOOTAN, CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST: We're talking about preventing early death, reducing healthcare costs and reducing very serious disabilities that result from stroke, from heart disease, from diabetes.
QUIJANO: For example, one of the many fast food chains offering meal deals is McDonald's. The report says going from a small size fries, small drink and a quarter pounder with cheese to a large quarter pounder extra value meal there costs eight cents less but adds almost 500 extra calories. Another example, for desert, going from Cinnabon's minibon (ph) to the regular classic size costs 48 cents more and adds 370 calories.
QUIJANO (on camera): Researchers also found examples in convenience stores, like these candy bars, the big one here costing an extra 33 cents more and adding some 230 extra calories.
QUIJANO (voice-over): Cinnabon officials suggest sticking with a minibon (ph) if calories are a concern, advice researchers second. They say don't be so quick to gobble down a good deal. Order smaller or half sizes or share with someone else. We've contacted McDonald's and as of yet have not received any official comment. Elaine Quijano, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: You can learn more about that report online at CSPINET.org. That's the Center for Science in the Public Interest's Web site. Researchers say they gathered their pricing data from restaurants and stores in Washington, D.C., Iowa, Arkansas and California.
Coming up tomorrow, we'll have the skinny on a new line of pasta, bread and muffins that's carbohydrate free.
The man President Bush appointed to lead the nation's war on drugs says a key component in the fight isn't working. Drug Czar John Walters told Congress last month that the government's anti-drug advertising of recent years has failed. Millions of dollars and much time and thought have gone into those ads; but according to studies, the return on that investment is minimal at best.
Susan Lisovicz has more in our "Business Report."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACTOR: This is my friend, Rodney. This is my friend, Rodney, on heroin.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're scary.
ACTOR: Jake's been robbed of having a wonderful person to be his father. LISOVICZ: They are tragic.
ACTRESS: This is what happens to your brain after snorting heroin.
LISOVICZ: And they are memorable.
Over the past 15 years, Madison Avenue has encouraged its best and brightest to do ads like this for free. The Partnership for a Drug-Free America has won every major ad award, including those based on effectiveness for its work.
But the nation's drug czar, John Walters, says that while studies over the last two years show parents have been affected by the anti- drug campaign, teenagers have not. He wants to make changes, and one of them may be to start paying for the creative work.
JOHN WALTERS, U.S. DRUG CZAR: It's a very small investment for the overall cost of the program, and I think that all the people I'm talking to understand that, and they want it to work, and they know this is an important tool to ensure that.
LISOVICZ: The government currently spends $180 million annually on anti-drug advertising, nearly all of it used to buy commercial time. It is the only major paid campaign by the government where the creative work is pro bono. Advertising executives say they are also unhappy with recent studies, but they say Washington bureaucracy has tied their hands.
STEPHEN PASIERB, PARTNERSHIP FOR A DRUG-FREE AMERICA: Over the history of the campaign, the eight-step process, which was a three- or four-month at the most process to create advertising, burgeoned into a 24-step process, which took essentially a year.
ACTOR: I helped the bomber get a fake passport.
LISOVICZ: A current campaign linking drug use to terrorism was developed outside of the partnership. Overall drug use has plummeted by 50 percent from its peak in the late '70s and early '80s.
Susan Lisovicz, CNN Financial News, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREIDMAN: More business news as we turn from ads to grads. If you were a college graduate over the past decade, you were probably mulling over several offers upon turning that tassel. It's all different now, the recession has hit America hard and graduates aren't having much luck with their careers.
Our Student Bureau explains why hitting the books is taking a backseat to the job hunt.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLAIRE MORRIS, CNN STUDENT BUREAU: Some would rather hunt for a job than study for a final exam.
(voice-over): Delia Espinosa, a graduate student at Middle Tennessee State University, knows this all too well.
DELIA ESPINOSA, RECENT COLLEGE GRADUATE: We have such dire need to be employed. The job market is so fierce these days and it's getting to be increasingly difficult to find a job so you have to spend that much more time as we would have before. So you either -- you're faced with the decision of either trying to find a job and making all those calls and having a very aggressive job search and not doing as well in your classes as you would have hoped, or getting the straight A's that I'm used to getting and then not being able to find a job as quickly as I want.
MORRIS: At a time when companies are hiring 20 percent fewer graduates, she will need to work harder than her predecessors to find a job. Since beginning the hunt in January, she has tried everything from posting a resume online to talking to recruiters.
ESPINOSA: I don't -- I don't really understand the merits and what I -- that the Internet sites are trying to do because I don't think they're doing a very good job of trying to find people the jobs. Because what's happening is that they have a lot of jobs posted on their Web sites that are either have been filled or aren't real jobs. Because when you go to these company's actual Web sites or you call their human resources departments, their job -- those jobs don't exist or have been filled. And that's been the most frustrating thing.
It has been that nobody's very optimistic. You talk to the recruiters and you talk to the college recruiters and you talk to the placement centers on campus, and everyone pretty much tells you the job market's very quiet right now.
MORRIS: Nearly 60 percent of graduates say finding a job will be somewhat difficult. This adds pressure to the graduates who have debt to pay. According to CollegeCreditCounseling.com, out of the 95 percent of graduates who have credit cards, 20 percent have debt between $6,000 and $15,000. While she doesn't have credit card debt, Espinosa does have about $60,000 in loans to pay to her alma mater, University of Miami.
(on camera): The economy is expected to improve this fall, but that doesn't help the thousands of graduates who need to pay the bills now. Espinosa spent her entire spring break looking for a job and won't be giving up on this hunt anytime soon.
Claire Morris, CNNSB.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
"Where in the World" nickname: Volunteer State, a leading tobacco producing state, name is of Cherokee origin? Can you name this state? Tennessee, U.S.A.
FREIDMAN: Tomorrow's "Chronicle" takes us northward from Tennessee. We'll land in New York to explore what may be the final frontier for vegetarians. They give up meat, they give up fur, but what are they wearing on their feet. Jeanne Moos does some exploring. That's in tomorrow's "Chronicle."
And between now and then, take a trip to cyberspace to get some news for you. On CNNSTUDENTNEWS.com, you'll find stories on grown folks getting a bounce from kickball and video technology putting words into mouths.
That's it for today. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Bye-bye.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
