please keep watching "the kudlow report" and that is all i have from the blogosphere. >> what, the only three positive bloggers in the entire universe? they are trashing the heck out of me. and you have the nice comments. >> i had a good day. usually i'm on the attack and defensive. i had a pretty good day. and a couple still up for tomorrow. heck when they say nice things, we have to encourage that, incentivize it. >> i would give almost anything for a couple nice things. cnbc reports" starts right now. >> tonight on "cnbc reports" it's contagious. optimism abounds. >> second quarter earnings i think will be good in general. >> now more than ever, it's important to remember dennis' call two weeks ago. >> this horrible, frightening recession, is ending now. >> the dow and s & p showing new signs of life after the big pre-fourth of july sell-off. still problems to fight. the federal minimum wage is about to jump and dennis is taking aim at that.

explaining why it spells danger for his recovery. speaking of danger, vice president joe biden is talking economy as well. dennis gives his take tonight. and with california on the edge of the financial abyss, state workers being furloughed and stiffed on payday, this really the right time for the gold know sta golden state to pay a big tab for a tribute to michael jackson? "cnbc reports" with dennis kneale starts right now. >> i visited south carolina with my 9-year-old daughter. i had a few days free to reconsider my recession call. a bad jobs report gave me pause. tonight, i come to you to reaffirmed that this horrible recession is over. you hear a lot about economic indicators a couple of compelling numbers to show you

tonight. but i think real-life indicators can be important. a guy took 40% losses in january. getting back in the market. there is the cadillac indicator. just down the street from cnbc headquarters, martin cadillac, third largest in the country, just had record high sales in june. recession? what recession? and the beach weekend indicator. last night, at one of my favorite hotspots in brooklyn, joya. i am talking to glenn. he knows markets. he told me a year ago when things were far worse, his place was packed with people. nobody went out to the beach for the holiday weekend. but this weekend, business was flat. a lot more customers headed to the hamptons and glenn says, dennis, i think you're on to something i think i am on to something. the big problem is what could get in the way. and i fear that government could get in the way. one big threat is joe biden, the

vice president. he gave a strong hint today that we need a second stimulus package. see it on page one of "the wall street journal" we haven't seen them spend 10% of the $787 billion stim pack? they want more? give it some time. some forecasters say it could be an extra trillion dollars in government stimulus by next spring. they are going to raise your taxes again and there is also the move by the feds to raise the minimum wage. a lot of congressmen will hold photo-opes to take credit for it only a few million people directly affected by it. and worse, raising the minimum wage will result in more layoffs. one in every four teenagers is unemployed right now and that will likely rise if small businesses can't afford the higher pay. way to if congress. here is the thing. independence day celebrates the birth of the usa. but it's also time to celebrate the independence of any people

from the ownerous choke hold of their government. to take care of ourselves. in the end, it's up to the individual, not a lot of that is under threat as government seeks to force all manner of new taxes and new restrictions and new regulation on all of us. the obama posse is riding high, and they have their sights set on you. the justice department is pestering google for no other reason than the company's size and success. they are being look at all of licon valley they are investigating the telecon business, because at&t struck a deal with appear towel be the exclusive seller of the iphone. we've had like 100 million people take tylenol, aseata nina

f acetaminophen. the feds want to restrict the drug for all of us. wealthy americans are bracing for bam to raise taxes on income and capital gaunz by the end of next year. that will start to reflect in changes in investment behavior about now. the obama folks want to pose $630 billion on factories and production over ten years. they claim it's for cleaner air, but really it will reduce carbon emissions by 1% and the real agenda is to use that tax money for all kinds of socialist, finger-wagging policies. they want to double taxes on private equity, hedge funds, and here is the thing. plenty of pension funds invest in those funds for higher returns. they won't be able to give as much to teachers and firefighters and police officers. spend a trillion more on health care, that's what the bam folks want to do in an effort to make

health care cost less. what is wrong with this picture? this will entail forcing most every employer to provide insurance coverage and then taxing those same businesses providing that required coverage. the obama guys also want to create govement competitor to keep insurance companies honest. that's the way president obama puts it. here is the thing. if companies are dishonest, prosecute them under existing law. it will get worse. the states, many of them facing hard times and want to raise taxes too. they want to tax more online sales which will cramp the internet. one great engine of growth that we have invested for the rest of the world. can't they get all of the right religion? government must cut spending if they aren't bringing in enough money to pay for your services and cut taxes if you want the economy to grow. eliminate. eliminate the capital gains tax rate for five years, to unleash this torrent of new investment

and instead of taxing companies for using energy, that's what they want to do with the cap and trade plan, provide incentives for businesses to develop cleaner technology. give them a profit motive. provide tax breaks to businesses so they can build and run more outpatient clinics for chronic care. four diseases account for 70% of health care costs. instead of taxing companies that insure their employees, give them new tax breaks to encourage those that don't cover their workers to start doing so. that's a better way i think to overhaul the health system. my big worry in all of this is it could crimp the recovery, and we are recovering from this horrible, scary, great recession. more evidence is there. goldman sachs, smartest guys on wall street, came out with a report today noting reasons for optimism. home prices may be approaching the bottom that experts are tor

turning up. and goldmans sees inflation at 1% less for the next two years. motley fool says the only thing we have to fear is hope. hope has become a four letter word. my call for the end fortunate recession was greeted like a grizzly bear at a backyard cookout. motley fool asks does hope deserve such hatred? and the page one headline on "the financial times" that unran one day after i made one of the recession calls. but bad jobs numbers came out and "the wall street journal" had this alarming headline the next morning. rising job losses damp hopes of recovery. the morning after that i get this anonymous engineering e-mail at my cnbc account from

some straung stranger calling h teddy. funny how you weren't on air to discuss the latest jobs report. how convenient. i e-mail him back and say it wasn't katcatastrophic and jobse a backward looking indicator anyway this guy had already unplugged his e-mail address. no deliverable. so i'm going to show you the possible upside in the numbers instead. the old telestrator here, and take a look at some of these numbers. here is ism employment. all right? we already had the actual employment numbers that upset the markets on thursday. led to a 200 point sell-off. that chart shows we lost 4 of 0,000 jobs in june. more than expected. okay. but that was still way down from job losses much more than 700,000 in january. almost 700,000 in february, and 650,000 in march. here we go. hang on. i have my drawing.

see. this is the unemployment rate. it is going up. all right. this thing is not working the way i want it to work. and today, now it looks like the -- switch back to that chart if you would, please. the ism numbers came in. and services are 80% of the economy. >> clear it. >> bingo. let's clear it. wow. you know, digital technology never works the way you want it to when you want it to. new numbers came out for the ism service index and sparked a late afternoon rally in stocks this is an important metric that makes up 80% of the u.s. economy. and the index rose to 47 from 44. that's a point higher than expe expected, and all of these economists look at what's expected and there's better components here. the employment part of this index rose to a nine-month high and shows the rate of layoffs could start and slow down to 300,000 a month that's what one

of the economist s i read said today what if we just go to draw? all right. youtube, here we go. business activity in the ism rose a huge 7.4 points to 49.8. here is the thing. a measure of 50 or higher means expansion, the economy is growing. so we're almost there. new orders, new orders came in, they were up 2, to 48.6. here is the stunner. orders for exports, the u.s. is the largest exporter in the world. exports fuel our economy. orders for exports are now about the 50 expansion mark. as you can see, i don't know what's going on here. june. see we're up over 50. can i get out of that baby? there we go. there we go. look at this the chart is backward. it's spoechzed to start from the left and go to the right, but you see my point. we're in expansion mode here for the first time in many months.

and it rose to 54.5. highest mark since march of last year. and that was six months before the real meltdown began on wall street no. wonder "the wall street journal" says small investors are getting hungrier for riskier investme investments. many traders and investors continue to be way too bearish. paying higher prices for bearish bets than at any time before the failure of lehman brothers last fall. what's needed here is a better sense of context. never mind how much stocks are up since the lows in early march. we keep forgetting how steeply they fell. stocks lost almost $11 trillion in value, $11 trillion in 17 months of this bear market. this horrible bear. all right? now the amount stocks are up since march. the lows, 24%. and you know what?

that ain't nearly enough. now i'm going to walk over to the giant screen here, right here, because we're trying different stuff here, you see this? and this is why stocks are very cheap right now. i investors now pay, get this, $12.06 for every dollar of operating profit that the s & p 500 is expected to produce in the next year. that's a p.e. multiple of 12. that price of $12 is 41% cheaper than the average price they paid since 1998. they usually pay $20.45, and now you're down to $12. i have to tell you, there's more hope ahead. more reason to hold out hope instead of bashing anybody who dares try to look at the bright side. next up, the dog pound and we'll have a bunch of guests with great opinions and real emphasis chew on some of these items. and vice president joe biden says the administration misread the economy. that's not good. and president obama is in

russia. would you put your money there? i wouldn't. they might not be about to nuke us, i still don't trust them with our money. i'm fired up. you get fired up too. at

is point.

>> we're lookingt 10% now. >> well, look. we're much tooig the truth s, there was a misreang of just w bad an economy weinherited. now, i'm not ying -- it's now r responsibility. so the second question becomes did tconomic package we put in place, including the recovery act, is it the right package given the circumstances we're in? hint, hint. vice president joe biden sharing the shocking news that the administration misread the economy. let's bring in the dog pound to chew on this bone. frar aaarons, a business reporter with "the washington post" julie rizinski, and bruce bartlett, a former treasury official in the administration of george h.w. bush, the father. bruce, let's start with you. i think what they did today,

they raised a tableau for a new stim package. >> i'm not sure if that's right, because christina romer was saying that everything is working just the way that they expected it too. and i think it would be a bad idea to have a second stimulus, because it's like if you take some as opinion and an hour later you still have a headache, it's a bad idea to take morass pri prin. >> maybe the obama administration should step in and regulate. >> i don't know about that. some think that the stimulus wasn't sufficient to begin with. i think the administration tweent far to get the republican vote to pass the stimulus. i think the stimulus should have

been bigger to gun with, and if so, maybe we wouldn't have to go back to congress. >> how can we say it's not enough when they haven't spent hardly any of it? >> apparently even with the job creation they are forecasting they assume unemployment rate would not hit the numbers it has already hit. if you are going to go on baseline assumptions they made in february, some would argue they were really too conservative and no matter what happens, they will have to end up pumping more money to the economy, because of the way the unemployment rate has gone. >> frank aarons, maybe we should let layoffs be layoffs. maybe companies have to cut back. >> first, we're in july. and how long does the administration get to dine on the phrase we inherited. this seems to be part of the pro forma. this economic crisis we inherited. we inherited and we'll go about fixing it. that's one point about this. the second point, on your very

network, christina romer repeatedly said we'll do whatever it takes. she was pressed. will there be another stimulus? >> i might not have been seeing the same interview you saw, but i saw joe biden say point blank he's not blaming the previous administration this is now this administrati administration's problem. i think it is very refreshing to have an administration taking responsibility. the previous one never did. and kept digging holes deeper and deeper. >> here is the problem, okay? the first part of stimulus hasn't worked enough, whyo we think sometng of morethat sn't worked is going to work? >> a lotof onomists saying that obama needs m money in the stimulus to be able to patch up e economy. world r ii was what broughts of the great depression ultimately in addition to the spending by fdr.

by comparison, the $787 billion stimulus is in a drop in the bucket. >> it's not a drop in the bucket if they spend it better. isn't the real problem the execution, not the dollar number? >> that's a big part of it. the part of the spending that's already gone out by the administration's own admission was the part that was never going to create many jobs. we're talking about extending unemployment benefits and things of that sort. the part of the package that was going to create jobs is stuff like public works. and that money is dribbling out. if you go to www.recovery.gov, you will see the data on a weekly basis and you'll see that only about $150 billion of those really stimulative funds have been committed and only about $50 billion has been paid out. >> dog pounders, stand by. we'll talk about whether california, a state this increase, should be paying for

michael jackson's final farewell. and in russia, where would you invest your money? i'm thinking nowhere. and do the russians even matter anymore at all? that's two minutes away. (announcer) this is nine generatns

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the only money i would keep in russia right now is the money you can sell on a two-hour base.

if you can buy or sell something. people putting a billion dollar in a long-term plan, i think that's crazy. to put money in a country that's run by criminal characters in government positions make nos sense at all. >> trust. they kick companies out and take their assets. today, president obama tried to get president medvedev to see it our way. would you invest in russia? frank aarons, julia rozinski and pet pete r moreci and bruce bartlet. i can't help but think of capitalism conquered russia but they are a bunch of capitalist thug. >> if you invest in russia, don't tell anybody that i gave

you a diploma, that simple. the price is down, but as soon as it goes up, they'll feel good and excoriate somebody else's oil wealth. >> julia buying rubbles? >> not only not buying rubles. i got a very useless degree in kosovo economics. it's usefuuseless. they have no problem imprisoning anybody that doesn't agree with them. >> not to mention the fact that journalists get murdered at extraordinarily high rates and those crimes never seem to be solved. bruce bartlett, i have a hard time arguing that russia counts much anymore. i'm much more concerned about china and india. >> it depends on what are you talking about. if you are talking about foreign policy, we need the russian's help. they are in a much stronger position to bring influence to bear on places that are important to us, including north

korea and afghanistan. so i think as a country, as a matter of policy, i think we have to make nice with them. now, whether it's a good idea to put any of your own hard-earned money into there, that's another question entirely. >> dennis, i had say, they do matter economically for the europeans. up to a third of the european gas comes from russia. they matter. they are a chickec chechen stat. >> i'm not sure we can trust the russians to do any bidding for us in regard to iran and north korea. >> who is running russia? who is the man we do business with these days? >> that say good question. >> it's putin. >> it's putin, and it's going to stay that way, especially with the price of oil rising again. he'll be flexing his muscles and become more difficult to deal with. i think that taking obama in, and he will have his regrets. >> let's cut for a minute to

raising the minimum wage. a locality of congressmen take credit for this. affects 2.8 million people. 7 million more people earn more that might be helped to this. i have to think it won't do anything to help the economy. instead, more teenagers will get laid off. >> absolutely. this is a very ill-timed policy. i believe it takes effect on july 24th. it's probably too late to do anything about it now, but i think certainly somebody should have been thinking about this before now and tried to delay its impact to the end of the year. >> they don't dare roll this back, do they? >> no, it's impossible. kind of the thorny your honor e issue here is if you look at hikes in minimum wage, when the economy is in good shape, it's kind of a push for the economy. but when you raise it at a really bad time, when you have

rizing unemployment, there is a real danger. >> unfortunately we have to wrap. i wish we could stay longer, guys. thanks to the dog pound. a lot ahead tonight on "cnbc reports." later tonight, the big battle of the bankrupt who should pay the tab for the michael jackson tribute? state workers in california are getting stiffed by the state. ious being sent out rather than paychecks. is paying for a popstar's farewell really the right move? and dennis is taking aim at the federal hike for minimum wage. a business killer and denniss up and arms. back in two minutes. mr. evans? this is jani from onstar. ve received an automicignal

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welcome back to "cnbc reports." here again is dennis kneale. >> all right. so they have government gone wild, plans for a plethora of new taxes, the first inkling that the feds may want to spend another trillion dollars. never mind they have been incompetent in spending the first 10% of the package they pushed through in january. america voted for change when it elected obama. i didn't understand that change

meant a change backward to big government and tax and spend policies. i was hoping change meant better government. more efficient. more mature. less fraternalistic. presiden obama is making a rookie mistake here. every time a problem pops up, he wants to struggle to do something about it, right away. but good government policy is like a good jazz trumpet solo. sometimes the most important part is the notes you leave out. it's the silence in between. a lot of bad has been done by government in haste, sarbanes-oxly is one example. passed in 48 hours and it continues to hurt smaller companies. the unemployment rate goes up .1 point and washington wants to rush out more spending. we don't need more spending. we need lower taxes and spending cuts, we're going across america now as we take a look at today's top headlines from the people

who writing about them from coast to coast. lauren steffi, business columnist with "the houston chronicle." and we have a journalist from "the atlanta chronicle" and "the anchorage press." do we need a stimulus package? jeremiah in st. louis, please tell me no. >> if you are a blues fan, come out to st. louis in weekend. they have some great stuff. on the jobs market, whether they got what we are paying for, i would say our local job market is lousy. we've lost about 47,000 jobs since the recession began and we've lost them across a whole wide range of industries, manufacturing, construction, anheuser-busch, one of our storied companies lost about 1,600 jobs by my count. and monsanto lost about 6,000

jobs, people were shocked and surprised. big challenges ahead. >> when a company makes layoffs, it's because business is down. it's not a tragedy. i'm sorry for people who lose their jobs, but that's what companies are supposed to do. >> are we sure the first stimulus package worked? we're waiting for evidence to see if the first go-round produces results we are after. we are going to hang back and see what happens. >> should we have another stimulus? of course not. >> i can't answer that. i have no idea if we see the evidence that the first one works. we'll sit on the sidelines and see. >> i don't know if you've been in psycho therapy. the only way to get over pain is to go through pain. maybe the feds are working too hard to avo pain. >> i'm going to have to defer to your judgment on the psycho therapy question, but i think you're right. i think that there are some tough choices that have to be made here, and one of the things

that the administration has not done a great job of doing is telling people things they don't want to hear. part of the way we'll work through this is making tough choices and that's going to involve leadership. >> a very good point, lauren. let's go to the guy in anchorage on the phone. making tough choices does seem like the obamaites want to say yes to everything. >> yeah, yeah. and from the alaskan perspective, we don't need another stimulus up here. alaska hasn't really been hit by the recession as hard as the rest of the u.s., so we have assort of a different perspective. governor palin did reject $28 million of stimulus money for energy efficiency. our rural villages could use weatherization and energy solutions, but alaskans, no, we don't need another stimulus. >> next topic. crude oil hit a six-week low today, following $64 per barrel.

that's a matter of profit taking what it means at the pump across america. what are you seeing with gas prices, lauren? >> we have probably seen the highest gas prices of the year right now. in the last few week, this thing has popped out if your looking, refiners really ramped up production and because the recession, demand isn't there. so at the moment, we have too much supply chasing too little demand and prices will continue to decline the rest of the year. >> instead of hearing more on the gasoline prices, because, frankly, i don't own a car. it bores me. i want to hear more on sarah palin. let's go to our anchorage guy. i don't think the story has come out. i think there's something dirty, allegations, some kind of new investigation. am i entirely wrong here? >> no, no. that's the suspicious of many alaskans right now. it's so incongruous with sarah's sort of m.o., of being willing to step up and battle for what

she thinks right. and if she has national aspirations, you don't build off a 2 1/2 year term, you know. what are you going to do? quit 2/2 years into your presidency? >> are you loing into what the real storyht be? >> the entire state is looking into what the real story might be. rumors running rampart. the governor's attorney is threatening lawsuits against bloggers for bringing up rumors of embezzlement scandals that have been around for years, and so actually up here, we're just happy to maybe get rid of our national tabloid image and start moving forward without the sort of palin family distractions. >> thank you very much. i love talking to the print journalists. i was one for a lot of years, and i think they're good people. on july 24th, which happens to be my birthday. make sure you send a card. the last in a three-tier hike in the fedel minimum wage kicks

in. it will jump to $7.25 per hour. we have the executive director and econist at the labor research association. jonathan, i believe they paired you and i together because i don't like the minimum wage, and you do. you take fst shot. >> actuly, i don't like the minimum wage as it is because 'soo low ithould be at least $10 an hour if yo look at productivity going back the last 30 years. if the minimum wage tracked prodtivity, which you know is the greaamerican and the gat lover of this great economy that we talk about,f peopl actually got t fruits ofheir labor which is what ameri is supposed to be about, the minimum wage today would what? $19 an hour some of essentially the american worker has been robbed over the last 30 years. and i believe the americans -- >> wait a minute, a lot of american workers are more productive because of technology, not because they are working harder. it's about technology. that lets them let work less hard.

the real rate should be $10, that's where it would be. >> producvity, younot acun for technology for this incredible rise which again, was not reflected in wages over th last 30 years. minimum wage should be9. it anationalndal. the currt national wage, it's too lo a national scandal. a wage of poverty. >> only 2.6 million people in thisountry are paid the minimum wage. the market rate is already higher. >> when it goes up to $7.25, a person working 52eeks a year, with no vacation, no retirement, no health care, will be making about $14,600. >> it's that guy's responsibility to go get a better job. it's not government's responsibility to order businesses to pay him more. >> a family of three, under the u.s. level of poverty, is in the -- is in poverty at $17,000.

so the minimum wage is a poverty level wage. we should be ashamed of yourselves as americans -- >> in this country, we only have 2 or 3 million are in minimum wage. that shows you where the balance of power is. >> if i could get in a word here, the national crisis is if we had government force companies to pay $19 an hour. that kind of thinking is what got detroit in trouble.i@ >> no, what got detroit -- >> if you want fewer jobs, we should raise the minimum wage. >> if you want to talk about detroit, what got them in trouble was the insanity of the ideologue for health care if we had a single payer health care system, detroit, theuto industry, and the rest of the industry would not have millions in debt. the auto industry would be much

healthier. nothing do with t auto dustry what we need, though, if you nt to bring up the auto instry. where peopan spend, buy, have a middle class, what you needis broad unionization. >> you say tomato, i say tomato. i say health care, i say unions, that's what got detroit in trouble. >> that's nonsense. you are a capable warrior, thank you for being here. >> happy birthday, dennis, in advance. >> and cnbc's highlight of the best money managers around. hot hands, we've been doing them all day. municipal bonds, several portfolio managers ranked top five in their top choices. nuvenn up 11.5% year-to-date. and we have the manager of that fund. she's ranked in the top five in two categories in muni bonds. i thought cities and states are

going bankrupt and therefore, their bonds will go bel u >> we're not -- seeing actual defats or ruptcies actually, e default rate for municipalsas bee ver low. there has been some very well publicized problems obviously. the state of california did not -- did not -- has not been -- has had tossue ious in the last week and they'vead stocks ping on their -- on some payments, like payments to tafree funds. payments to vendors. as far a we believe, the yments -- the bond paymes wille safe and obviously th are makintheir paynts for education which are their top payment requirement under their constitution. >> so let's say these muni bonds, this or that city, do

the price of those bonds, the price drops because the bonds will default some y? or do i continue to get nice interest rate on the bonds? >> you definitely contue to gethe nice interest rate on the bonds. the has been price volatility. the interesting thing with california, with so many ayers on theaxable side and the tax exempt side watching that bond prices have rallied in california, even asthe crisis has gotten worse. >> i apologize. catherine, we have to wrap. thank you for being with us, ma'am. next up, beat it time. michael jackson's, thousands of tickets to the memorial service in staples center. it's costing big bucks and california cannot afford it. should the golden state be footing the bill when thousands of state employees are being paid ious? thjackson frenzy takes the

stage in over under.

oh, what fun. time for the all michael jackson night before his funeral edition of over and under. first up, michael jackson's

memorial circus, and, yes, we meant to use the word circus instead of service. 17,000 ticket given out for this service. many now being sold on ebay for thousands of dollars and the late word from roger friedman is michael's brother, jermaine, will perform at the memorial to wrap up the service. the city will be picking up the tab for much of the cost for that luke that. at a time when the entire state is in a fiscal crisis. i think this is overplayed. let's bring in our over/under panel. julia borschtin, michael wolf, and john fein from business week and a cnbc guy. john fein, what do you think? should the state be picking up a tab for in? >> realistically, what is the option? is the state going to let people run amuck and no police there? really, dennis. i hate to be disagreeing with

you on your birthday. what but what is the other option? have the big thing and have a bunch of people spend money in the state of california which will stimulate the economy. am i wrong? >> john, i totally disagree. we had a huge lakers parade and some very wealthy individuals and business people in the l.a. community pitched in to cover some of the costs. you look at the list of celebrities will be there. mariah carey, kobe bryant, magic johnson. are all listed as participant. magic johnson might be able to pitch in a million dollars to cover costs. i don't think california taxpayers need to be paying for that. >> can i say something. a small point. these people, these million, possibly million people, 17,000 people, whatever number of people, these are taxpayers, most of them taxpayers in the state of california. this is why we pay taxes. >> in other words, so it's okay -- the state should pay for

this, guys. it's security. what are you going to do? >>totally. this is what you do, you have an event, these kinds of events which are meaningful to people, whether they're meaningful to us or not is irrelevant. >> right. >> yeah, the state, do what the state is supposed to do. >> topic two in our all mj over/under media frenzy. listen to what congressman peter king said about all the attention jackson is getting. >> for the last i don't know how long now this lowlife, michael jackson, his name, his face, picture is all over the newspapers, television, radio. that's all we hear about is michael jackson. let's knock out the psychobabble. this guy was a pervert, a child molester, a pedophile and to be giving this much coverage to him day in and day out, what does it say about us as a country? >> come on, congressman, get over it. this guy, the media coverage and glorification of michael jackson the coverage i think is

overplayed. julia? >> people want to watch the comment on tv and see the information online. by the shear numbers of people we can see watching the special reports on michael jackson. so many people want to know about michael jackson that it shut down google for a period of time. this is, in the public consciousness and the fact that he's weighing in on this says something dramatic about how people really care. he cares enough that he has to say something. >> michael? >> you know, one of the interesting things here is right up until the moment michael jackson dies, the entire media in this country was on the side of congressmen king. we had absolutely regarded this guy as a write-off, the most marginal figure in american culture. i can't tell you how many times the "new york post" went with the with a cojackson headlines. the truth is, they got it wrong. they didn't hate him at all. they were happy --

>> ill will, a serious battle with the jackson's will. a los angeles judge gave john branca along with the music executive control of his estate over the objections of jackson's mother. i think the story is underplayed. i think the fight is just beginning. >> now this is the big one. this is howard hughes mach five. you have a huge estate, huge debt, you have a family, you have children. it's unclear who is actually going to be parenting them. you have a family around him. you have the entire story of michael jackson. we're talking about michael jackson in part because of all the things that peter king is upset about. he had these massive court cases. >> all right. thank you very much, guys. got to wrap here. next up, bloggers beware i've been on your case for weeks because you've been on mine and in two minutes the ball's back in my court. ♪ you want to be starting somethin you got to be

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i' been hangin' up there for,hat, like, forty years? and th - wham - here i asmacking the pretty off that windshield of yours. oh, what you're looking for apology? well, toss anoth coin in the wishing well, l. it's not happenin'. limb: hey, what' up, donnie? how you been? anncr: accidents aread.

i want to talk to you tonight about michael jackson and one key disturbing question. what if he didn't do it? what if he didn't sexually abuz those two young boys, the alleged offense that wrecked his career and brandished him forever in our minds as a pervert and a pedophile? a lot of us forget that jackson was acquitted of all charges in a criminal trial. can he please have his

reputation back? a couple of things don't quite track right in the michael jackson downfall. i can't help but wonder, what if the first case was extortion and the second case was prosecutorial overzealousness. in the '90s the family dropped it for a multimillion-dollar settlement. if your child was betrayed by a superstar who went out of his way to reach out to kids would you settle the case for a payoff from the molest? i wouldn't. suppose the prosecutor was furious at the charges being dropped and got a second chance a few years later? it's shocking to think a jury would acquit a superstar of an awful crime but in this case it did, the evidence was insufficient. several years ago we learned that prosecutors can go too far in child molestation cases by leading the witness. they can get kids to agree to almost anything. look up the mary mcmartin school case, overzealous prosecution run amuck. i'm not sure what happened here. even with jackson dead it still

matters. that's all for us tonight, i'm dennis kneale. "cnbc reports" is back at 8:00 tomorrow and tomorrow morning on "squawk" boone pickens. thanks for being with us. good night. (announcer) wepeak car. sure, but we speak hybrid? yes, we do. and we can s 700 miles on a single nk and epa estited 41 mpg city and all the words stk because they're true.

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