maria bartiromo is up next. and this is 4:00 on wall street. do you know where your money is? hi, everybody. welcome back to "the closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo. we are kicking off smu ining ofe street today. here at first of all hall right across from the new york stock exchange. i am standing at the place where george washington, our great country's first president, took the oath of office. right here as the first president. here's what we're following at the close tonight on wall street. stocks tumbling today to end the week on earnings concerns and weakness. after energy giant chevron issued a profit warning with oil prices having come down. general motors driving out of bankruptcy after just 40 days. amazing. coming up, vice chairman bob lutz will be with us telling us how the automaker will be able to return to profitability. what's next after emerging from bankruptcy on the agenda for gm?

and then the fda giving approval for eli lilly to sell its new blood thinner drug, which becomes the first real competition to blockbuster drug plavix, which is madd by bristol-myers squibb and sanofi-aventis. we had earnings concerns on wall street on the heels of the latest earnings releases. chevron, of course, issuing a profit and earnings warning. that put some pressure on the oils. we continue to see oil prices moving lower. all of the oils down lower. representing that decline in the dow that you're seeing. exxon and chevron, two dow components. we did of course begin the second quarter earnings reporting season, and alcoa, while it did lose money, did beat analyst expectations earlier in the week. that set a positive tone. next week is going to be a very, very busy week with the likes of general electric, google, as well as goldman sachs, all reporting as well as some inflation data out next week. in the meantime let's get to all

the action on the street today and what to look for next week. bertha coombs our eye on the floor of the nyse inside the big board. bertha. >> thanks very much. this has been a week where we saw a march toward nervousness and uncertainty. we didn't have huge data but we had a big auction of treasuries. they went fairly well. and we started the week with the biggest uncertainty of all with talk in washington about a second stimulus. that really sent the markets tumbling during the week and questioning, people questioning about the economic recovery. the energy meltdown exacerbated the sell-off. you had oil down 10% for the week, and we closed the week with weak retail sales and today a surprising drop, not hugely surprising but an unexpected drop in consumer sentiment reading. looking ahead to next week, as you mentioned, it's going to be a critical week. we've got a huge week for earnings. lots of the banks. and some critical data when it comes to inflation. energy today was one of the

weakest spots, with chevron not offering actual numbers on what it's going to do to its earnings but saying that its refining margins were hurt quite a bit during the quarter because of high oil prices, with oil prices coming down. we'll see if things look better. but the refinersetting hit on that. the financials as well were among the losers on the session today. they're a big drag. in focus next week we're going to get earningsfrom goldman sachs, dow components jpmorgan, bank of america, and citi as well. that will give us a feel for how the banks are doing. ibm is one of the best performers on the dow year to date. today was a drag, though. goldman sachs cutting it on valuation, even as they put out a positive outlook on the hardware and software sector. and lilly, as you mentioned, late this afternoon got a pop, got approval of its blood thinner effient. the fda had delayed this because of some concerns with internal bleeding but in the end decided it's better that the preventing heart attacks than plavix. for next week the markets are

really going to be watching the big earnings reports as they close out the week. the best performers, the airlines, as we saw oil fall. gold sold off heavily. the dow industrials off 1 3/4%. the transports were also down as well. and the worst performers were the small caps and technology stocks on the nasdaq. maria, have a great weekend. back to you. >> oh, you too, bertha. thanks very much. have a good one. let's take a look at the other business headlines we're following today. it was an important day in washington. treasury secretary timothy geithner testified today in capitol hill on the potential regulation of over-the-counter derivatives. speaking before a joint meeting of the house agricultural and financial services committee geithner said derivatives cause the financial crisis. he said establishing a comprehensive framework of oversight is critical to fixing the system. >> any regulatory reform of this magnitude requires deciding how to strike the right balance between financial innovation and efficiency on the one hand and

stability and protection on the other. and we failed to get this balanced right in the past, and if we do not achieve sufficient reform we will leave ourselves weaker as a nation, weaker as an economy, and more vulnerable to future crises. >> and oil was also vulnerable today. it was another tough one. crude oil breaking a six-day losing streak on thursday. today fell 52 cents a barrel to finish below $60 a barrel now at 59.89. crude has fallen 10% just this week. meanwhile, gm's whirlwind 40-day bankruptcy is over. the automaker now out to prove it has what it takes to survive the downturn after shedding dealerships, closing plants, eliminating or selling several brands. in a "first on cnbc" interview phil lebeau is tanneding by right now with general motors vice chairman bob lutz. over to you, phil. >> hi, maria. thank you very much. it is a "first on cnbc" interview with bob lutz, vice chair of general motors and somebody who was headed out the door but is now going to stick

around and have a chance to shape the future of the company. explain what your new role is here because we've been telling people you're in charge of marketing and communications, but exactly what will you be doing? >> i'll be overseeing the four brands, buick, chevrolet, gmc, and cadillac. so those four brand leaders will report to me, and i'll coordinate the marketing. and at the same time we will integrate communications which we used to call public relations and integrate that into the overall marketing mix. i'll also have creative oversight over design. so if you will, anything that the consumer hears, sees, feels, or anything about general motors and its products will be my purview. and i think it's very interesting to blend these various creative elements and to be able to actually blend

resources as necessary to get message out. >> when i bring up your new position to people in the auto industry, i hear two things. on one hand people say smartest move fritz henderson could make, he is the sharpest mind in the auto business, fantastic move. on the other hand, i have people saying, you know what? he's a bit of a lightning rod and sometimes he's going to say things that are going to make people inside the company cringe. so which bob lutz are we going to see in this job? >> well, absolutely both. absolutely both. i've always been disruptive. i've always believed in very clear and honest communication. i never hide my motives or objectives. i'm not a good politician. i believe in the -- i believe in the frontal assault, you know. >> absolutely. >> and yes, it does ruffle feathers. but i think we're -- i think we're at a stage in the company when we really need to do that. and i'm always reminded of a favorite saying of mine coined by larry bossidy, who said

tension and conflict are necessary ingredients of any successful organization. >> what's the biggest problem at general motors right now? in terms of if you're being totally honest and somebody came up to you and said i don't like this about gm, what's the biggest problem with why people don't trust gm right now? >> well, the biggest problem, the reason why so many people don't trust gm right now is because so many people don't trust gm right now. it's sort of -- it feeds on itself. and at times we don't have the media help, either, like this morning when the news was disseminated about our emergence from bankruptcy and they carried part of fritz henderson's talk, and then somebody -- after that the spokesman, or the tv person turned to the camera and said, well, i guess they want us to forget about those five-mile per-gallon cadillacs. none of this helps. but to answer your question, the number one problem we have is a perceptual problem. i think anybody who knows cars

and trucks will agree that we currently have the best product line up in our history. i would say our product line-up needs to shine. no comparison -- no comparison with anybody else's product line in the world, and yet people are constantly amazed and say why don't you tell people how good your stuff is? and we try, but we haven't been doing it effectively. >> bob, i know maria has a question or two for you. maria? >> i hear you. >> bob, can you walk us through the government's ownership in the company? i think that the obama administration has been very clear, they don't want to run an auto company. but you know, there are those people out there, certainly from an investment standpoint, saying i don't know that i want to necessarily invest in an entity that's 70% or such a high number owned by the u.s. government. what is the number right now? and how does that play out day to day in terms of the administration owning such a big stake in the automaker? >> well, look, it is 70%. but that's because they want us

to -- they wanted to give us the bulk of the money in the form of equity rather than debt because if it had all been debt we would have once again had a bad balance sheet with a crushing debt load and we would have had very high interest expense. this was the best way to provide us with money. now, over time the government can sell off and fully intends to sell off chunks of that equity, and we will repay as the government sells its share of equity, and then we replace by -- with an ipo and replace it with privately held equity. i will tell you, i am very impressed with the government team under ron bloom and steve ratner and i sincerely totally want everybody to believe this team has one objective and one objective only, and that is to make gm a hard-hitting, fully competitive automobile company.

and beyond insisting that we have a new board. but the board is going to have the oversight over general motors. there will be no direct government involvement. and as i say, the government's only objective in this as far as fritz and i can determine is they want gm to recover and they want -- the taxpayer wants her money back. >> and of course it's nice that you actually do see an exit strategy there. it's interesting when you look at how the government owning 70% of gm, you know, how that plays out with ford. i mean, is ford competing with the government? it's actually a very interesting story to look at. but let me switch gears and ask you about the demand story right now, bob. here you are. congratulations to you. emerging after 40 days in bankruptcy. you about now you've got an environment where the koreans are coming, the chinese are coming, obviously the japanese are here and have been here. how do you compete in an environment where the demand

story seems pretty weak out there, or do you see it differently? >> well, no, demand is continuing very weak. i think we're running at about a 9.8 million seasonally adjusted annual rate. and frankly, that is not enough -- that is not enough demand to sustain automobile companies with any kind of profitability. so with our new structure, with our low costs-w our cleaned up balance sheet, with the absence of health care payments every year, we are capable of operating at break even or maybe slightly better in a 10 million-unit industry. 9.8 is very tough. but with our new leaner cost structure and our good balance sheet, if we have the slightest recovery to 11 million, 11 1/2 or 12 million units seasonally adjusted annual rate, we should be very, very solidly profitable. >> bob, i'm curious. will you be reviewing the ad agencies that you currently have on retainer?

>> well -- >> which are what? campbell -- >> it's a little early to say p r that. but one thing for sure, monday and tuesday i've got meetings scheduled with all our marketing people and i need to really get into what the status quo is, find out how the relationship is working, talk to the agencies themselves. one thing is for sure, phil. i think i am one of many people inside and outside the company that feel we have got the product problem fixed. i think we can honestly say the product today is excellent, it's appealing, it looks great, it drives great, it's highly reliable. we're producing very reliable product. i don't think that our advertising so far has quite kept pace. and i think we can do better, we need to be much clearer, we can do better, and i'm going to -- obviously going to be talking to the agencies and the brands

about that. >> you were in this position at chrysler when lee iacocca, and you were one of his lieutenants, and you were turning around that country. >> right. >> are you in a better position now to turn around a company compared to where you were at chrysler? >> oh, absolutely. i was there for the second chrysler turnaround. >> right. >> which was going to be the last chrysler turnaround, and it wasn't obviously. but no, for the second turnaround we were skating on very, very thin ice and we weren't going to get any government help that way. and you know, i will say lee iacocca understood communication. he understood the use of pr. he understood the use of advertising. and it was one of his personal interests and abilities. and i have to say i learned a lot from iacocca and i intend to apply a lot of it in this job. >> all right. vice chairman bob lutz from general motors, a "first on cnbc" interview. maria, you heard it straight from mr. lutz. he intends to be both candid and sometimes controversial. should make covering this

company interesting over the years to come. >> thanks to bob lutz for joining us. thanks very much. phil, we'll see you later. now a look at some of the other stories we're following on the "closing bell" ticker tonight. and it is a busy evening. goldman sachs turning bullish on the hardware sector. they're raising their target on apple to 6160 from 145. apple shares tonight looking like this in sizable volume. dell, meanwhile, is goldman's best pick in the hardware center. the firm is telling clients they're upgrading to a conviction buy. new windows 7 operating system later this year. that should drive the new corporate pc upgrade cycle. and dell shares tonight flat really up 7 cents a share. thomas weisel upgrades dell tonight to a market weight from an underweight. hikes its price target on the stock to 16 from 11 because of upcoming organizational changes, and that may mean the internet

search company more competitive and effective. yahoo shares tonight gaining 38 cents on the session. still to come here on "the closing bell" rich bernstein will be with me. he's not sold on the belief that emerging markets will lead a global economic recovery. spoke to the imf. john lipsky said engineering markets surprised him on the up side. rich bernstein explains yes doesn't believe that and which markets actually could be the actual stars in a taurn-round. where do you want to be investing in this recovery? americans may be cutting back on their summer travel plans, meanwhile, but there are some parts of the travel and leisure industry that are still doing pretty well holding up well. we'll break down the numbers and the winners and losers when we come right back. not long ago, this man had limited mobility.

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overall weakness for the dow jones industrial average because of some new worries about second quarter earnings and a profit warning by chevron. we get the overall picture right now from richard bernstein. he's ceo of richard bernstein capital management. and his first appearance as a cnbc contributor. and of course a long resume at merrill lynch among other places. nice to have you on the program. >> thank you, maria. thanks for having me. >> congratulations on the new firm. before i get your thoughts on what's going on, your business, what you're looking to achieve at your new company let me get your thoughts on something we reported earlier. charlie gas (o reporting that bob mccann, a former colleague of yours at merrill, seems to have the inside track in terms of getting the ceo of ubs wealth management job. what do you think about that? what kind of a manager is he? can you tell us -- >> i knew bob for many years at merrill. for a while he was my boss. i will say -- i don't know anything about the ubs situation but i can tell you bob is a great guy. he is a fantastic manager. and if your reporting is true i'm sure he's going to do a wonderful job.

>> well, we'll see about that. but certainly wealth management has not been an easy place to be these days with people so uncertain as far as where their money should be. tell me how you see first the broad economy and how you want to invest in that environment. >> i think the economy right now is kind of caught in that a lot of people are talking about green shoots. they didn't realize that some of the green shoots were actually sort of tax increases on the consumer. for example, oil. oil prices going up. everybody's saying oh, oil prices are going up, the global economy is so strong, nobody forgot -- everybody seemed to forget the consumer doesn't have the income statement right now to support higher oil prices. what happens? we saw the economy start to slow, consumer confidence start to slow. i would argue that some of these green shoots actually wilt, that will be very bullish for the economy longer term. oil prices going lower is fantastic. the lower they go the better it is for the household sector in the united states. >> i don't know. i have to admit i never really believed in that green shoots story because when you talk to people who are on the ground, business managers, people running businesses, they say it's a very tough environment right now and it remains that way. >> i think that's right.

i think anytime you can discuss a complicated economy use twog words, green shoots, you know something's wrong. and i think that's right. we're caught in this period right now where if certain parts of the economy actually do strengthen the overall economy will start weakening and that's a normal process and we're caught in that right now. >> we talked about emerging markets earlier. we had john lipsky on from the imf recently and he said the emerging markets have been a surprise on the up side and that's going lift economic growth globally. what are your thoughts on the emerging markets? i mean, you've got the bric countries, brazil, russia, india, and china, but there are a lot of other emerging economies that are also supposed to be jewels. >> first of all, i'm more of a strategist than an economist. i don't want to argue with john who's much more of an expert on the interworkings of those economies than i am. but i will say these markets are very high beta markets. the united states had a rally, china, brazil, india rallied more. when the united states sold off, those markets sold off more. they're high beta, high volatility markets. we saw a little bit of green

shoots, their economies went -- their markets went wild. it will be interesting to see if the u.s. economy starts turning down a little bit what happens to those markets. my guess is if we go into a little bit of a correction here those markets will correct more. i personally think people are a bit too bullish on the emerging markets. >> and yet people say that the stimulus package in china is working better than the stimulus package in the united states. >> oh, it may well. it may well. i think what people haven't thought of, though, is china's response in a large part to this weakness in the global economy has to build more productive capability in their economy. more production. that's the last thing the global economy needs. we have massive global oversupply right now in a broad range of industries. china's just going to produce more on top of that. it's really not going to make things all that much better. >> tell me how earnings season started off from your standpoint. >> i think okay. it's hard to say. the earnings are still miserable. >> down 30%. >> they're miserable. but i think investors are a little too eager to play the earnings game right now. i actually think where earnings

are going to be much better than people think is probably to-2010, 2011, earnings are going to be tremendous, but '09 i think they're going to be still very, very weak. >> where is the growth? are there any sectors you that would be putting your money to work right now? >> i think actually -- i'm very traditionalist. i think when the cycle turns you do want to play early cycle stocks. we will eventually want to play consumer stocks. we will eventually really want to play financial stocks more than what we're seeing here. i think it's a little early to make those big bets right now. i still think that people should be looking still at tech. it's an old story but it is kind of a safe haven, chicken cyclical kind of story. >> richard bernstein capital management, tell me what you're trying to achieve with the new firm. >> what we're trying to achieve right now is a successful startup. we're not very far along yet to be perfectly honest. what we'd like to do is have a firm that is based on very long-term, theme-oriented investing. i've been very critical of people for shortening time horizons. i do not believe -- >> the short-term trading mentality is terrible. >> it's horrible. and i think it's very

destructive. and i think what we're going to try and do is form a firm where our clients understand that we're not going to try and outperform every quarter, we're not going to try to outperform every week, things like, that we're going to try to outperform literally three to five years and look for investments that actually match those time horizons. it doesn't do any good to say you're going to invest for three to five years and then have trading fiercely every month. that just doesn't make any sense. >> so when you look at the economy over a long-term period, you want to be looking at sectors that you want to own for a -- what's long term? ten years? >> the way to think about it -- i would say three to five years. it's almost a private equity approach to the public markets. that's kind of the way i think people should think about it. where can you find that? i mean, there are sectors. one i think is still a graekt sector for something like that is global defense. the defense industry isn't most socially correct industry i can give you but there are things happening around the world that argue over the next three to five years it will be a growth industry. >> do you like commodities? >> i do not. they've been overplayed.

>> best of luck. good luck with the firm. rich bernstein joining us here. next week is a big one for earnings meanwhile. but the spotlight will likely be on the financial and technology sectors. up next we take a look at those groups. expect the names look goldman sachs and ibm to be front and center. we'll check it out next. stay with us.

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welcome back to earnings season. they have kicked off this week certainly with alcoa kicking us off. but next week the numbers will really start to come in fast and furious. cnbc's rebecca jarvis right now at earningsentral with a preview. recca? >> hey, ria. you said t. ge week for rnings. si dow components we'll get earnings across industry groups but wall street's biggest focus is going to be on the slew of financial behemoths and tech tight thanz are on deck. goldman sachs is first on tuesday. analysts saying the bank could report its largest profits since setting records in 2007. consensus calling for more than $2 billion in quarterly earnings. and behind those gains likely trading revenues, particularly in fixed income land. with much of the competition out of the picture the key question is now that cheap government tarp money is gone how are goldman's other businesses holding up and what's the outlook for the future revenue

generators? traders say the gs report will likely set the tone for all the other financials that follow. jpmorgan chase out with its earnings thursday. on friday it is a busy one. bank of america, citigroup, and general electric all reporting. key question, where are we in the cycle? are we seeing some real signs of a turnaround? next week we'll also hear from the tech titans, intel, ibm, google. intel kicks things off tuesday after the bell. the chipmaker's already called a bottom in the pc industry. the question there is does intel see that trend continuing? ibm reports the following day. major question, the services business, the report could offer a window into hp, into dell. even into cisco. and we'll also hear from the goog. google. they should offer a glimpse into ho ads revenue are doing and also a window into yahoo. and a these ports, maria, it's not just abo the numbs. you've talked abt this. it's about the outs. it's abo t commentary. weant to know, is it just a less bad scenario, or are pple final liu transitioni into

this good scenario? a lot of traders today saying less bad isn't good enough. and of course a lot of folks id that the second half of 2009 would be that major turning point. well, next week we'll see whether it really is. and if it isn't, maria, when will the turning point actually be? back over to you. >> such an important moment in time, rebecca, as we look ahead to the end of '09 and into 2010 to see when this recovery takes hold. >> absolutely. >> thanks so much, rebecca jarvis with the latest on earnings. another big name in the retail industry could very well set the tone for next week. we are going to take a look. and then we're going to talk health care with the head of new york's presbyterian hospital. back in a moment. >> announcer: here's a look at some of today's winners and losers. some days my:15 bus is just a bus,

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welcome back. let's take a look at some of the business headlines we're working on at this hour. the commerce department reports that the u.s. trade deficit unexpectedly fell nearly 10% in may to a level of $26 billion. that is the lowest level in more than nine years. it is due to imports falling for the tenth straight month and exports posting a small gain. the university of michigan's preliminary reading of consumer sentiment for the month of july fell by more than six points to a reading of 64.6. that was a much larger than expected decline as consumers raised concerns about job security and the health of the economy. and michael kramer, the ceo of apparel maker kellwood, telling cnbc that deutsche bank, its largest debt holder, had agreed to a debt restructuring deal but changed its mind at the last moment. kellwood, which is owned by equity firm sun capital, has $140 million in debt that comes due next wednesday, leading some to speculate it could file for bankruptcy protection. the ceo telling cnbc that despite the lending issue

kellwood is the strongest it has been with strong cash flow. up next, we're talking health care reform with the ceo of one of the leading and largest hospitals in the country. find out if he thinks a government health care option will hurt private insurers and if he believes health care reform is even necessary. we're back. i'm jim goldman with silicon valley. this is "tech check." you've seen the google and t-mobile g-1. get a load of the new g-2, unveiled this week in new york. the latest android-powered smartphone, the t-mobile my touch 3g goes on sale next month. movies meets social networking. just in time for the next "harry potter" installment. san francisco's flickster trying to capitalize on "half blood prince" using the film's release to call attention to its mushrooming growth. an online destination for movie

buffs. 20 million visit the site monthly. "harry potter" hits theaters next wednesday. and that's also the day intel kicks off a big couple of weeks for tech earnings. key upgrades for intel, apple, and yahoo today. microsoft, google, and ebay report the following week. and of course we'll have all the numbers as soon as theyss thtape. that's your techcheck. f i'm jimgoldman in the silicon valley. ♪ watching in slow mon ♪ as you turn to me and say ♪ takmy breath away (announcer) ge locomotives. customers lovehem almost as much as weove making them. ♪ my love mr. evs? thiis janice from onstar. i have received an automa you've been in front-end crash. do youeed help?

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welcome back. house ways and committee chairman charles rangel says that his committee is prepared to introduce a bill that would tax americans making at least $350,000 annually to pay for health care reform. this as president obama expressed his confidence today that reform would be passed. we get the thoughts now of a doctor and hospital executive. ceo and president of new york presbyterian hospital. dr. pardes, it's great to have you on the program. always great to see you. let me get your take on what's going on in washington. what you see on the table right now from the obama administration as far as health care reform. do you like it? what do you like, what don't you like? >> i think obama -- the obama administration seems to be getting credit for taking this on. it's critical we do something with health care reform. we should just not tolerate the fact that so many people don't

have access to coverage. there are a lot of things that are on the table that i like. there are some things i have reservation on. my main concern is at the end of the day american people throughout the country should be able to get quality health care. so some of the things i like, the spreading of access, more coverage. i think it's okay for all the constituents to try to help in terms of reducing some of the costs of that. there are some things i don't like. i do not think they should be doing anything with dish payments, which help hospitals in terms of people who are poor. but for many people there's going to be a lot of help. by having more access uninsured people, people working for small companies, people who are self-employed will have a better likelihood of getting health care, and the people who have their health care already can stick with it. we should retain choice. there should be the new plans for these people and also the ability for people to retain their existing plans. >> you know, some people feel that if we go the way of having competition it's going to put some insurance companies out of business.

>> well, i'm not so concerned about the insurance companies, but i'm concerned about the quality of health care that they provide. and i think americans like choice. so they should be able to retain their private plans. they should consider whatever they want. i think that when we do have an option for the uninsured, the self-employed, as i say, and the small businesses what's important dish think the people who use private plans should remain in those private plans with employers backing them up. >> you want the choice, and people are comfortable with their own doctors. >> right. and i think that's an important part of the health system. >> let me ask you about the hospital industry pledging $155 billion in medicare and medicaid s savings over the next ten years. as the ceo of one of the largest hospitals in the country, are you pleased with this agreement? where do the sabings come from? how do you get there? >> hospitals are very tight financially, particularly in areas that have state budgetary problems such as new york. >> you're getting squeezed on both sides. >> we're getting state medicare

cuts on a regular basis. shortfalls in the new york budget again. in the meantime, looking at federal cuts is challenging. my feeling is the only way to do this is you spread the pain. so one kind of talk they're talking about, which cuts the inflationary increase from year to year, i think we can accept some of that cut. that seems reasonable. i do not find acceptable the cut to the payments which cover us for taking care of indigent people. and whatever you do there are still going to be a certain amount of indigent people, people in the country, they're not citizens. we still have to provide them with coverage. >> what is the most expensive element of health care? a lot of people wonder why is it so expensive that every year costs soar? >> there are a number of elements. one of them is chronic disease. i think there are a number of elements which could be taken out because they're really excessive. such as defensive medicine and malpractice premiums. that would be a cut. i think one of the things that the health care plans have talked about which i find attractive is streamlining the whole billing and collections system.

you go into your doctor's office, he has four or five people there working on plans, papers. if we can streamline that, unify it, make it electronic, that would take an enormous cost. they estimate a saving over ten years of 500 to 700 billion dollars. >> that seems like a no-brainer. we've been talking about this, dr. pardes, for a long time. the technology part of it, shouldn't we have done this already? >> i agree. this should have been done, and i think we ought to use this occasion to get that. i think everybody's going to have to give a bit. >> let me ask you about what's on the table. there's some thought out there that hospitals need to reform because without it hospitals will continue to have to treat that 50 million person uninsured group of people in america. can this group be served without this massive health care reform? >> no, you need to improve the access and you've got to do something about coverage of all people in the country. so i don't see it happening without health reform. should hospitals be reforming themselves, we are doing it.

for example, at our place and many others in reducing infection control and errors, which also can be costly, we're trying to make ourselves as available as possible. new york presbyterian does 20% of the health care in new york. i like the idea of our being able to take care of everybody. but in turn those people should all have -- everybody should have a doctor, a nurse-practitioner to take care of themselves so reduce the need to go to emergency rooms. >> do we need prevention policies in place? do we need policies in place to make sure people take care of themselves, better care of themselves, exercise and eat right? because 70% of the money is going toward preventible disease. >> absolutely. i think we should incentivize prevention programs. and also my position would be make health care and personal health care a mandatory part of the correct lum of children from day one so you grow people who are dedicated to good personal health care from the beginning. >> we will leave it there. dr. par des, thank you so much for your time.

new york presbyterian. staycations are becoming more popular. there are some areas of the travel business, though, that are still seeing strong demand. 've got some details an ideas r your summer vacation. stay with us.

welcome back. hot sunny day here on wall street outside of federal hall. and summer's supposed to be the busiest travel season for most americans. but with the economy on the decline many are actually talking about staycations. yes, staying home but taking off from work. so what are the travel trends this summer? joining me now with more on that and talking about some of the deals out there is pauline frommer, she's creator of the pauline frommer's travel guide. pauline, nice to have you back on the show. >> great to be back. thank you. >> so how tough is it out there? travel down? >> travel is down a good 23% across the board. it's a very rough time for people in the travel industry. and if you look at the travel industry, by some estimates 1 out of every 11 americans works in it in some way.

you look at transportation, restaurants that cater to travelers, museums, the thing about it. >> you should be asking for deals, right? >> you should be asking for deals, bargaining, especially in certain sectors of the industry. for example, vacation homes. a lot of people brought vacation homes as investment ms. now they're finding they can't pay those mortgages. but you go to the sites and you can bargain like you couldn't believe. i've seen two bedroom condos in maui going for as little as $77 a night. myrtle beach, reno, lake tahoe. everywhere, people are desperate to fill their condos. >> what about a hotel.

should i call the manager of a hotel and deal with the reservation agent and say, look, i want to do this. >> the best thing for the hotels go to one of the websites that discount for you. these discounts tell hotels they're going to keep the rooms filled all year round. places like hotels combined, hotels.com. priceline can be good if you don't mind sitting in lines. there are a lot of deals out there. >> not all bad news in terms of the environment right now. you have two of your latest books. tell me what you think? >> well, it's bad news for the people in the industry. it's good news for people in travel. absolutely. for example, we all know mexico has had a very rough time of it. first with the drug war, then the swine flu. places like cancun, however, are not at all hit. nobody dies from cancun from either of the swine flus. no tore wrist torists have bee.

you can go there, air fare, all inclusive hotel for as little as $100 a night. >> wow. >> incredible deals in cancun. >> cruises here? >> well, when times were good, all of the lines ordered new ships and being delivered right now. and there are specifically too many cruise ships in alaska this summer. if you're looking for last-minute deals in alaska, you'll pay as little as $399 per week in august. last year you would have paid double that. >> a cruise in alaska for under $400. that's good. >> you wrote a book on hawaii and vegas. what are the story there is? >> in hawaii, they lost about 25% of the flights in. that's depressed hotel rates. we're looking at very nice places you can get for $70 or $80 a night. last year would have been double that. in vegas, we've seen the complete disappearance of the convention business. you can play at places off of

the strip for as little as $29 a night and nice places on the strip for $39. it's a fire sale in vegas right now. >> okay. the corporate traveller, i guess, has lessened in numbers quite a bit in va gas. so you're seeing increasingly individual vacations? >> they are kind of shifting their focus with the corporate traveller. >> the hotel companies and the airlines are seeing serious decline. how about that? >> the hotel company. there was a major river cruise company that went belly up this week. what the consumer needs to do is they need to protect themselves because a lot of travel companies are going to go bankrupt. so this year more than any other, you may want to consider getting travel insurance. >> how expensive is travel shurns? >> that will depend on what you're insuring. you don't need it for a hotel

night or air fare. if you're booking a cruise, rent a condo, if you look at a tour package, you should get it. definitely. it will vary by your age, by the type of trip. there's no real way to say how much it will cost. >> now the dollar has been weak. what are you seeing in terms of european travel? i know you have something on ireland. where's the hot spots in europe. >> prices have plummeted, ireland, ice lapd. you go to the place where is the economy is in meltdown and you're going to get great deals. >> still going to have fun. are there going to be vibrant places to go and -- >> oh, yes, absolutely. >> with the economy as -- >> they're thrilled to see you. they love their business travel. one of the reasons ireland is so inexpensive is if the people there can't fly out anymore. we're seeing air-hotel packages for the fall $699 air fare from the u.s., six nights and rental car. you couldn't do that in the united states. >> fascinating.

thank you for your insight. we appreciate it. car lean firmer joining us here on "closing bell." up next, movie stars, music, and athletes are a twitng these days. you may never guess who just set up a twitter account who has as many fans dangerously awaiting e tweets. backn moment. accesso favorite courses chef's meal with pommes frites rhaps a night at the tat with extra special seats additional hotel ght, our treat you world in perfect harmony:riceless look for world on ur mastercard toet rewards and offers that matter to you.

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welcome back. finally today, twitter is getting the royal treatment. the british royal family is the latest to join the growing list of celebrities posting on-line updates about their daily life. it marks the latest push by the royal family if to cyberspace. bucking hamm palace has been proactive in keeping up with the digital age. it launched a website in 1987 and the queen has their own channel on youtube. but don't expect to read any tweets posted by the majesty. royal family members will not be posting tweets and it will be more like a news service than a personal voyage. you can check out the account on twitter under the name british monarc

monarchy. before we say have a fantastic weekend, look at the day on wall street today. we had pressure under way for the dow jones industrials. the dow jones industrials is off of the worst levels to finish down 36 points at 8146, a half percent low. the s&p 500 gave up 3.5 points. it was large when the oil stocks. really leaning the decline for the dow and the s&p, rather. the nasdaq ending higher, 3.5 points higher. as you can see, 1756 is where the nasdaq finish today's trading session. we had money moving in to technology. next week is a big week. we've got a whole host of earnings coming out, j.p.more gann, goldman sachs, google, general electric. that will set the tone for the markets and we will be following it on cnbc this weekend on "the wall street journal report" i hope you will join me. we're going to be looking ahead to the week ahead. and we're talking to paul crupen about the economy.