the greek situation is a al tragedy. greek cannot borrow money. this country is not in bad shape at all. or but we have a politically geneted crisis. there is no real rean to have a debt limitation anyway. what congress and the president shouldo is tax spending, taxes and spending and the economy together will produce a budget deficit or surplus. the democrats, i think were rightly worried a little bit about how much president obama was willing to give away in terms of slicing spending on programs they hold dear. but it turned out the republicans are unwilling to accept anything. and john boehner who had promised repeatedly that the debt ceiling would be raised, apparently now is backing away from that. it looks like he's just caved in to the right wing members of his caucus. >> rose: he has released this statement. during these discussions as in my earlier discussions became evident that the white house has simply not serious about ending the spding binge thais destroying jobs and endangeri our children's future. a deal was never reached and neve

the greeks have done a lot. the greeks have felt a lot of pain. but, unfortunately, they don't have many other good choice. >> warner: all right, we have to leave it there. thank you both very much, simon johnson mark weisbrot. >> brown: still to come on the "newshour": white house chief of staff bill daley; a hospital targeting medical mistakes; the buying-fever over social media sites and labor protests in china. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: the news from greece helped reassure wall street and stocks gained ground for a fourth day. the dow jones industrial average was up nearly 153 points to close at 12,414. the nasdaq rose 33 points to close above 2,773. u.s. forces in iraq have had their deadliest month in two years. officials announced today that three american soldiers were killed wednesday in the south near the border with iran. that made 15 this month, the most since june of 2009. shi-ite militias in iraq have stepped up attacks on u.s. forces. the militias oppose any move to have the troop

the greeks don't like the austerty, and the concern is something bigger. when the default actually happens, it will not be like lehman brothers as some are saying. countries have defaulted again and again and again. it is not as unusual as what happened with lehman brothers. but the europeans could do anything. >> in a better scenario, you will get the risk over with. >> susie: another thing worrying investors is the whole job situation. we have the june employment report coming out friday. the consensus is 115,000 jobs were created last month. does that sound about right for you? how does the job market look to you these days? >> well, it soublds about right. susie, if you're looking for a job t feels like recession, because unemployment is really high. we have just not come out of it. we'd like to be seeing 200,000. 300,000 jobs created every month for a couple of years to really start pulling us out of this. i do think the second half of the year ought to be bettered the affects go by. >> household debt. and government debt. there's an overhang on the e

i've been doing afghanistan and bin laden and the greek crisis. you stay here! let's get it done. >> but, mr. obama himself has spent considerable time outside the nation's capital. obama was in brazil on march 19 when he announced his authorization of "limited military action" in libya. for that matter, he has been away from washington for a large part of the this 2 1/2 years as president. according to figures compiled at the end of 2010 by cbs reporter mark knoller, obama's first 23 months in office saw 70 days on foreign trips and 58 days on vacation trips. he's gambled at a pace to present himself as a statesman. above the scramble of something disagreeable called washington. >>> question, with regard to obama's leadership on domestic issues, what hasn't emerges from his issue, what pattern e pledges his first -- >> first of all, i don't think anyone thinks this president is not a hard worker. and he went after the congress to what a ridiculous work schedules where the house and the senate take different breaks, so you can't deal with the congress as a whole

isn't the italian economy about six times the size of the greek economy? >> will, in a way it is. but, you know, i think we're also have to start to define what default is because there is lots of confusion. the markets are very volatile and investors get worried. so, now, for example as part of the negotiations germany and france would like to see the banks take a bit of a cut in their positions with greece which is a fair distribution of a shared cost. now, standard & poor's and moody's come out and says "well, if you do that, that is a default." and so people get increasingly worried. so i think we have to be very attentive at what kind of terms we use. i don't think that italy is going to default. the european central bank is resisting a technical default of greece. so we'll have to see how that goes. but this situation... the situations are very different. italy has a much stronger and better economy than greece. >> suarez: well, mario, other count rise in europe have about a trillion dollars exposure to italian paper. even american banks have almost $300 billion. is italy to

i've been doing afghanistan and bin laden and the greek crisis. >> the president says he wants to get working, wants us to get working. i cannot think of a better way than to have him come over today. ng.are waiting sen >> senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. for all the kids were outraged by the president's remarks. -- republicans were outraged by the president's remarks. but harry reid was listening. what you make of the president's performance on wednesday, mark? >> i think the president recognizes two things. over the last two years, democrats lost to the debate on their major initiatives, economic recovery and health care. they don't want to run the risk this time. they have to lay out what the consequences are, the recklessness and irresponsibility of even entertaining the possibility of letting this country defaults on its obligations. >> evan, what do you make of it? >> you cannot be partisan about this. at least he is showing some energy. but he has got to be an arm twister behind the scenes, and he is not really lyndon johnson. this is serious now. this is his moment of l

under that agreement, investors in greek bonds are asked to accept new debt at lower interest rates and for longer terms. fitch said the bond holders will take a loss and that constitutes default. on wall street, stocks finished the day with mixed results, but had a winning week overall. the dow jones industrial average lost 43 points to close at 12,681. the nasdaq rose 24 points to close at 2,858. for the week, the dow gained more than 1.5%; the nasdaq rose 2.5%. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jim. >> lehrer: and to the crisis in somalia, which is facing the worst famine in decades. the united nations warned today 800,000 children could die from starvation. international agencies want to send in more food, but al qaeda- linked militants vowed to block the aid. jonathon rugman of independent television news traveled to a refugee camp just outside the capital, mogadishu. a warning: some of the images in this report are very disturbing. >> reporter: ahmed is eight months old and close to dying of hunger. he lies in the lap of his father, abdi. the pair have travel

yeah, my little tragedy was positively greek in scope. >> reporter: fleisher was the stuff of myth from the start: a child prodigy raised in san francisco, who gave his first recital at age seven. and at ten began studies with artur schnabel, one of the 20th century's greatest pianists. when we talked recently at hisç baltimore home, fleisher spoke of schnabel's most important lesson. >> music has a structure even though you can't taste it, you can't touch it, you can't smell it. it's there. and a great piece of music, greatly played, is as palpable, as three dimensional as anything else in life. >> reporter: so you think of the composer as constructing the work and then your job as theçç player is to re-construct it? >> yes, in a sense to discover what his structure is. also, the role of the performer is in a sense a very dicey one. because in today's culture and today's society everybody wants to have a star. but in music, for example, the performer is indispensable but he or she is not the star. the music is the star. >> from carnegie hall, leon >> reporter: still, the music bus

the greek coast guard turned back a boatload of americans who did try to put to sea. several hundred pro-palestinian activists hope to use the group of nine ships to break an israeli sea blockade. it was imposed after hamas militants seized control of gaza in 2007. last year, an israeli raid on a similar flotilla killed nine activists. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jim. >> lehrer: in syria, there was another friday of protests and deadly responses, with reports of another 24 people killed, but also some gestures of reconciliation. margaret warner has the story. >> warner: the nearly four- month-long uprising against president bashar al-assad showed no sign of abating today, with some of the largest protests yet. >> ir-hal! >> warner: in the city of homs, marchers thundered cries of "ir- hal", or "go", a demand echoing across the arab world this year, aimed at longtime rulers. elsewhere in homs, security forces fired on protesters from roadblocks. large crowds also turned out in most other major syrian cities, in the now-weekly protests after