[Melissa Long, Cnn Anchor:] We're going to break in to our programming of "OPEN HOUSE" to take you live now to Lima, Peru. President Bush on essentially a farewell diplomatic trip right now, meeting with the APEC forum, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, at the podium right now.
[George W. Bush, President Of The United States:] ...needed to be sitting at the same table to have an honest, fruitful dialogue.
[T.j. Holmes, Cnn Anchor:] All right. President Bush there in Peru. That's the APEC, the Asia-Pacific Economic forum. Touting his record a bit down there at the summit. Kind of a swan song maybe to some of these leaders. This may be his last trip as the president of the United States, last foreign trip, anyway, as president of the United States. Talking about still getting on Congress a little bit for not passing a couple of free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, South Korea as well. But this APEC summit happens every year. Leaders of 21 countries gather to talk about economic issues. We're listening in to the president there.
[Melissa Long, Cnn Anchor:] This also comes on the heels of a meeting in Washington earlier this month of the G-20.
[Holmes:] Yes.
[Long:] Emerging nations, powerful nations talking about the economy once again.
[Holmes:] That one was kind of hastily thrown together in just a few days. An emergency meeting almost, yes.
[Long:] I want to mention we continue to stream that live event. The APEC summit continues throughout the day. The president is meeting with many influential leaders around the world. We're going to continue to cover that on our Web site, CNN.com. Just go to CNN.comlive.
[Holmes:] And here as well. But we will start with our next hour of CNN NEWSROOM right now. Well, we've been listening to President Bush. Now let's talk about the president-elect. He's revealing a plan that includes more than two million jobs to be created. The ball now in the court of the big three automakers as well. They're hoping for a big bailout.
[Long:] We're learning more this morning about what you should do with your old electronics, old BlackBerrys.
[Holmes:] Yes.
[Long:] Old cell phones, old computers.
[Holmes:] You can't just put them in the trash.
[Long:] Yes. Being dedicated to the Earth, doing it the right way. You can drop these items off free if you happen to be in the Atlanta area today. That story coming up this morning. This is CNN NEWSROOM. From the CNN Center here in Atlanta, it's Saturday, November 22nd. I'm in today for Betty Nguyen, and I'm Melissa Long.
[Holmes:] And hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes. It is about quarter after 10:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia. About 7:15 on the West Coast. Let's get you caught up on what's happening all over the place, including the transition to power happening right here in the U.S. We do expect some key cabinet announcements as soon as Monday from President-elect Obama. Sources say he's on track to name his pick for treasury secretary. We want to go now live to Chicago, CNN's Ed Henry. Ed, I assume you got an apartment in Chicago by now you've been there so long, buddy. Tell us, who is this guy Timothy Geithner? And tell us why the markets and investors seem to like him.
[Ed Henry, Cnn White House Correspondent:] Well, good morning, T.J. You're absolutely right, you saw a little bit of a bounce in the markets, almost a 500-point increase in the Dow yesterday afternoon. A late rally because of the news about Tim Geithner being on track to be treasury secretary. He's a known quantity on Wall Street as the head of the New York Fed, and the reason why the Obama transition team wants to roll it out so early next week is they want to try to boost some more confidence in the markets as well, because they see the financial crisis getting worse, frankly, during this transition period. President Bush is a lame duck. Barack Obama keeps saying there's only one president at a time, he doesn't have the authority to move forward on his own economic recovery plan. So what they're trying to do is at least roll out their new team next week to show the markets that they're going to be ready to hit the ground running on January 20th when Barack Obama is sworn in. Meanwhile, they're going to move on from economic security to national security after Thanksgiving. Sources close to the transition also telling CNN that Hillary Clinton is on track to be secretary of state. And when you talk to various experts in the foreign policy world, they say when you see this kind of team that's coming together, they think Barack Obama is trying to build a team of a lot of talented, experienced people for the cabinet to attack a whole host of problems he has to confront.
[Dan Benjamin, Center On The United States & Europe:] Not only are these skilled people, but these are energetic and dynamic people. And I think it speaks of a president who wants to take on what is just an enormous inbox of problems and wants to make real headway. This is not about playing small ball.
[Henry:] Not playing small ball. Obviously, it's going to be a major challenge for the president-elect next year as he takes office to deal not just with this financial crisis, but obviously two wars that are going on, threats from nations like Iran as well. And that's why he's trying to put together this so-called team of rivals to deal with it
[T.j. Holmes:] Yes, team of rivals, and he's got a pretty big rival among them being talked about right now. Ed Henry for us in Chicago, where he has been and will be. Kind sir, good to see you as always.
[Long:] I think he's there through Thanksgiving, right?
[Holmes:] Yes. He's just there through inauguration. We're just going to keep him there. He doesn't know it yet.
[Long:] Oh, OK. Well, thanks for informing him of that. You know, so many people have been talking at length, and they have opinions about the big three. Should we bail out Detroit?
[Holmes:] Or should we not? Here's another few billion that needs to go to the automakers. "Too big to fail" are the words being thrown around. Well, for it or against it, we're going to have one side of the particular issue. See if this person can convince you that maybe you've got it wrong. Stick around.