Fire in New York's Chinatown Kills 1 and Injures 20
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.</s>CHETRY: We're coming up at 29 minutes past the hour, and we're following breaking news this morning. A tragic story out of Chinatown in Lower Manhattan this morning. Fire officials say at least one person is dead and another injured after a four-alarm blaze in New York's Chinatown. A six-story apartment building went up in flames around 4:00 in the morning. For awhile, we've been showing these pictures and they were saying the fire was not under control yet, but within the past couple of minutes we got word that they have now controlled the fire. One hundred sixty-eight firefighters were at the scene trying to knock down those flames. Investigators are saying they still do not know what caused that fire. One firefighter did suffer minor injuries and again one person killed and about 20 others injured in that apartment building fire in Chinatown this morning. Also developing right now, a new warning that kids with -- the parents with kids in college need to hear this. Universities in Arizona warning students to stay out of Mexico for spring break. This is a rite of passage. A lot of kids especially from Arizona University go down across the border for spring break. There have been drug-related murders, though, that have reached record levels south of the border. Shootouts in broad daylight, not out of the ordinary now, in places like Tijuana. Even government officials say they're not safe. And Rupert Murdoch, owner of the "New York Post" and News Corp., is personally apologizing to readers for a cartoon parodying last week's chimpanzee attack. In a statement, Murdoch says he understands the hurt the cartoon has caused, and Murdoch says the only intent was to "mock a badly written piece of legislation." The NAACP has called for News Corp. to fire the "Post's" editor in chief as well as the cartoonist -- John.</s>ROBERTS: A story developing right now. In uncertain times when stock are collapsing to a 12-year low, President Obama is putting the finishing touches on the critical speech to the nation that he'll deliver tonight. People are getting impatient and uneasy as the bills pile up. And they want answers. We want to see what's on your mind, right now, like what you're going to do with your stimulus dollars.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're talking about a $65 break.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How would that help you?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I'd put it away. I think everybody, you know, they want to you put it back in the economy, and I understand that but I think everybody wants to pack a little bit more money away in their savings. And I would probably do that for a good full year and just $65 a month adds up.</s>ROBERTS: Some of the best money minds in the nation are here all morning long, trying to make sense of the meltdown for you. Managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute Lakshman Achuthan is with us, U.S. managing editor of the "Financial Times," Chrystia Freeland also here and "Daily Beast" contributor William Cohan who is the author of the upcoming book "House of Cards: a tale of hubris and wretched excesses on Wall Street." We're looking forward to read that book as well, it should be a very interesting tone. So you know, people are, you know, pulling in their belts even President Obama looks like he's pulling in the belt, putting this helicopter contract on hold. Robert Gibbs making a little bit of news a little while ago, a sign everybody has to pitch in and do their part here, I guess, Lakshman?</s>ACHUTHAN: Absolutely, I mean, look this is what a recession is. The president, Washington, the Congress are trying to deal with the fact that we're into the second year of what looks to be the most severe recession since World War II. Now you can legislate, you can make laws, you can pass bills, you can try to slow the pace of the decline but you cannot change the course of the business cycle. So we'll do things like we'll do tax breaks and we'll do spending plans, and this will make it better than it otherwise would have been, but it will not change the fact that the recession now has to run its course.</s>ROBERTS: Yes. So looking ahead to what he's going to say tonight it's interesting, Chrystia, to note that in recent polls, the majority of Americans given the high points on his, you know, handling of the administration thus far. They also give this plan high points but nothing in it seems to have worked just yet.</s>FREELAND: Well, if you mean it doesn't seem to have worked because the Dow actually has been sinking like a rock, I think the key thing that's missing not in terms of the rhetoric but in terms of an actual plan is really a clear plan on dealing with the banking system. And Bill was saying earlier that we have to give Geithner some time and this is complicated. And that's absolutely right but the problems for this administration is the markets are not giving them time.</s>ROBERTS: And you heard Robert Gibbs there, who was saying, listen, we're not going to talk about what plan we have for the bank but it would seem to be an indication that they're thinking about, at least taking some sort of majority shareholder stake in places like Citigroup.</s>COHAN: Well they have a huge investment so it would actually help Citigroup ironically if they converted their preferred stock into common stock to help Citigroup's equity numbers, and they're probably going to have to do the same thing at B of A. But I think ultimately this is healthy. There is so much excess in the system that de-leveraging and shaking all this out is ultimately going to be better for our economy. It's very painful. You can't fight the economic cycle and people don't like it when we're in the middle of it and it's very painful.</s>ACHUTHAN: Yes, and one other point to the extent that the stock market is an instant flash poll every day, as to what are we thinking, what's going on. We have to remember, the stock market is a short leading indicator of the business cycle. So Clearly it's telling us we don't have an upturn yet. There are longer leading indicators of the business cycle that are still falling so that means the stock market is extremely challenged no matter what happens here.</s>ROBERTS: Although here's an interesting contraindication that I found. American Express did a poll of small business owners, that talked to them back in October, a reason to talk to them again. Back in October, 18 percent of small business owners according to this poll, and it was an online poll but they claim it was accurate said that they were worried about their business folding. Now that number is down to 13 percent. Is that an indication that the business climate may actually be getting better or people used to bad times?</s>FREELAND: Let's hope it's an indication that business climate is actually getting better. I think the thing that I would say on Lakshman's point about the business cycle is, I think we can't be overly confident that nature will simply take its course, because we have seen in other countries, in Japan is the real horror story that we worry about now. That nature can take its course over a very long time.</s>ROBERTS: Right.</s>FREELAND: And I think no one wants to look at a lost decade that lasts that long.</s>ACHUTHAN: Agreed. They must be doing something and that's why they're acting. I'm not suggesting they shouldn't but they ultimately, if you're really, really good, you can tame the business cycle. You cannot control it. And to your point on this poll, by the way, I mean, if the credit card company says hey, how's your business doing. If you say it's not going well they're going to pull your credit. You got to be a little careful.</s>ROBERTS: It's a loaded question. But we also talk about this idea, Bill, of credit. And it's been frozen and when is it going to loosen up? I was talking to a person in New Orleans over the weekend who bottles energy drinks. And he'd been wanting to do some expansion. You know, plenty of banks out there who said, yes, we got some money but never got any letters of commitment over the course of about three or four months. Last week they got a couple of letters of commitment. Are things starting to loosen up?</s>COHAN: I think that's a very important point. I think since the beginning of January, things are beginning to loosen up. It's not as terrible as it was back in November and December. There's the credit markets are loosening up, banks lending to one another, banks are lending to corporations. How about that? A huge Roche pharmaceutical deal just occurred. I mean there's definitely lending going on, and I'm not saying it's anywhere close to normal but it's not nearly as severe as it was and I think maybe that's part of the confidence that is starting to seep back in a little bit.</s>ROBERTS: But a small sign of optimism out there in a sea of woe.</s>COHAN: Small.</s>ROBERTS: Thanks very much, folks. Good to talk to you this morning. Kiran.</s>CHETRY: All right. Speaking of polls, a new CNN opinion research poll out minutes ago. It's giving us an idea of what's on the line tonight for President Obama as well as the nation. 62 percent of you say that the president's speech is likely to make you feel more confident about the economy. Those are big numbers to live up to and even bigger challenges to face the morning after. And tune in to CNN tonight 9:00 Eastern, President Obama will make his first address to the nation on the state of the economy, and you can see it live right here on CNN and cnn.com. There's uproar over O.J., the drink, not the man. Tropicana paid $35 million to change their carton. So why, after all that, did they decide to throw the whole thing down the drain?</s>ROBERTS (voice-over): Is Mexico's drug headed here? New fears, new turf, America.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's spilling over the borders. It's very much a consequence of our failed prohibitionist policies.</s>ROBERTS: The dangerous drug war, too close to home. You're watching the most news in the morning.