This is CBS I and the World. I'm John Bachelor. The Business of America is small business and I welcome my good friend and colleague Jean Marks, the Small Business columnist for the Guardian newspaper, UK and US edition, our hometown newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and other distinguished

publications, including Forbes.

We start, however, with Vegas.

Gene loves to go to Vegas because he reports back how long it took for a taxi to arrive,

how long it took to check into the hotel.

Right now, we have a metric that's convincing in the face of a headline of the Wall Street Journal.

The headline in the journal in these hours, has the U.S. economy reached a tipping point

as America teeters between a soft landing and recession, uncertainty is weighing on anxious consumers and businesses.

Anxiety, uncertainty, recession, my goodness, like a Gothic novel, but we go to Vegas and

we find, Gene, a very good evening to you. You're keen on Vegas as a way of telling about

the ambitions of the American economy. What does it tell you now? You were there most recently.

Good evening to you.

Hi John yeah first of all I want to correct your misreporting I do not love going to

Vegas at all I hate going to Vegas but I'm forced to do that because there's a lot of people that, you know, associations and groups that have either to speak and it's a place that attracts a lot of convention visitors.

So I like to track what's going on in Vegas though because I think it's a good indication of the economy and where you know where things are.

And I just you know want people to know I mean people you know we keep reading about you know potential

gloom and due potential recession still not seeing still not seeing a

recession before the end of the year I don't you know I think there's a lot of

the media trying to make stories up.

I'm not saying the economy is the greatest

and some people aren't suffering, but I mean,

John, you go to Vegas, there's a lot of people there.

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