CNN news 2012-05-15 加文本

cnn news 2012-05-15

CARL AZUZ, HOST, cnn STUDENT NEWS: You know, Friday`s are awesome when I get to name-drop somebody like Dr. Shaquille O`Neal at the beginning of the show. He is going to be passing along some more information later on, but first up today, we`re looking at some economic options.

We started this week with election results from France and Greece. Both countries are getting ready for a shift in political power. They`re not the only ones.

More than half a dozen other European nations have had some change in government recently. And a lot of it has to do with how those countries` leaders have handled economic struggles. Ali Velshi breaks down two different ways the governments can try to turn things around.

ALI VELSHI, cnn HOST: Growth is a very tricky value-laden word right now. Every economy wants and needs growth. But there are many ways to get there. Stimulus can produce growth. Austerity can produce growth. Cutting taxes can produce growth. It`s very tricky and not every example is the same.

It`s hard to compare. Some people hold austerity out on one side and stimulus out on the other, when in fact, most solutions probably lie somewhere in the middle.

Austerity is a program where a government cuts back on its spending. It either cuts back on benefits or payments to its citizens or payments to its businesses in order to get its debt under control. Governments don`t typically like to impose austerity, because voters don`t like austerity.

Voters, citizens, like getting money. They like getting benefits from their government. They like to have retirement kick in at some point. So governments don`t tend to impose austerity until it`s absolutely necessary. But in many cases, it`s to show creditors that a government has discipline. In many cases, it`s to balance the budget because no more money is available.

In many cases, it`s about paying down debt because it would take too long to pay that debt down if austerity measures weren`t brought in.

Stimulus is when a government gets involved to transfer money or things like money to its citizens or its businesses to stimulate the economy. An economy works because there`s demand. People work. They earn money.

With that money, they go and buy things. With the money that they use to buy things companies expand, hire more people. Those people have money. They go out and buy things. That is the virtuous circle of demand. Well, the way you stimulate that is if people have money. That is stimulus. Austerity is not stimulus.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s Shoutout goes out to Ms. Obando and all the students and teachers at Rachel Carson Middle School in Herndon, Virginia.

What city hosted the first modern Olympics? You know what to do. Was it London, Rome, Athens or Cairo? You`ve got three seconds, go.

Athens, Greece, the birthplace of the ancient Olympics, hosted the first modern games in 1896. That`s your answer, and that`s your Shoutout.

AZUZ: Greece is always the starting point for one of the traditions associated with the Olympic Games.

AZUZ (voice-over): The tradition? The lighting of the Olympic Flame. This ceremony yesterday marked the start of a new Olympiad. It was held in the ruins of an ancient temple in Greece, with an actress playing the part of the traditional high priestess.

After the flame was lit, it hit the road. The torch relay will wind its way toward the United Kingdom over the next week. Then it`ll go on an 8,000-mile journey around the country before it eventually arrives in London for this year`s Summer Games.

AZUZ: In 2011, the unemployment rate for U.S. military veterans who`d served on active duty in the past 10 years was 12.1 percent. That`s higher than the overall U.S. unemployment rate, which is 8.1 percent. A new cnn documentary, "Vets Wanted," looks at some veterans` efforts to find jobs as they come back home.