The unemployment numbers are cold and hard: The national unemployment rate hit 8.1 percent in February, the highest it has been in over 25 years. And there are other parts of the country where the figure is a good bit higher pushing twelve or thirteen percent. As we wait for the release of the March unemployment numbers, we talk to two of the faces behind the numbers. John Fox is from an area of North Carolina, where the unemployment rate is 15.7 percent and he has been looking for work in the construction field for over thirteen months. Also joining the conversation is Janet from New York City who just found a new job after a lengthy search. Dan Gross, senior editor at Newsweek and columnist at Slate, gives us some perspective on the numbers.

International aid organizations are expected to release a report today outlining their concerns over the expected troop surge in Afghanistan. This report comes as world leaders are gathered to celebrate NATO's 60th birthday party and President Obama is expected to ask NATO allies to contribute more troops to Afghanistan. But the western aid agencies are worried that more troops will lead to more civilian casualties, a big problem in the effort to win over the Afghan population. To explain their concerns over President Obama's plan is Matt Waldman is head of policy at Oxfam International in Kabul, Afghanistan.

It may be April, but that doesn't March Madness is over. The Final Four (and we're not talking about Battlestar Galactica for once) of the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament is on Saturday in Detroit, Michigan and with Michigan State in the Final Four, it should be a raucous show down. Standing in their way to a title? Villanova, UNC, and UConn. For the women it's perfect UConn vs. Stanford and Louisville vs. Oklahoma. UConn is favored, but Stanford just might pull it out. Here to tell us all about the match ups and what we have to look forward to this weekend is sports blogger, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin.

Before heading off to celebrate NATO's 60th birthday, world leaders heralded the show of unity at the G-20 summit. Their strong showing lifted global markets and mapped out a new future for financial regulation. Despite struggling to bridge deep divides over how to revive a paralyzed global economy, the leaders of the world’s largest economies agreed Thursday to bail out developing countries, stimulate world trade and regulate financial firms more stringently. For a recap of the outcome of the G-20 we turn to George Parker, political editor for the Financial Times.

There’s a new web tool that’s getting a lot of buzz right now called Foursquare. It's a program that encourages you to “check in” with the system whenever you go to an interesting – or mundane! – place with your cell phone. This sends an alert to your friends telling them where you are and what you are doing. It may sound like that other tool that is hogging the news feed these days – Twitter – but it’s not. There are no pithy comments or creativity required. You just passively check in and all your friends find out. But our friend and blogger, Scott Lamb, thinks this simple act of finding out what people are doing also makes the world a better place. He is the senior editor at Buzzfeed and he joins us to discuss this new trend.

For more, read Scott Lamb's blog post, The absurd satisfaction of playing Foursquare.
Related:
• The absurd satisfaction of playing foursquare
• Playing with radio: Behind the scenes of The Takeaway's "Where are you?" game
• What are you doing right now?
• The thrill of checking in with our listeners

We started the week leading up to the G-20 by speaking with Dan Price, a former international economics assistant to President Bush who was responsible for setting up last year's meeting of the Group of 20 and is in London for this year's. We return to him now for his take on the summit, whether a trillion dollars is enough for the IMF, and the hope for a coordinated response to the global economic crisis.


To hear Dan Price's earlier interview, click here.

Yesterday, Mexican federal police arrested Vicente Leyva, one of the country's most wanted men. That's the third arrest of a suspected drug cartel power player in as many weeks. Leyva is allegedly the number two man in a family-run cartel based in the violent city of Ciudad Juarez. Does the bust mean Mexico is finally getting ahead of drug traffickers? The Takeaway talks to Laura Carlsen, Director of the Americas Program at the Center for International Policy.

Last year the CEOs of the Big Three of the American car industry went to Congress seeking financial assistance. When it became clear that Congress was only offering short-term loans with a lot of strings attached, GM and Chrysler had no choice, but to accept the deal. Ford, however, walked away without taking the loan. Since then, as GM and Chrysler struggle to survive in the economy, Ford has been going it alone. But that doesn't mean Ford is in an entirely happy place. To survive they've had to sell off brands such as Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin and are talking about putting Volvo up on the auction block. We've asked our listeners to send in their questions as The Takeaway talks to Ford CEO Alan Mulally.

TRANSCRIPT:

JOHN HOCKENBERRY: Living on the edge. Edge is so ‘90s, but Ford's new product line is rolling out as the automaker is enjoying something of a dream moment. In the midst of a life or death crisis for General Motors and Chrysler and a near nationalization of those companies, Ford has been quietly going it alone. So far it has said it doesn't need Federal bailout money. But that doesn't mean Ford is absolutely in a happy place financially. Last year, Ford made its biggest ever annual loss, despite the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover. Now, it’s in talks to sell off its Swedish subsidiary, Volvo. Joining us now is Alan Mulally. He’s CEO of the Ford Motor Company. He joins me now from Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. Mister Mulally, thanks so much for being with us.

ALAN MULALLY: You’re welcome. Good morning to you, John.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY: My first question to you is that a lot has been made of the fact that Ford’s dodging the bullet here is not so much a matter of management, as it is a matter of timing. In the fact that you had a reversal of fortunes about two and a half years ago and arranged a credit line that has really been beneficial right now. Is it a more a matter of timing or more a matter of management savvy that’s really gotten you to this point?

Continue reading the transcript...

Investor Warren Buffett’s financial wizardry is a mix of shrewd analysis and a steely self-control, which keeps his instincts in check when panic claims Wall Street. But when the numbers indicate an uptick in his weight, the Oracle of Omaha cashes in his mid-western pragmatism for some wacky weight management ways. Behavioral Economist Dan Ariely says that Warren Buffett’s weight loss program offers an object lesson in self-control. He joins us from Duke University where he is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics. He is also the author of Predictably Irrational.

New unemployment numbers out today reveal that the U.S. economy lost 663,000 jobs in March and jobless rate jumps to 8.5 percent, the highest since late 1983. The U.S. continued to shed jobs at an unrelenting clip in March, pushing total losses since the recession started 16 months ago past five million. The figures are a sober reality check on the economy after some mildly encouraging news on housing, automobiles and manufacturing. But on hearing the news, the markets jumped. So what do the numbers really mean? We turn to Kelly Evans, an economics reporter for the Wall Street Journal.