here to say a few words is michael peterson, the president and chief operating officer. [applause] >> good morning. welcome today. the nonpartisan mission is to increase awareness and accelerate action on america's long-term fiscal challenges. we just made it through a government shutdown. we just have a couple months before we have similar deadlines. we think it is important to move beyond governing by crisis and institute a long-term fiscal plan. we need to get our long-term fiscal plan in order. governing by crisis hurts the economy. governing by crisis reduced to gdp. on top of all of the other economic challenges, we are adding insult to injury and self-inflicted wounds. this is also affecting american families. three out of four voters say they are concerned their financial situation will worsen as a result of crisis-driven policies. it is hurting families. it is a consumer issue. i can think of no one we would rather hear from than richard cordray, the first director of the consumer protection bureau. we look forward to good discussion today. [applause] >> thank y

here to say a few words is michael peterson, the president and chief operating officer. [applause] >> good morning. welcome today. the nonpartisan mission is to increase awareness and accelerate action on america's long-term fiscal challenges. we just made it through a government shutdown. we just have a couple months before we have similar deadlines. we think it is important to move beyond governing by crisis and institute a long-term fiscal plan. we need to get our long-term fiscal plan in order. governing by crisis hurts the economy. governing by crisis reduced to gdp. on top of all of the other economic challenges, we are adding insult to injury and self-inflicted wounds. this is also affecting american families. three out of four voters say they are concerned their financial situation will worsen as a result of crisis-driven policies. it is hurting families. it is a consumer issue. i can think of no one we would rather hear from than richard cordray, the first director of the consumer protection bureau. we look forward to good discussion today. [applause] >> thank y

here to say a few words from the foundation is michael peterson, president, chief operating officer. [applause] >> good morning. thank you, ben. welcome today. we're very glad to be sponsoring this event today, and the nonpartisan mission of the peterson foundation is to increase awareness and accelerate action on america's long-term fiscal challenges. and today is a very important time on our issue because, as you all know, we just made it through a government shutdown, and we nearly averted that's on our nation's debt ceiling and defaulting on our national debt, and we just have a couple of months before we have more similar deadlines before with us. at our foundation we think it's very important to move beyond this governing by crisis and institute a long-term fiscal plan. and not only do we need to get our long-term fiscal house in order, but this governing by crisis really hurts today's economy. recently, we put out a study that showed that governing by crisis reduced gdp and increased the employment rate by 0.6% or 8900,000 jobs -- 900,000 jobs. so on top of all the other econom

and we are very appreciative of the efforts to sponsor these events here to say a few words is michael peterson, the president and chief operating officer. [applause] >> good morning. welcome today. thank you, ben. the nonpartisan mission is to we're very glad to be sponsoring this event today. the nonpartisan mission is to increase awareness and accelerate action on america's long-term fiscal challenges. today is very important time on our issue because we just made , as you all know it through a , government shutdown. averted the default of our national debt. we just have a couple months before we have similar deadlines. we think it is important to move at our foundation beyond governing by crisis and institute a long-term fiscal plan. we need to get our long-term not only dowe need to get our long-term fiscal plan in order. governing by crisis hurts the but economy. governing by crisis reduced to wegoverning by crisis reduced to put out a study that showed that gdp. the employment rate by 0.6%, or 900,000 jobs. on top of all of the other economic challenges, we are adding insult to injury an

joining us on "closing bell exchange," ann, michael yoshikami, rich peterson, and mike tepper from strategic wealth partners. hi, everybody. good to have you on the program. thanks for joining us. >> thanks marks . >> market at all time highs even though the whole idea of new tapering has entered the conversation. would you put new money to work here? >> i think the market is pretty fairly valued. we have -- we say upside of 10% over the next 12 months. doesn't mean necessarily it's going to get there. i do think there are still some values and we're finding some in the market today. >> rich, the earnings justify the move we're seeing in the stock market here? >> well, the earnings are beating expectations. again, go back to last month when we start easterning season expectations, at 5.6% on the s&p 500. we take out the one sector that is showing declines, energy, probably closer to 6%. then you look at earnings for next year. earnings per share basis, about $124 for s&p 500. put a 15 multiple, that puts the s&p to 18, 20 or so. that's reasonable value. i think the fact we had great ride, we

james peterson, irin carmon and michael tomasky. michael, i'll start with you.he mission accomplished moment. that's the reference to president bush's declaration that the iraq war was over. so if the website is fixed by tomorrow, i mean this is the expectation. i mean the obama administration really isn't going to win points for trying to make a good second first impression. we expect them to have this done. >> that's right. first of all, thomas, you don't know that i'm not in elastic pants. >> that's true, stand up. stand up. >> i'll refuse to take it that far. but anyway, no, i do think that it's -- i think it's largely going to work, i really do. i did some reporting on this before thanksgiving and the things that i heard from people i talked to were pretty good. that capacity is much, much higher, that functionality is much, much better, that the speed of the thing is much, much better. now, of course, it isn't going to be perfect and there's still going to be a percentage of people who are going to run into problems. that percentage has to hit a certain cr