but whoever pays, the federal treasury will pocket the money. >> a tariff is a tax on american consumers>> reporter: the silicon valley leadership group says high technology overwhelmingly is dependent on imports and exports that may lose both ways. >> what's amazing about tariffs is they are like a boomerang. we throw them and they come s w overseas sales. >> they are going to attack us fast. when they do when they put prices on our goods, then our goods are going to go up in cost. that's going to hurt every american family. it's going to hurt jobs in america. >> reporter: beyond tech, agricultural experts say for every 3 rows of soybeans planted in the u.s., one row fully one-third of the entire harvest goes to china. 33million tons. with at least 300,000 u.s. soybean farmers let alone their employees, many farms and farm jobs could be lost an economic boon for brazil and argentina. >> it would put some people out of business. including maybe ourselves. we, um, we can't just keep going without nothing. >> reporter: china targets boeing's biggest seller the 737, the kind of planes south

but whoever pays, the federal treasury will pocket the money. >> a tariff is a tax on american consumers. >> reporter: the silicon valley leadership group says high technology overwhelmingly is dependent on imports and exports that may lose both ways. >> what's amazing about tariffs is they are like a boomerang. we throw them and they come back and hit us in the head. >> reporter: besides having to pay more for what they import, high-tech companies will lose overseas sales. >> they are going to attack us fast. when they do when they put prices on our goods, then our goods are going to go up in cost. that's going to hurt every american family. it's going to hurt jobs in america. >> reporter: beyond tech, agricultural experts say for every 3 rows of soybeans planted in the u.s., one row fully one-third of the entire harvest goes to china. 33million tons. with at least 300,000 u.s. soybean farmers let alone their employees, many farms and farm jobs could be lost an economic boon for brazil and argentina. >> it would put some people out of business. we can't just keep going without nothing.

this mandate transferring postal revenues to the federal treasury built the postal service out of billed the postal service out of $5.6 billion over a 10 year period. no other company or agency faces or could have survived such an onerous financial burden. adding to the absurdity is the fact that prior to the new law, the postal service has been reliably paying the premiums as -- retirement health benefit premiums as they arose, as do other companies and agencies. i also want to add in this fact that the prefunding was not based on any science as we call -- actuary science as we call it, or accounting principle. it was simply an accounting trick around scoring on capital hill. that's where the $5.5 billion a year came from. for example, prefunding liability is based on the idea, well, if an entity goes belly up, what do you owe into the future? they are counting it at 100% of postal workers. if the postal service went belly up tomorrow -- it is not going to, but if it did -- 100% of postal workers are not eligible for retiree health care costs. but the 100% were counted in this voodoo ec

and means that there is a large and growing burden on both the federal treasury so where our tax dollars go as well as from the beneficiary it is devoted to these programs. this is the ratio the balance of the funds. in the trust fund at the beginning of the year. to the amount of expenditures for that year. the short range tests is that this should be over 100 percent. we been under that level for a number of years now. you could see this was down from zero. the trust fund would be depleted in 2026 this year. in the and that is three years earlier than last year. as i alluded to earlier. this is a revenue story the fact that i mentioned earlier payroll taxes. they were lower in 2017 that also feeds into some future projections and in that there are these lower ratios of payroll to gdp in the near future as a result there is less income coming into the trust funds. therefore the completion date is shortened by about two years. there is a taxation on social security benefits. another important part of the income stream into the trust fund. decreased individual tax rates there is somewhat

that's true of every federal agency. and if treasurydoesn't take it seriously, then the state agencies may or may not take it seriously. when they oversee the money, there has to be a clear understanding about the parameters with which that mone can be spen >> some of of the money thathe have pointed out are spent on things that anyone with any common sense would have known that if it wast jusinitely in the gray area. and i think treasury has a responsibility to monitor that. what i would like you to do is whether youeto treasury, i would like you to submit some changes tohe guidelines. i think on our end, as members of congress, we've got to be mo sure that our instructions are c when we're hemorrhaging funds like we are, we can't afford to waste another dollar. i don't know what we can do to go back and fix what has been done. but i guarantee we to pay attention to what happens going forward. and i think the treasury needs to inform everybody of that. i thin they would be happy to let you kw wn those are getting outside the lines. i t

treasury mains strong maintains a a strong commitment to ensure the program achieves its goals and federal taxpayer dollars are used for their intended purpose. treasury requires each hsa to set goals and demonstrate said progress toward meeting these goals. treasury maintains ongoing dialogue and works with each of the hsas i can find address barriers to keep the hsa from achieving its goal. treasury has conducted more than 0 on-site compliance reviews across this maiden hsa as well as targeted reviews. these reviews if i were a number of critical functions which is s the homeowners by valid in accordance with theuidelines. program dispersant and administrative expenditures on appropriate. the information reported to treasu is accurate and the hsas intro controls or function as intended minimize the risk of noncompliance. treasury takes break of actual instance of noncompliance arise. this includes requiring the hsas to read i would homeowners that were improperly denied, to reimburse for improper expenditures and to strengthen internal controls and/or to prevent further noncompliance. tr

and through beneficiary premium rates means there's a large and growing burdens on both the federal treasury, so where our tax dollars go as well as from the beneficiary perspective, larger and growing share of retirement income is devoted to these programs. so this tends to be be the slide and information that gets the most attention from these reports. you can see that this is the ratio of the balance of the funds so it looks at the balance that's in the in the trust fund at the beginning of the year as of ratio to the amount of expenditures for that year. the short range test is that this ratio should be over 100%. as you can see, we've been under that level for a number of years now. as importantly, you can see this ratio goes down to zero. it is expected that the trust fund would be depleted in 2026 this year. and that is three years earlier than last year. as i alluded to earlier, this is predominantly a revenue story. the fact as i mentioned earlier, payroll taxes, the amount of revenue coming into the trust funds were lower in 2017. that also feeds into some future projections in tha

by the time the 1980's were over, the federal treasury was almost $1 billion. how -- $1 trillion. how could it be that you cut tax rates and almost double revenue? this is an amazing phenomenon that our critics of tax reform just won't heed. they won't understand. they don't want to see it. they don't want to hear it. but it's ironic. what is the first thing that folks who say want to reduce teenage smoking, what is the first thing they advocate? mr. speaker, they advocate to raise the taxes on cigarettes. why? because when you raise taxes on something, you get less of it. you get less activity. why is it that if you buy a bond, a 30-year bond or a bond in the open market that's taxable, you demand a higher interest rate? but if you buy a tax-exempt bond, you'll take a lower rate? because people do not work for pretax income, they work for after-tax income. and when you lower the tax -- marginal tax rates and increase after-tax income, more people work. more people invest. and it happened in the 1920's, 1960's, 1980's and, guess what, friends, it's happening right now. 4.8% growth

whoever pays, the federal treasury will pocket the money. >> a tariff is a tax on american consumers.reporter: carl gordino says high technology overwhelmingly is dependent on imports and exports and it may lose both ways. >> what's amazing about tariffs is they're like a boomerang. we throw them and they come back and hit us in the head. >> reporter: besides having to pay more for what they import, high tech companies will lose overseas sales. >> they'll attack us back. when they put prices on our goods, then our goods are going to go up in cost. that's going to hurt every american family. it's going to hurt jobs in america. >> reporter: beyond tech, agricultural experts say for every three rows of soybeans planted in the us, one row, fully one-third of the entire harvest goes to china, 33 million tons. but at least 300,000 u.s. soybean farmers, let alone their employees, many farms and farm jobs could be lost, an economic boom for brazil and argentina. >> it would put some people out of business, including maybe ourselves. we can't just keep going without nothing. >> reporter: the w

how does the un's under-secretary general treasury federal or followed up his best selling chronicle of smooth it in india by the british own book all the small coming up about to of going underground. but. the. tough. blow for good. luck. little going on in. those who don't consume don't jump in the can do it on jacob deal in the sand on the mobile soon in that are equal to tens of thousands of what he calls the stance me going on in condolence to those who don't we don't see don't seem to know the we've got to those on putting the onus is on the scene toss out us at all to the sitting on. the. legacy call guys are the winners the legacy oil guys are the winners the legacy old central bankers are the winners innovation you dynamism the constitution the bill of rights these are the losers in this america. welcome back former top diplomat and internationally one of india's most prominent politicians shas ether or has been in the news over charges surrounding the death of his wife the full statement from his lawyers can be found on our website but we can talk to him about an ongoing co

postal service funds are used as a cash cow in the federal treasury two or 3% instead of eight or nine or 10% and we would support that type of investment strategy for sizable percentage and to all the other postal unions agree with that as well. and the other is to eliminate the pre-funding burden and then just to say that was wrong but then you get to scoring in say i feel like the wizard of oz. everybody agrees that they cannot legislate this was what should be fixed by congress and we do agree that the board of governors should be appointed that want to have a national treasure into the future. and to his credit did make the nomination and the four postal unions have supported the nominations going forward understanding it is bipartisan and i like paul's idea of other people are pointing the board of governors i would be the first to take that on. i have a few people in mind but the main thing is that it does need to be aboard because they set policy. it needs to be as robust now they see there is a new nominee to see that it gets filled as well. and the regulatory commission can l

jonathan: jay, it is interesting that they were asking for a basic call that the federal reserve balance sheet in the treasuryoosting issuance at the moment because of the fiscal stimulus is overwhelming dollar liquidity. it is taking away from emerging markets. they complained on the way up and are complaining on the way down down. how does the federal reserve respond? jay: this is coming front and center right now. late last year and the beginning of this year, we were in an upswing of growth. it helped miss the point of the fed tightening but now the growth has decelerated in the euro and japan. the u.s. is going alone well above trend. it is coming out to the forefront. with labor markets running well above potential and inflation rising, it is hard for the fed to stop right now. jonathan: the fed faced several calls this week from indonesia and india to slowdown the pace of the balance sheet. is this something you think the fed actually needs to consider? kathy: they need to consider it. i don't think they will do it anytime soon. they seem to be on a preset course to unwind the balance sheet. as long as

the process by which the federal government, through the treasury department, steve mnuchin, the president as the ultimate decider can block foreign investments so that in case there is a threat to the national security of the united states, it can fall under cfius, that would block that entire process. larry kudlow had a new phrase to describe exactly what the administration is trying to accomplish. >> what you've got here is, i call it cfius plus, updated modernized version of cfius, not meant to be harder or softer, it's going to be very comprehensive and very effective at protecting our technological family jewels. >> the president continued to rail against harley-davidson today who said they would shift production overseas because of the eu's retaliatory tariffs. the president tweeting out harley-davidson should stay 200% in america with the people that got you your success, so much for and you then this. other companies are coming back where they block. we won't forget and neither will your customers or your now very happy competitors. but the president contends his tariffs are not b

federal reserve would be allowed to create money for the treasury. exactly so they voted it down but they're aware of it they're aware of the. effects of fractional reserve and that money is created by loaning it into existence of there's no there's no collateral banks have no reserves against loans they they they loan more than one hundred percent of reserves of three hundred percent of reserves in the case of deutsche bank they've loaned an infinite amount against nonexistent reserves it's not there's nothing in your bank except maybe some old gum wrappers there's nothing there to collateralize those hundred ninety trillion ponzi scheme of derivatives at deutsche bank that's why it's going to go out of business but nevertheless i want to turn to this other article and it's martin one of one of the chief opinion makers at the financial times wrote a piece an opinion piece saying that the swiss should have back.

new york city is the home of wall street, federal reserve, the treasury, and the treasury put these numbersut. the guy should be in jail for what he did tend to 20 years ago and now for what he did the other day. host: explain that is why you do not believe the labor department numbers. caller: i have written three books and spoken and had my own radio show. are brainwashing people about unemployment is because of the stock market. stock market is at all time highs. cnbc, it is news or sick the way they promote class floor -- warfare. put out that unemployment was 15% to 20%, if the stock market goes up every day that would kind of and tyson ryan. -- entice a riot. the only way you have inflation is higher wages. the word -- wages were stagnant for 30 years. host: online, we have raymond calling in from southfield, michigan, on our democratic line. [indiscernible] 13%, and we left office about 4%. obama -- host: a little more from the new york times about the jobs numbers another president announced them. so good the president cannot wait to tell you, he broke years of presidential protocol

allowed to print money just like in the case of america would be the us federal reserve would be allowed to create money for the treasury. exactly so they voted it down but they're aware of it they're aware of the. effects fractional reserve and that money is created by loaning it into existence or there's no there's no collateral banks have no reserves against loans they they they loan more than one hundred percent of reserves of three hundred percent of reserves in the case of deutsche bank they've loaned an infinite amount against nonexistent reserves it's not there's nothing in your bank except maybe some old gum wrappers there's nothing there to collateralize those hundred ninety trillion ponzi scheme of derivatives of deutsche bank that's why it's going to go out of business but nevertheless i want to turn to this other article and it's martin one of one of the chief opinion makers at the financial times wrote a piece an opinion piece saying that the swiss should have practice that they should take the power to create money away from commercial banks because commercial banks have proven themselves to be not good a

federal reserve would be allowed to create money where the treasury is yeah exactly so they voted it down but they're aware of it they're aware of the. effects of fractional reserve and that money is created by loaning it into existence or there's no there's no collateral banks have no reserves against loans they they they loan more than one hundred percent of reserves of three hundred percent of reserves in the case of deutsche bank they've loaned an infinite amount against nonexistent reserves it's not there's nothing in your bank except maybe some old gum wrappers there's nothing there to collateralize those hundred ninety trillion ponzi scheme of derivatives of deutsche bank that's why it's going to go out of business but nevertheless i want to turn to this other article and it's martin one of one of the chief opinion makers at the financial times wrote a piece an opinion piece saying that the swiss should have practice that they should take the power to create money away from commercial banks because commercial banks have proven themselves to be not good at doing what they're su

a new report co-authored by two former treasury department veterans say americans should have bank accounts at the federalain is morgan. he is a former policy adviser at the treasury department, current law professor at vanderbilt law school. professor morgan, great to meet you. explain why a central bank should be a source of banking services for ordinary americans. fed,e central bank, the has bank account liabilities like ordinary banks, 2.5 trillion, more than jpmorgan. right now, they can only be held by banks. they are great. ,hey pay almost 2% interest five basis points below as of today, roughly 2% interest. they have real-time settlement of payments between accounts. they are sovereign and non-default-able. no $250,000 deposit. the fed supplies physical currency to the general public, and the question is whether account money shouldn't also be a public service. scarlet: what problem would it solve? unexpected of problems. we have a large on banked population -- un-banked population. you could put them on and they could treat this as public infrastructure. you could have, real-time payments. in the

constitution about congress being able to coin money so basically the treasury technically coins the money but essentially is the federal reserve that's behind the currency you're actually being. issued in a sense like basically the for the reserve dictates ok i would expand the supply of money in the economy correct that's one of expander that money supply extremely. financially exponentially aggressively since the financial crisis in order to be able to liquify or to keep our private banks solvent so it's really been one of the biggest subsidy programs for our private banking system since the inception of the country and what the federal reserve does by conjuring this money and yes getting around sort of old school method of physical coinage or physical money is that we're not trying to gauge what digits can just basically do this with a flip of a switch with a tap of a of a keyboard or effectively just a computerized program to to issue money and so they do have meanings they decide the level of this money they decide that the costs are interest rate for money based on their old dual mandate of unemployment versus in

constitution about congress being able to coin money so basically the treasury technically coins the money but essentially is the federal reserve that's behind the currency you're actually being. issued in a sense would basically be for the reserve dictates ok i would expand the supply of money in the economy correct that's right that expander that money supply extremely . exponentially exponentially aggressively since the financial crisis in order to be able to liquify or to keep our private banks solvent so it's really been one of the biggest subsidy programs for our private banking system since the inception of the country and what the federal reserve does by conjuring this money and yes getting around sort of old school method of physical coinage or physical money is that we're not trying to gauge what digitizer they can just basically do this with a flip of a switch with a tap of a of a keyboard or effectively just a computerized program to to issue money and so they do have meanings they decide the level of this money they decide that the costs are interest rate for money based on their old dual mandate of unemplo

billion of savings in perspective, and the committee on responsible federal budget, the top managers from jpmorgan, the big take away is treasury yields go from 270 basis points to 400 basis points, that will translate to $260 billion a year of additional entrance costs. $260 billion more on top of what we already &. i have struggled with this question and $300 billion is better than nothing and $300 billion is not going to save this country. i support the resolution either way. what would have failed to save the titanic from sinking, could have bought it a few more minutes of float, would have been worth it. that is an apt description of this budget that falls short of the responsibility of what people have given us. >> on agreeing to the amendment offered by the gentleman from california, mr. mcclintock. all those in favor say aye, in the opinion of the chair the nos have it. it is in order to consider role votes, these are votes offered in tiered amendments that have been deferred until the present time and the committee will now vote on the first such amendment, amendment number 18, the clerk will redesignate the amendment.

he just came out with a note saying he is still bullish on the treasuries but they offer less value given the federalicy trajectory. still with us is neill nuttall and michael mckee. can i call you the well-known treasury bull now? i get calls all sorts of things. i'll take what i can get. our forecast is 2.3% at the end of this year. think it was september 2017 will be first set it. the monthly views, the ebb and is a greatnk there deal of value. looking at the front of the you see anywhere around 2.5 percent, you are more than covered if the fed continues to rate a long -- continues to raise along the path they say they are. i think when the fed has finished hiking, the curve will be flatter. the consensus view is the same as the fed's view. -- ais a number in your number 23%. closer to 3%. happen and the fed will pause. bet something might happening. you are telling me there have been a few fed official comments about what is going on in emerging markets. there have been quite a few comments about the shape of the yield curve. i think financial conditions globally are tightening fast and it may no

documents i would ask to enter in the record, statement of the national treasury, employees union, the statement of the american federation of government employees, statement of the international federation -- federated professional and technical engineers and a copy of an unfair labor charge filed by the american federation of government employees against the department of education. >> without objection. >> i thank the chair. >> i recognize for five minutes. i thank each of the witnesses for being here. we have got -- do i have a graph? it is available? if not, i'll go over some of the basics of it. there's been an increase in official time since 2010 through 2016 of over 17%. 3.6 million hours were used on official time in 2016. do those figures sound somewhat accurate to you from what you have tracked? >> yeah. i mean, that does sound accurate, but as i said in my testimony as well as mr. gilson -- >> severely unreliable. >> yeah. >> underestimated. mr. gilson does that sound ballparkish to you? >> no, the opm admits that its report is inaccurate. >> all right. so more or less? >> i'd say as i said in my testimony, it

in the long-term federal funds rate currently just under 3%, right around where the -- right around where the 10-year treasuryis. my suspicion is that in upcoming meetings we are going to see that the dots, the fed's expectations for the long-term federal funds rate are gradually going to nudge up to 3 and a quarter and that would be signal to the financial markets that the neutral federal funds rate may be a little bit above 3 instead of below it. cheryl: great for financial institutions, not so great for consumers with credit card debt and auto loans and mortgages. i don't think i ever heard a fed chair answer directly, of course, tax cuts, i can say that committee members, p tax cuts and meaning changes demand support, you have greater investment, productivity, everything that's positive, he kind of endorsed the president's tax cut. >> what he said was clear that he thinks this is going to contribute or is contributing to higher demand in the economy. you put more money in consumers' pockets books, more demand in the economy. what he's less surebout and optimistic about is supply. incentives in tax code to

one month later, the obama treasury department issued a license, allowing a transaction that federalovernment would otherwise prohibit. officials tried to persuade two u.s. banks to executed. the report says "both u.s. banks eventually declined primarily due to the unwillingness to take on the legal and compliance risk but also reputational concerns in doing business with a conference heavily sanctioned country like iran." former administration official refused to go on record but tells fox news the license fulfilled u.s. commitments under the nuclear agreement to "give iran access to pools of its money held overseas. the specific license cannot be described as granting access to the u.s. financial system." as for what happened to the $6 billion in oman, the report says iran likely retrieved it gradually using european banks. shannon. >> shannon: rich edson at the state department. thank you. russian president vladimir putin's has the u.s. will have to offer north korea solid security guarantees if it wants to strike a deal. putin says he hopes next week's summit between president tr

it's common sense that money sitting federal coffers and not being spent should be returned to the treasury. step to is a welcomed spending and restore fiscal sanity to washington. importantly, the rescissions package on the floor today no longer rescinds ebola funding. sadly that horrible disease has recently returned to the democrat republic of congo. it's also no longer rescinds fund for hurricane sandy victims. i hope the senate will pass this bill as soon as possible so the president can sign these historic spending cuts into law. i urge all members to support this commonsense proposal. thank you, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields spending and restore fiscal sanity to washington. importantly, the rescissions back. the gentlelady from connecticut. ms. delauro: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from georgia, the ranking member of the are vr rural communities all across america rely upon them. for example, the administration is proposing a rescission of $37 million for the rural water and usda. isposal program at this program provides f

it's common sense that money sitting federal coffers and not being spent should be returned to the treasury. step to is a welcomed spending and restore fiscal sanity to washington. importantly, the rescissions package on the floor today no longer rescinds ebola funding. sadly that horrible disease has recently returned to the democrat republic of congo. it's also no longer rescinds fund for hurricane sandy victims. i hope the senate will pass this bill as soon as possible so the president can sign these historic spending cuts into law. i urge all members to support this commonsense proposal. thank you, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields spending and restore fiscal sanity to washington. importantly, the rescissions back. the gentlelady from connecticut. ms. delauro: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from georgia, the ranking member of the are vr rural communities all across america rely upon them. for example, the administration is proposing a rescission of $37 million for the rural water and usda. isposal program at this program provides f

federal reserve get through neutral without inverting the curve? bob: it is possible. one of the important factors that will influence that outcome is out of the fed's control. treasuries insurance -- treasury issuance. far, they have not extended the duration of the weighted average maturity and they are probably likely to do so in the near term. a shift could easily help the fed avoid an inverted curve even if they move above neutral. jonathan: as we close this segment, every friday, if you want on the occasion the last couple months and only checked in on friday, you would think nothing had happened. and hardly much has happened on a 10 year either. this curve has suddenly stabilized. we have had a vicious week but over two years, every friday over the last five is in or around 250. what do we take from that? robert: what is the underlying , despiteals everybody's anxiety, are pretty stable. it is a good environment and the fed has been on their game but by historical standards, they are being cautious. change why the ultimate is quite muted. treasuriest out that are applied relative to the internals of the fed funds market. the fed fund swaps beyond 10 years are in

moment, ang up in a report from the treasury department shows the federal deficit so far this year's climbing to $532 billion. we get a look at what is driving the numbers with shai akabas. picks upr, immigration in congress and we preview that will and other headlines with from lindsey mcpherson and rosie gray. more of your calls with the washington journal. we will be right back. ♪ >> tonight on the communicators. federal judge, approving and $85 billion merger of at&t and time warner. theing us to talk about deal is the president of the american antitrust institute and a george mason university global antitrust institute. >> no mention of the word market power. issue here. the key in a vertical merger and a horizontal merger. how does this change the companies incentives and the ability to exercise market power. time tove looks a long find the vertical merger opinion toea t students but there isn't one. in the modern era. i think whatever the way this , being the first fully litigated opinion in a long amount of time, i do think that even though it is one onerict court judge with

federal reserve get away with getting through neutral without inverting the yield curve? >> it's possible. one of the important factors that will influence the outcome is out of the fed's control, treasury issuance. manages the treasury the growing deficit financing needs they have over the next several years? so far they have not extended the duration of the weighted average maturity and are unlikely to do so in the near term. a shift in technicals could help the fed avoid an inverted curve, even if moving above their version, assumption of neutral. jonathan: as we close out this segment, every single friday, if you went on vacation the last couple of months and only checked the market on friday, you would think nothing happened over the past week with the 2-year, and the 10-year either. this treasury curve seems to be stabilizing. i know we had a vicious week, but every friday over the past five, it is in or around 2.50. what is the signal you take from that? >> a couple of things. underlying fundamentals of growth, inflation, despite everyone's anxiety, is stable. on fed has largely been their game. but by historical standards, they are being very cautious. i think that is why the ul

federal reserve get away with getting through neutral without inverting the curve? bob: it is possible. one of the important factors that will influence that outcome is out of the fed's control. which is treasury issuance. how does the treasury manage the growing deficit financing needs that they have over the next several years? so far, they have not extended the duration of the weighted average maturity and probably unlikely to do so in the near term. but a shift in technicals could easily help the fed avoid an inverted curve even if they move above their version or assumption of neutral. jonathan: as we close this segment, every friday, if you went on vacation in the last couple of months and only checked the market on friday, you would think nothing had happened. and hardly much has happened on a 10-year either. this curve has suddenly stabilized in tight ranges. we have had a vicious week, but over two years, every friday over the last five is in or around 250. what is the signal you take from that? robert: the underlying fundamentals, despite everybody's anxiety, are pretty stable. it is a good environment and the fed has been on their game, but by historical standards, they are being ve