also joining us, alan blinder, professor of economics at princeton university and former vice chair of the federal reserve. welcome to the program. >> thank you, good to be here. >> susie: you believe with this money. the other, we get too much inflation and it debases the dollar. >> let's get alan into the conversation. you wrote under the title "in defense of ben bernanke." give us a counterargument. >> i think the coming up next on argument is pride simple. we have a an economy growing much too slowly. the unemployment rate is very high and not coming down, and on central forecast is not going to come down for a while. fiscal policies completely paralyzed or worse. so if anything is going to push this wagon forward, this big economy forward, it is going to be the federal reserve. i think that's the way the fed thinks about it. not that it has this super powerful weapon, qe-2, but it is doing what it can to push the economy forward, and i think they should. >> susie: if you're worried that this plan, though, could push up inflation, but isn't a little bit of inflation a good thing. i

in the opinion section of the "wall street journal" mps written by alan blinder writes in defense of ben bernanke. critics are branding it as a dangerous experiment. back to your phone calls about these new smoking labels. margaret in new york, independent line, go ahead. caller: this is interesting. many people have alluded to this. in this country, money runs everything. even the fda at this point, just like the rest of congress. and there are many things that should be banned that are not. the for instance, bpa, which is in an -- which is in many plastics. it actually affects the fertility health and men. europe and other countries band- aid a long time ago. we do dot demand -- banned it a long time ago. but we do not demand anything. we're all trying to get there. people do get drunk and killed on a call. -- alcohol. my father died probably from lung cancer and a call. -- alcohol. we have to be a lot more vigilant and active. and that is pretty hard, right? host: more on this lame-duck session from the "wall street journal." the big spending decisions loom because congress adjour

host: former fed vice chairman alan blinder wrote an op-ed in the wall street journal on november 15 in defense of ben bernanke. he writes -- tell us, what is deflation and why is it critical that we do not go into that area? guest: i've put into that letter, the letters that we did to bernanke, the idea that we as a group do not think it is a good idea to increase the deflation rate. deflation is when prices fall. it is harmful because people may have borrowed money on the idea that they could retain the value. let's say you buy a piece of property with borrowed money, and the price falls. think how much worse it would be if there was a situation where cans of soup or falling in price. if you bought it, you would lose money as the price fell. you would be better off the playing your purchases under dflation. i don't think the u.s. is at risk of that. japan had situations where in a one-share basis, the generalized price level would be negative, like - 1%. that caused people to stop producing and stop purchasing because there was a shrinkage of the economy and the price level. the u.

host: former fed vice chairman alan blinder wrote an op-ed in the wall street journal on november 15 in defense of ben bernanke. he writes -- tell us, what is deflation and why is it critical that we do not go into that area? guest: i've put into that letter, the letters that we did to bernanke, the idea that we as a group do not think it is a good idea to increase the deflation rate. deflation is when prices fall. it is hmf because people may have borrowed money on the idea that they could retain the value. let's say you buy a piece of property with borrowed money, and the price falls. think how much worse it would be if there was a situation where cans of soup or falling in price. if you bght it, you would lose money as the price fell. you would be better off the playing your purchases under dflation. i don't think the u.s. is at risk of that. japan had situations where in a one-share basis, the generalized price level would be negative, like - 1%. that caused ople to stop producing and stop purchasing because there was a shrinkage of the economy and the price level. the u.s. has n