now, rick, i know what you said, that anna schwartz -- >> i figured you were on for a reason today. >> what's that? >> i figured you were here for a reason. >> go ahead. >> i'm here to talk about jobs, but if we could have an aside, discussion, me and rick on the side. here's what milton friedman said in his own words in 2000. now the bank of japan's argument is, oh, well, we've got the interest rate down to zero, what more can we do? it's very simple. they can buy securities and they can keep buying them and providing high-powered money in until the high powered money gets the economy in an expansion. >> must have been a fun dinner conversation around the friedman table. >> exactly. >> i'm only talking about credit crisis issues. only give me quotes after the summer of '08 like from anna schwartz who basically said it's not the same problem as in the depression. >> right. but what we're saying is what milton friedman said for japan -- >> i don't have a problem with his issue in japan. i just have a problem with his credit crisis plan. >> all rig >> all right. i didn't figure i could

for example, he talked about milt freeman and anna schwartz and schwartz helped co-author the monetary history of the u.s., but i was sent by traders, october 18th, 2008, "wall street journal" piece by brian carney that talked about anna schwartz. she didn't agree with bailing out the banks. she didn't agree the problem was liquidity. so she in many ways disagree with a lot of the aspects of qe 3 as early as 2008. >> you know, i don't know how you can say the fed is irrelevant when, in fact, the fed has been the only game in town. you don't have stimulus coming from the white house or congress. if is interesting, paul, that bernanke stressed that the fed's pledge to keep rates low until mid 2015 is not a forecast of a weak economy over the next three years. you buy that? why keep rates at these levels then if it's not an indication that we're talking about a tough situation? >> yeah, i think you're right. the economy -- the fed's not telling -- not being totally transparent. they do see a problematic economy. they do see systemic problems with employment. the problem is not liquidity.

one of the things that made friedman's reputation was his work with anna schwartz about the great depression. and they pointed to two basic problems and they're very analogous. what i was just talking about in the context to japan. they pointed to the inflation, the overly tight monetary policy at the period, and they pointed to the collapse of the banking system and said it was the failure of the federal reserve to address both of those problems that made the u.s. depression as bad as it was. we took that very much to heart. we were aggressive early on. we didn't allow the fact that interest rates were very low to fool us into thinking that monetary policy was as accommodative as it needed to be. and we were aggressive, as you know, in trying to prevent the collapse of our banking ssystem. i think those are all things friedman would have supported. in addition, he very much supported providing enough liquidity to the economy so that the economy could grow and that inflation could be at a low and stable level. and in fact, about a dozen years ago -- i think it was in the year 2000 -- friedma

one of the things that made his reputation was his work with anna schwartz about the great depressionthey pointed to two basic problems. they pointed to the deflation, the overly tight monetary policy and they pointed to the collapse of the banking system. we took that very much to heart. we were aggressive early on. we did not allow the fact that interest rates were very low to pull us that monetary policy was just accommodated as it needed to be and we were aggressive, as you know, and trying to prevent the clots of our banking system. in addition, he very much supported providing enough liquidity to the economy so that the economy could grow and that inflation could be at a low and stable level and, in fact, about a dozen years ago, i think it was in the year 2000, friedman was asked what the japanese should do at that time and he said they should go out and buy securities which is exactly what the federal reserve is doing right now. making sure there is enough liquidity in the system. there are many other factors that are holding back on our economy. we want to make sure monetary