stuart: okay, austan.d i'm sure you'll be with us next month and see what turns up. thank you very much. back to paul conway, he's still with us. i want to ask this question, obamacare, has that made any difference to these numbers? and looking to the future, will obamacare have a negative effect on the numbers in the next few months? >> i absolutely believe that obamacare is more and more employers, especially small business owners become more and more familiar with the practical impacts of it, you're going to see a further freezing of job creation. i mean, in all due respect to austan, he's a good guy, but an architect of the house is not always the best reviewer of what the house looks like when it's done. he's an architect of this economic policy. the president owns this thing. and the focus has got to be on job creation and impacts on jobs, just as much as this administration puts a focus on environmental i am tactffactact- impact, every decision they prom gait, what is the impact. stuart: we apprecia

still with us is austan goolsbee, who i know enjoyed the interview as well.t is interesting about this debate is you can laugh at him and ridicule him all you want about the sixpack of rolex watches, but i think what was getting lost here is is there a moral responsibility for the top one percent to take care of the of not only, 50% this country but the world essentially? you have bill gates and warren buffett who believe it, and then tom perkins comes out and says where did this come from? >> different people have different points of view. i believe absolutely, yes. the question is how best to do that. do you give away the capital or du roll up your sleeves and get to work and try to produce things that will grow the economy. >> i will point out the support of an over 80-year-old man. exclusive. i hate to say it, but i have been clumsy. it is hard. i know it is hard for you to believe. it was challenging. the paint came off the white house when he spoke. seriously, people in strong support of what mr. perkins said about protection of the initiative of the na

austan will make one additional point. >> the only point i want to make is the u.s.ion is aging. so part of this is from retirements and we're likely to continue setting the record for participation every year going forward for the next 15 years because the people are retiring. >> people are retiring earlier than they normally would have retired or there are people who are retired and they live longer? >> well, there are a lot more people getting to age 65 now as a share of the population than there were in 1985. and so it is part of this is a normal thing. it was projected to be falling. it's just it has fallen more than it was projected to, but about half of what we've seen is just demographics. >> yeah, i think that's a fair point. doug, you agree with that, right? >> it's the baby boom. the baby boom is a big chunk of the population. they're reaching retirement age. that we do understand, but the rest is a big problem. and it's chronic underemployment, chronic departure from the labor force. it won't be dealt with like little patches like this emergency ue bill t

doug, i mean, austan, make a final point because we've got to run. >> my only final point is i think the impact on what's happening in the minds of the fed who just last month after the good report said, hey, let's go ahead and start the tightening, i think that's more important than the impact on the legislation. >> you mean if they continue the stimulus to keep pumping money into the economy? >> right. >> yes. >> right. >> all right, guys. all good points. thanks very much. obviously, lots at stake in this story as well. coming up, hundreds of thousands of people of west virginia now plagued by contaminated water. the governor of west virginia standing by live. i'll speak with him. that's coming up. >>> and should west virginians be concerned about their actual health? an environmental lawyer whose story was the inspiration for a major film starring john travolta standing by to weigh in. she keeps you on your toes. you wouldn't have it any other way. but your erectile dysfunction - it could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the m

this is not consistent with anything. >> let's go to austan goolsbee. what do you think?t month we got a big number, now it's revised up. everybody said we've turned the corner. this one is probably, mark is right, i think it's probably too extreme. but everybody needs to chill it down a little. we haven't fully turned the corner any more than we were down in the dumps. i think this is just a reminder that we have to get all our ducks in a row. >> do you know if they fired that guy that was making up the numbers before the election? have you heard from your sources. >> i heard that guy works at "squawk box" now. i don't know where he is. >> he hasn't been seen. the guy used to stay home and say i think it feels like -- >> no, we've turned the corner. gdp growth in the second half the of the year is 4%. we've had average -- >> you're going to make rick mad. do you do this on purpose. >> really on purpose. i want to get him going. we were off and running with this number. >> ignore this number. it's going to go away. >> rick is like a windup toy. >> here's what i say, hey,

. ♪ >> today at 3 p.m., austan goolsbee will join the "street smart" gang.ll talk about the state of the union address. >> another marlboro man has died from cigarette related illness. but the tobacco companies are still alive and well around the world. our next guest is a portfolio manager with. 10% partner --tom russo, cigarette companies are alive and well. got forecasts that sales in the asia-pacific will go -- 2017,row 10% through double the global average. that is clearly a bright spot for the cigarette industry but that's not the whole story? >> in the u.s., there has been the recognition that the business has struck a balance between the historic pattern of denial and not recognizing health harm. michael bloomberg was here. >> he owns the company, you know. >> he was talking about tobacco and 12 years ago i was talking about it. a month ago, phillip morris usa lost a $5 million verdict in florida. 12 years ago, that would have sent the investment world into freefall over the issue of tobacco. somethingmains because taxes are so high that the ability

. >> another positive connection between the housing market and the economy that austan goolsbee was other day when i was at a forecast lunch which i thought was interesting, they can see spikes in terms of consumer spending that's coming out of the refinancing. so the low rates and the growth in the value of homes is creating this potential for refinancing mortgages and that capital is going right back into the economy, particularly in terms of durables. i thought that was an interesting, since consumer spending is clearly where we need to get to if we're going to talk about where the economic growth was coming from. >> if you had one thing that you had to peg for your forecast for 2014, is this a straight shot up for housing or more of a stair step. >> it's not a straight shot up. it's going to be uneven and fundamentally keep your eye on metros with job growth. all these other signals, mortgage rates, delinquencies, they matter but in the long term, the single most important factor here is job growth. and it will be uneven. so keep an eye on markets like houston and dallas and in

point to your central assertion that actually he's helped to reduce unemployment through qe, even austanent only reduced treasury rates by about 30 basis points. that's a very marginal stimulation to the economy, isn't it, for so much money that could come back and bite us? >> one, it's not going to come back to bite us by every evidence we have and that's the prediction that people who have been critical have made and there's been no sign. two, i wish there were more, and bernanke acknowledged that the main way to deal with unemployment should be on the fiscal side and he's had to step in because congress has been unwilling, but something is better than nothing. this is what i least i learned in economics optimal, it makes some people better off and nobody worse off than i can see. and to go back to the point about inequality, i understand, given the structure of the american economy today anything that increases wealth is going to benefit the wealthier more than people at the lower level. that's no reason not to be for growth it's a reason to be for growth and also for public policies