right now, americans are fairly confident about the economy. >> and ben stein. i just don't want to confuse folks back home that better is the same thing as not still being kind of so-so. the the numbers are better, but-- >> and the stage of recovery, could be allowed there and i don't want to, you know, rain on a parade, but i want to remind people, this is a fairly disorganized thing, like everyone is marching and i want people to be aware of the wobbly and the wavy line. >> 4.3 or 4.4 is considered full employment and 4.4% employment would be roughly unemployment. we're roughly double the level of unemployment that would be considered full employment. we're a long, long way from prosperity. on the issue of gas prices, gasoline prices, most american families spent a small percentage of the monthly income or weekly income on gasoline, so even if it rises by 10, 20, 30%, it's a very small addition to the volt consumption. and the only historical data on slowing the economy would be-- >> and that was-- >> and everything went all-- wait, to ben's point, everything

what would ben stein do if you were sitting at home out of work?jobs out there. they're not the jobs people necessarily want to take, but there are jobs. it's an astonishing thing, brooke, how some of the manual labor jobs, retail clerk jobs. i know where i live during part of the summer out in the desert near palm springs, there are help wanted signs in many, many, many windows. i had a very funny experience. i just hired some men to clean my windows. i had to pay them almost $80 an hour for scraping a squegee with windex. >> why? >> that's what the going rate is out there. that shows you an ingenius person who is willing to charge only $60 an hour could really clean up down there. >> are these he had indicateduc though? you talk to people with degrees and they don't want to do manual labor. >> i don't know if they want to or not, but i figured out on an annual basis, these window cleaners are getting paid more than the professors at the state university of california. the point is in a recession, people have to take jobs they don't want. that's a

ben. you know, stein. all right, i want to thank charlie and dagen very, very much.meantime, up next, ben stein loves-- >> conservative investors as his list of favorites, but charles finally found a fund, a fund he likes so much, he's picking it on this show next. . >> we love it. we love it. i'm consolidating my assets. i'm not paying hidden fees or high commissions. i'm making the most of my money. and seven-dollar trades are just the start. i'm with scottrade. i'm with scottrade. i'm with scottrade. and i'm loving every minute of it. [ rodger riney ] at scottrade, we give you commission-free etfs, no-fee iras and more. come see why more investors are saying... i'm with scottrade. ♪ why do you whisper, green grass? ♪ ♪ why tell the trees what ain't so? ♪ [ all ] shh! ♪ whispering grass ♪ the trees d't have to know ♪ no, no [ all ] shh! ♪ why tell them all your secrets ♪ ♪ who kissed there long ago? [ all ] shh! [ male announcer ] dow soluons use vibration reduction technology to help reduce tra noise so trains move quieter through urban areas all over the world. s

but the president says ben stein -- ben stein thinks this number is more like this number. ♪ when yourhain of supply goes from here to shanghai, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ chips from here, boards from there track it all through the air, that's logistics. ♪ ♪ clearing customs like that hurry up no time flat that's logistics. ♪ ♪ all new technology ups brings to me, that's logistics. ♪ >>neil: and now the national average is nine cents shy of $4 a blond and questions the white house will tap into our emergency reserve. according to french officials the white house asked france to join in a possible joint emergency release. and our guest says this is a big mistake. why, phil? >>guest: it is ludicrous. right now there is no shortage of oil. anywhere. we have oil here. we is record supplies here in the united states. and in europe it is not so much a shortage of supply that is driving up the prices, they are hoarding oil if europe and in asia so if you release oil from the global strategic petroleum reserve you are going to put it in one storage tank to another from europe to the united states a

you need to look back to ben stein. classic ferris bueller performance hike what they can do to the can china has a powerful economy but enough to push this country in a recession. it is certainly powerful enough. it is a totalitarian government. walmart had 350 stores in china . china decided walmart was not playing the game right. and they made comments on to the chinese press about changes that they thought that the chinese government should make. and they look at control of inflation and they fined uni leaver 300,000 . they can do that, they can do anything. our imbalance is over 290 million a year. was last year. and so where is their mercy. >> julian who is in charge? that is a well known and proven fact. and same time tariffs that we imposed on them. i think even if there were trade wars. and so it costs $60,000. >> and it is a two-way treat. let me finish my point, johnathon. >> they chet. and while some consumers like that, because we get solar panels at a less expensive rate. china is trying to corner the mark

ben stein, our friend and economist, h ehas some thoughts, surprise, surprise. he's next.no skin strengthening body cream helps transform dry, thinning skin, by strengthening its moisture barrier, for improved texture and elasticity in 2 weeks. reveal healthy, supple skin. aveeno skin strengthening. reveal healthy, supple skin. we want to protect the house. right. but... home security systems can be really expensive. to save money, we actually just adopted a rescue panther. i think i'm goin-... shhh! we find that we don't need to sleep that much. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. the healthcare law gives us powerful tools to fight it... to investigate it... ...prosecute it... and stop criminals. our senior medicare patrol volunteers... are teaching seniors across the country... ...to stop, spot, and report fraud. you can help. guard your medicare card. don't give out your card number over the phone. call to report any suspected fraud. we're cracking down on medicare fraud. let's make medicare stronger for all of u

last week ben stein on cnn said that we are nowhere close to that and they could take many years.hat's your marker in have fallen weird to back. >> well, i think this is a recovery. by my definition, but the definition used by economists, recovery means growth. the economy is growing. and i think it's very clearly so and has been growing alford coming upon to a half years. the job market now, we have seen job growth for two years. in the growth is at least in terms of jobs, clearly excel rating. ami, go back a couple years ago and that job growth was very tentative and not very significant. nell as we were discussing, very broad based across regions, cross industry. it's significant. we're creating a quarter million jobs every month on average. that's a lot of jobs, and that's double the rate of job growth you need to bring down unemployment and a consistently. so i think this is very clearly a recovery. now, having said that we have not fully recovered. we're not all the way back. we have a long way to go, and that goes to the severity of the recession. to give you a number to gi

last week ben stein said we're nowhere close to that and a recovery could take many years. what's your marker and how far along are we? >> guest: well, i think this is the recovery. by my definition, the definition used by economists, recovery means growth. the economy is growing. i think it's very clearly so, and has been growing now for two -- coming up on two and a half years and in the job market now, we have seen job growth for two years. the growth is -- at least in terms of jobs, is clearly accelerating. if you go back a couple years ago, the job growth was tentative and not significant. now it's, as we were discussing, broad-based, across regions and industries and it's significant. we're creating a quarter million jobs every month on average. that's a lot of jobs. double the rate of job growth you need to bring down unfamiliar a consistent way. so i think this is very clearly a recovery. now, having said that, we haven't fully recovered. we're not all the way back. a long way to go there. and that goes the severity of the recession we went through. so let me give y

last week, ben stein said a recovery can take many years. what is your marker and how long -- how far along are we? guest: i think this is the recovery. by my definition, a definition used by economists, a recovery means of growth. the economy is growing. it is very clearly so. it has been for coming up on 2.5 years. the growth is -- at least in terms of job -- is clearly accelerating. if you go back a couple years ago, the job growth was very tentative and not significant. now, as we are discussing a very broad base across regions and industries. is is significant. we are creating 250,000 jobs on average. i think this is very clearly a recovery. now, having said that, we have not fully recovered. we are not all the way back. we have a long way to go there. let me give you a number to give you a context. in the recession, the great recession of 2008 through the first half of 2009, we lost 8.5, 8.7 million jobs. we have gotten 3.5 million jobs that. we are still 5 million jobs below the previous peak in december 2007. we have come a long way.

joining me today, the huffington poet's sam stein, ryan lizza, from the associated press kasie hunt and bencongressman paul ryan says it's time for the bruising primary season to come to an end. what better way to bring it to a close than with a half-hearted endorsement of mitt romney. this tuesday, all eyes will be on wisconsin that will hold an election to recall its governor. i want to play for you, my friends on the panel, this paul ryan endorsing mitt romney on fox news. let's hear that. >> i think this primary has been productive. i think it's been constructive till now and made the candidates better. we're entering a phase where it could become counterproductive if this drags on much longer. that's why i think we need to coalesce aroundern mitt romney and focus on the big task at hand which is defeating barack obama in the fall. >> ben is, basically paul ryan is saying

our cover piece is on ben bernanke's effort to use the federal reserve to address the economic crisis we find ourselves in. it is a wonderful piece by roger loewen stein, on the cover he's the hero, inside he's the villain, because as loewen stein explains he's managed to enrage both the right and left, which roger argues as series of daring and ultimately fairly effective efforts to get things moving again. i'm hoping that there will be some disagreement as well as some agreement with our conclusions over the course of today. this issue is out today. there's some other wonderful stuff in it if i may say, including a nice piece on how our spending habits have changed over the last few years. a terrific piece by the political philosopher michael sand dell about how market logic has seeped into our consciousness. for those looking for something more fun, a terrific profile by mark bowden of the man who broke atlantic city. a gambler who successfully took three different casinos for $15 million and how he did it. at the same time, our special money report on our website goes live later this afternoon. now it falls to me to bring steve clemmons up here. i