. >> bob herbert is with us. ben bernanke acknowledges that the job situation is far from normal. those are his words. americans are telling cnn that just under half live in a household where someone has lost a job or are worried that unemployment may hit them in the near future. bob, americans are simply afraid right now. what role does that play in holding back this recovery? >> i don't think fear holds back the recovery so much as the problem that we're talking about. and that is employment. not enough americans are working. what we're finding out is since the -- corporations in america are now producing as much as they did before the great recession hit. but they're doing it with 7 million fewer workers. corporations don't need as many workers as workers need jobs in this economy now. >> that's a trend that's been going on for years. >> yeah, but we need to have a conversation and figure out what our policies are going to be going forward because even if we have modest job growth and the economy recovers, which people seem to expect, a lot of americans are going to be facing w

they may say you're a bigot there is a there's an op ed in the new york times today by a guy named bob herbert who says he's comparing you to tell mccarthy. so what how did all that so many questions so many concerns about the message about islamophobia now zilch because some of the initial hysteria died down but let me just give you cue bit of information about the hearing was held today to focus this time was on the threat of muslim american radicalization within american prisons and once again peter king painted this threat as incredibly serious most of the witnesses however admitted that while there have been occurrences and it's worth looking into these cases are very rare in fact twenty ten report by the congressional research service concluded that prisons haven't played a large role in producing homegrown terrorists all the more reason not to have this specific here in. american prisons are dangerous places not only are they overcrowded they are filled with violence and there are recruitment is going on at all levels to the bloods the crips the asian gangs the hispanics gangs the white

herbert walker bush was running for reelection the unemployment rate was 7.4% and he also lost that election. reducing unemployment and reducing the deficit how do you do both? that is the question but bob is joining us from new york. good morning. caller: i heard recently -- and i believe it was on c-span the last week two -- an interesting statistic that for every billion dollars of trade imbalance that we have -- what is it, $250 billion a year with china? for every billion dollars of trade and balance it is equal to or costs 13,000 u.s. jobs. so, by the government and our elected officials not addressing the trade imbalance with some of these asian nations it is just disingenuous on their part. and not dealing with the trade issue bringing millions of jobs back to the united states -- if i could finish. i have a plan to put people back to work, very simple as far as business liability insurance and workers' compensation insurance. if there was some legislation passed that required the insurer in the united states that does business here only allows coverage -- the coverage issue for documented workers. undocumented workers not to be covered by workers' compensation and business liab