i have to admit i was watching christina romer deal with the facts her figures were not on the slide, trying to figure how i might describe that. [laughter] that cloud looks a little like the state of kentucky. what [laughter] i am going to point out to you is the progression looks like west virginia. the red dots per cent monthly figures for 2008 and 2009. at the beginning of the recession and an atomic rate was 5%. the average duration was 17 weeks. -- at the beginning of the recession the average unemployment rate was 5%. this initial divergence is largely accounted for by a secular shift towards longer spells of unemployment due to the aging of the work force at a much stronger labour force attachment. there is some secular change represented in these relationships we started out with. the first 15 months of the recession, average duration increased with unemployment at roughly the rate you would have expected. this is indicated by the series of red dots that all along the top of the blue cloud and are parallel to the black line. we started off following that trend. since the firs

also on the list, white house economist christina romer.no comment from the white house, but a spokesperson did say the president plans to announce a nominee in time for confirmation before kohn's departure in late june. >> jeff: still ahead, toyota's recalls have its u.s. regulator under the microscope. a look at how toyota's problems could lead n.h.t.s.a. down a new road. >> susie: jeff, we have a nice start to the month of march with a little bit of positive performance on the stock market. thanks to a couple of deals going on that you're going to tell us about. >> jeff: that's right. it was about mergers and acquisitions activity and some interesting data today. let's get started with tonight's market focus. it seems as if everyone woke up monday morning and realized, hey, remember the idea of a global economic recovery? it's still on. let's talk about the guts of the 21st century economy: the chips that run our computers. here's a look at the semiconductor e.t.f., the highest price in over a month. the semiconductor industry associatio

please welcome christina romer. [applause] >> thank you very much. it is lovely to be back with you again this march, as he just mentioned. i was here last march. we will give them a minute for technical -- let me go ahead and we will see if we get the powerpoint. when i spoke at this gathering a uriko, the country was in some of the very darkest days of the recession. -- at this gathering a year ago, the country was in some of the very darkest days of the recession. we have lost 1.5 million jobs in the previous two month. industrial production had fallen by more than 2% in january 2009, almost another 1% in february. there was rampant and stock prices were plummeting. my topic last year was the american recovery and reinvestment act, which had just been passed. i discussed its key features and my reason for thinking it would be effective. one year later, the evidence has borne out my predictions. the recovery act has helped to change the direction of the economy dramatically. the decline and fear of a year ago has been replaced by growth and hope of

please welcome christina romer. [applause] >> well, thank you very much. give a minute for technical. well, i'll tell you what, let me go ahead and we'll see if they actually manage to get the powerpoint again. you know, when i spoke at this gathering a year ago, as was just mentioned, the country was in some of the very darkest days of the recession. we had lost a million and a half jobs in the first two months of 2009. industrial production had fallen by more than 2% in january of that year. and almost another 1% in february. fear was rampant and stock prices were plummeting. and my topic last year was the american recovery and reinvestment act which had passed just a few weeks earlier. i discussed its key features and my reasons for thinking that it would be effective at helping to end the worst recession in post-war history. well, one year later, i think that the evidence has bourne out my predictions. the recovery act has helped to change the direction of the economy dramatically. the decline and fear of a year ago have been replaced by growth and hop

christina romer is the class of 1957. . . omer is the class of 1957 professor of economics at the university of california berkeley. and chair of the council of economic advisors. she joined the berkeley faculty in 1988 and was prompted -- promoted to full professor in 1993. she received her ph.d. from mit in 1985. after her nomination as chair and before the obama administration took office, dr. romer was tasked with co-authoring the administration's plan to recover from the 2008 recession. she's a highly accomplished academic. she's researched the causes of the great depression in the united states and how the u.s. united states and how the u.s. recovered from that depression. she has done extensive work on fiscal and monetary policy from the great depression to the present using notes from the meetings of the federal open market committee and other fed-written documents. her recent work with her husband david romer has focused on the impact of tax policy on government and general economic growth. and if all the academic and

two names came up and one is christina romer. >> another one is out in san francisco, janet elin is another one. assistant treasury secretary is inside of the treasury right now which our potential, lou alexander is the citigroup economist and very well regarded in monetary policy circles and allen krueger, who is the labor economist. >> do you think the administration is behind the curve here? three vacancies and we know how long it it takes for an appointment to actually happen. >> it should have been more pro active and it had a let of problems with a lot of the appointments due to the senate and getting things up to speed is not that easy in this particular political environment and it is more important to have more now rather than less. >> his wymar republic. he's basically taking a monitorist view. he's saying the balance sheet is too big and that is turn around very rapidly. it's not an unemployment curve, it's really the balance sheet, right? is that what he's saying? >> it's a strict money supply argument and his argument comes from the idea that the fed could be politically pressu

. >> sreenivasan: still, the chair of the president's council of economic advisers, christina romer, warned unemployment is likely to stay high for some time to come. mexican president felipe calderon visited the border city of juarez today after a surge in drug killings. over the weekend, two americans and a mexican with ties to the u.s. consulate in juarez were gunned down in two separate ambush shootings. the f.b.i. has joined mexican authorities in investigating the murders. protesters in thailand used their own blood today in a bid to force new elections. members of the "red shirt" movement poured gallons of blood in front of the prime minister's office in bangkok. the group includes supporters of the ousted prime minister thaksin shinawatra, and pro- democracy activists. thailand has been in political turmoil since 2006. more than 100,000 people marched in bangkok on sunday. u.s. troops in afghanistan face a major restructuring. a spokesman said today u.s. general stanley mcchrystal will have firmer central control. he's the overall nato commander in afghanistan. "the new york

this was a highly qualified estimate from christina romer, and that is repeated as a broken promise, so people should not trust government. guest: that is the source of the original prediction, but i think if you look at the market more carefully, you will see that that number was used with fewer qualifications in order to persuade people to pass the stimulus package. by the way, i supported it at that time, and i support it now. my point is that it is unwise to create expectations that are not fulfilled. i am speaking as a political scientist, not as a political advocate. the consequence of the public perception that government has not delivered what it said it was going to deliver it is discussed. it would be better not to put out any predictions at all than to put up numbers that are going to be misused in a way that will increase the distrust of pond -- government. host: in your piece in the "new york times" you talk about economic equality. it has been the most disparate since the 1920's and that political partisanship is as bad as we have seen it. what are the two related? gues

christina romer, where you are christina? right there.e barnes, i saw her run off to the garden. but she's not here. karen mills who is the administrator for our small business administration. and ms. martha johnson, administrator of the general services administration. so i understand you've had a wonderful session. i heard autoabout -- all about it. and i want to thank all of you today for sharing your thoughts on what we can do as business leaders, advocates, employees, and government officials to modernize our workplaces to meet the needs of our work force and our families. all of us here today know just how wide that gap as grown. we are all familiar with the economic and demographic changes that have brought us to this point. however, the past generation or two the cost as risen and wages flagged, many families have found they can no longer survive on just one income. at same time, we've opened up more opportunities so more women as entered into the work force, bringing home paychecks that are critical to supporting families. today,

this was a highly qualified estimate from christina romer, and that is repeated as a broken promise,hould not trust government. guest: that is the source of the original prediction, but i think if you look at the market more carefully, you will see that that number was used with fewer qualifications in order to persuade people to pass the stimulus package. by the way, i supported it at that time, and i support it now. my point is that it is unwise to create expectations that are not fulfilled. i am speaking as a political scientist, not as a political advocate. the consequence of the public perception that government has not delivered what it said it was going to deliver it is discussed. it would be better not to put out any predictions at all than to put up numbers that are going to be misused in a way that will increase the distrust of pond -- government. host: in your piece in the "new york times" you talk about economic equality. it has been the most disparate since the 1920's and that political partisanship is as bad as we have seen it. what are the two related? guest: they are

covered on the c-span networks and you'll find some of those including this morning's speech by christina romer of the president's council of economic advisors. you'll find that online later at c-span.org. we're going to take you live now over to the white house. the briefing room here. the briefing is scheduled to get underway shortly. president obama today meeting with the greek prime minister to talk about the debt situation and other issues. later today at the white house a bipartisan group of senators, cabinet secretaries and the epa administrator meeting to talk about energy legislation. we're live here on c-span2 waiting for the white house briefing. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> waiting at the white house briefing room for robert gibbs to take reporters' questions. just a reminder coming up in about 20 minutes the u.s. senate gavels back in back from their party caucus meetings to resume consideration of a bill that extends several expired tax provisions, unemployment benefits and cobra health insurance. a vote