these days, no good datapoint goes unpunished by the mainstream media. stocks, however, are telling a different story. the market is up 8% this year. are we still in a bear market? look at it this way: since 1997 stocks, excluding dividends, have shown no net gain. how much more of a bear market do you want? >> the point is well taken, 12 years of virtually no capital appreciation in stocks is a pretty good bear market, almost as good as the 15-year period between 1965 and 1980 when stocks were largely flat. it's true, home prices aren't going to go to zero. but here's the elephant in the room: debt, the accumulation of it, and then the repayment of it, drive every economic cycle. and while the past 12 years were about debt accumulation, this cycle is about repayment. how much more of a bear market are we going to get? well, with respect to mortgaging our future earnings, we've pushed the envelope beyond any recognizable bounds. >> jeff: recapping today's market action upbeat earnings help stocks move higher. the dow gained 83 points and the nasdaq added

it was one of two or three datapoint that people who were charged with following the barack nuclear capacity really latched onto. the other thing was -- the erotic -- iraq nuclear capacity really last onto. the other thing was the use of centrifuges. it could be. the more logical explanation was the use of artillery rockets. it was wrong analysis. it was clearly wrong. i do not know why it took so long. and i do not know the technical -- i do not know the procedure white it did not go to the forgery experts in the fbi and cia earlier. i do not know the answer to those questions in detail. there was a tendency, a political tendency, to want to believe that was true. >> unfortunately, we are out of time. i apologize to those whose questions we did not address. i want to thank paul gardner from c-span. on behalf of the world affairs council, i would like to thank our guest for his service to our country and sharing his insights with us tonight. he will be staying to sign books, which are to our left here. thank you very much to each of you in the audience for your attention. good night. [applau