david leonhardt is washington bureau chief of the "new york times". in 2011 he won a pulitzer prize for commentary analyzing the pressing questions facing the u.s. economy here in new york gillian tett. he's an assistant editor and columnist in at the "financial times." i am pleased to have them all. so i want to go around this table and in washington. were you surprised? >> i was surprised and personally i think it was a bit of a mistake in terms of the fed's credibility. it's a little bit like saying someone's going to have-to-go on a diet and then have one more slice of chocolate cake. it also underscores the degree to which they're concerned not so much about the economy but about the political outlook and the fight over the -- >> rose: budget and deficit. >> sequestration. >> rose: david leonhardt, were you surprised? >> i was. the fed has made the same mistake after performing very well in hindsight during the crisis. since the crisis the fed has continually been too optimistic about the state of the economy. and i think they wanted to avoid mak

predisposition to humiliate other governments are enough for ny and new york thank you very much david leonhardt lindorff the founder of this can't be happening dot net believes the incident shows a two faced policy is at play the u.s. is supplying it is treating essential trading with three to venezuela it's not an enemy of the us there's no fighting between the u.s. and britain smell it and furthermore it's one of the democratic countries let me rerack it which was supposedly an important thing to the mid states supporting democracy and so we're. the validity of this election so the u.s. is denying an elected president the right to fly over one of its colonies in order to get on a trip to china on a state visit and yet the us allows dictators president military leaders known to have slaughtered their own people in latin america all those people are welcome to come and vacation in the united states but an elected leader. of a fellow nation in latin america is denied the right to fly over one of our colonies our t. is keeping an eye on tensions between the united states and venezuela we'll bring

joining me, alan blinder, david leonhardt and gillian tett. >> one of the problems right now is the fedreally running low of weapons that it can use to influence the economy and essentially it's relying on words, on verbal intervention almost as much as monetary intervention and that depends on the fed having credibility and the pattern of events in the last few years, the last few months, sorry, has certainly left many people in the market saying well, can we actually trust the fed when it says something? >> rose: we conclude this evening with a conversation about syria with ehud barak,