diane swonk, good to see you again. we seem to have arrows pointing in a lot of different directions. let's start with these retail sales number. up better than people expected. but so is this something, does this is a the economy is stronger than we thought? >> well, it's nothing to pop champagne bottles over. we are popping beers at best out there. what we seeing is the level of consumer spending fell to such a low level there is almost nowhere to go but up. we are seeing a lot of pent-up demand. a lot of the spending is coming from transfer income which is everything from social security to unemployment insurance being continued it. a lot of spending on not just spending on discretionary but on the subsidies out there. we are seeing repair and replacement of things that we just postponed for so long. there is nothing else we can do. so the level of spending is extremely low but the momentum in the right direction. that said, the data for january will revise down and so even though we are moving up it is sort of two-s

diane swonk, please bring your panel up. >> i have often been criticized for wearing my heart on my sleevehen i was asked to moderate this session on the political environment in washington today, i decided to wear what i see and feel, and that is red. i get very angry about the election process because election years have a way of taking our debate down to the lowest common denominator. and it was not that high to begin with when i hear things like ron paul asking chairman bernanke about the role that they played in watergate and iran-contra scandal, i wonder about the intelligence whatsoever of people elected to congress. i know there are some intelligent people there, few and far between -- between, and when senator bunning comes out and compares bernanke to hitler , these are clearly biased remarks at protecting the fed independence on my part. a lot has happened in a very short period of time, complete gridlock to mop talking about two major reforms, bring -- being brought to a vote before the summer break. i think that is extraordinary. i will turn over this podium. we have a full ho