financial chief economist diane swonk. what can we expect?> they do these forecast all year but we are expecting -- basically, what janet yellen statementur read the and thrown in the trash, then she has done her job today. she does not want it to make any waves. the paragraph of the last statement that assesses the economy, they think they can get away with not changing the word. >> lisa, what is the bond market expecting? >> movement, particularly in the 2-year hills, the highest level year yields have risen the most since november of last year. investors are getting a little bit antsy, especially with the better than forecast economic data. >> diane, good to see you again. we are not expecting anything in terms of interest rates, are we? >> no, we are not. the bond market got a bit ahead of itself, despite it made clear that they did not want to raise rates too quickly and derail the expansion, the idea that they would use regulations to trim hikerowth with one rate overall is something they take very seriously. they are a little bit ahead

after the winter we had here in chicago that is absolutely the case. >> diane swonk of mesirow financial and greg ip. >> wooduff: gwen just gave us a good overview of the how the overall u.s. economy is faring. let's take a look at a much smaller sector of it. it involves those ever- increasing number of small businesses, shops and start-ups around the country that are a bit hipper, more skilled, locally based and creative in their approaches. but as popular as they may be, are they generating more jobs? and well-paying ones? our economics correspondent, paul solman, explores those questions and others, part of his reporting on "making sense" of financial news. >> brooklyn new york. back water burrow to capital of cool and supposedly new rate breed of jobs. signified in part single source chocolate bars sprinkled with chocolate bars from the coast of maine and grandma lala's secret recipe. all natural, all hand made. helping house this corner of the new so-called artisan economy, the old pfizer factory in brooklyn's williamsburg. located by the new pharma giant, a business incubator, hou

>> that's the big question we'll put to diane swonk, chief economist at mesirow financial and ed arumakeybanc capital markets. ed, let me start with you. which do you think it is? the consumer is being pressed on a lot of different frorngnts, b are the retailers inappropriately blaming the consumer for their woes? >> look, ultimately, if you have the right product, the consumer will shop. so, i think, yeah, there has been a lack of newness, a lack of freshness, a lack of exciting things for the consumer to buy. that said, we think the macro pressures have been intense, particularly for the middle and lower income, so that's certainly weighing on the retail environment. >> what do you think, diane, are they just reaching, grasping at excuse straws to blame it on the consumer here? >> well, there's not just excuse straws. i mean, there is sort of savvy consumers have learned that they can shop for price and wait it out, and they do. this is something in the auto industry that they wait until the promotions are there. but we also do see a real split by income strata. the top 20% of income

. >> we have reaction now from mesirow financial chief economist diane swonk and our own senior economicsiesman. folks, i have to say, stan druckenmiller has long been a critic of this federal reserve policy, and i gather, steve, it's the criticism of a money manager who's been frustrated trying to make money in a distorted financial market environment, right? >> i don't know. i mean, i think that stan has his opinion. he gives this interesting test, right? which is, if i was on mars for five years, came back, he gave you the economic numbers and you would say, wow, there's no way the fed should be at zero. when i listened to him say that, i had a different take on that, bill, which is that, if i was on mars for five years and i came back and you showed me the economic numbers, for example, the u-6, the broader measure of all underemployment, and then you told me the economy was only growing at 2%, which is, and with a 0% funds rate, i might say, you know what, you'd better stick with that policy, because underlying growth's pretty weak. so, you could come to the opposite conclusion from