the energy economy. the innovation and energy economy are doing just fine. >> let me kind of give the flip side. david made, i know this is a shock. he made one good point and that was about the gas prices. by the way i'm waiting for obama to bring in the speculators and ask them. >> where are they? >> stick to your point. >> we should -- >> stick to the point. >> the point is everyone thought gas prices are going to go to $5. now, they might go to $. the same rationale that everyone things nothing good can come of greece and spain and yet all it takes is one good thing to turn arounded and people to say oh, my gosh it is not as bad as we thought it going to be and all of a sudden things get rolling and momentum going and all of a sudden we see the dow moving back up again. >> jonas, you think we are going to flat line but there are two issues that make people feel richer and that a it the stock market and the home market. neither one of those seems to be picking up so where does that leave us? >> the st

is it that they water hurt the economy to make obama look bad well i think blaming austerity measures for downturns in the economy is kind of like blaming chemotherapy for causing cancer you know this is there any austerity cuts are measures that are going to address the severe economic problems we have that frankly come from the president's lack of leadership on economic matters people are used to you're saying are you sorry sir are you are you saying that in those states that are doing us are you denying these statistics forms like it wisconsin that it has always cause it was what number two was a worst in the nation in terms of job creation. actually the austerity measures over the long run is not beneficial for the state i mean with these austerity measures you're cutting back public sector jobs which means you're cutting back employing firefighters and police officers and teachers and by doing that that's a detriment to the society as a whole i mean cutting benefits that teachers are getting back if you're going to mean they're cutting back the opportunity to increase our at the

this is what brought me to the sharing economy. what i was after was a new way to live in a way that i felt i could live fully. what excites me about sharing is how it changes every day like for the better. it empowers us. the economic shift in the new businesses of creating and exchanging value is creating a new cultural narrative. it is replacing an old legacy narrative that was toxic. it told us the go live comes from shopping and competition -- it told us the good life comes from shopping in competition, from being free from each other. we are leading ving this because it has pushed us to the brink of extinction. it has enslaved as to debt. it is boring. it is spiritually empty. there is a news story being born in san francisco. it is one where the more you contribute to the common good, the more you are respected. the better you believe in committee, the more access to what you have -- the better you behave in a community, the more access you have. instead of judging each other, we help each other and realize our greatest pote

and china's economy as well. the chinese government manipulates their currency so that their goods sell for less than they should. some people may think it's some far off theoretical issue. it's not. when china cheats we lose jobs. so i urge my colleagues in the house to pass the currency exchange legislation that deals with this issue, it's passed in the senate in a bipartisan way and we want to get that out of the house. so to sum up our economy while in much better shape than three years ago is still recovering from the great recession. with unemployment above 8%, the labor market still needs to heal. europe continues to wrestle with debt issues as we'll. we know that, which will continue to impact u.s. financial markets and the global economy. against this backdrop it's clear we need the stay focused on promoting stronger economic recovery and of course that means jobs. chairman bernanke, thank you for your testimony and now we'll turn to vice chairman brady. >> thanks for holding this hearing and thank you c

we can impact the economy. just as paul was saying, this policy of austerity because of the refusal of republicans to about can change. we can give states the aid they can to protect the teachers jobs, we can put construction workers back to work by rebuilding our roads and bridges. >> how about the keystone pipeline? you don't need congress for that. >> that's fraction of the jobs that we're talking about here. we have extended the keystone pipeline at different points in the country. it's currently under review. but that's fraction of the jobs that we're talking about here. we're talking about a 1 million jobs. >> on the reagan thing, if private sector continued to expand during reagan's first term, instead of falling by 600,000 as it has, right there, we would have something 1.4 million people working in this country. the track record of government spending, reagan is keysian. and obama has been the anti -- he's been doing what republicans say is the right answer. if i have a political critique, this adminis

and hurt the economy? early but as we move forward in the year we do anticipate that the uncertainty associated with the so-called fiscal cliff will have some economic effects. we heard anecdotes today in the meeting about firms that might be government contractors not sure if the contracts would be in place come january and making employment decisions based on that. more generally, financial markets don't like uncertainty and particularly uncertainty of this magnitude and i think will be a negative. so that uncertainty is there. i think most important is congress to get the policy right. i've talked about three options. first is to do no harm. avoid a fiscal cliff to damage the recovery. but second, to maintain the effort to achieve a sustainable fiscal path over the longer term and use fiscal policy effectively. make good use of government spending programs and make them efficient and effective and so on. i think if congress does all those things, the ultimate benefits would be substantial. >> peter coke

we've got a couple of sectors in our economy that are still work. overall, the private sector has been doing a good job creating -- creating jobs. we've seen record profits in the corporate sector. the big challenge we have in our economy right now is state and local government hiring has been going in the wrong direction. we've seen teacher layoffs, police officers, cops, firefighters being laid off. and the other sector that's been weak has been the construction industry. those two areas we've directly addressed with our jobs plan. the problem is that it requires congress to take action, and we're going to keep pushing them to see if they can move the that direction. okay? jack jackie. there she is. >> thank you, mr. president. i'd like to ask you abwhat a couple other people said about europe. one is i'd like to know if you agree with former president bill clinton who said in the past week that the europeans' policy that you describe here today are much like those of the republicans in this country, politics of austerity that would take us in the

the banking sector's ability to help the economy grow. this tax reduction rates on businesses and individuals and also somehow capping government spending 20% of gdp, i don't know how he figures the numbers they don't add up to me. but what obama wants to do is actually raise the taxes slightly on the top income earners and wants the highest taxes on the highest salaries to lapse and extend tax cuts on the middle class and he want to keep the regulations in place that we have. and that is the basic argument between democrats and republicans. that has been the way it has been higher taxes versus continued regulation. >> and that is a laundry list. >> well, a lot of it depends on the make up of the next congress. i doubt that they would pass the across the board tax cut. >> you had to back off. i don't see a sweeping republican take over from the senate. it is likely that they will take the senate. in which case there will be a block on the stuff that he has to get done. so no, i don't think there is a chance that a lot of what romney is pr

economy was the last anchor that the global economy had for growth in 2012 and given the sloppy jobs report on friday, and the other rough economic data we can't really rely on the u.s. economy to keep moving forward, against the backdrop we have described in europe and emerging markets. it seems like there is really no place to go for growth this year. so we are calling for a very volatile second half of the year. perhaps not quite as dire as you just outlined but still very tough tez nick, how about the s&p 500. over the past five years it has been a very volatile five years with highs back in '07, lows in 2009, and here we are trying to creep back up to those highs that we fall back a few years ago. do you anticipate the index will be higher or lower at the end of thier. >> i think it will probably be a touch lower but with a lot of volatility around it. we do have a lot of very important catalysts coming up, the greek elections, our own elections, a fiscal cliff that we face, all of which really guarantees volatility without really a lot of resolution. so we are thinking the mark

how do we grow the economy?send our money to washington and try to grow it top down or take money out of slow government and put it in the american people's pockets and invest and grow the economy naturally and organicly. there is a new republican agenda. >> what is the bold economic idea that you would like president obama to run on? you are in a big city. you see the impact of the economy every day. what is the big idea he ought to be running on? >> making sure he gets the congress to pass the infrastructure investments we have been talking about for more than two years that republicans and democrats have traditionally agreed upon and get the country moving again. we know that infrastructure generates jobs. and facts have to matter in this election. alex referenced mitt romney's 4.7 unemployment. the president had to deal with the worst economy in 80 years. he had much tougher challenges than mitt romney ever had. and the fact of the matter is 40 months in to barack obama's presidency jobs were created in mass

it was that's it what is the purpose of an economy think about it for a second why don't we have an economy here was goldsmiths answer to his own question the economy is that is the fundamental needs of society yes which office prosperity yes which all stability yes and which all can come. ok let me repeat that the purpose of an economy is to serve the fundamental needs of a society which include prosperity stability and contentment back in the one nine hundred thirty s. during the great depression when prosperity stability and contentment were pretty hard to come by president franklin roosevelt believed he could restore the true purpose of an economy by establishing a good quality of life for as many people as possible as roosevelt said in one nine hundred thirty six necessitous men are not free men liberty requires the opportunity to make a living a living decent according to the standards of the time a living which gives man not only enough to live by but something to live for roosevelt knew that if someone was hungry and didn't have food or if they were sick and didn't have medical care

sector economy. even after europe bailed out spanish banks, the dow fell 143 points in the red. everybody's just back to this sunday's greek election. joining us tonight, the architect of the greek bailout who said that a greek exit from the eurozone would destabilize the entire world economy. item number two tonight, the president said the private sector is doing fine. three hours later flip-flopped to say the economy was not doing fine. we'll show you how major presidential flip-flops are debtry member tall to your political health. fatal even. president obama hates millionaires and billionaires but not as much as the occupy wall street hooligans. we'll show you amazing ways warren buffett and his pals are protecting themselves. would you believe anti-missile systems on private airplanes? first up, president obama urging europe to solve its crisis as if his re-election depends on it. john harwood joins us with the details. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, the political economy of the 21st c

brazil is the world's sixth largest economy but after a decade of strong growth, its economy has slowed considerably. in our exchange traded fund market flash, all the most actively traded funds fell by at least 2.5%. the steepest losses were in the financial sector and russell 2,000 funds. and that's tonight's market focus. political uncertainty is feeding the economic uncertainty, but the american economy has enough momentum to prevail. that's the optimistic outlook from tonight's market monitor. david kotok is the chairman and chief investment officer for cumberland advisors. with us tonight. david, if you're optimistic here, the author of "from bear to bull with e.t.f.s." congratulations on the book, a bestseller. where is the economic momentum you see? >> i see three pieces under way-- housing makg a bottom in different places in the country more and more of those places-- that's number one. number two, the energy sector is growing in the united states-- natural gas, shale, it's a good story. getting better. and the manufacturing sector in the united states is improving, and both o

economy. why? because it crowds out private investment. so, would you rather have the government spend the dollar or the private sector spend the dollar. most cases hiring more government employees doesn't produce any usable goods and services, at least not for a long-term. again, where is it better spent? the private sector where, you know, you have your apples, your googles, things like that are produced and that's why the private sector needs to keep the money. >> julian, state and local governments have been cutting workers and federal government not so much. but, should we be hiring more government workers in order to get the economy going again? >> well, when you have a stagnant economy, i largely agree with jonas, when you have a stagnant it means that businesses aren't investing or consumers aren't spending, which is what we've seen, a little under 2% growth right now. the keynesian economic theory most economists still subscribe to, is that government makes the to fill the gap. invest

we can impact the economy. we can give states the aid e they can to protect the teachers jobs, put construction workers back to work by rebuilding our bridges. >> how about the keystone pipeline? you don't need congress for that. >> we have extended the keystone pipeline at different points in the country. it's currently under review. that's fraction of the jobs that we're talking about here. >> if private sector continued to expand instead of falling by 600,000 as it has, right there, we would have something $1.4 million working in this country. the track record of government spending, reagan is keyasian. if i have a political critique, this administration has been very reluctant to make that case. very hesitant about saying we're trying to do the right thing but those guys won't let us. >> the danger of that argument you were making part of it right now the more you blame congress nothing gets done. the weaker you look. >> they have no alternatives. what do i know about political strategy? but, i think this i

and raise rates the economy stalls.a behind tax reduction and regulatory reduction is to store -- >> i completely understand. [speaking at the same time] >> but if you eliminate taxation such that you cannot do the investments, that would create an incentive for businesses to locate in america like you are not investing in public education, or you are not investing in universities or human capital, you are not investing in infrastructure, then your tax cuts mean nothing. why would somebody want to race to the bottom. >> you are talking about spending. the issue is what's the best way to raise revenue? the answer has always been throughout history to have a tax code that has the right balance that provides incentives. >> i agree with you on that. >> so in 2050b.c. the ruler of babylon cut tax -- >> owe, my i gosh. if you have to be back that far. [speaking at the same time] >> what do you think our founders did? why do you think we have a constitution. >> let's just go back to the last president that's all i am saying. >

economy. 46% say they trust him to handle that issue more than the president. he is at 39% on that one. good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. here in "america's newsroom". >> i'm gregg jarrett in for bill hemmer our nation's security is a big one. martha: president obama has a big lead on that over governor romney. 46% trust the president more on how to keep the country safe from terrorism. mitt romney at 34% in that regard. bring in byron york, chief correspondent for the washington many camer. -- examiner. >> thank you, martha. martha: on taxes job creation, government spending, mitt romney is doing resoundingly better than the president on all those issues. your take on this? >> he is. the horse race part of the poll is dead-even, 43-43 for the president and mitt romney. we know from the polls the jobs and economy are the most important issues for the american people. on anything that has anything to do with the economy, taxes, job creation, federal spending, mitt romney has substa

economy. and she says given these headwinds i believe that a highly accommodative monetary policy will be needed for quite some time to help the economy and so my question about these headwinds that housing are is this a headwind simply because it's about all the debt in housing that's dragging down the economy and houses are just the conduit for this borrowing binge. yeah it is it is this debt bubble dragging down the economy well but what amazes me is that the people who are that are running the economy don't know anything about economics this head when you get a look at what created the wind ok the stock market crash back in two thousand and . ten created a very accommodative policy and basically pumped the goose the money supply and that caused the real estate bubble the real estate bubble is trying to deflate and to seek equilibrium where you have the right balance of the number of homes that are available on the market and the demand for those homes it's that simple it's a supply demand

but we had a booming economy.think that we're in a different situation because the day before this crash occur canned, we only had 2 1/2 million private sector jobs created since i left office and health care costs soared. that's why the president i think believes that those people whose income is stagnant shouldn't have a tax hike. >> so what is your idea to get this economy back on track? i mean, everybody wants to hear what you have to say. you have oversaw an economy during the best of times. the jobless numbers on friday were horrible. how do you characterize obama's handling of the economy? >> here's what i think is happening. i think in the country you've got this european thing that's having a bigger impact than people know. all that uncertainty in europe and the fact that that's a lot of our markets, slowing down the double exports of america. >> how much is europe and how much are the president's policies? >> well, i don't think -- the thing that has cost jobs here is the congress policies. if congress h

to getting our economy back on track, but we have a long way to go. europe, on the other hand, has been a total disaster. europe has clearly proven that austerity was the wrong policy to pursue during a recession, if you look at the situation they're dealing with there. greece and spain, 20% and 24% respectively unemployment in those two countries. britain has shown zero economic growth over the course of the past year. so naturally, i'm surprised with such strikingly different recoveries occurring between united states and europe, that so many united states lawmakers will continue to support the same types of policies that are utilized by europe. what do you think are the key lessons that we should learn from europe's failed monetary poli policy, particularly austerity? what do you think the united states is most at risk in the context of that situation of repeating? >> well, i think in fairness you have to agree that there are structural differences. you have 17 different countries on a single monetary policy, essentially a fixed exchange rate. ther

is the economy good or bad, or maybe the real economy is both. we have a country where companies aren't hiring with alacrity, and we also have a company where companies are choosing to return to shareholders we have seen that divergence play out every day. make no mistake. no mistake about it we could care less. we wouldn't care about economy or stocks if we didn't get a whiff of best case scenario hope out of europe. something really odd happened today. we got a statement out of the european central bank which pretty much told us that we have much ado about nothing. making too much of a fuss about the health of a eurozone, particularly ailing banks which they seem to indicate aren't ailing. theuded a sense of confidence. the type of statement you wouldn't make unless you had something up your sleeve. something so encouraging that you could issue this kind of platitude, this banality, when the white house announced the president is getting engaged and talking to european leaders, we saw a second run on the market. huge a lot of chatter about a se

you have to look at the world economy. you have to look at the u.s. economy. you have to look at the ability of the u.s. government to finance itself. you have to look at the flood of capital into u.s. treasuries and say we don't need to jump off that cliff. >> right. >> there's a wonderful analogy about kicking the can down the road. the europeans that kick the can down the road, kick the can down the road, until they kicked it to a wall and it's going to come back and hit them in the face. the u.s. has room. it has plenty of room to extend its decisionmaking into, say, our deficit problem is a ten-year problem, it's a 20-year problem, and if we do anything dramatic in austerity between november of 2012 and february of 2013 -- >> right. >> -- the risk of recession -- and we've been warned by the cbo -- is very high. >> so i guess then that means extend everything, the tax cults, the programs, because things are too fragile right now. >> however the politics of the package work -- >> right. >> -- we need to pay attention to the fact that we do not want to take

budget is a powerful force in the united states economy. its sheer size means entire industry, whether heavily regulated or not operate in constant awareness of what you all do here. when you combine this budgetary power with the separate powers of taxation and regulation, the federal government wields significant influence over the economy both directly and indirectly. it's not an overstatement to say that right now. the united states economy operates significantly at the direction and behest of of the united states government, not the other way around. in many cases the government's growing size and influence was made possible by good intentions and hopeful policy ideas. behind every spending program, tax incentive and regulation, there's an idea. it might in fact be a good idea, but those good ideas and the not so good ones add up and the cost of everything you do here, every line item, every rule, every carve out, phase out, ear mark drains activity investment and creative effort out of the private sector of the economy. that's why my b

economy? >> if additional stimulus is needed, could the actions of the federal reserve achieve additional financial accommodation? putting aside potential bad side effects that might be associated with that, i recognize that rates are quite low so that clearly is a consideration. i think we do have methods and tools that will allow us to get further accommodation and the economy and provide some support. it is not quite the same thing to say that the problem of the u.s. economy is not lack of financial accommodation. or to say that if the main problems are coming from elsewhere that the federal reserve might provide support from using the tools it has. i have said this before that monetary policy is not a panacea. it would be better to have a broad base policy effort addressing a whole variety of issues. congress has considered many of these issues. i would be much more comfortable if congress would take some of this burden from us and address those issues. >> that is the point i would like to

economy. >> we are going to be working under your leadership with our european partners and with all countries to make sure that we're contributing so that the economy grows, the situation stabilizes confidence returns to the markets. >> susie: our coverage of the greek vote and what's next for europe's financialrisis continues. we talk with harvard economics professor ken rogoff about the global economic impact. and analyze today's market reaction with wells fargo strategist, john manley. also still ahead, microsoft's expected to make a major announcement tonight, many bets are it's a tablet. will it be a game changer? it's tonight's word on the street with james rogers. "nightly business report" is brought to you by: captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: victory for pro- bailout parties in greece meant an anti-climatic day for stocks on wall street. the dow lost 25 points, while the s&p 500 added two. the nasdaq bucked the ho-hum trend, tacking on 23 points or nearly 1%. for the last six we

whether it's the economy. you saw republican members of congress openly this week in articles saying i can do anything on the economy before the election because they want to help romney. it's a remarkable thing. this is just, this is again the department of homeland security, this is an enforcement position. and so, we need a permanent solution. we are a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. the president has often said those two things don't need to be in conflict. and the only pathway here is now senator mccain should get some credit because he unlike a lot of members of his party currently has tried to accomplish something on the congressional forum and ultimately i think we're going to get that done but in the meantime congress hasn't acted. so if they want to do something about this, they ought to pass the dream act right away. >> this president has dramatically increased the number of deportations, getting illegal immigrants back out of the country. he has not, as he had hoped to do and promise to

his focus, the economy.resonating deeply with americans and looming large in this fall's presidential election. state of the union host candy crowley joins me now. this is sort of a surprise news conference isn't it? >> it is and it's one of the beauties of being president is that you can come and call and produce news all at the same time by walking down the hall from your office. it's not been a great several days for the president, as a candidate. i can understand why he might want to do this. we saw those may jobless figures, which were not good like 69,000 jobs created, which is still a plus but not nearly enough and everyone was stun by them because they thought they would be double than that. we had the wisconsin recall race where the democrats lost and pretty roundly. i think when you're coming to the end of a week like that, he's getting hammered up on coral about all these leaks, it's probably a good time to come out and put your spin on things and put your case out there. so i suspect that this is

and hurt the economy? >> well, i think it's still bit early, but as which move forward in the year, we do anticipate that the uncertainty associated with the so-called fiscal cliff will have some economic effects. we heard anecdotes today in the mein firms that might be government contractors re not sure about whether the contractwould stl be in place come january and making ployment decisions based than. more generally financial markets don't like uncertainty and particularly uncertainty of this magnitude and ilth i so that unrtainty is there at i ink mtport imtly is that ressnget the poly ght. i've talked about three elements for fiscal policy. the first is to do no harm as far as the recovery is concerned. to try to avoid a fiscal cliff that would significantly damage the recovery. but second to maintain the chie t a sustainable fiscal path over the longer rm anthird, touseiscal policy effectively to have a better tax code, to make good use of government spending programs and make them efficient and fee

is it a game change for the economy. just 69,000 jobs created sending the unemployment rate to 8.2%. and stocks sliding. is this another spring slump or worse, the sign of a slow down. >> the economy is growing again but not as fast as we want it to grow. >> mitt romney who this week clinched the nominee sees an opening. >> the president always has someone to blame. the truth is the job of the president is to get america back to work. >> sure it is about the economy but president obama wants to make it about governor romney's record in massachusetts. this week current governor deval patrick and governor of ohio, john kasich. patrick and kasich square off. and then analysis from our round table on the state of the campaign. with us kevin madden and from the senator for america progress neera tanden. finally, would this outburst from an illinois legislator more than just a youtube moment. >> you should be ashamed of yourself. i'm sick of it. >> beyond the screaming, the problem with our politics and with washington in this

those things don't make our economy weak. what makes our economy weak is when fewer and fewer people can afford to buy the goods and services our businesses sell. businesses don't have customers if folks are having such a hard time. what drags us all down is an economy in which there's an ever widening gap between a few folks who are doing extraordinarily well and a growing number of people who no matter how hard they work can barely make ends meet. so governor romney disagrees with my vision. his allies in congress disagree with my vision. neither of them will endorse any policy that asks the wealthiest americans to pay even a nickel more in n. taxes. it's the reason we haven't reached a grand bargain to bring down our deficit. not with my plan. not with the bowles-simpson plan, not with the so-called gang of six plan. despite the fact that taxes are lower than they've been in decades. they won't work with us on any plan that would increase taxes on our wealthiest americans. it's the reason the jobs bill that would put 1 mil

and in the formerly rich world the economy is that the service of banks. but months surf we know that to grow an economy using legitimate banking practices you're talking about a growth rate that is on a linear path whereas if you're crashing an economy using paper contracts and high frequency trading you can make a lot of money in exponentially quick terms so how do you overcome this incentivized financial terrorism armed with. infinite amounts of virtue all paper in which to snuff out any attempt by anyone to have a legitimate economy that's going to grow in a legitimate way. your comments below after your very very important remark here first come in when i started teaching finance international finance if the graduate school of business administration of paris i got some shock in the early two thousand when a top professor research are coming from the east coast of the united states big university what showing us a model of some bad financial products they like gate hand grenade that have bugged two birds and he was telling us this is the model that wi

you oversaw an economy during the best of times. the last president to balance a budget. >> i think in the country -- this european thing is having a bigger impact than people know. >> how much is europe and how much are the president's policies. >> the thing that's cost jobs here is the congress policies. if the congress had enacted his jobs plan, we know we'd have 600,000 more state and local workers still working and we know we'd have an infrastructure program going which would have some more jobs. so the jobs numbers would have been better there. the only part of the jobs plan that the congress enacted was to continue the payroll tax cuts that had been previously instituted. so i think that that's a problem. i think we could get a quicker recovery if we could reform the corporate tax laws, lower the rates, broaden the base, and offer the corporations a chance to bring the money back free now if they would invest at least a portion of it in the infrastructure back where they get a very good return on investment. very good. and th

economy can grow. there's just probably not a lot of chance that happens between now and november. >> jim, given the paralysis and the stalemate between the president and congress, what can the fed do? >> it's probably down to ben bernanke right now. it's like "star wars." help us, ben bernanke, you're our only hope. but the fed doesn't have great options, but they're probably the only options that are out there. a third round of quantitative easing or another operating twist could provide more tail winds, if we want to keep with the winds, to the growth of sales in america right now. gwen: we saw the stock market down today. is there any kind of silver lining in the job numbers that we saw or in the economy just going forward? >> the job numbers were pretty grim. but there are a couple of things that are happening that could help the economy. if we're thinking about it between now and november in particular, one is that oil prices, while historically high, are coming down. the faster gas prices fall,

let me ask you about the economy. i am wondering how the president continues to make the argument the voters that the economy is headed in the right direction when john numbers -- job numbers -- [unintelligible] >> i appreciate the question, and while freddie's job numbers are below expectations and far from good enough, they do represent the 27th straight month of private-sector job creation since the policies began taking a fact. he has argued that we need to do more, and we can do more right now, not wait until november or next january, to further encourage the economy and have a treat more jobs. the president made clear last fall that the recovery was not robust enough when he introduced his american jobs act, and outside economists, not white house economists, outside economists judge that plan, if implemented, to be one that will trade over a million jobs. republicans in congress and the up supporting some of the elements of the act, others refused to support because they made the choice it was more important to

economy. central bankers began a two-day meeting today. expectations are high that policymakers will do more to drive down long-term interest rates. >> i think there's probably the hope that something comes out of fed chairman bernanke's speech tomorrow that gives markets a positive tone. and i think there's buying being done ahead of that. >> susie: investors are speculating the fed will announce another round of bond- buying, continue its so-called "operation: twist" program, or unveil some other stimulus. the dow rose 95 points, closing at its highest level since early may. the nasdaq gained 34 and the s&p 500 tacked on 13 points. meanwhile, some encouraging new data out today shows the housing market may be healing. even though housing starts dropped in may, they were revised significantly higher for april. on top of that, builders filed more permits to build homes and apartments than they have in more than three years. >> we're kind of in the middle of a gradual recovery in housing. thing

obviously with the economy being what it is, no incumbent has faired very well in this economy.vived but haven't faired as well as they have in the past. the reality the president's going to have to deal with. his message on the economy, the jobs bill that he presented in october is much more likely to jump-start the economy than what governor romney talks about. reducing regulations and cutting taxes. particularly on the wealthy. that hasn't worked. for the last 60 years, andrea, the facts are clear. there's no correlation between lower taxes on the wealthy and job creation. in fact, the ten largest years of job growth in the last 60, the marginal tax rate was over 50%. and we're down at 35% now. so when bill clinton, as you recall, raised taxes on the top 2% in '93, the republicans said, this is going to lead us into a recession, it's going to be term for the economy, the job creators are going to be hurt. what happened? we created 23.5 million jobs in the next 7 years. so don't think governor romney has a credible plan. i do think the president's plan reviving our infrastruct

there's a large output gap in the economy and that, in general, the economy would be better with moreess stimulus. >> what do you thick, rick? you didn't find him dovish? >> no. he referenced the world normal. he said normally when interest rates were down this would happen, this would happen. to me that's been the whole key all along. the times that we are living in are very abnormal. low interest rates are not the medicine that seems to be working. the fact that many federal reserve participants understand that, i guess my question is, why do we keep going down the same twilight zone day after day and higher interest rates and there's not been any evidence presented along those lines yet. and what is interesting is to add to the bottom line. >> you're saying that raising the floor interest rate, the cost of funds for the bank would increase the margin of the bank. i don't think that's accurate. >> they are happy with a quarter -- and i'm talking about you can't compete with the larger banks or the rate scale made by the largest central bank of all, the u.s. central bank. i look at i

the economy that we're dealing with today is the obama economy.ing with -- >> what was mitch mcconnell? the republican senate leader. what hus wis numbhis number one legislative priority when obama got elected? to get obama defeated. >> which policy in the first three years? you know which policy in the first three years of this administration has not been accomplished? >> all i know -- >> tax increases. >> they've votes down the line against everything he's try toed do. the motive, destroy the guy politically. >> they didn't stop anything except tack increases. >> except all of the jobs programs on the table now. >> steve's right. they've got a lot on the table and these guys say no to everything, everything. >> they would do nothing for the economy today. >> that's your philosophy. >> the economy today -- in three years -- chris, which policy -- >> they do not wait for business to do the job has been rejected by the american people if they accept la day fair that's their mistake. >> which policy did the republicans block? >> every jobs bill on t

economy. we could already be in a global recession. i hope i'm wrong. first up when mitt romney spoke to members of the business round table today his message was clear. president obama is bad for business and the economy, period. take a listen. >> if you look at his record over the last three and a half years you will conclude, as i have, that it is the most anti-investment, anti-business, apt jobs series of policies in modern american history. >> his message seemed to be resonating with voters giving romney momentum as both canada datas head to -- tomorrow. he's besting obama even in wisconsin for the first time. 47-44. all right. here for the latest on the race, cnbc contributor robert costa of the national review. rumor has it you saw mitt romney's speech to the round table. did he hit the right notes? did they applaud? >> i have been on capitol hill all day. the buzz is positive about mitt romney's speech. he's not taking the business community for granted. he's going back to the base, ba