is it ed,elcome bk. always great to see you. >> good to be with you, tom. >> tom: what is perception here? the european economy is in recession, the u.s. economy is slowing down. if that is perception, what is your reality? >> i think what's interesting is we see perception move around quite a bit. you don't have to go back that far to late last summer, when perception was have, very poor. subsequently improved a little bit, we've seen equitieseraly and now we're stalling out a little bit coming back to the the realization that things are relatively modest or slower growth in the u.s. and, yes, europetil has some tremendous challenges. >> tom: do you think we're seeing a repeat this spring of last spring and that could mean significantly lower stock prices. >> i think it's important, also, to recognize and acknowledge that we actually have made quite a bit of progress as well. so-- and over the subsequent period of time, countries have continued to perform very well. profits have stayed relatively high.