i spoke about this with josh bivens, he took issue with me often the idea. that while the fed's actions were necessary they did contribute to the widening income gap. >> i think one thing that's missing there, i think it's totally true that as the feds started buying up a lot of assets basically since 2009 on it's boosting the size of assets, housing is an asset, more democratically held absolutely than stocks. but the fed's action kept the low unemployment is a really progressive policy, low and moderate paid workers benefit much more than workers at the absolute top of. when you add that on i think you come to almost a draw. i would have strongly preferred a much more strong fiscal policy and have that carry the ball more given what the fed did. given fact it did not happen i'm less concerned about what the fed did. >> i'm going to down that road in a minute, once again i sort of agree with you on that but let's think back on the congress we had then and the congress we have now. this is their responsibility this is congress's job to figure this out. it wa

but as josh bivens points out in the paper he will deliver in a moment, house price are pretty important factor in all this. for the middle class house prices are a large part of the assets. so the extent that house prices go up, they kind of '90s the story a little bit just look at what happens at stock prices. but the other thing that's important to keep in mind is one that economists do very well and few other people do which is to keep in mind the counterfactual. what would have happened if the fed not been quantitative easing? compared to what question which by its nature hypothetical, is really important because you can't assume that something would have happened or at least have to examine the alternatives. is one of the things we'll try to do this morning. ivar introduced josh i just want to point out that ben bernanke isn't with us today. he is traveling in asia buddies interest in the issue and weighed in on his blog this morning, and not surprised by one committee rejected the view that the fed's monetary policies have hurt the poor and middle class at relative to the rich. yo