marty feldstein, harvard professor, and at one point mentioned that a potential fed chair in a republicandministration and she asked janet yellen what they would do about inflation if it went above target and he is worried that as the economy starts to pick up, he wanted to get her on the record saying that she is to dub cited. right now, she does not see it as a risk at all. >> no one sees inflation going for the for suitable future. is that fair to say? is notno one who predisposed to see it already. >> issue relatively optimistic were still wary? -- is she relatively optimistic? when wee was scared have the slowdown in the first quarter but it was all about weather. the indicators since the weather has gotten better seem to point to that we are picking up. jobless claims for unemployment benefits are back to 2007 levels. housing is the one spot that's a little soft but manufacturing is picking up. >> not as much as people had hoped. >> rich, she's been in the job for a little over to dub months. we have any sense of what yellen is like ias a leader at the fed? very methodical, very pre

plainspoken language of janet yellen, and i believe even marty feldstein and cohen, who was in the room, they both reference that -- this is a woman who tries to speak very, very clearly. perhaps even more clearly than ben bernanke, who did better at that, arguably, then alan greenspan. she wants to make sure that everyone out there including those who do not have economic degrees understand what the fed is doing and why, and i think that is what we will get from her going forward. is she providing enough transparency? again, an open question, but she is certainly trying to explain exactly the rationale behind it, and i think that will be one of her trademarks going forward. i don't see her straying from that any time soon. i don't think she is going to get more confusing, if you will, going forward. >> thank you. i want to get a quick look at the markets. a market check with our very own julie hyman. taken away. >> thanks. let's look at what is going on in stocks. we have not seen that much movement after janet yellen spoke. much steady after she came out with her comments. read,ms of

. >> and you noted marty feldstein was asking a lot. he thinks there's less slack. alan kruger -- >> using what sort of data? >> it's a conceptual question. >> okay. >> let me put it in its context. there are millions of americans unemployed for 26 weeks or longer, the big debate is do those folks come back to the workforce when the economy improves, when the employment market gets stronger? or are they gone forever. >> the parts railings -- >> did tick up. >> one of the biggest jumping in years. >> so you're a slack believer. there's some out there -- i'm not saying there. >> what's the argument for the nonslack then? >> benefits rolling out and people rolling back to work. i'm not making that argument, it's politically charged. alan kruger before working in the white house was a leading economist, says you cannot count on long-term unemployed coming back. janet yell ensaying if they went from 20 to 40 hours -- >> i want to bring in danica and dan, i want to go to you first. we're having this debate. >> can i interrupt? >> yes, please. brian is missing a really imp

our vice chair, senior investment strategist, and marty feldstein at harvard university and a trustee of the club. abby, the first question is yours. >> roger, thank you, and madam chair, thank you again on behalf of everyone here for your decision to give this important presentation today in new york. clearly very clear and cogent remarks and yet another example of straight forward communication from the federal reserve. thank you for that. >> thank you. >> for my first question, i'd like to go back to the problem you discussed earlier and that is the vexing and long lasting nature of unemployment in the united states following the financial crisis. we see that beneath the national data which are improving, there is a very wide dispersian in labor market performance. -- dispersion in labor market performance. big differences, for example, by geography in what some cities and some states are doing far better than others, and also a very dramatic difference by education. much depends upon how much education and vocational training a worker may have. what is the role of the federal rese

. >> marty feldstein saying the fed ought to provide more explicit statements about what the fed wouldnkenstein, feldstein. >> they played something when they said frankenstein. >> the horse. >> steve, stick around. with us now, chief u.s. equity strategist at deutsche bank. rebecca patterson is with us, too, ceo at bessemer trust. well, well, well, thanks for coming in, david. s&p 500 year-end target? >> flat for the year. >> it's 1876 right now. >> my target is 1850 for the end of the year. >> thank you very little. >> that's down from where we are now. who invited you on? >> you did. thank you. appreciate it. >> we needed a party pooper. that's why we invited you. it's the january rule. we decided january was lousy. here he is. >> i remember you as, you could have fallen into the camp of permeable at one time. this is different for you. i'll give you cred here if you're right. >> i lake to be bullish when i don't see strong upside. >> why don't you see strong upside. >> we're jie defendanting gains from last year and wrestling with two important issues, one, what are normalized inte

feldstein. great to have you with us, marti. >> great to be with you again.ou: these numbers, they are just that, numbers and reflection of what people are thinking and feeling, this president couldn't do much, much worse even though things are arguably, considerably better than when he took office? >> well things are getting better but they don't give him any credit for it and rightly so, no administration policies are helping economy along. lou: can you find a comparison apt in economic history that the policies the president is following and the tone he is setting, when it comes to business and comes to public policy, whether redistributionist, whether it be actually trying to restore prosperity, imagine that. >> i'm not enough of a historian. i suppose there were years in the roosevelt administration when he was attacking business and making things worse and pushing economy in direction of government control. i think to some extent, president obama would like to see himself in that mold. lou: this week you asked, i believe it was the second question at th