to economist for ubs investment research, maury harris. good to have you here.oks like sequester was a non-event despite all of the chicken little nonsense from the president, his administration, and the democratic leaders. in the payroll tax cut on the other hand, raising 2% taxes across the board. that looks like it has not amounted to much. what do you think? >> love, what has happened is that there was too much focus on what is going on in washington, and people forgetting that, you know, the most important thing in the economy is how the households and businesses be a. and we are starting to get that back to normal in the private sector. you know, for so long there have been all this talk about the new normal life. we could not do what we used to do. now we are getti back closer to normal. the house prices are turning around. the banks to lend money again. americans are going back to what they do best, which is mainly start businesses and spend. %-washington.the hell with the suggestion in the national media. all depended on what the senate does of the hous

maury harris also joins us.u think the markets will go with here. it's been a sweet six weeks of the stock market. a record unbroken since 1989. not surprising to see something even like cyprus cause a pause or a pullback here in this market. but it's one to buy into, not to fear. we probably haven't seen the highs yet. >> why buy? ? why have we not seen the highs? >> i'm sorry, yes. business spending is really coming back in a significant way. clear lly oracle's data suggest hiccups along the way. look as a real driver to the upside. home builders as well. that's a theme that's going to play up over the course of the year. a lot of positives still yet to be seen in the market. >> the key is what the fed will do. what it won't do. i'm wondering based on yesterday's conference, is there anything that you expect the fed to do when it comes to quantitative easing and when the fed will taper off? >> well, you're very right. this has been very important for the economy, very important for the markets and the message

but then comes drew madison and maury harris with an antikeynesian idea.rary disposable income changes. so the bottom line there, what those guys are saying, if it wasn't permanent, it probably didn't become part of spending. so you won't have a big impact. so far, the nonkeynesians have been right. and i put steven stanley in that score right there. the other guys are saying what is the word from -- was it eliza? it's whether or not the consumer rolls over with confidence. >> hmm. >> joe? >> no -- rick, are you -- i don't know, rick. do i need to ask you a question to get you started? or do you have -- you've never been to russia, have you? >> no. no, no. closest i've been to russia washes up on our shores here. >> you're talking about steve? >> no, i'm talking about general sentiment. general sentiment. you know, put a couple of leaders in key ivory towers and they'll take care of everything. i guess that's as close to russia as we get. i don't know. don't you remember when we were in grade school, joe, don't you remember, even back then in the '60s, '70