analysis on the fed, the economy, and the markets-- michelle girard, senior economist at r.b.s., and michael farr, president of farr, miller, washington and author of "a million is not enough." michelle, michael, nice to see both of you. >> good evening. >> thank you. >> susie: michelle, let me begin but, you heard our report. the fed is saying that the economy is leveling out. is that the fed's way of saying things are okay now? >> yeah, well, there's been growing evidence that perhaps the recession that we've been in since the end of 2007 is over. and i think that that's probably true. when we look back, i think the official end date will probably be sometime here in the third quarter. and i think the -- very importantly they also continue to signal that even though activity is leveling out, they still expect to keep rates low for an extended period. so you can see that even though they are acknowledging some improvement had the economy, they still see some vulnerability and they do not want market participants translating the improvement in the economy into the prospect of the fed raising rate

is with us, chief investment officer at portfolio asset management along with cnbc contributor michael farr, president farr, miller & washington. gentlemen, great to have you on the program. >> thanks for having us. >> thanks, maria. >> michael, let me kick this off with you. good to see you again. why cash flow? why is this the most important metric to look at in terms of investing? let's cover the bases here before we get into the individual names. >> right. cash flow's a great valuation metric to look at when you're looking at how solid a company may be. essentially you just go down to net earnings and then you add in all of the non-cash charges, again, like amortization and depreciation charges you have to take to get to that net. but it really doesn't take cash out of your wallet. you can still use that cash for spending. and all of that available cash makes a company stronger. allows them to go out and make acquisitions and allows them to grow. >> cash is king, particularly in an environment when credit is tight. >> you've got it exactly right. so those companies with stronger cash fl