joining us now to help interpret that and where the markets and the economy may be going next, mike cuggino is manager of the permanent portfolio funds with more than $4 billion in funds, and diane swonk who is chief economist at mesirow capital. diane, what the fed said is that financial conditions are leveling out and further financial conditions are improving further. do you agree? >> i agree. they are leveling out and they certainly didn't say they were soaring ahead, did they? >> no. >> well, saying we are seeing some cross currents in the economy, and good news and bad news. the armageddon scenario is behind us, but we are moving into an economic recovery, but it's very fragile and will be a rocky recovery at best. so the fed left the door open, the backdoor open to continue its quantitative easing, if necessary, and expand the balance sheet, although i it would like as we continue into move into 2010 to reduce the balance sheet and not raise the rates for quite a while, but certainly accommodate it. >> well, what about it, mike? i think that at some point there needs to ban exit stra