abbey, you were truly a blessing to milton as milton was to you, and as he was to so many of us, and that is what i will remember most. [applause] >> now, we get to meet novela smith, milton's former campaign manager and friend. >> i would like to thank abbey for asking me to speak today. i'm humbled abbey. thank you very much. most of you don't know me, so i'm going to keep this pretty brief. for those that don't know i was his campaign manager in 2004. he wanted to be board president -- excuse me, that was beautiful because he wanted to refocus the college board. i was really surprised when milton asked me to run his campaign. i didn't know him very well. since i only ran campaigns for people i knew, and for people who are interested in education and children, i was sort of surprised to find him on my door step. excuse me. so i didn't know enough about him to really say "yes" so i decided to ask around about him. l you can imagine the surprise i heard from people. they loved him. he was beloved by everyone that i respected in education and politics, so i decided to call him and meet

go that deeply into that, so i will focus on three stages of the life of milton marks as i knew him. milton was my student. milton was my colleague and milton was definitely my friend. at presidio junior high school at the era before they became middle schools he was a student in my english class. even then the complexity of his personality could be seen within the child there was reflective and mature little man. adolescence can be sortd and graded in the classrooms by their sense of humor. the immature ones are still laughing at the jokes from thid grade. why did tiger look in the toilet? he was trying to find poo. >> >> i have 12th graders that still laugh at that assumer but even as a 12 year old milton had developed a taste for rye and mature humor and sophisticated humor and he was one of the few when we read the "romeo and juliet" and really got it was that was so wonderful in the humor there, and there was a lot of humor, and it was all very dirty, and that was the one thing that got my students to really love romer and juliet" and the parents thought it was good and my students understand there were magn

milton didn't see them as separate. okay. now i'm going to talk a little bit -- i know you have heard of his work on the college board but i'm going to talk more about it. when milton first ran from the point of view of little bit of political wife basically. when milton first ran for election it was the summer and fall of 2000 and we weren't married yet although we did get engaged during the campaign and a whole another story i won't be telling me. i learned a lot from the campaign. for one thing it gave me a glimpse into the childhood and the mother was involved and i think the campaign was old style and very effective. extensive pamphletting, bingo nights and a specialty of hers and sunday church services and reaching out to everyone at every opportunity, gog any and all events no matter how not related to the election or small. we see the same people in many places and at the college board and sometimes the candidates would out number the citizens coming to attend the event and in fact that wasn't unusual at all. many of you here know this world but i did not. some made me smile, and some things inner vaiting and later milton turned this into a lifelong variety of running jokes. one is for example if he was running late and a pta meeting or five y

milton. i would like to return to the silence that we shared together during his funeral, a bitter time, and yet there was a sweetness to its silence just as milton in his illness was silent. there was a sweetness to his silence. just as in health milton silence, and there was a kindness, and integrity, and there was a response in that quiet and take a moment to realize how much we much that silence of an ear that truly heard and understood, a man who was committed to principles of justice and kindness and peace as our mayor just described. i could encapsulate owl of the somes in his one name. to be happy that there maybe blessing within this world; that there be leadership and truly royalty within the family and city. the warm silence you felt in his presence is sorely miss. the warmth and kindness i reflect upon each moment they think of milton is treasured. we need more moments of silence like this. his memory is a blessing and is a part of each of us. when we are present , when we are aware, when we are kind without agenda. these are the words of milton. this means to find contentent in our place and every breath is an opportunity for us to praise this world, to praise our lives. every breath has that chance, and until milton's la

and as milton friedman taught us years ago, as the government's share of the economy shrinks, the growth of the economy rises. >> well, larry, i've read my milton be telling we'd be crowding on private investment through higher interest rates. we have ten-year treasuries at 2%. is that high? are there people not undertaking investment because the interest rates are too high? that's a hard story to tell. the point is, we have a down economy, that flat economy. we're not pulling anything away from the private sector. i was making the point about barnes and noble, and the point is that business -- i've never seen a business that says i'm going to go out and invest because the government's cutting spending on education. >> i think it gives confidence. i don't think -- dean baker is a terribly smart guy, but doesn't understand how business people think. business people want lower spending and lower deficits and loafer taxes. isn't that true? phil, the confidence factor alone, we're not greece. that's going to help us. >> yeah, look, we've still got a tremendous amount of capital on the sidelines. we've essentially got a capital strike, business prof

as us waiting on those good folks in washington. milton ezrati, lord abbett senior economist and market strategist. milton so much for joining us. >> thank you. ashley: coming up we've been talking about the fiscal battle ahead. will republicans be able to force spending cuts in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling? that's next. >>> plus don't file your 2012 tax return just yet. the irs might not be ready for it. gerri willis explains coming up. we'll get into that. first as we do at this time every day let's take a look how oil is trading, again reflecting the market's, well, modest reactions today, drifting slightly lower almost unchanged at 92.89 a barrel. we'll be right back. ♪ [ cows moo ] [ sizzling ] more rain... [ thunder rumbles ] ♪ [ male announcer ] when the world moves... futures move first. learn futures from experienced pros with dedicated chats and daily live webinars. and trade with papermoney to test-drive the market. ♪ all on thinkorswim. from td ameritrade. ashley: the battle for the fiscal cliff is over. whew. let's move onto the next cliff. u.s. is set to hit the debt ceiling in abou