mr. volker. so let me ask you, how is the fed doing? >> oh, look, i think ben bernanke's done a good job. he came into an impossibly complex situation and took unprecedented actions which combined with t.a.r.p. and other activities have prevented us from going over an abyss. that's a little different from the question of where are we today and what do we do going forward. gdp for this year is still a slow recovery. it's very high unemployment. the consent was forecast 2.45%. clearly we have a long way to go. having said that, i think there's a lot of discussion about should there be a qe-3 in one circumstance or another, i think the qe-3 would mean absolutely nothing i'm not an economist, but i was at a group with really distinguished economists. one of them guested that qe-2, had very little effects on interest rates. given the rates are very low. but much more importantly, whatever effect it might accomplish, and i think it would be very limited. that effect on interest rates would have little effect on business and consumer behavior.