thank you, as always, financial reporter neil irwin.od to see you. >> thanks so much. >> we're quickly approaching the top of the hour. running a little late this hour. this morning new details into that wrong-way crash that killed eight people in new york. stay with us. pollen. when i really liked to be outside, i did not like suffering from nasal allergy symptoms like congestion. but nasonex relief may i say... bee-utiful! prescription nasonex is proven to help relieve indoor and outdoor nal allergy symptoms like congestion, runny and itchy nose and sneezing. (announcer) side effects were generally mild and included headache. viral infection, sore throat, nosebleeds and coughing. ask your doctor about symptom relief with nasonex. and save up to $15 off your refills. go to nasonex.com for details, terms and conditions. you can use it while you do just about anything. it molds better... it grips better... and seals better. you can even drink water with it on. crest whitestrips advanced seal. it's a breakthrough technology... that molds

. >> brown: and for that i am joined by ""washington post"" business reporter neil irwin.hat line jim just quoted, "economic activity leveling out" that's fed-speak for things are looking better. what are they seeing? >> they're seeing the same are seeing and ordinary americans are seeing, which is even though the economy is in bad shape, we're not seeing growth yet probably things are better than they were six months ago and we seem to be in a bottoming process where the economy isn't shrinking at the pace it was, it probably isn't shrinking at all. that doesn't mean we're going to get a roaring recovery but it's better than we were. they explain some of the things that seem to be happening. >> brown: they say that economic activity is likely to remain weak for a time, i'm quoting, so there is still plenty of caution. >> there is, and, of course, they're not proclaiming victory, the fed is not saying it's all over, we can go back to the way things were and the economy's in great shape. they're leaving interest rates near zero, as you said, and, of course, they're saying t

neil irwin, thank you very much.ou as always. >> thank you, alex. >>> still ahead, the show "jon & kate plus 8" returns tomorrow. what to expect since the couple announced their plight? that's next on "msnbc sunday." ( sighs ) ( music throughout ) hey bets, can i borrow a quarter? sure, still not dry? i'm trying to shrink them. i lost weight and now some clothes are too big. how did you do it? simple stuff. eating right and i switched to whole grain. whole grain... studies show that people who eat more whole grain tend to have a healthier body weight. multigrain cheerios has five whole grains... and 110 calories per lightly sweetened serving. more grains. less you. multigrain cheerios. according to a study presented by better homes and gardens, definity cor recapture. it corrects the look of wrinkles and discoloration. 50,000 voters. one brilliant winner. some pharmacies make you work for it with memberships and fees. but not walmart. they have hundreds of generic prescriptions for just $4 for up to a 30-day supply o

for more on this, let's go to "washington post" financial reporter neil irwin. good morning. at the recent weeks, we've had economic data in the financial markets looking up. looking ahead at this week, more good news or not so much? >> a lot of data's coming out this week. friday is the jobs report for july. that will tell us what the unemployment rate was, whether employers were cutting jobs at the same furious rate they have been for most of the year. people expect it won't be good, the unemployment will keep rising but it won't be quite as bad as recent months. rate of job losses will decline. >> do you think it will hit double digits? >> eventually. probably not this month. 9.5% in june. we'll hit maybe 9.6%, 9.7%. likely the fall will be in the 10% range. the dow the last couple of weeks has been on a real high. can this sustain itself beginning tomorrow and last through this week and what might derail it? >> it all comes down to whether these signs of an economic recovery hold up, if we -- we really do have an expansion in the second half of the year like economists ex

question journal" tomorrow, we will discuss the economy and president obama's visit to indiana with neil irwin. patrick leahy will take your questions about the sotomayor supreme court nomination, the economy, and the obama administration. the president of the business roundtable will focus on health care. he will be joined by james frisch to look at the senate and in an -- senate agenda. >> this week, the full senate debate the nomination of sonia sotomayor as supreme court justice, live on c-span2 and c- span.org. coming this fall, for the homes to america's highest court, the supreme court. >> british prime minister gordon brown enters a range of questions before the british house of commons liaison committee. it is made up of the 30 chairman of the house of commons select committee. several questions focus on the british economy, a banking crisis, and foreign affairs. it is about two hours. >> as usual, you have been told of the things and have not been told the questions. the first theme is the former banking regulation. that will be introduced by john the did the second -- john. the seco

neil irwin. republicans complained about mr. obama and the job he is doing on the economy. me go back to 19 a.d. when ronald reagan was elected. things got worse after he got involved. -- that was back in 1980. it was at least two years before the economy got better. guest: yes, the recession, the first couple of years of ronald reagan's term was pretty bad and the most severe in the post world war era. i believe the unemployment rate topped out around 10.5% and that recession. we are right now at 9.5% and still climbing. we came out of that serious recession in 1982. by the time president reagan ran again in 1984 looked pretty good. the recession was engineer. this one was caused by financial crisis and bust in the housing sector. that one was caused by the federal reserve raising interest rates to combat inflation. they succeeded, but at the cost of high unemployment. the good thing about kthat kind of recession is that when the fed takes things back down, you can be confident things will improve. host: more from your paper. here is the headline. they write their personal

neil irwin of the "the washington post" and karen finney, a democratic strategist spent plenty of timecations director for the dnc at that time and jonathan capehart editorial writer for "the washington post" a charming and handsome fellow and old friend. >> charming and handsome special? >> yes. neil, obviously, we have much more functionality, the ability to borrow money, the stock market has stabilized as a result and job losses are not as rapid as they once were so you have a nice data set on the one side of the ledger. on the other side of the ledger, i got 23 trillion total at risk, not that that is all to be lost but that has been put up against the future of america in order to facilitate this recovery. how do you balance uncle sam's contributions to stability to an economy that is, obviously, showing a little percolation as a result? >> what we've learned in the last few weeks is the economy has looked better is if the government throws everything at a problem, if they cut -- ben bernanke did all of these programs, they did a stimulus package, that you can get growth out of th