we need a new president just as harvard historian niall ferguson on the front of "newsweek" advertised. lou: amazing the way in which the, i guess you would call them a community, if not a cult, economists are reacting at harvard university itself, going after niall ferguson as if he had absolutely committed an act of heresy with the+++? me soviet union by every comment policy. that is what happens now almost every day on wall street. you have tens of millions of dollars of wages being paid to try to understand what unelected representatives of the federal reserve system are trying to do. the one we had a glimpse today of what had happened a month ago. is your heart warmed by finding that there is some considerable discussion about what to do? if the economy does not improve significantly, substantially from here? >> wall street is begging for qe-3. especially the speculators. the great irony will be is that if obama goes through this tax raising policy, at year end, and the bush tax cuts expire, every entrepreneur, every private business owner, every private equity fund is going to be

>> well, i think the striking thing about the story is that it does come from niall ferguson, who's kind of a member of this global, glamorous elite, people who are home in london, at home in new york, and it's very fashionable among most of them to support president obama. so for someone to come out and give an across-the-board denunciation of the obama presidency -- he's right. he spends a lot of time on obama owe foreign policy, as well as accusing him of failing on economic policy -- for somebody to give such an across-the-board indictment i think of his stature was pretty unusual. >> greta: what struck me is how quickly paul krugman came out to respond to it. and also there was an economics professor from the university of california at berkeley who said fire his whatever. what struck me is how quick and furious the response. usually when someone writes something provocative, doesn't hit so many nerves. >> everything goes fast these days. everyone has twitter at or his disposal. arguments happen very fast. you're right, paul krugman came out and denounced the article, saying ferguso