pee peter morici is a professor from the university of maryland and he joins us from washington, andessure on chairman bernanke today saying that the interest rates will remain low and will this help to reassure the markets do you think? >> well, unpresented move to show that he is going to use monetary policy to sustain employment and keep the economy going. he is more focused on keeping the economy going than inflation. >> peter, what is the next step? >> well, the fed doesn't have a lot of options left. we can do qe-3 which would lower long-term treasury security rates, and in turn lower mortgage rates and not much of an effect on car loans for example and not much of an effect on business borrowing, although it would give the stock market a little bit of a lift, but other than that, the fed is out of bullets. >> peter, should washington be doing more to boost the confidence and there is talk that the president should order congress back to work through the financial crisis? >> well, the president has to decide what he wants from congress before he orders them back. asking them to

. >> peter morici there. and he had advice on where investors could put their money.a listen. >> most of the folks heading to retirement, are keeping a reasonable amount of cash. i don't particularly feel that i need to pull stuff out. in fact, if you have extra available cash because you continue earning money, as i do, i keep putting it in. i do it on a dollar cost average basis. i continue to buy in because i'm buying in at a cheap price. young people, i wouldn't say empty out your savings account. but keep on the program. and you should have a steady program of investing, with some in cash and most in stocks if you're young. >>> so, with all that fear on the markets, it's sent investors rushing to safe haven assets. and arguably, the biggest beneficiary to that flight to safety, has been gold. this is how gold is trading at the moment. just over $1,758 an ounce. it's off of the high. it's up $6.50 this week alone. >>> with stocks so uncertain these days, the gold rush is on. and felicia taylor at the mercantile exchange is right in the middle of what has now becom

i mean this conversation about how cutting taxes is deleterious to the economy, peter morici himselfe memphis tea party agreed with the same thing. if you spend too much, you either cut how much you spend or you increase taxes. it's all money. it's all the same thing. but when you cut spending, what you do is you cut money that generally goes to people who have less money so when they have that money they spent all of it and more on the economy. when you deal with taxes, when you cut taxes, you're taking it away from a portion of the population. you're taking money away from a portion of the population that doesn't spend every last dollar they have which is why the impact on the economy of spending, government spending, is greater than the impact of tax cuts. i put it out there on twitter, don. i said if somebody can provide me with evidence or a report that says cutting taxes is good for the economy or increasing taxes is bad for the economy, i'll read it. there is no such report. people just say it and they've gotten everybody to believe it. >> yes, absolutely. that's a good way of

peter morici, a pleasure to have you on the show. ken, stick around for a mud. i want to ask whether europe's debt crisis is the most imminent threat to our economy right now. [ male announcer ] this is the network. a network of possibilities. excuse me? my grandfather was born in this village. [ automated voice speaks foreign language ] [ male announcer ] in here, everyone speaks the same language. ♪ in here, forklifts drive themselves. no, he doesn't have it. yeah, we'll look on that. [ male announcer ] in here, friends leave you messages written in the air. that's it right there. [ male announcer ] it's the at&t network. and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. [ male ] using clean american fuel is just a pipe dream. ♪ [ female announcer ] we're rolling away misperceptions about energy independence. did you know that today about a quarter of all new transit buses use clean, american natural gas? we have more natural gas than saudi arabia has oil. so how come we're not using it even more? start a conversation about using more natural gas vehicl

peter morici is with us today. >> glad to be here. >> and the markets have not responded well to the debt fight, and yet now that the matter is resolved, it has dropped 225 on the dau, and well, back to 217 now, and 63 on the nasdaq. can you explain that? >> well, the debt ceiling thing was a false crisis and now that it is behind us, the market is focused very much on the fundamentals, and most of the data that we are getting now for about two months indicates that the economy is entering a recession yet again. i can't say that with any certainty, because the economists never can, but the data is miserable whether it is jobs creation or durable goods ordered. all of the manufacturing reports are sour. >> and double-dip recession is really what you think? >> well, it is a real possible. afterall, look at the retail sales, because they are hardly keeping up with inflation. the recent gdp report showed weakness in the consumer sector which is 3/4 of the economy, and the higher energy prices are a terrible tax. it is a very difficult situation. >> how does the president address this, be

peter morici and the former right-hand man on the economy, and jared bernstein, pleasure to see the both of you. before we get into the whole, all the rest of it, look at the actual number, peter. what stands out to you from today's report? >> well, 117,000 jobs, as you said, about one-third may be less of what we really need to get, and i don't know how we get much higher then in the months ahead. you know, the economy appears to be in a little better than neutral. it's moving forward. it's growing, but it's like a plan on a bicycle moving slowly. it would be easy for it to fall off. it's either got to speed up or fall off. i don't see in the end what will speed it up. >> jared, we did a series of reporting this week, jobs wanted series. we talk and trade policy. we talk about bank policy, tax policy. regardless of what you think those policies should or should not be, is it possible for any nation, america or any other nation, to have a robust economy if its policies don't incentivize investment in the country? >> i don't think so. especially at a time like now. if we were percolating