peter morici is a professor at the university of maryland, robert h. smith scol of business. certainly notable. >> howo we fix the problems? we have to stop focusing on dividing the pie. the president is focused on income d distribution and his reonse is to readivide the pie. if you look at china or germany, they focus on making the pie bigger, having germans perform in next boards, and that way people find jobs. the bestocial prograram is a job. >> that is true. iteepseople working and employment is what drives the economy. look at the bloombererg report e talked about in n the setup pie, how canada wewent past thu.s. as far as business friendly countries to number three. abouthat say something the u.s. falling more than about canada succeeding? >> this is something barack oba cannot blame on his successor. in george bush's era and a clinton era, this is consisiderd a business friendly place. now when y you have a government that over regulates the private sector a and does not focuon getting it right so you have the outcome you want, but creating as many jobs as you can for

joining me to explain university of maryland economist, peter morici., love having you on the show. why would this be a cruel hoax on the poor? >> we're essentially creating a permanent entitlement by extending and reextending 55 months into the recovery. the way the government provides permanent funding for unemployment insurance is a payroll tax which caps out at 12,000 across the states. if this becomes a permanent deal, we will basically tax those $7.25s an hour workers. melissa: but we're not talking about it being permanent. they're just extending it one more time? >> i think we're getting to that point, the kind of argument they're making is that this recovery is unusual. it is anemic. it is knot providing enough jobses. do you honestly think they extend it three more months conditions will be much better for those folks come april? i don't think so. melissa: what do they do? they keep extending it and extending it? >> well the, also the republicans in the house are going demand funding for it. do you know anything democrats on senate side are wi

here to tell us is economist and university of maryland professor peter morici.for joining us this morning. >> good morning. >> tell us what the real numbers are should would he be paying attention to the unemployment number in the first place or is there a more honest way to measure the state of employment in the u.s.? >> well, if we look at the percentage of prime working age adults that actually have a job it's gone way down. if we look at the percentage of adults that have given up entirely, it's way up. it's a lousy jobs market so. bad that many people are discouraged and also and have quit participating and many others are working part time say they want full-time work but can't get it. this is very frustrating to those of us. most of us would fall in this category. you want the actual facts, the reality of it. why do we use this fake unemployment number. >> there is no one number that gives you accurate reading. when a doctor does your blood test. for many years the participation rate did not fluctuate this way. it did not think dramatically. and reasonabl

let's ask economist peter morici and christian dorsey. thanks to both of you for joining us. christian, i'm going to toss the ball up to you out of the gate, income inequality, that is the biggest concern in the world in 2014. what do you think? >> melissa, i'm sensing some skepticism on your end, am i right? -@melissa: we've got a lot of problems. thinking of things health related, natural disasters. redistributing wealth that is our biggest idea for 2014? >> redistributing wealth and income inequality not exactly the same thing. melissa: really. >> but this whole idea that we have globally, a phenomenon taking place that is very much a part of our conversation where incomes are not growing, keeping pace with the productivity growth in nations is a huge factor because it does affect some other things that you mentioned. a community's health. a community's social coersion. it affects so many other issues that it is very argual that it is defining issue for our time and affects about everything out there? melissa: peter? >> i don't like income inequality any better than christ

joining us right now is economist peter morici, a professor of business at the university of maryland he says that extended unemployment benefits, slow growth and it's a hoax on the poor, as you can see right there. we have -- i understand we have momentarily lost the professor's audio portion from our nation's capital. so let me just show you a little bit -- tell you a little bit about some of the things that he says. the professor says interestingly enough, a recent study by the nonpartisan national bureau of economic research indicates extended unemployment benefits cause most of the persistently high unemployment after the great recession. and interestingly enough, keep in mind the great recession is the reason we had the expanded benefits, but it has long gone. we're still having a problem with his audio portion. we're going to try to get back to that in a minute so we're going to step aside and take a break. >>> we're going to talk about an inconvenient truth. big trouble for former vice president al gore's book on the global warming crisis. >>> could this be the answer to your