steve rattner, what's the real deal in terms of the numbers? >> first of all, the unemployment rate increase was actually truly a rounding, from 8.217% to 8.254%. >> those are -- >> and that gets rounded up to 8.3%. it didn't really change. >> okay. >> the fact is there were 163,000 new jobs created, happens to be almost exactly the average for the first six months of the year. it effectively absorbed people coming back into the labor force. it's good news. the market up strongly on friday on it. it's not great news. the unemployment rate is still above 8%. >> what can you read from those numbers, though? look at -- read the tea leaves, what can you tell us about what this means moving forward? >> what this means is that basically we are still in a slowly growing economy with modest employment growth that will keep the unemployment rate from going up and probably won't bring it down by a lec of a lot. >> are you one of the guys that believes that we're in the japanese equivalent of a lost decade? are we going to have stubbornly high unemploymen

steven rattner?o amazing to see how hard they try, the way they perform, but when you see someone like gabby in what she gave up and what she had to do succeed was amazing. >> what will you be watching this week? >> the usa men's basketball. they dominated tunisia, they dominated nigeria and they came up against lithuania and came damn close to losing. is the dream team really the dream team? >> did you watch? >> no, i was taping my next book all week. but i caught up this weekend to watch katie katie ledecky win the gold. because she's the niece of my friend john. >>> george, i know it's 245rd watch olympics during baseball season. but i think all of us were actually struck by what you wrote this week about so far, your column this morning, pretty simple but staggering conclusion, you wrote that football can't be fixed. >> the human body is no longer built for the kinetic energy of the national football league. and even down to high school. in 1980, george, there were 3 nfl players over 300 pounds.

political analyst john heilemann and former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst steve rattnerook how cute he is, his little jacket. >> that fetching sort of, i don't know, what kind of jacket is that? i don't know. >> it's a bruce jenner look. >> a club -- >> bruce jenner at 76. >> very good. >> well -- >> willie, i know this is an especially difficult morning for you to be on the show and i want to just thank you this morning because a lot of people who saw the world record broken last night, would not have the strength to come on this morning and just wake up and do the job but you are now the second fastest man in the world. >> yeah. i know. i think i talked too much trash before the race. unbelievable what happened here last night. this is it time --

as steve rattner said, creating something brand-new on wall street.at are we going to do? oh, i get it, barack obama doesn't like how i spend my money, that's fine. and david axelrod and robert gibbs don't like how i -- fine. why don't we set up a new bureaucracy. why don't you guys tell me how i make my money. but mitt romney doesn't do that. he goes, i don't even know, does my wife have a horse in the olympics? oh, i don't know who it is and where it is. wrong! if my wife's horse is in the olympics, i'm in the front row, and if someone takes a picture of me, i turn around and say, damned right, it's my wife's horse. the one that helped her recover from ms. the one that made her healthy again. you guys got a problem with that? you can move to other countries. move to venezuela. i'm sure they wouldn't have let me buy a $1 million horse down there. but as long as i live in america, i will buy whatever the hell i want to buy as long as i made buy it legally, and made it legal. that's number two, money. number three, massachusetts. he's got to dead head

even liberals like steve rattner. heeps relates to business people.s a stranger. >> the olympic comment is so true to that. a business guy or political consultants never said anything good about their opponents because it's always competition. so you ask the master of the olympics in salt lake, how do you like the olympics? that's a business point of view. but politically, he's horrible! in 2002 he goes over there and rooks at that and he's he's like the verious guy. >> can't we make him secretary of congress, the job he's doing now? >> we have a lot of news to get to. >> you would have another cabinet member who is political. >> i like it. >> john meacham, let's talk about how fascinating it is, what chris has brought up and you brought up, name another president who has been so alone in the white house, who has been alone in his political operations, who has been alone when he's president of the united states than barack obama. compare it to jack kennedy, compare it to lbj, compare it to fdr and even reagan who had baker ands meese and all these fig

steve rattner, you have to read this op-ed today.out sandy weill in today's "new york times" says when sandy decided to split up the bank he said it's as if j john d. rockefeller proposed the breakup of standard oil and he goes after him and it's vicious. given that he's been a member of the obama administration, given that he's been on the democratic side of this, the fact that he's not pushing harder, he's probably in some way in the tim geithner camp on sort of the volcker rule and some of these issues. >> right. so it's coming not only from the right on this but on the left. >> on the left. when you think about how this debate ultimately unfolds zip s -- >> i saw the news with sandy. i haven't thought about this. i watched sandy build shearson and he was held in very high esteem in the 80s and i know what happened at citigroup and i know how it turned out but he's a very talented executive. didn't turn out well. >> even the association doesn't agree with his standpoint on this but they say he's somebody you have to listen to. >>

we've heard steve rattner come to his defense, life-long democrat, that you talk to anybody, all of myhat have been with this guy one on one in a hotel room before he goes out to give a speech or something, they're like, there's no there there. he's uncomfortable as a politician. >> can i say one thing, though, about the difference between bush '41 and i agree with tom and jeff about he is underrated in terms of who he was and the boldness that he showed. we live in a different climate now. you know, whenever you say, whenever you raise an eyebrow, whatever you do, the blog sphere lights up and people make quick judgments in a bold and sometimes very destructive and damaging way. >> so the positive i've heard from people inside the campaign who recently joined it or known him on other levels is that he has an excellent management style, that he knows how to manage people like nobody else. which is fascinating. but in terms of the boldness that people are waiting for, that bold move, we have yet to see it. it may begin with paul ryan's speech. >> these are all endured skills, goes back