vincent reinhart was a senior staffer at the fed. he says part of the communications problem is that people do understand what the fed did when wall street collapsed. >> in the crisis management, the design principal was to keep the large institutions afloat and that really looks unfair. >> reporter: even though ben bernanke was a college professor, reinhart doesn't expect the fed chairman will use his press conferences to educate the public about monetary jargon like "reverse repos." most likely, bernanke's public message will be big picture. >> namely, the fed cares about inflation, the fed cares about employment. it is providing support to the economy. that, while it's true food and energy prices have risen a lot, inflation itself is pretty well anchored, expectations are well anchored, and you shouldn't be worried about the value of money. >> reporter: the most avid audience for the fed's press conferences will be found here on wall street. long-time fed-watcher tom gallagher says investment pros will look for any instant clarifi

but former fed staffer vince reinhart thinks the fed will stay the course. >> they probably won't do anything to touch any of the characterizations of policy, because they don't want market participants to get confused or think they're going to be rushing for the exits anytime soon or, given the tension in the objective, adding to the overall amount of qe2. >> susie: and the nasdaq could be making a bid for its arch rival, the new york stock exchange. reports say the nasdaq omx group has lined up $5 billion in financing and could make an offer as soon as tomorrow. financial advisory service deal reporter says the nasdaq could put a $12 billion price tag on the n.y.s.e. euronext. >> reporter: i'm erika miller. coming up, i'll take you backstage to meet nanette lepore, a designer who is proud of her fashions and where they are made. >> susie: back now to our top story-- japan. one industry that's in critical condition in japan is the auto industry. joining us now to talk about the latest developments there, rebecca lindland, senior research director at i.h.s. automotive. it hi, rebecca

one reason we're not having growth, professors row tkpwog and -- professor rogoff and reinhart told us is the debt is putting a cloud over our economy. the whole world is watching the united states. are we going to go off the cliff or will this congress rise up and put us on the path to sound fiscal policy that creates confidence in our financial situation, creates investment, growth in jobs? that's the road we need to be on. it will be a tougher road. we'll have to make some hard decisions about spending, what programs are going to get money, what's not. maybe all of them will have to take some sofrt haircut. but -- some sort of haircut. but we can do that and get the country on the right track. america's not going to fall into the ocean if we make some reductions in spending. i would just point out that it's difficult to do that when you're in a political world, according to "the new york times," where anybody that proposes to reduce spending is called an extremist. senator schumer started that -- i quote a phone call -- saying we should use the word "extremist." cut $61 billion out

carmen reinhart has got great credentials. she is an employee of great testing. songsters are going to argue against her, especially since i see her on occasion with her husband. and they are both very good economists. the problem here is a problem of economics. what constitutes proof? now, by analogy it is not proof. most of the types of stuff that we do, i do come everyone else does and carmen does, is by analogy and historic analogy. i tried to get a step deeper. into looking at the actual decision-making process as it impacts through the distribution of probabilities and the rate of return on facilities. and i submit that that should be a superior view of analysis of what's causing what. i'm not certain, but i will suspect in retrospect when rogoff and reinhardt puts their next edition out or something like that, they're going to find that this one is lacking. and i think that you have to ask the question, why is that? that break down in structure occurs in finance, i think is related to the collateral decision issue i was discussing before. it's a question o

i'm not certain that the retrospect when reinhart puts the expedition now or something like that they are going to find this one was lagging and i think you have to ask the question why is that? the breakdown instructor occurs in finance is related to the collateral issue as the four. it's a question of how deep and prolonged it continues. all i can say is i think i've gone a step beyond trying to ask the question what specific decision making process creates the rise in economic activity? why has the recovery been so tepid? we couldn't draw analogies and say it is essentially because when the financial system runs into problems it takes a longer time to pick up. i don't deny that. that isn't necessarily contradicting what i'm saying. i am just saying that we need to get the data by an algae in order to come up with specific analysis. in other words, i demonstrate on the issue yet by analogy the body of the the data which is statistically significant and not basically by analogies to the historical episodes which in most instances are very valuable and probably essentials for getting