>> let's talk more about all of that, steve, and bring in steven stanley, chief economist of rbs, and north american economist at b and p parabomb. nice to have you. steve, what impressed you most about mr. bernanke's speech, being pibilled as the most optimistic in the year. is that overselling or not? >> the only thing he talked about in terms of the current situation was one paragraph. it was really kind of a slapping himself on the back, and giving the fed credit for having helped brought us through this crisis. more of a retrospective than a prospective look. but, yeah, i mean, we're coming out of it. the economy is stabilizing, and we are likely to see growth in the second half of the year. so, you know, i certainly agree with bernanke's characterization. >> what do you think, brian? >> again, i think that's quite right. i think bernanke had to -- the chairman had to actually point out all of the problems that existed, the panics that we went through, the fact that he was so innovative and creative, and in the process. and basically, where we are. we're at this point -- we're gr

julia, let me start with steven stanley, do you think there's a bid on whether or not the fed is going to come in here again and continue this program for buying treasuries inside today's auction? >> it certainly is a little bit problematic that we're watching a 10-year auction when we don't know exactly what's going to take place. in general the market is pretty convinced that the fed is not going to buy more than of 300 billion of treasury. i don't think there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty there. there may be certain individuals or certain institutions that might not want to bid today because of uncertainty. but in large part the market has already factored in the fed -- >> the option is cheap relatively, they may or may not do it. i think the option is they come out and say it or don't say it, but it's going to expire mid september, that your thought? >> i don't expect them to kpl explicitly confirm or deny they'll let the program go away. i think this is positioning around an auction and not saying what expectations -- >> julia, you think the program will run out and they wo