the stock market is not saying that the economy is recovering. the stock market is saying we're going to get more stimulus from gentle ben, more stimulus from mario draghi. not an expectation of recovery. >> those are the central bankers printing money and putting it into the economy in the hope of making the recovery pick up. but, toby, i worry about looking at individual businesses, because, individual things drive them and it may not be a good read on the entire economy. >> if you worry correctly, because if you look at for instance, intel. lighter numbers, why? because they're getting their butts kicked by tablets not an economic indicator. look at real economic indicators, my favorite is con tearer board, jim. you look at container board, and put stuff in bigger stuff and ship stuff. >> brenda: that's a technical term. >> auto production is up, oil production is up, job market is not up, but that's nothing to do with this rip roaring, or not economy, it has to do with the fact that over 6 million jobs available in the united states that can't

they know the economy is bad. they don't are need the romney campaign to tell them oh he again.ca moser and oveover andr >> their decision to focus the argument. >> which convention? >> the democratic convention. the decision to make the entire convention about the argument these were republican policies that led to today's economic malaise and if you choose mitt romney things will go backward is that is underlined and highlighted that the president had no message of his own. people were waiting for it saying what are you going to do next. instead the message was we are going to kind of keep doing the same thing we are doing. i'm not sure if you are an american voter suffering that you want to hear well just give it more time. >> to the contrary, what you saw at convention was for the democrats a clear enunciation of values and vision from the democrats and when you talk about steps they are willing to teak in order to bolster the economy they are talking about investing in for example education, reeducation, infra

can you hold that if the fight because over the economy and the debate becomes about the economy ? . the americans want to see a plan the understand the president has been working hard and he's been getting a lot of resistance from congress. they also understand in 40 states that the economy is not as bad as it is nationally, specifically ohio. and romney cannot win without ohio. an unemployment rate of 7% and lower than the national average because of things the president has done a good in the auto industry bailout. cheryl: the look at the gallup poll. this is what we're talking about it may be closer than a lot people realize. that is what president obama is a 48%. the promise of 45%. is that a narrow gap? >> a very, very narrow gap. all the national polling has this reason and one of two points, all within the margin of error, and what's fascinating about the economy, one of the economic figures, the present always tries to tune up the topic. the state unemployment figures cannot two weeks ago. the president sent a letter to the romney campaign over tax return. they want to chan

they'll continue to monitor the economy. market likes it, even though the message is that the economy is weak and will not be creating enough jobs any time soon. >> we're going to bring back steve liesman right now. also joining the conversation, lance roberts of "street talk." gentlemen, thanks for joining us. in a couple of the reports i'm reading post the news today, some people worry that in fact this is really not going to do much for an economy that is desperate for fiscal policy and not more monetary policy. how do you see it? >> well, i think that they're right in the sense that we have a disaster going on in washington. it's not the fed. it's the fiscal authorities. but let's think of the alternative. if the fed were not acting, that would be a big negative for the stock market. the market is up about 6.5% on fed news this year. we need help. certainly the fed can't bow out of this effort. >> and, in fact, steve liesman, one telling moment for me was fed chairman, while they are talking so much about jobs, and he sai

same time the manufacturing economy has shrunk. or women over men. >> when you look at the white collar story today people are getting laid off on wall street and that is largely men. i love the fact that you cite the famous "i love lucy" episode when wives and husbands swap response blgt and lucy gets the job at the chocolate factory. that was a great episode. this is a time when women contributed less than 5% to family income and now the attitude and contribution has changed entirely. >> it is now 42% on average and on top of that we have women who are main breadwinners in their families and that is something new and does a number on male/female relationships. that's one of the things i noticed is that in the book i started off thinking of this as an economic argument. over time as i talked to couples around the country i realized how it affected so many decisions about marriage, sex, work place, how we raise our children. it has seeped in to american life. >> how does it change things going forward. >> this is a spotty rise for w

i want to fix the economy, but we could fix the economy if we had not had the fed trying to manage theor a long time. so, yes, i believe in the market, and most people, you know, who are investors and believe in the free enterprise system, believe in the markets, but not in money. why -- money is half of the economy. so you want price fixing with the money? and that's the interest rates. and price fixing doesn't work anyway, so tell me, why would it work with money? >> let's just for a second put aside with the what you would do with the fed question and go back to, the fed was trying to fix things in the economy. you say they're not an effective tool to do that, but they're trying to increase unemployment. congress isn't really helping on that front. do you believe congress could have a bigger role in supporting and growing employment in this country? >> oh, absolutely. congress is a culprit, and they're allied with the fed, because the congress is always too involved. too much regulations, too much taxes, too much spending. but the spending wouldn't occur if you didn't have the fed.

this is what brought me to the sharing economy. what i was after was a new way to live in a way that i felt i could live fully. what excites me about sharing is how it changes every day like for the better. it empowers us. the economic shift in the new businesses of creating and exchanging value is creating a new cultural narrative. it is replacing an old

the economy is not doing well. ng on? >> the consumer confidence is taken from the third quarter, right? that was the second quarter. in the second quarter we had the drought and that was something that suppressed economic technology and it is going to be overcome. the question is, are people feeling a little bit better now as we get closer to the election because the economy isn't -- >> you're saying it's an anomaly. >> it's a rear view mirror indicator and now people are looking forward. you look at the polls over and over again and majority of people say feels bad now, but i think it's going to get better next year and optimism is something that counts in the economy and you're starting to get a little optimism and one reason i thank you guys is because this was an emergency for four years and now bad things about the economy have become chronic, not emergency any more. people in a weird way are getting used to the fact they have to lower their expectations. i keep saying that it's been four years, exactly four y

give the economy.he .4% you were referring to is the change in the forecast between the last projection and this one. but remember, people make projections assuming that policy is appropriate. so some of them may have assumed these policies in their last projections and not all are assuming these policies in this projection. it probably a little bit of an understam of what we think we can get. but in any case, again i want to be clear, that while i think we can make a meaningful and significant contribution to reducing this problem, we didn't solve it. we don't have tools that are strong enough to solve the unemployment problem. >> you've made an eloquent explanation over the past couple of weeks of the fed's ability to lower interest rates. but what's missing for many economists is how the transmission mechanism is going to work. most people think this will have a minimal effect on rates. can you give us an idea of how much you think it might push rates down and why moving rates down a few basis point

what does it mean for the economy? the chief investment officer, making visiting scholar at former consultants as well at the u.s. treasury department. begin with you. what do you make of this aggressive move by the federal reserve chairman this act in? >> it fulfilled the best expectations of the financial markets. cheri they celebration under way. addiction is a marvelous thing and we have it in financial markets. as to what it does for the economy is a different question and it doesn't do much. lori: in terms of the message of the market showing the dow spiking. not a lot of change in oil or the dollar. gold is high. treasuries are selling up and i thought that was interesting. if you could expand on the market reaction? >> a stock market rally is a long duration instrument. the fed says they will go to the market by long duration and take it out of a market stocks should be expected to pop. we have a different story and we will play it out in the currency and may be in the bond market which may react to a weaker dol

, and the needs of the economy for policy accommodation. so we just don't take those factors into account and we think that is the best way to maintain our and maintain the trust of the public. >> question. the u.s. federal reserve has launched an open-ended program to ignite a recovery by injecting an extra $40 billion into the economy each month. how does the fed do it? it buys mortgage-backed securities. can you tell us more on this mort? >> yes, well the purpose of the thing is to improve the liquidity in the country and to keep interest rates very low. he will accomplish boeing objectives -- both objectives. the real problem is this is the third effort of the same kind and it has had little effect in terms of getting the economy to grow. there is an argument it prevented the economy from getting worse, but right now we have made virtually no progress in four years with the biggest fiscal and monetary stimulus in our history. so you have to ask what is wrong here? one of the main things that is wrong is we are still trying to deal with w

the entire world economy is struggling. i think putting a focused on broadbase growth is better than big tax cuts. >> that's the reason we want to have you here. who has the better plan?n? i want to focus on the obama and romney plan to jump start the economy and the biggest difference at this point is taxings. this what the president said. >> tax cuts when times are good. and tax cuts when times are bad . tax cuts to lose pound and tax cut to help your love life. >> your cand date wants to cut the tax rates 20 percent. the president said this is same trickle down economics that got us in the mess in the first place. basic question, why is cutting taxes on the wealthy good and why is raising taxes on the wealthy bad. >> mitt romney is proposing a tax cut. there is a deep cut inhe corporate rate. most economist believe that fundmental tax reform is powerful for growth. i can't imagine an argument that said that raising marginal tax rates on high income people is a recipe for economic growth. one can debatate fairness argument

money is half the economy. in there with the money, that's the interest rate, and price fixing doesn't work anyplace else, so why would it work with money? >> for a second put aside what you would do with the fed question and go back to the fed was trying to fix things in the economy. you said they're not an effective tool but they're trying to increase employment. congress really isn't helping on that front. do you believe congress could have a bigger role in supporting a and growing employment in this country? >> absolutely. congress is always too involved. too much regulation, too much taxes, too much spending, but the spending wouldn't occur if you didn't have the fed. because the members of congress are politicians and they won't cut because they'll be afraid they'll lose the next election. but the fed is always ready to buy the debt. there is no incentive under these circumstances for a politician to spend less, so if they want to run the american empire around the world, no reason to back off for economi

my five-step plan is designed to get the economy going. re not going to get this economy going unless you do the things i described. and if you continue with a president who as you saw last night had no ideas about what to do for the economy. >> so how do they walk that line? >> just the way you heard him. he's essentially saying that the president's incompetent and he's the one more competent to deal with the economy. he can't seem to be cheering for a bad economy. but that's why at these conventions we heard so much talk about trust and character and values. the stewardship of the economy is turning into a values issue. and does the president have the right values or understand americans enough and the trouble that small businesses are having from mitt romney's point of view, from the president's point of view he says mitt romney lives by a different set of rules and doesn't understand the pain you are suffering. so that's why we heard so much of this sort of revelations about who thes men are. because after all, you need to trust one of

the economy into a black hole becoming completely out of mars and then fractionalized and then zero four five into absolute the cops are coming you didn't hear them do you write little street looking for mervyn king so you've got to look this guy and you know i think that's mervyn king's private security force after you he doesn't want you to tell the people he's on his way to st john's for lunch using taxpayer money to give him a free ride so whether it's the allegedly communist nation like or the allegedly capitalist country like america they're forcing savers and sit and retirees to finance the government neil sauced chief economist at credit suisse says this if you ask a central banker is that what you're doing and why you're doing it they'll say no we're just trying to get the economy going by making it easier for the private sector to borrow but i have a syllogism for you he says the government makes the rules the government needs the money so why should it surprise if the rules encourage you to lend the government money but it's not encouraging lending in the economy as we've been

reflates the economy. the favored assets, gold or a house that eventually catches a bid in terms of a higher price as opposed to continues to go down. >> let me ask you about europe, bill. it appears to have calmed down slightly. the euro package passing a hurdle. do you think europe has begun to stabilize or is this going to be another problem for the u.s. economy down the road? >> i think it's all temporary to a certain extent. to the extent you start to solve a crisis with more debt, which is what we're doing in the yit. ultimately, the solutions are coming from the fiscal or structural side. that means basically that spain and italy and greece have to get their act together this terms of becoming more competitive and no amount of check writing on the part of the ecb will solve that. >> given this, how do you want to invest? you said you want to buy hard assets like gold and house. what should the investor be doing now. >> i think stocks are okay. stocks in a very high inflation era. don't do well, but w

indicator say about the barricades for mitt romney but not only that also rock obama when it comes to the economy plus the case that the u.s. is in recession now why the fed hit the panic button with q.e. to infinity and europe's most dangerous politicians all with mike's deadlock and speaking of the fed according to a report posted on the nasdaq's web site investors plowed more than fifteen billion dollars into e.t.f. just last week in anticipation of q e three but what exactly is an exchange traded fund anyway and more importantly what is in the fine print we will break it down in word of the day plus g.e.'s medical imaging health care business is reportedly slowing down but this is in part because of changes g.e. made to the health plans of its own workers will explain let's get to today's capital account. our guest today mike shad locke many of you know him well from our show on his blog he wrote on his blog that foot in mouth disease appears to be at least as important as the economy in this u.s. presidential election and given mitt romney's recently exposed comments where he said forty seve

the economy in fact of all the developed economies ours is performing the best. and i think the expansionist policies and the fed whole interest rates are one of the reasons we're performing better than europe but we're part of a world that is an inat that greated economy. -- integrated economy. as any economist would understand, the issue is not doing good or bad, given all the other circumstances terrible recession we began this with and europe and others whether woe be doing worse than we would have. the economic recovery legislation we passed in 2009 we're doing better than we otherwise would have. now we have had public policies restarted that. we have gained since the turnaround began, more than four million private sector jobs but that has been dragged down some by the loss of 700,000 public sector jobs because i think of erroneous public policies. i think, exactly how the fed does it is for them to decide in terms of whether or not they buy more mortgages, whether they lengthen the terms of things. keeping interest rates low, a combination of those things

i think you look at what's going on in the economy. it helped the banks but it's hard to say we're from a. things were definitely spinning out of control. the lack of of information was pro mound. we didn't really know what we were dealing with, but in 2009, we certainly should have done a lot more with getting targeted reconstruction. it's to. they can spend time on that ballot sheet. they're not going to take new risks to support the academy. >> jessica yell in, chief white house correspondent staff. four years ago, carpet both said don't feed the fat cat any and that cost america its credit union. today whael. it looks to me like they're doing the same thing. >> right. they're not taking action on titlery form, tax reform, all these issues that will come up when sequestration comes up at the end fortunate year and when they have to deal with bush tax cuts at the beginning of next year. this is really an irresponsibility that's shared both by congress and the white house, because when they negotiated the debt deal last year and set up

real marginal far as the real economy. but we'll probably see the stock market move a little bit. interesting you think the high-yield bond sector is great place for people to be these days. how come? >> because the economic backdrop is pretty favorable. the economy is growing, even if it is growing glashly. the very, very low rates that the fed has provided are allowing companies to issue bonds at much lower rates than they were a couple years ago. actually that helped corporate balance sheets and income flows across the board where they can take out high cost debt, replace it with much lower cost debt, helping their cash flow. and because the quality of companies are pretty good. so i would say the top half of the below investment grade universe is pretty attractive. low risk of default. continuously improving balance sheets. but there you're looking at yields realistic i between 4 1/2 and six 1/2%. not very high historically. tracy: but better than what you get out of a treasury, right? if it is a high-risk because we'v

the economy is not good. gives someone else a chance. >> that would have solved the stimulus problem, by the way. >> ok. obama did not live up to that. the perception is that argument alone is not going to do anything. >> i agree. >> the republicans miss a big opportunity? >> they spent $100 million on negative ads in swing states this summer sort of refraining who romney is. they were enormously effective. they happen without any real organized response coming from the other side. one of the things i learned as a candid it is that races are partially about selling your story, making your case, framingham you are, but it's also about realizing the other side is going to do everything they can to frame u.s. something you do not think you are or you are not. my wife and i and my kids used to watch some of the stuff on tv during my race and they would just laugh. they would look at the tv and laugh. i would say to them, i know you think it's funny - [laughter] very lot of people who do not know me from adam and p

the economy is stuck. you mentioned fiscal policy is in gridlock. federal reserve can come in and do things to boost the economy. look at europe. central banks are critical to growth these days. >> and so one of the things i all the wonder when we see an argument like this migrate to the mainstream, the republican party is in opposition now. they don't like anything that's happened over the past four years, even things they used to like. if mitt romney wins the election, republicans return to power and now they control or they're at least named the next chairman of the federal reserve. they did initially appoint bernanke. will this dissipate or remain a force in the party? >> this wasn't the way they talked in the bush years. there's a very cynical pro-romney argument if you want the fed to be more stimulative this will dissipate as they take power. paul ryan was back in capitol hill today and voted for cr to continue funding the government because it's politically not convenient for him. it was politically convenient to take him off the works he vo

what does the economy need, rick? >> it needs jobs and there is no proof, there is very little proof that quantitative to the nth letter of the alphabet is giving the economy the jobs it needs. all these quantitative easing programs and all i see is 1.7% gdp and a labor force much smaller than when the president walked in office. much smaller than when the last president walked in office. >> we agree with rick completely. we think quantitative easing forces people into riskier assets. i spent lots of sales in i.t. companies, and there's too much uncertainty. until things sort out, companies will continue to make more money and we'll employ fewer people. >> but, steve, after the fed chairman has come out and laid it out for us, that he's not happy with unemployment, he's not happy with the growth rate of the economy, you know, on and on and on, is he likely to sit on his hands at the same time? >> almost certainly not, bill. i think the fed chairman believes that quantitative easing has had an effect on gdp. then helpfu

consumers did their share to boost the economy. is the federal reserve doing enough to help "john q public"? how low can they go with promises of ultra low rates for an extra long time, can rates on a 30-year mortgage dip below 3%? >> susie: and the dow loses its cookies. the industrial average drops oreo maker kraft, we'll tell you who's joining the dow 30 now. that and more tonight on "n.b.r."! american consumers are in a cheery mood, surprisingly. that's according to fresh data out today. they're feeling hopeful about their economic and job prospects. a new survey from thomson- reuters and the university of michigan shows the consumera sentiment index rose to 79.2 this month. that's the highest level in four months. those surveyed said they are upbeat about their personal finances, and most believe the unemployment will not rise further. also today, the commerce department reported retail sales jumped 0.9% in august. that's the largest increase since february. the gains come as consumers are spending more on cars and gasoline. th

things we know we need to grow the economy. they have a balanced plan for the long-term as well as a plan for the short term. governor romney has neither. if we reinacted the romney plan it would ratchet down the recovery in the short term and balloon our deficits in the long-term. the brookings institute would raise the tax burden on the middle class by 2,000 dollars. this is not a prescription for building a stronger economy. >>> david i want to focus if we can on the president's plan the chief economist at moodies would create 1.9 million jobs. 24 economists by bloomberg. an 8th of that, that is about 100,000 jobs a month or less which is nowhere near keeping up with the population growth. the point is this doesn't really solve the unemployment problem at all. you would be hard pressed to find anybody increasing taxes for the wealthy isn't going to jump start the economy. >> that is 100 thousand on top of the growth we already have. we are already creating on the average 300 thousand jobs. most of those folks all of the analy

the economy is about everyday affordability. people are not trying to afford luxuries, they're trying to afford food and fuel. lori: we will check back with you later in the hour. thank you so much, kelly ann conway and ron christie. they will be joined the "a-team" later in the broadcast. four people dropped out of the jobs market for every one job created. digging deeper on the jobs report with elaine chao coming up next. and does this report and another round of easier money from the federal reserve? kevin hassett is with us later. and where is the state [ owner ] i need to expand to meet the needs of my growing business. but how am i going to fund it? and i have to find a way to manage my cash flow better. [ female announcer ] our wells fargo bankers are here to listen, offer guidance and provide you with options tailored to your business. we've loaned more money to small businesses than any other bank for ten years running. so come talk to us to see how we can help. wells fargo. together we'll go far. one is for a clean, wed

the economy was in freefall. dent deserve credit for putting a floor under that collapse? >> well, i think that the point is that, you know, really we could start with a couple of 4 3s and i kind of agree with the are you better off question, in the sense as patriots we should ask is our country better off than it was four years ago and there are so many disturbing statistics that you highlight often in your show, a couple of 43s. 43 million americans on food stamps, we've had 43 months of unemployment above 8%, and i think that their identifiable problems right now that could be fixed if we pursued good policies. that's what governor romney is saying. president obama is kind of out of ideas, not telling us where we're going to go from here so i think if you want to be better off four years from now he's not presenting a very good story for why, but i think that governor romney is. i agree it was a very difficult time that got president obama elected but i think if it was a great time then he probably wouldn't hav

he just wants to nudged the economy in the right direction and keeping in mind that the economy has beenrding to bernanke is concerned about the labor market and ie not enough people have jobs and thus push $40 billion into the economy buying mortgage debt with no specific timetable on when it will end except saying that it needs to see the labor market improve substantially, a nd to keep the rates lower, i think that want to keep the fed rate exceptionally low which is zero through mid 2015 which is a lot later than what we were expecting earlier. >> beyond the big picture of the economy for us normal folks, what good and what may be harm will come of this? >> well, firstly, some people think that actually this won't do a whole lot for the economic growth, however, it aims to keep down the mortgage rates which will encourage more people to buy houses or refinance. >> how much lower can they get? >> it is a good question, and even with the rates as low as they r and i don't know if you have tried to refinance, but it is difficult to get a loan or refinance, because the credit standards h

what's the economy. >> the economy. >> economics. >> the economy. host: you can see among those people participating, most of them have the economy on their mind. if you had taken part of the national survey of 900 voters and ask the question "do you think the economy is recovering ," would you have been part of the 51% that said yes? let's begin with robert. caller: good morning. this is only the third time i have called. i have always wished i could get you on the line. it seems like you are not there that often. this is a special call for me. in terms of the economy and if i think it is recovering, i think it is recovering. i wish we would -- we always talk about this. i do not want to get in the whole thing about mitt romney's comments about the 47%, when you talk about entitlements, why does it have to be about the poor. i do not consider myself corp. why would you say entitlements' means them when it could mean a special tax breaks for super wealthy people? also if the 47% that pay little to no taxes, mitt romney if he paid 14% or 13%, that is

it is not fair and not making the economy grow . just because it is a 10 year problem doesn't mean we keep doing it it has to be fixed. >> john, next four years of president obama for instance we'll have more of the same and programs that rethe wealthy. he said that. >> yeah, especially the last two years which is a fetal congress and administration. these guys can't get along. christian you are my friend but you can't lump us all in a one statement. redistribution goes the other way as well for the last decade and more. we have killed the middle class. we have lowered rates with the fed policy . that helps the wealthy and poor people can't get credit. look at tax code. it favors the big companies. that's one of the reasons why the middle class is being squeeze distribution is going to the wealth. >> think what you are advocating with redistribution. you are abdicating your ownership of someone's else's life. you don't own the product of your labor. i know what to do with it. it doesn't matter the middle class or solar or green class

that depends on the global economy. suzanne pratt, nbr, new york. >> tom: still ahead, as the debate over mitt romney's taxes shows, not all income is taxed the same. why how much you pay in taxes depends on how you make your money. four years ago this month, the economy was in a freefall. lehman brothers had collapsed and credit markets seized up. a.i.g. was rescued by the federal reserve. the tarp program spent billions bailing out banks, and the federal deposit insurance corporation helped save citigroup. sheila bair was among those making the decisions. she was the chairman of the fdic and has written about the financial crisis in a new book, "bull by the horns. " she join us tonight from the nasdaq. sheila, congratulations on the book. quite a read to relive those days and months four years ago. after all the billions of dollars spent and the millions of homes foreclosed on, you wrote, i wonder if we overreacted. you say the generosity of the response troubles you, why? >> the generosity of the banks. we clearly nee

have in the last decade or so. with economies ability to help the feel that lehman collapsed in the fall of two thousand and eight so it's all because of the sort of open and market based kind of an economy and support. many countries are doing and going to the trade liberalization and so that helps the world economy but when you are more interconnected when you are more in the dependent if one or two members contagion contagion i'm talking with contagion and it is happening now in fact two days or i'm sorry i suppose not to see i mean we have a finance finance minister meeting that i'm attending here and the tone is pretty clear that the. the world economy is not in a good chip at this moment now the question here is that to what extent that will affect it back members especially the asian members because we all know that. doing relatively well compared to the rest of the world that's way now the world is experiencing what is called the double track growth in wits the growth in the industrial countries has been soaring down but

encourage you to lend the government money but it's not encouraging lending in the economy as we've been talking about now for a couple of years now and it's amazing that people at credit suisse or the government can make these proclamations that are patently fraudulent if there was any validity to their statements you would have seen some kind of change in the economy that has not been forthcoming due to the paucity of intellectual firepower supporting these sham ideas that are completely discredited you have a situation where engineering rates lower is a transference of wealth from savers from retirees and then of course when you place a value of money of zero you are saying that those who are earning wages are working for nothing you're taking that wealth and you're putting it in the pockets of the people of barclays you know jenkins the new head of barclays does he speak about this well transference and his his quest to clean up of the city of london no because he doesn't want to point the finger at what is an obvious now that he's a part of jenkins' jenkins i mean that's a perfect n

sure, but i think this election is about the economy first, the economy second, the economy third, and anything else to be honest. tavis: good to have you on the show. thanks for your work. >> it is always a pleasure. tavis: up next, iyanla vanzant. stay with us. pleased to welcome iyanla vanzant. she just kicked off a series called "iyanla, fix my life." here are some scenes. >> this whole thing is alive. -- a lie. you are all hot mess, and this is exactly where you were when your father put his first needle in his arm. why would you wait 23 years to tell this child about this? are you willing to lose it all? the greatest fear has come upon you. do not ever do it again. >> have you ever seen anything like that on television? i have not. >> the most difficult thing to confront is the truth. why is that so difficult for any of us to deal with? >> because we have a built-in mechanism that does not want to look weak and does not want to be wrong, and as i tell the truth about what i did, it may and make me look weak. it makes me vulnerable to judgment, and it means i did wrong, and the eg

rightg track-wrong track is knots the economy. even in -- then they start talking about things like gdp. the president's argument of slow and anemic, it does carry some potency. the economic numbers are baked into the argument. i don't think the next two job reports unless they are dramatic will make that much difference. what you come back to then is to convince people. the argument from the president is it would just be going back to the bush years. >> let's turn to the next big event. there is a drama going on every day of these four guys including the running mates. the next big event is the four debates in october. we have the calendar here with the presidential debate and the vice presidential debate. the conventional wisdom is with the exception of kennedy in e 1960 and reagan in 1980 that debates don't make that much of a difference. don't swing the general scope of the cam inpa. >> if you go back and look at the affect of these debates, rarely are they proven decisive.vi most fornd candidate a, or candidate b. the state of

what is your take on the health of the economy right now? >> i think it's looking a littlt better is not enough better. since we started recovering from the deep recession the growth rate has been little less than 2 and a half percent. those numbers that you are referring to susie are consistent to the scenario and that is not good enough and that is what has the feds concerned. allan blinder. >> europeer's financial >> tom: another hot topic at that meeting in jackson hole, europe's financial problems. until policymakers solve that crisis, bernanke and others say europe could weigh on the u.s. economy. here's reuters business reporter rhonda schaffler. >> reporter: with dismal economic headlines out of europe almost daily and just days ahead of a very important e.c.b. meeting federal reserve chairman ben bernanke used part of his speech to hone in on the european debt crisis he urged policymakers to press ahead toward resolving that crisis i spoke about that issue with the i.m.f.'s david lipton >> we see decisions from europe in high politic