because at the heart of this is the economy. first of all, what on earth did you do this morning with no job numbers to pore over, did you sleep in? i didn t know what to do. my sir okayed yan rhythms are completely thrown off. it s a sad day. peter you look sad. i was sad not to have jobs numbers, i m an economist, my life revolves around numbers. i wrote an op-ed. you re never one to shy from voicing your opinion and you have found a solution and you say to resolve the funding crisis the president should agree to delay the individual mandate for a year, for its part the tea party must let go of free market fantasies. i admire your optimism, the reality democrats have made it clear obama care will not be part of any deal. not only is this not a reality, i would argue it s not in the best interest of republicans. actually, i think it would be in the best interest of the
the way we all live. with us now, greg ip, he s author of the little book of economics. that s adorable. also joining once cnbc economic reporter, steve liesman. let me start with some news of the day. jobless claims down a little bit, some good news on the employment front. tell us about it. yeah. jobless claims came in better thanne than expected, chuck, 453,000. we were up approaching that 500,000 number, which just to explain to people, 500,000 people, half a million americans were going in, having lost their jobs, filing for unemployment insurance a week. that number has ticked down to 450,000, which is okay. it kind of suggests we may be growing jobs at around 80 to 100,000. so it s better news, but that number of claims at 450 still remains very high. let s turn to the census report that came out. there s this treasure-trove of data for economists to pore