>> here to help us make sense of this is ben stein, author of "the little book of bulletproof investing" and the famed economics teacher of one ferris bueller. >> bueller? bueller? bueller? >> welcome, ben >> it's a pleasure. where is that ferris bueller? >> where is he? >> investing somewhere. >> yes, exactly. >> i'm pretending to be in your class and i'm the dumbest student you got so i want you to explain something to me. the unemployment rate is down so that means fewer people are unemployed but at the same time the labor force declined, meaning fewer people are working. so how does that happen at the same time? >> well, when we have a recession as severe as the current one, a lot of people become discouraged, unhappy, maybe they're not the main breadwinner, maybe a child is partially supported by the parents and those people simply leave the labor force.