and, joining me now to discuss that, we have carl smith -- i'm sorry. if you're just tuning in, i should say that i was just talking about ben bernanke and his performance this week and the fact that it appears to me that he is attempting to get mitt romney elected president because the fed is sitting on its hands idle. peter shift is going to disagree strongly with that. but we have professor smith from north carolina and chapel hill. bet si stevenson, assistant professor of the university of pennsylvania wharton school and former chief economist of the labor department, senior director of the naacm and the aforementioned former economic advisor presidential campaign and author of the real crash, former candidate for the republican senate nomination.