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Just on the rich, the top 2%. if we do that, we lose 200,000 jobs next year. factor that into the employment situation, gregg. it's not pretty. gregg: it is not. stuart varney, thanks very much. there is the number, a lot of zeros after that too. stuart, thanks very much. martha: put it in context for you. since december of 2007, weekly jobless claims stayed above 300,000. you can see the big spike in early 2009. economist say weekly claims must consistently fall below 375,000, which is shown by the yellow line there. you can see we bounced along it a little bit. and now you have this huge spi...

Subcommittee on answers he is look for. we'll talk to him coming up here on "america's newsroom". gregg: hurricane sandy blamed on a big increase in weekly jobless claims. the number of americans filing for jobless benefits jumping by 78,000 to 439,000. there's the number on your screen. that is the highest level in a year and a half. stuart varney, anchor of "varney & company" on the fox business network. stu, this is huge compared to what they were expecting, right? >> you can't explain this huge number entirely on the storm, sandy. it is true that last week many people up and down the easte...

Let's take a look at the dow today originally the premarket really reacting to this. now the dow is down nearly 50 points. fox business network's diane ma say doe joins us live. we now know the president is touring some of the damaged areas in the new york region because of superstorm sandy, and superstorm sandy may have impacted these numbers. >> that's right. well, those 439,000 claims were much higher than expected and not only the highest level since april of 2011, it also ends a 42-week streak of being below 400,000. superstorm sandy did leave thousands without jobs, but while new jersey ...

And spent in other places that again the government says they know better about. so that is really the issue here. we aren't seeing any clarity on. >> have you been a wonderful contestant. thank you as always. >> accept my parting gifts, thank you. >> will this number though stop this one? the first number is how many people were lining up last week for first time jobless benefits? 439,000, well above estimates. hurricane sandy blamed for a bulk of it. it shows the whichy is still not heading in the right direction no matter how you slice it. and then there is the $1.6 trillion figure expected...

Thousand in the last month. >> first of all, you're right. it's not just the elite, the rich that own stock. all of middle america has a piece of the stock market, as you say, through their 401(k), their ira, the company pension plan. that's what pension plans invest in. we live or die by the stock market. now, it's down 700 points since election day. that is a very significant drop. connect the dots for a second. you've got bad economic news, the re-election of president obama and now the wall street selloff. they are connected. you mentioned 439,000 new jobless claims. that suggests a very w...