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First-time unemployment claims are falling back to prerecession levels. last to the u.s. economy added 236,000 jobs. 36th month of consecutive private sector job growth. there is real reason for optimism. but i've also warned you about this -- dysfunction in washington threatens to trip our runner, the u.s. economy, just as it struggles to gain speed. which way is this thing going to go? christine romans is the host of "your bottom line." edward mcbride is the washington, d.c., bureau chief for the economist. ed, welcome to the show. you have written a special report on america's competitivene...

There and discovers that they're very much exaggerated, that there's reason for optimism. and generally the reason people are pessimistic is because they focus too much on what's going on in washington, d.c., where nothing is going on, right, sort of political gridlock, and focus too little on what's going on in the rest of the country and in cities and states around the country, governors, mayor, state legislators are looking at these problems and coming up with encouraging creative solutions to the sorts of things that we're used to thinking can't be fixed in america. >> christine, take ed's...