have a natural disaster like that, whatever you lose in the way of jobs you gain back and then some in the rebuilding jobs. heather: okay. tax hikes in january, can this economy handle it based on this report? >> we're going to have taxes which will be roughly the same under bill clinton, we did fine in that, we'll do fine. what i'm worried about is the defense cuts. they're really serious. but we'll get by with a few months of higher taxes until the democrats and republicans start playing nice with each other. but the fiscal cliff, i think, is very overrated as a danger. heather: does it concern you that this seems to be the new norm when we look at the numbers and say, hey, this is better? >> it's very discouraging. we're stuck at a stable but depressing plateau. meth -- heather: ben stein, thank you s much. we will be right back. we understan at usaa, we know military life is different.