considerably higher than when he left office. the figure higher than president obama's whose rating now stands at 45%. as we said earlier, the numbers are completely meaningless but fun to look at. look at the markets as we get all up in your business this morning. steve sedgewick is live in london. hey, steve. hey, good morning to you. i tell you one political leader who has low ratings is brian cow b. the prime minister in ireland. today cowen is announcing the fourth bout of austerity for the beleaguered irish nation. it's a draw budget for 2011 that will have 6 billion euros worth of cuts in there. they will get access to the eu-imf bailout package which is to the tune of 80 odd billion euros including the irish contribution. stateside, there's good news for the u.s. taxpayers, at least. the efforts around citigroup have yielded good results.