better than expected jobs numbers we got for the hmong of december, stocks at this stage are looking lack luster. the dow is to the downside by 48 points and the s&p is lightly lower. the nasdaq is holding in the green with a gain of about eight points. that is it from cnbc first in business worldwide. juice drinks. because less sugar is a better way to fly. just not literally. capri sun. respect what s in the pouch. you tell us what you want to pay, and we give you a range of coverages to choose from. who is she? that s flobot. she s this new robot we re trying out, mostly for, like, small stuff. wow! look at her go! she s pretty good. she s pretty good. hey, flobot, great job. oops. [ powers down ] uh-oh, flobot is broken.
what s going to happen. who knows what will happen indeed. if anyone does, it s my next guest. joining me now is the political historian movie star and author of new york times bestseller, jack kennedy and chris matthews. good afternoon to you. thank you. you repeatedly described this field of candidates as lacking in charisma. lack luster. isn t this really about the fact that they offered a destructive vision of the future. ron paul wants to destroy the government and rick perry decimates the departments and isn t it the ideas and the lack of a vision that resulted in such a volatile and unpredictable field? there is nothing new out here. mitt romney got 25% last time and will get that or less this
what s going to happen. who knows what will happen indeed. if anyone does, it s my next guest. joining me now is the political historian movie star and author of new york times bestseller, jack kennedy and chris matthews. good afternoon to you. thank you. you repeatedly described this field of candidates as lacking in charisma. lack luster. isn t this really about the fact that they offered a destructive vision of the future. ron paul wants to destroy the government and rick perry decimates the departments and isn t it the ideas and the lack of a vision that resulted in such a volatile and unpredictable field? there is nothing new out here. mitt romney got 25% last time and will get that or less this
jamie: no. these are the last five days of the year. a tremendous track record of gains. we are set up beautifully for that. i was reading the holiday spending numbers. lack luster but a gain knew the less. jamie: stores were bragging. it started off with a bang and tempered off a little bit. we ll gain shy of 4% growth on the retail sales last year. growth, not as robust as some of the economists would like to see but a gain nonetheless. jamie: what about consumer confidence and people putting their money into the market after the first of the year. they open up the end of the year statements, if you guys are brave enough to open up the retaoeufrpl retirement statements, what will they do? this is so important because it s gage of how you re feeling, how confident you are to put the money out, to invest it in the market, to spend it out there in retail land. that will be a key indicator. and a key karat owe ll get the
on where the economy is headed and we are back with the panel. mixed numbers on the economy this week and let s take a look at them. unemployment rose to 9% but the private sector added 268,000 jobs. the third straight month. and sharp are drops in the price of crude oil and other commodities. paul, where is this recovery? it as mediocre recovery. lack luster. it is there. no question. private sector finally creating new jobs, that is good, making up for the fact that the government is losing jobs which i would argue is a good thing since the government sector has been bloated. this administration has been thinking we will run as ronald reagan did in 1984 with a big booming recovery expansion out of the recession. i don t think they will get the recovery. it is bouncing along and the key figure i watch is what are wages and average earnings doing. only increased by 1.9% the last year and those gains have been