were down 3%. there s a still a lot of inventory and what s fuelling the sales a lot on the positive end, the gift cards. billions of dollars in gift cards out there. everyone s looking to spend them. retailers want that money so they can get it on their sheets. what do you think, carmen? since you ve been watching this for so many years and seasons, what does it tell us about sfwhirn. here s thing. about the economy, how we re doing. we re seeing a shift in how people are spending so, for example, luxury items, big cutback this year. that is very telling. that means that people are still not feeling safe enough to be able to spend money on luxury items. there s a lot of items for the home, a lot of clothes for the kids, a lot of very basic needs, but we re seeing people hold on to their wallets when it comes to bigger things. postholiday sales, save some of your holiday budgeting money for post holiday season. you need something, this is a great time to get it. i did and i d
rocky road of healthcare.gov. one thing democrats and republicans can agree on, 2013 was a rough year in washington. we have the highlights, the lowlights, and a look ahead to 2014. good morning to you. happy new year s eve on this tuesday. i m richard lui in new york where the countdown is on. crowds already gathering in times square. here is a live look at times square where more than a million people are expected to ring in the new year tonight. officials gave the go-ahead after testing the massive ball yesterday. two, one! happy new year! this year a special guest star will push the button that lets the ball drop. supreme court justice sonja sotomayor and the ball adorned with more than 2,600 waterford crystal triangles features a new design as well. joining me now, the ceo of philips lighting north america. bruno, a rough job. good morning. good morning to you. a tough job. lots of fun here, but this is a 12,000-pound ball. 12 feet in diameter? yes. what is new
points. and the nasdaq finished 46 points higher on wednesday. all of this is great news, particularly for stockholders and as a result of the fed s belief that our economy is doing better, the fed is taking a very, very slow approach when it comes to weaning our fragile economy off the stimulus bottle. so what does this move say about where the fed thinks our economy is now and more importantly where it is going? at the table, carmen wong ulrich, host of marketplace money on apm, lawrence michelle, president of the economic policy institute, ovik roy, senior fellow at the manhattan institute, and lisa cook, associate professor of economics and international relations at michigan state university. lisa, i mean, carmen, since i mangled your job description, i m going to you first. explain to us in real people term what is the fed did. i ll explain what they did, basically pull lg back, right, on buying our own bonds, which kept interest rates low. but the reason why wall street
carmen wong ulrich, host of marketplace money i did it wrong twice! and lawrence, president of economic policy. i have to keep going because i keep mangling your job description. make for us the case for extending unemployment, the economic case. here s the economic case. the case against it is, oh, it costs $25 billion. here s the case for it. the trouble is that all these folks will not have income not only just to pay bills but basically to put into the economy. it supports the economy. think about it this way. through 2014 another 5 million people will lose these benefits. what are they going to do? what are they going to spend money on if they re not? the economic policy institute, rah-rah there, is projecting that we ll lose another 300,000 jobs because there s just a simple economic theory at work here when we put money into people s hands. they re part of the economy. they spend it. they re in there. so that disappearing is is huge. to add to all those who are
than the system we have, which is frites completely tangled with a lot of waste and where are those conservatives? i only hear the ones read forbes. you ll be hearing about it in the next year. it is interesting, carmen, because it does seem bad because the economic it doesn t work when it s put in practice, as larry just demonstrated. when you actually practice this core of austerity, you don t get the result. so how do we get away from what i think is the fact that this is just about not wanting to fund the programs come what may? well, absolutely. that is the whole fact. i mean, the idea of starving people more, austerity, or the economy, it does not work and the idea of where will these people go? what will they do? because we have to accept that as a society at the level that we are, this country, that we need to support our people. if we do not, it is bad for us in the long run. and to think you can just say sweep the floor, take these benefits away, because you hav