with the ground on retail sales like you re reporting right here and you look at the stock market. that seems to indicate that things are picking up. why that divide continuing, stuart? the difference is, the stock market has reached close to all-time highs recently. pulled back yesterday. the reason for that primarily that ben bernanke is printing up a lot of dollars and some of it is finding its way to the stock market. significantly yesterday when some people suggested maybe bern will print a little less, the stock market came way down. you re right, there is juxtaposition between a weak economy and strong stock market. the difference is ben bernanke. martha: decoupling as we sometimes refer to it. let s take a look at the jobless numbers. every thursday we get those. what did you make of today s report, stuart? another confirmation that the economy is weak. 362,000 new claims for jobless benefits. that means a layoff trend remains strong. that means the economy remains weak. we