niche audience. your audience is overwhelmly strong conservative. but the employment picture, the economy has improved under obama, it doesn t play with your audience, even though it s true. we have a record number of people out of the workforce the lowest since the 1970s here are the facts wait. that s a distortion there s a lot of retirement in there. the lowest labor participation rate since the 70s these are facts. we have nearly 50 million americans on food stamps nearly 50 million in poverty, that s 20 million more than when he became president. black unemployment is at we went through a terrible recession that s seven years ago, juan. and it was that bad. some people liken it to the great depression. but i m telling you that s my point. if you think about not only the economy but getting out of wars preventing wars you think about the success of
to look like? not going to look as good as 2014 was. arthel: back up for a second and what caused the rally? rally for 2014 in particular was a couple things. good economic data. we re making more widgets and pencils. we re exporting more. that employment picture is better. remember first part of 2014 we had all the bad weather? remember the polar vortex we don t want to see again from a life perspective, that affected growth in 2014. so we had a lot to gain and pick up in the second half. we maid that happen. the fed was giving us all that free money. printing money printing money that will end in 2015. that is one of the things we had. this year we won t have it for next year. arthel: with that in mind, cheryl if you re investing should you ride this wave aggressively or maybe proceed with a bit more caution? if you look at the expectations for 2015, let s
right to lay it on the line, we don t get it and he is smarter better and will do whatever he wants. i don t think he has any intention of compromising or working with republicans in the many areas you suggested which is broad appeal. democrats, bipartisan appeal. i think it is more of the same. i believe he is going to do what he is saying. meantime are we sitting on a bubble? most measures the us economy is doing great, the dow at record highs and trading north of 18,000. a big boost for millions of americans 401(k). the employment picture continues to improve. the most jobs added in three years. overall economy grew by very robust 5% last quarter, the best showing in 11 years. gas prices are continuing.
how does that impact where the republicans, where the gop congress goes in the new year and how much they re able to get done? i think a stronger president is in a stronger position to resist them. but they have an enormous amount of institutional leverage, control of both chambers of congress and their biggest majority in the house since before the depression. they are going to be very aggressive on confronting him. this gives him a little more ability to argue against some of the economic alternatives that they want to put forward. but even amidst this, the median income is lower than it was 14 years ago. that s almost unprecedented in american history. most american families are facing a lot of economic squeeze. even a short-term improvement in the employment picture does not automatically or rapidly eliminate that. and how does this play out in 2016? some people will still say, i m not necessarily feeling it the way i should feel it, this economic recovery. or you don t see the
fly to florida. win an award. close a deal. hire an intern. and still have time to spare. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business. built for business. the employment picture is getting better, but nearly ten million americans are still unemployed. but 4.5 million jobs remained unfilled. right now, there are many factors but one big one is the skills gap. in our ongoing advancing the dream series we are looking for solutions.