ratings agency fitch says they re going to downgrade america s outlook from stable. stocks soared on wall street. because the markets closed before that action happened. the dow was up by nearly 300 points. the reason was a wow weekend for the american economy. retail sales surged. that s a fair word. they were up 16%. accord together national retail federation. it was the best kickoff to the holiday shopping season ever. topping off, today the federal reserve said household debt in this country fell $60 billion. the outfront strike team called this optimism, 85% of them said they were not going to go into recession. when the pundits were sure of just that. they ended up being right. can this optimism really last? peter, what s your take of this market rally? will it last? especially because after the markets closed, we got the hit from fitch, the ratings agency, which was expected but is another reminder of the failure in washington. it is about the failure in washington.