mr. feldstein, thank you very much. now let's send it around the desk here. not a lot necessarily to trade as far as stocks, obviously. i think the tax issue is worth noting. guys, i'm probably as confused as many americans are about what's really going to happen here. >> you know like many americans who can do the math that we have a spending problem, not a taxing problem, not a revenue problem. and that is the big item that has to be addressed and discussed by both the candidates for president. i hope when they do have that debate that this is one of the topics they address. >> and we need growth, too. spending is one side of the equation. the denominator is growth. if growth goes up, it raises the denominator, brings down the ratio of spending. where's the growth plan from anybody? >> that's the important point, right? if you would just go out there and cut government spending and we have a flat gdp, you have the u.s. version of austerity. we've seen how well that has worked out for europe. so you got to be very careful. the economy is very sus eptable to