We need to get our act together here in terms of these financial regulations.

we're going to be working on health care reform this year, and if we're able to bring some costs down and make it more affordable and do it in a different way, do you think that would help people with their wages?

You can't tell someone who has lost their job 'Hey, we've seen some good increases in consumer confidence.' That's not going to help them.

I would think these numbers are important. People have to realize across the country that it's not just one person messing up here.

I know we discussed last year the health care effect here and the burden on workers of the cost of health care in this country.

And that trend is similar to the regular unemployment rate?

How many jobs have been lost since December 2007?

The recession, as we've talked about, seems to be different from previous recessions, given the severe housing slump, the credit crunch and the global nature of the economic downturn.

What would you say, just to summarize, have been the biggest areas of loss for the types of jobs across the country?

Just to summarize, there were 611,000 jobs lost in the private sector last month, is that right?

Consumer spending did rise 2.2 percent on an annualized basis in the last quarter.

There are reasons for some optimism regarding the state of our economy.

I always like to bring this up, because I don't think people think about this as much as they should.

I was actually just talking to Senator McCain about Asia, China, Japan and Vietnam.

These are remarkable figures in the unemployment rate, depending on people who don't finish high school are at 14.8 percent; with high school, 9.3 percent; with some college, 7.4 percent; college degree, 4.4 percent.

You can see why the President is devoted to trying to make sure that people get some college.

How about for parts of the country?

We've seen an increase in consumer confidence, which is pretty marked.