GLENN: There you go. By the way, Ben Bernanke gave a speech today I think in Florida, if I'm not mistaken. He gave a speech today. Listen to this. If this doesn't -- and Stu, I want you to listen to this. Tell me what this says to you. This is the head of the Fed.
STU: Yes, sir.
GLENN: Now remember, you're like, we're not in a recession.
STU: No, we're not. No, we're not technically.
GLENN: I mean, you might believe we're going that way but we're not.
STU: What does (mumbling) We're not. There's no disagreeing with that. It hasn't happened yet. It may be happening but it hasn't occurred.
GLENN: Let's just say when the job numbers come out, what is it, next week or a couple of weeks, when the job numbers come out and we see the job numbers, I think the next job numbers or the ones after it we can officially call this a recession. Let's just say we're in a recession.
STU: Is that how it's measured? A recession is not measured by job numbers.
GLENN: Well, that is part of it.
STU: I mean, it's certainly part --
GLENN: Because there's no growth.
STU: Well, and that's an indicator but that's not --
GLENN: Okay.
STU: I'm just trying to make sure you're factual here.
GLENN: Yeah, yeah, whatever.
STU: Just trying to help.
GLENN: Let me ask you this because you're like, oh, Mr. Doomsday man. Tell me how else you would interpret what Ben Bernanke said today. Ben Bernanke said, I believe -- try this on for size -- I believe that banks should consider just rewriting the mortgages that are sketchy, that people are having trouble with, rewriting them to a lower amount. So in other words, if you took out a $400,000 mortgage, it's now, the bank is just going to call you up and go, you know what, you're having a hard time; you only owe is $200,000.
STU: Not a lower interest rate.
GLENN: Not a lower interest rate. Not even what Clinton says, you know, I'm going to freeze interest rates, I'm going to freeze everything, I'm going to make you only -- I'm going to let you only pay the interest for an extended period of time. None of that. This is, I believe the banks should consider lowering the amount of loan that they have to pay back.
STU: Not even, not enforcing them to do it. Like one of the Democrats' proposals was forcing them to have a judge to be able to write down. Not even that.
GLENN: Ben Bernanke's saying the banks should really consider that.
STU: I'm sure they have considered it and then they took three seconds and then they moved on to something else.
GLENN: So let me ask you. The chairman of the Fed says that but also says, you know, looks like we might be headed for a recession but, you know, I don't know, I don't know. He's at the same time saying maybe the banks should just cut everybody's loans. What? That's insane!
STU: Sounds like a terrible idea. I mean, to me --
GLENN: Does that also sound like maybe some people think it might be a little worse than what everybody is saying? It's not like, boy, it's been a really bad Tuesday. You know, it's like having a slow day in your bakery. I grew up in a bakery and it would be like my dad saying, boy, it's been an awfully slow Tuesday; we should sell our car. I'm like, what?
STU: It does -- I mean, clearly they are talking about obvious problems, particularly in housing and in relationship to the banks. I think there's just some validity to the idea that banks, it would be in their best interest to not let everyone default. And that's part of it. It's like if you are going to have all these people default, it's in their best interest to -- not the Government telling them to do it but they themselves saying I'd rather not just write all this down.
GLENN: Correct.
STU: I'd rather get some of this money.
GLENN: Now, let me ask you this question. How does --
STU: I'm loving, I'm loving the condescension here. It's outside of the glass.
GLENN: No, no, no.
STU: It's a little bit different, a little different word kind of but it's coming out fantastically so far.
GLENN: Not to you, it's really not. It's really not. I'm just trying to understand, I'm trying -- Stu, we had this conversation last night on, I can't understand how people think any of this stuff is logical. I can't understand. So let me ask you this question, and I'm looking for an honest answer. If somebody can answer this, this is great.
STU: Sure.
GLENN: How does anybody think that saying the banks should take a $400,000 mortgage and just say, you know what, let's call it $200,000. That $200,000 has got to come from some place and that some place is somebody that invested that money. So it's not just the bank. It's the person that was investing in the bank, shareholders and everybody else. Who thinks it's logical that money's just not going to completely dry up when people are like, wait a minute, you just cut what you owed me in half, you just cut my -- you just cut my profits in half. It doesn't just affect the bank. There's little old me, too.