[Hill:] With the stock market gains, frankly, making a remarkable rebound, but it's not doing much to help you at home, probably, or the country's staggering job losses. We want to know why. Joining us for more on the economies rather confusing signs, Nicole Gelinas. She's a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and also the author "After the Fall, Saving Capitalism from Wall Street and Washington." And Janet Bodnar is deputy editor for Kiplinger's Personal Finance. Good to have both of you with us tonight. As we talk so much about this disconnect here, Wall Street as we saw this week had its best close in 14 months. Unemployment though remains above 10%, a 26-year high and really it seems once again Nicole, the only people seeing it improving here are those bankers on Wall Street. Why is there always such a disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street which really needs some good news?
[Nicole Gelinas, Manhattan Institute:] Right Erica and this is particularly pronounced right now because we have two economies, one that can expect bailouts and one that can't. These Wall Street firms are subsisting on different government guarantees some obvious like the T.A.R.P. money and some not so obvious. They are all still too big to fail. They can borrow money for nearly for free from the government and invest it in the stock markets all over the world, that is why the stock market, as well as other global markets, are going up.
[Hill:] Are doing so much better. And Janet, we hear all the time, we actually heard from Kitty Pilgrim in her piece earlier tonight that is really is, always, the workers who are one of the last things to improve. That's one of the last things the companies seem to invest in. But are there any signs we can look for to give people a little ray of hope?
[Janet Bodnar, Author:] Well I think so. You know it is true that traditionally, the labor market does tend to be a lagging indicator because you know Wall Street is looking at different things than workers are. When you see the economy start to turn around, or at least job losses start to slow, you know things are going to pick up. It may take a while but you know there are things that it really does happen, it's just a longer recovery time. Because you know, companies have prepared themselves for leaner times. And it's going to take a while for them to say, okay, we're confident that the economy really is going to pick up so we're going to start hiring again.
[Hill:] Realistically, we can find out that there's a chance that many of these companies will never have as many folks on the books as they did prior to the recession because they're learning to get by with less?
[Bodnar:] That's right. And there are going to be different fields. A lot of people think that exports over the next decade or so are going to be really important in the American economy. So companies that focus on exports that have products to export may do better than other companies. So you know it's always a shifting thing.
[Hill:] There's a couple of things to look at. The upside for some people, too, we try to look at the positives, Nicole. Some people have really seen a boost in their 401 [k]. That of course is directly tied to the market. That, though, doesn't pay your mortgage. It doesn't put food on the table. How important are those gains when it comes to looking at your personal wealth?
[Gelinas:] Well, it's better to be making money than losing money. But people who need this money within the next few years for retirement, for education, should not depend on becoming complacent and thinking that these gains can continue because it's going to be very hard for the government to exit all of these bailout problems, or programs. And we're not quite sure what that's going to look like.
[Hill:] So it could abort for some of those banks are getting better now?
[Gelinas:] Right. And as Janet said about beginning to export, that's very important, but the problem is some of these bailouts are delaying that from happening to the extent that they're encouraging people to continue spending money instead of investing money in industries that can export.
[Hill:] Right and sometimes spending money that they don't have it. With credit cards, some people heave to do at this point, that's the only way to get by. Janet, really quickly before we let you go, there are a number of financial regulations that have been passed. They're set to be enacted. Which of these is going to be most helpful to the consumers, do you think?
[Bodnar:] I think anything that lets them know what products they're buying, what kind of situations they're getting into are really important. That's kind of what happened to people a couple years ago when they started to get into trouble. They signed on to things they didn't understand. So I think that that's really going to be helpful. You know transparency is the buzzword. It may be possible for them to have so-called plain vanilla alternatives when they take on a mortgage. Anything like that that gives them more information is a good thing.
[Hill:] Perhaps a credit card contract you can understand without an attorney. Imagine that. Janet Bodnar, Nicole Gelinas, thanks for being with us. Just ahead at the top of the hour, Campbell Brown. Hi Campbell.
[Campbell Brown, Cnn Anchor:] Hey there, Erica. The Obama administration took a big and controversial step today in research using embryonic stem cells. The head of the National Institute of Health is going to be here to tell us exactly what that means. Plus, Lance Armstrong joining me to answer questions about getting back into professional cycling, and where he thinks we stand in the battle against cancer. Also, our special series, genealogy, identity quests. You could have some big surprises lurking among your ancestors. We'll talk about that as well Erica.
[Hill:] Who knows we could be distant relatives Campbell.
[Brown:] I think we could. We might be.
[Hill:] Still ahead on CNN tonight Jesus Christ doesn't make the cut for jury duty in Alabama. Yes, you heard that correctly. Stay tuned.