Recovery Ahead?

Some hopeful signs out there for the economy. The GDP’s plunge has slowed — some economists see it bottoming out, and turning around.
Housing sales are up. Manufacturing — stabilized. Ditto construction. The Obama team hit the airwaves Sunday to sound a note of cautious optimism. The president and vice president hit the road this week to talk up the economy.
But hanging over it all is a dark cloud of unemployment. With jobs still scarce, what kind of recovery, if any, can we expect?
This hour, On Point: Crisis and recovery. Is the economy at a turning point?
You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.Guests:

Joining us from New York is John Harwood. He's chief Washington correspondent for CNBC, and a political writer for The New York Times. His latest book, co-authored with Gerald Seib, is "Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power."

Joining us from New Haven is Robert Shiller, professor of economics at Yale University. He collaborated with economist Karl Case to produce the Case-Schiller Home Price Index, the most widely used database of housing prices in the U.S. He's the co-founder and chief economist of Macro Markets, a specialty investment bank that trades in real estate markets. His latest book is "Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism."

Joining us from Philadelphia is Jeremy Siegel, professor of finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He's author of "The Future for Investors: Why the Tried and the True Triumph Over the Bold and the New," and "Stocks for the Long Run: The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns and Long-Term Investment Strategies."