shareholders are guilty, because they cross off the proxy of which way management wants them to vote without thinking about it. they are not, you know, many shareholders really should look in the mirror, because they are not responsible voters or electors and they follow the wall street rule and love it or leave it, and they don't leave it long enough to vote for the changes, so it is a democracy that does not function as a democracy. the solution that, you know, we sort of hinted at a solution after the recent financial crisis where we passed a law that said that a shareholders now get a non-binding vote on ceo compensation that is called say on pay, and shareholders now, you will see it reported that shareholders will vote on the ceo's contract, but it is nonbinding and it does not have is much effect. doesn't have any effect. we are leaving this recorded program right now for the live

simulcast with c-span radios, washington today. tax reform or whatever they may be, i hope that they are, you know, considered and wisely chosen, but it is also important to realize that we have the long-term of keeping the fiscal policy sustainable and you have to think of those two things together i think. >> before the house financial commit services committee, chairman ben bernanke talking about the job market and the overall u.s. economy and stocks closing in the red today as ben bernanke dashing hopes for further monetary stimulus during his speech and testimony before congress, and ben bernanke did say that the job market was far from normal as part of the semiannual monetary report. we will have more in a moment. in an apparent breakthrough in a long stalled negotiations north korea has agreed to sustain the uranium enrichment

and long missile range program as announced simultaneously in washington and pyongyang, and this is increasing tensions with kim jong-un, and also create more food assistance for northern korea and also when years of north korea went unmonitored and hillary clinton called it a modest first step. here on capitol hill, john boehner making a rare appearance on the senate floor, urging a bill to be passed to re-establish water access for california farmers and residents that had been previously blocked by the white house. and today, the president sit down with the house republican leader mitch mcconnell and democratic leaders in a rare

luncheon session with bipartisan group of congressional leaders in washington. tonight a formal dinner for a few at the white house to pay tribute to the troops who fought the battles in iraq by inviting a small group of iraq veterans to pay tribute to the 1 million-plus who served in iraq over the last nine years. some weather news today that will likely have the federal emergency management agency involved in cleanup operations. entire blocks of illinois and kansas flattened after a storm system bringing tornadoes to the hea heartland early this morning. six people were killed in southern illinois and another three dying in kansas. the town of harveyville left in rubble, and this is after a series were moving through the area with speeds up to 130 miles an hour. we begin with the lead story and the announcement of ben bernanke about the state of the u.s. economy and what miit mean for the job market, and the

overall growth in the next six to nine months. and we will begin with questioning of the house financial committee, and we will begin with questions from representative william lacy clay. >> my constituents in st. louis would like to know what we in congress and you at the fed ralg -- federal reserve can do to put americans back to work inp perhaps ways that we can all understand. what do you suggest? >> well, from the federal reserve's point of view, as you know, we have been keeping interest rates low, and trying to create financial conditions that will foster investment and entrepreneurship and demand on the part of consumers, and that

should help to bring the economy to a more level of functioning, but as i said earlier the fed cannot affect the long run prosperity and health of the economy. that is up to congress and there are a range of policies there starting with fiscal, and having a fiscal program on the one hand achieves fiscal sustainability in the long run and on the other hand is protective of the recovery which is still not complete. we need to talk about skills. we need to talk about the tax code. infrastructure that allows our economy to function at the best level, so a lot to be done. but i guess that the fiscal thing first from congress' point of view and the fed's point of view, we will pursue the dual mandate. >> speaking of interest rate, it has been suggested by the house budget chair that if interest rates remain low until 2014,

this will hurt the dollar. do you think that is accurate, and would it risk fueling asset bubbles? >> well, i'd like to make a distinction that is not often made. when people say hurt the dollar. there are two definitions of the dollar. sw one is the buying power of the inflation rate in the united states, does the dollar buy more today than yesterday? the other definition is the dollar versus other currencies and the foreign exchange value of the dollar and those are two different concepts. now, in fact, our policies have beenccommodating since 2008 and on beth account both accou doing okay. under my chairmanship, it has remained the and same and in the last three years, the dollar in the foreign exchange sense is roughly up and down, but the same as where it was three years ago so it is not a big problem,

but it is important to distinguish the two components. you asked about interest rates on -- the second part of the question? >> it is on risk fueling asset bubbles. >> well, obviously, that is something that we have to pay close attention to. we have greatly expanded our ability at the fed to mon thor the system broadly to take a macro prudential approach, and right now, we don't see the obvious bubbles in the economy, but it is certainly something that we have to look at and continue to monitor. >> thank you for your response. mr. chairman, many citizens in the nation are concerned about the rides in gasoline prices at the pump. especially the working class. what measures can the federal reserve take to stabilize the recent rise in gas prices? >> well, we are concerned about it as well. i meanings it has a direct effect on inflation and also bad

for growth, because it takes away buying power from households. so it is a real concern for us. on the other hand, overall inflation is low and stable, so it is really a question of this particular product becoming more expensive relative to other products and a again, the reason i mention it is higher price of crude which in turn relates to a number of facers to, but among them is uncertainty about the supply in iran and in the strait of hormuz and in the horn of africa, so i don't know that the fed can do much about the price of gas, but more imtorreportant establish security of supply and take measures to reduce demand, and it is important to note that the united states has been reducing its dependence, because we are producing more energy, and we are using importing less. >> if i asked would you suggest

tapping into the reserves, the fuel reserves? >> that is for the administration to decide. the reserves are typically used for disruptive situations where there is a breakdown in supply chains like katrina for example and less assistance in a long-term demand/supply problem, but that is again an administration decision. >> thank you, my time is up. >> and that was william lacy clay addressing questions to the fed chairman ben bernanke. again, he is seeing modest growth for the economy and benjamin applebalm is joining us from the newsroom, and what else is standing out for you and are there any new policies put out by the fed to further jump start the economy? >> well, it does not sound like any new policies to jump start the economy and the tone of the hearing today of mr. bernanke's

testimony is that they don't see anything in the data to sunl that they should change their basic position. which is to say that they neither think that the economy is improving so quickly that they ought to dial back on some of the things that they are already doing. nor do they see sufficient reasons for the concern to think of doing new things. >> i guess that the word is cautious, cautious optimism from the fed chair. >> yes, that is a good way of characterizing it, and they have been burned a couple of times in recent years by being overly optimistic about the condition of the economy, and by predicting that things were about to take a turn for the better, and then when things in fact flatlined or took a turn for the worse, they looked foolish. what you are hearing now is a greater caution on their part about finally pronouncing that the economy has turned the corner. >> one of the looming concerns, and we have heard a moment of that a little bit ago but, that is the potential of gas prices and oil prices and energy prices

and the impact that it would have on any economic recovery and the highser the gas prices go, the more on the economy and every $10 increase in the price of gas the economy extends 2.2 percentage points slower this year. that is obviously, if you get a 20 or 30 or $50 increase in gas which we have seen in past years that could be a significant hit to growth, but the current level of oil prices is not in and of itself going to be enough to derail the economy. >> i want to ask you about the twitter feeds and for those who want to follow you where can can they follow you? >> @applebalm. >> could you tell me, mr. bernan bernanke, do you do your own shopping at the grocery store asked by congressman paul, and why did he ask that?

>> because the price of food has been increasing, and when the fed talks about the price of inflation they say they want the prices and the wages to increase no more than 2% per year, and food is increasing more than that, and the fed does not include food prices in the calculation of inflation, because the food prices fluctuate up and down quite a bit and the same reason they don't include gas prices in that measure, but what mr. paul is noting is that for ordinary americans buying food and gas living the ordinary lives, inflation can be a significant force than the numbers show, and challenging mr. bernanke saying that isn't inflation actually more of a problem than the fed is acknowledging. >> and bringing an ounce of silver to the hearing, what was that about? >> well, senator paul has a long history of arguing dr. paul, and that is that american currency should be exchanged for precious metals which it was for a long time and it was the called the

gold standard which we went off in the 1970s and no cause the looking back, but he feels that the stability of the economic situation and the economy in particular would be improved by returning to the metal standard and he was brandishing a silver coin as the type of currency that he wishes we all used. >> at the hearing you wrote that this hearing if it were your introduction to politics, you never would have guessed which side claims him. >> he is interesting, because he has served under president bush and president clinton and if you talk to him about his political views and the prescriptions to the fiscal policy to the extent he is open about them, he is a centrist republican. and it is not as if he has strayed from that ideology, and yet for several years now, the democrats have embraced him and the performance as fed chairman while the republicans are

extremely critical of the steps he is taking, and the part of the natural thing that occurs when one party is in power and one is out of power. for the republicans the political angle is to criticize the operations of government and that includes the fed, and it also reflects a change in the right wing of the republican party which has come to view what might once have been, you know, roundly embraced republican policies as being too centrist or to the left of center in their view. and so the type of republican that mr. bernanke is, is no longer the type of republican that many members of the house would like to see atop the fed. >> we are talking with benjamin applebalm, washington reporter from the d.c. bureau of "the new york times." this happens twice a year, and why does the chairman come before congress? >> it is the law. the law says that the fed has to appear to discuss his management of the monetary policy. it is a federal agency created by congress to mend the nation's

economic policy and it is a oversight that he comes down twice a year. he will appear before the house today and the senate tomorrow and do it all over again in june. >> so finally as you take away from the hearing indicating that economists and the fed chair specifically seeing modest growth and modest growth continuing over the next couple of months, what else did you learn today, if anything? >> well, you know, i learned farce new information, not an abundance of it, but what was most striking is that we didn't see any change in the fed's outlook. and there is a lot of talk that the economy is improving and growth is accelerating and the housing market may have bottomed out, but none of the news has been sufficient to convince our pre-eminent economist, the guy who is in charge of the nation's monetary policy that the good times have really returned, and that is a cautionary message to americans, and that his opinion is that we are not there yet.

>> and the hearing is important enough for a republican candidate to get off of the campaign trail to come back to congress. >> well, any opportunity to get in front of the cameras, right? >> well, benjamin applebalm, thank you for joining us. we are heard coast to coast on xm sirius radio 119, and cspan.o cspan.org. today there was a an unusual luncheon today, because it was the first time in several months that the president hosted a meeting from which congressional leaders from both parties sat down to talk about the issues in the election year. following the luncheon the speaker of the house joined by his republican colleague mitch mcconnell talked to the reporters. >> good afternoon, everyone. we had a positive lunch at the white house today and we discussed a number of areas where i believe that there is common ground between the two pl political parties and particularly on jobs and on energy. i'd like to think that some of

the bipartisan bills that we have moved through the house will be taken up soon by democrats over in the senate. you know, during the state of the union address the president said that he was for an all of the above national energy policy. the house republicans have been through a national all of the above energy policy now for about five year, and it is the same approach that his jobs council in their annual report supported as well. so we offered to work with the president on some of those bipartisan bills, again, that have been passed in the house, taand the president believed th there were some areas where we could find common ground and frankly i was encouraged by that. we also discussed the jobs act. the package of bipartisan bills that was introduced yesterday. the president was very optimistic about moving that bill through the house. so, frankly, it was a very good

lunch and i'm encouraged by the attitude and the tone that we had in the meeting. >> yeah, i share the speaker's view that the lunch was productive. and i think that all of you know that the bottleneck to accomplishing things on a bipartisan basis has been the united states senate. the house of representatives as passed as the speaker indicated on a bi-papartisan basis and ma of them supported by the president of the united states have not been acted upon by the senate. so i hope that the majority leader who is responsible obviously for deciding which bills we turn to will turn to bills that can actually pass and be signed into law. the house has passed a number of those bills, and as i indicated that the president has indicated he is for them, and the bottle neck is in the senate. i think that we ought to pass these bills and get them to the

president for his signature as soon as we can. >> couple of questions. >> can you talk directly to the president about the energy policy in, you know, can we move on the keystone pipeline and did you say what can we specifically do in this timely fashion to address the gas prices and what did le say? >> we talked about a number of energy policies. we talked about the bills that havem ko come out of the house, the president thought that on some of those we could find common ground and i did press the president on the keystone pipeline and the president said, well, you will get part of it. i just wish we were getting the part that would actually deliver the oil out of canada and out of north dakota. >> mr. boehner -- >> well, let me add that part of the keystone pipeline that we are getting, the president has nothing to do with it. it does not require his approval to build the pipeline from the gulf, and we know that we want to be aggressive in moving ahead and we know it has been studied for four years and the nebraska

issue has been solved and no reason to kree can yat tho-- re can't wait to create those jobs. >> and that is house speaker john boehner and minority leader john mcconnell, and one aide to speaker boehner telling the reporters that the speaker of the house and the congressional republicans remain hopeful that the democrats would finally consider republican discussions on job creation, and that is what was discussed in part at the white house today at a luncheon. and follow up by jay carney, the white hou white house aide. >> speaker boehner said he would be happy to work with the president on a true energy policy. your read out there, pretty upbeat, too, and was there a specific agenda that came out of

the agenda that the american people can say that will likely be done? >> well, i don't want a specific piece of legislation or itemize the topics. as we talked about yesterday, i said and we put out a statement from amy brunledge, that the republicans put out the jobs act and elements within it that overlap considerably with the president's prior tis and in fact echo the very things that the president brought up first in his speech in september when he put forward his american jobs act. he repeated those very same areas in terms of the small business and assistance to small business in the state of the union address and again last week when he signed the payroll tax extension. so, certainly, there is reason to hope that if congress can focus on resolving some differences that we could get some progress in that arena or that area.

and as for energy policy, the president stressed that he will continue to focus on an all-of-the-above approach, and that does not mean just drilling. it includes drilling, and as you know under, since the president obama took office the domestic oil and gas production has continued to increase to a point where we are now at an eight-year high. and the president is very committed to expand the domestic oil and gas production safely and responsibly, but he knows and it is important that politicians acknowledge that if drills were the answer, we would not see the spikes in oil prices that we see. because we have been expanding oil drilling, and we saw global

oil prices spike up last year and of course they are doing so again now. we need to take an all of the above approach, and that all of the above approach includes renewable energy resources, and investmentsinnovative clean energy technologies and approving the construction of the first nuclear power plant in the united states in 30 years as well as developing more areas of domestic oil and gas production. >> the comments of the white house press secretary jay carney was reacting to a question by a.p.'s ben feller on a question from the luncheon between members such as john boehner and mitch mcconnell, and nancy pelosi and harry reid, and also joining the luncheon today, vice president joe biden. on capitol hill lawmakers are hearing the testimony today on the safety of cruise ships, a hearing prompted by the deadly january 13th accident on the

costa accordia which hit a reef causing the death of passengers. and several people cited incompetency on the parts of the captain and the crew. a couple from massachusetts were there to testify, because they were on the ship and on the lifeboat, and they were there when the chaos began as they sat down to enjoy appetizers before dinner. we will hear part of this, and then get a perspective from a reporter from the "hill" newspaper, and meanwhile, we will hear from a member of the maritime subcommittee who was at the hearing. >> thank you for the testimony, and sorry about your experience. i'm having nothing to do with it, i'm embarrassed by what

happened. it is shocking what happened. were you at any time inle forred by anyone that the vessel had struck a rock and was severely damaged at any time? >> no. never. >> never. >> any time? >> no. the first time we knew that a rock was struck is when we were in the u.s. embassy the next day is when we saw a picture of the ship completely submerged in water with the rock sticking out. >> a full 24 hours later about. at any time were you given any concise guidance about how to evacuate the ship? any time? >> no. there was -- no time at all as long as we were on the ship or on to the lifeboat that what to do, whatever. it was always in the crucial time they had on their hand and

not one person from the crew nor anybody had mentioned that what had happened and what to do in the emergency. >> and not even when things were calm and you were about to sit down to dinner or before then? >> no, nothing at all. >> no. >> mr. serna, you stated in the testimony that you spotted life jackets, but that left me with the impression that you didn't know where the life jackets were, but you happened to see them in your closet? >> no, it is only because i was hanging up one of his suits and that is the only closet that didn't have any shelves, and it was easy for me to hang in, and that is when i ended up spotting the life jackets. they didn't tell us where they were, but that is where when i opened up the closet and i saw the orange jackets there. >> and i had no idea where the life jackets were. only she knew where the life jackets were. >> well. on the upside ofhe italian

coast guard, it sounds like a good response from the italian coast guard once they heard about it? >> yes. >> well, i, again, i'm diglad tt you are here to give us the firsthand experience. i am sorry for your experience, but thank you very much for coming. thank you, mr. chairman. >> congressman rick larson who is a member of the house coast guard and maritime subcommittee taking testimony from difia and his wife. they were telling the company that the entire company was saddened by the incident and already taking steps to ensure that the tragedy is not repeated as told to them by a member from the cruise line company. on wall street, the dow fell

below 13,000 at 12,952, and the nasdaq down 19 and the s&p down 6. the u.s. economy started off well with higher factory and jobs and home sales. and all district banking reported some growth in january and first half of february. the manufacturing output rose in all districts and auto manufacturing and steel business all reported strong growth, and home sales increased in half of the district, and noting a little improvement from the last report in january. rules aimed at helping the drivers avoid unintentionally backing over children already overdue are delayed again following complaints of automakers saying that is rear view cameras on all vehicles would be expensive. ray lahood said that the department needs more time for

research and data analysis before it can issue the regulations. more than a year ago the national highway and traffic safety group authorized that all vehicles would have in-vehicle display screens and cameras mounted in the back. that would be phased in by the 2014 model year, but the announcement by the secretary of transportation that it would be delayed. nearly 1 million people are injured each year according to back over accidents according to nhtsa. and the designating of smoking her ball products as containing the chemicals as substances and they made it legal to possess or sell the chemicals or the products containing them. fake pot