he is the one who says that there should be even more cuts than are being proposed by the leader of the opposition. we would lose jobs and businesses, and our economy would go deep into recession again. that is not a policy that the people of this country want. the conservatives have dozens of policies on this, and his is the most extreme, but we will follow none of their advice. >> chris mullin. >> would my right honorable friend confirm that it remains his intention, in the event that this government is re- elected, to restore the link between old age pensions and earnings, which was abandoned in the early 1980's? >> it was part of the turner report's recommendations to reform the pension system of our country. that was originally accepted on an all-party basis by all parties in this house, and we will wish to go ahead with our proposals. >> andrew robathan.

>> in column 292 last wednesday, the prime minister said that he had no knowledge of a 50,000-pound slush fund for his leadership campaign, and that that was why it was not registered in the register of members' financial interests. he has had a week to reflect. has anything jogged his memory? would he like to correct the record? >> all donations to the labour party are reported by the labour party, not by me. >> gisela stuart. >> further to the question asked by mr. carswell, and ahead of the european council, could the prime minister confirm that any negotiations involving a bail-out for the greek economy will be completely confined to eurozone countries, and have no impact on the uk? >> i have already said that there is international support available for countries, as set up by the g-20 summit in london in april. that support can be drawn on at an international level. if the euro area wishes to move ahead with a proposal, that is

for the euro area. >> annette brooke. >> recent research has shown that more than 70% of blind and partially sighted people are unable to access vital personal health information. would he agree to meet me and a delegation from the royal national institute of blind people, so that we can discuss provisions that could address that shameful inadequacy? >> gp's are already required under relevant legislation to make reasonable adjustments to the written information for patients with a visual impairment. the equality bill also contains legislation that will avoid discrimination against those people with lesser sight, and anybody with a visual impairment should also be aware that the general medical council has issued guidance that doctors must make sure that arrangements are made to meet patients' language and communication needs.

we will do everything in our power to improve the services to those with visual impairments, and i would be very happy to meet any delegation that she brings to me. >> alan simpson. >> does the prime minister accept that the welcome international support for eurozone countries facing economic difficulties is undermined by the $8 billion speculative transactions that are currently taking place against the value of the euro? does that not reinforce his case for the urgent introduction of a tobin tax, which could bring to the international table 400 billion pounds per year? that would be as relevant to the developing needs of the poor countries in the south as it would be to avoiding austerity measures in the north. >> what we want is international agreement to restructure our banking system in the way that is necessary. it cannot be done by one country on its own. it must be done by countries working together.

we have put proposals to the g- 20 whereby we could coordinate activity in terms of capital requirements for banks, liquidity ratios, and the rewards that they are prepared to pay, but it is also true that the relationship between banks and society needs to change. i have proposed, with other people, that a levy be raised from banks. there is new interest in that around the world, and i believe that over the next period we will reach agreement on a global financial levy. i am sorry that many people opposed it when it was first announced, because i believe that we will be able to go ahead with it in the not too distant future. >> order. >> the british house of commons is in recess. prime minister's questions will return on february 24, live on c-span2 at 7:00 a.m. eastern. you can watch other british

programming on our web site, c- span.org. >> with the british house of commons now inxd recess, it will not be live this week. it will return next wednesday, february 24, and you can see it on2 on. -- you can see it on c-span2. coming up next, from davos, a forum on the global industry outlook for 2010. after that, the latest on the situation and haiti. coming up at 11:00 p.m. eastern, david bossie. we will follow up with another chance to see gordon brown at the house of commons.

>> booktv continues with how brands, and craig shirley on broad reagan. booktv is live in prime time starting tuesday night with contemporary authors and your phone calls. the entire schedule is that booktv.org. >> a look at financial-services and real-estate and media services. the discuss what is ahead as the world prepares from -- representative -- recovers from

the global financial crisis. this is in davos, switzerland and is just over an hour. good afternoon. welcome. i am kevin steinberg, chief operating officer of the world economic forum. it is a pleasure to meet with all of you this afternoon together with this distinguished panel. the panel on my left represents the chair people of our governors meetings, private meetings that take place within the world economic forum by industry sector, which later feed into not only the annual meeting, but a set of working groups, discussions, projects, and ongoing efforts to ensure that we collectively address many of the issues that concern us most. this particular session is called our global industry outlook, and the purpose is to

fold. the first is just take those meetings and to go to the additional step of sharing the insights, the conclusions, and the real opportunities that have come from them to the broader davos audience and to those of you who may be watching this from elsewhere, but to start the dialogue as well between industries and between different parts of society, so that we can collectively take those collective steps to improve the state of the world. we have five industries here in the five chair people from each of those industries. i thought i would introduce them one by one, and ask each of them to spend three to five minutes highlighting some of the conclusions, some of the ideas, some of the insights and opportunities that came from those discussions, as well as what we can do going forward. i should mention that when we had this session last year, the was a lot of talk of gloom and doom. people were very much talking about whether we were heading off a cliff.

i am happy to note that this year there is a lot more productivity. there's a lot more intent of all of these conversations to be proactive. this year it sounds like we have all agreed it is not the end of the world and so we're getting together to talk about what we should do about that. left josef ackermann from deutsche bank, who served as the chair of our financial services governors group. >> we had an interesting governors meeting and we covered the economic outlook, the regulatory framework, the sustainability issues within the financial sector, and then we had the second part on risk management, which was actually very interesting, because we compared risk management lessons from other industries -- aviation or food industry or insurance industry -- and what we could learn in the financial

sector or, above all, in the banking industry. let me say a few words about what our discussions were. first of all, we feel a little bit that, especially in the political discussion, seldom so few have done damage to so many, and that the many are taken as the few, in the sense that if you really boil it down to the nitty gritty, only a few banks have actually failed the test in this crisis. the bulk of banks have managed the crisis astonishingly well, and have increased their profitability and market share. in that sense, if we talk about lessons from the crisis, we should really single out those who have made major mistakes. suddenly, we also felt that a more differentiated analysis

about the causes of the crisis showed that this is not only the bankers who made mistakes. they are part of the blame, but it is a well balanced situation between political failures, between market inefficiencies, and banks mistakes. and that is why we think we should now stop the blame game and we should start looking forward, because at the end, we need strong financial sectors to cover the real issues which are ahead of us -- namely, unemployment. just to mention two numbers, spain has unemployment among young people of 42%. the middle east, over 50%. those of the real issues. secondly, goal -- poverty, global imbalances, many of the things. if you do not have a strong financial sector to support this sort of recovery and to

contribute to the prosperity and growth in the real economy on a global scale, if you are making a huge mistake and we will regret that later on. we're saying that this fall word-looking statement should also mean that we now pull our forces together and say kenj," t should be done in order to make the system more stable, more resilient, without jeopardize and the efficiency of the market in the financing of the real economy?" first of all, we very much support the reforms being taken on the regulatory side in terms of more capital, better liquidity management, also in terms of improving the market infrastructure, having a system in place which allows us to exit failed banks and not have them

jeopardize the stability of the system as a whole. but at the same time, we are saying we need consistent rules -- we need global rules. and the fact how far we should go in the reforms should be based on a micro and macro impact study, which shows what the impact on the real economy will be and what the impact on efficient and liquid markets will be. we do not think it is three wise to come up with new ideas from wherever they are -- new taxes, new proposals -- because that is adding to the uncertainty and really slows down the process of making the financial sector more stable. having said that, we also note that the regulators have done a tremendous job in advancing the regulatory work, but it is also fair to say that banks in the last two years, actually starting very early at the beginning of the crisis, have done a lot in improving their

capital management, their liquidity management, their risk management, and also improving the market infrastructure. all of all, i think a lot has been done. on the psychological and political side, we agreed that we should become proactive in helping to put in place, maybe, insurance funds on a national or a european level, or even on a larger level, to also do something on the compensation issue. this is a very emotional issue. we have changed the structure in compliance with the g-20 recommendations, but the quantum of compensation is still open, and we will work on that in the industry, and see what kind of proposals we can make. >> thank you. next to his left, we have hans- paul burkner, who's from the boston consulting group, and serves as the chair of our professional services group.

>> good afternoon, ladies and gentleman. this comprising the audit firms, the consulting firms, and we're looking cautiously optimistic into 2010 and beyond. there is clear need to continue to help clients throughout the crisis, out of the crisis, and we see good signs going forward. the bulk of our discussion centered our room what we see as our responsibility to help address the wider issue of a more responsible capitalism. here we see the black/-- we clearly see the backlash against capitalism in this crisis. we see it against globalization and we're very concerned that this backlash will ultimately hurt the global economy, the

wellbeing of societies around the world, and so we were focusing on four elements of our action program. one was to ensure that value management is also seen as values management, and that if we take a long-term view in creating value, we will also create jobs and ensure that we deliver to the needs of our customers, customers of all companies, that we deliver to the needs of society. i think we need to want to reinforce this idea that value management is also values management. for us as professional services companies, that means to reinforce our code of conduct, related to our clients, our employees, the stakeholders in society, and society at large.

secondly, we feel it is important also to speak up in public with our employees, with students, with politicians, with customers, and companies around the world, to reinforce the notion that the capitalist system has served as well. despite all the exuberance, the exaggeration, the fraud, globalization is serving us well, and i think is very important -- very important that we reinforce this message and speak up. thirdly, in the engagement, and professional service firms are engaged a lot with public entities -- joe talked to regulation -- to ensure that when we work on new regulations that we're not going from one extreme to another, but that we find a regulatory framework that is beneficial, both addressing the risks that we have seen, the

exaggerations, the exuberance, the fraud that we have seen, but not leading to a stifling of entrepreneurship, of business that ultimately will mean lower growth or no growth, and therefore continuing high unemployment or even increasing unemployment. it is important to make sure that we're not moving from one extreme to another, but finding the right mechanism in our interaction with governments, with parliaments, and helping them to find the right frameworks and so help our customers and clients to find the right framework. and we said we were working on what we call an "risk cockpit." the different professional service firms -- tax, consulting, audit, lawyers, and so forth -- are dealing with risks and helping their clients deal with risks in a broadway -- in a broad way and so we will

work on helping clients to really see the whole range of "risk, different clusters, and helping them to ensure that they look at all those elements and not just have risk in a specific sector very well covered and completely overlooking risks another part. it is about people, about tax, about assets, it is about laws and strategic risk and so forth. and over the next few months we will develop what we call a risk cockpit to help clients and companies around the world to have greater transparency of what they need to deal with. >>next we have colin dyer, who joins us from jones lang lasalle, who served as the chair for our real estate governors group. >> thank you, kevin. ." appeal for our audience or our group, the real estate group within the forum is composed mostly of people involved in construction, ownership,

development of real estate. what is absent from our dialogues group -- but not from our thoughts are the users of real estate. is the corporations who rent real estate for offices for logistical purposes, retailers, and so that is the community. to give you some background, this is an industry or an asset class which suffered vertiginous declines in activity, in volumes of sales and in price levels, asset price levels, between the beginning of 2008 and the middle of 2009. order of magnitude prices of assets fell between 40% and 50% worldwide and activity levels, in terms of investment sales, fell by 70%. similar picture in the leasing market, where prices and activity levels fell by 40%. a very cyclical industry. the position we found ourselves and last year, we were right in the middle of that fall.

our sense at the moment is that the fall in asset prices and activity levels in investment sales is stabilizing, and there is a gradual forming of a bottom and a recovery in both pricing and activity, starting in the east, very clearly driven by chinese liquidity, but also more broadly based across asian economies, and it is moving westward to europe, surprisingly, and last in line is the u.s. and the north american continent in general. that is the context in which we deal. as the stock market has anticipated recovery in the broader economy, investment sales activities are anticipating recovery in the broader demand for real estate. against that background, several of these factors were external to our industry. obviously the primary factor is the trajectory of worldwide growth, because that drives the fundamental demand for space in real estate, but closely linked to that are some of the subjects

which ackermann has been referring to this afternoon -- the financial sector. we rely heavily on the financial sector to structure the deals which provide the liquidity, which provide the velocity of transactions in the real estate area, and indeed support valuers of holdings of real estate. our sense is that until the regulators have sorted out how the general financial industry is to be related -- and our sense is that it is not just the banking sector but it is broader than banks -- until that is sorted out, then we will continue to find bankers who are reluctant to lend into the real estate sector, indeed to any sectors, but particularly in real estate those same banks have a portfolio of non- performing loans, some much worse than others. because the government support for the banking system worldwide has been extremely robust, the banking system has not in

general had to do what it has done in previous cycles, which is to push those non-performing loans or the underlying assets into the market, but at some point in the next year or 18 months, that trickle will become more of a stream, so that impacts our board thinking as well. central bank policy towards availability of credit and interest rates, it is all part of this external package which impacts our industry and provides a lot of the supply psychology -- six locality -- cyclicality to real estate. the final point is about sustainability. real estate in general is responsible for 40% of the world's carbon footprint. the real estate sector provides twice the carbon output of airplanes and automobiles put together, so whether we like it or not, this is a big issue for the real estate sector. gradually the users of real estate corporations and the

constructors and builders and owners of real estate are understanding that there is value to be gained or destroyed by having buildings which are efficient or inefficient in an energy and sustainability sense, and so that is beginning to have a major agenda item for the sector as a whole, and indeed for the forum, where we are putting into work slim cities initiatives from the forum. what is clearly coming down the road towards us is government regulation, because governments at all level is taking interest in regulating not only the construction standards but the standards of energy performance in real-estate stock. >> next we have eric mindich, who joins us from eton park capital management, representing our investor sector. >> good afternoon and thank you. our group represents some leading private equity fund managers and hedge fund managers, and we had discussion

that had its is backdrop, an understanding that we were operating in a world where the relationship between our industry and various stakeholders was changing very rapidly. it is against a backdrop where financial markets themselves are coming under question as to whether they are the best allocator of resources, and participants within those financial markets are facing a similar sets of questions. there was a recognition that our industry perhaps had not communicated as well as it could with its various stakeholders and with the public, in order to in some ways articulate better what it is that we do, what our role is and how we participated to allow several years. in the private equity world, i think there is a feeling that private equity firms had contributed significantly to growth capital and to efficiencies within corporations. within the hedge fund world, there is a feeling that, generally speaking, in addition to hedge funds not having been central to the financial crisis, there is also the view

that largely they had fulfilled their mission to investors in terms of delivering absolute returns, and that their investors themselves were pension funds, foundations, endowments, all sorts of investors like that. and also that the role and functioning within the capital markets themselves and how important that is to the efficient allocation of resources was probably also not sufficiently explained, and so there was discussion about how we could continue to articulate that better, and what kind of outreach we could have with various stakeholders. there was discussion about the vote -- the political environment surrounding all this, and the and saturday in the push to have solutions, particularly broader financial services reform, to make sure that things were done at it -- were done in as thoughtful way as could be. there was also discussion about the nature of relationships with our limited partners, with our investors. there has been increasing push toward -- i guess the phrase is

"alignment of interests," which relates to a whole series of factors, and that hedge funds and private equity fund groups themselves have been pushing, as have clients, in order to harmonize that to a greater extent. there was also discussion about the availability of leverage and credit in the private equity world, because leverage is less available. that is pushing firms toward growth equity types of investing and backed -- and less leveraged deals. it also means significantly less purchasing power for private equity firms, going forward, and for hedge funds, there was an understanding that the relationship between their credit providers, which were the banks, the hedge funds have been some way changed. historically it has been the banks that were fearful of credit issues from hedge funds, and then it became hedge funds being fearful of credit issues with banks. that is an issue still being worked through.

>> our final panelist is jeff zucker from nbc universal, representing the media, entertainment, and information sector. >> thank you very much and good afternoon. i would say in our group the feeling was that a year ago we were at the end of the world in on the process. the mood in our group was much better this year with the belief that the economy will treat media better this year. the economy will rebound, advertising will rebound, and both old media and new media will benefit from that and have a much better this year -- much better year this year. our group was comprised of actually more new media than it was old media, and that is a tribute to what is going on in media today and what defines media. that led to the biggest topic within our group, how you define new economic models within media that will allow old media companies to thrive and allow new media companies to thrive.

i would say that there still no answer to that question. i think that is the thing that will roil the entire media industry in the next three years. a lot of discussion around monetizing new media, how do old media companies change their models under the pressure of new media companies, and no clear answers on any of that. we also spent a lot of time talking about personal and corporate reputations in this area -- this era of social networks and instant communication, and what the role of media is with regard to that, and the responsibility both on the media side and how individuals and corporations respond to those attacks, to the coverage, to that new world order. we had a fascinating discussion with the president of iceland who obviously went to a tremendous experience last year, a near-death experience, but the financial meltdown.

he was fascinating on the fact that the media had declared his country financially bankrupt, and it had spread within a day and had done tremendous damage to both his country to himself. and the question was, what responsibility did the media have and how did he personally respond? in the am, one of his answers was that he decided that he was just not going to respond. and whether or not that was the right way to deal with these issues. i think that was something that we all face both personally and on a corporate level. another area that was a lot of time on was privacy and lawful exploitation of data that we all get, in this era, and whether or not privacy existed anymore or would exist or could exist, from the media and on a personal level, and what the responsibility there was. .

that really is an issue of economics and jobs and something we think everybody has a vested interest in and then we'll have to play a role in, and the governments have to play a role in, and something that has garnered more attention than it has but still not enough. >> thank you.

let me begin by weaving together two seems that have come up in almost all of your comments. -- two themes that have, but almost all of your comments. several of you have talked about communication and that companies need to be more proactive. we just heard with iceland how the media can have the effect of broadcasting a message so quickly. can any of you discuss in more detail what your industry can do to be more proactive? how to communicate, given that the cycle has become so assured that questions have become more closely linked to questions about communication. >> it is not an issue of having one key message, but it is talking through different channels, through different audiences, and to make your voice heard.

it is not enough to leave the forums to one group only but do have a magnitude of voices and to make sure you bring across key voices. we talk about somebody has to pay a price, and it is very difficult to make people understand we are all linked together, and going from one extreme to the other, every month but gave -- everybody will be hurt. rather than saying, let's withdrawn, i think more communication is better than less. >> can you talk about what has been affective? there's been talk that the effective communication has been helpful. a lot of people have talked about what they want to highlight. would any of you like to address

that? >> first, i think we discussed that, but we are in a competitive environment with different interests. what is important is good we are reaching out to politicians to regulate. very often it may provoke reaction, which maybe not quite the right one, because if you dig phone message, you will come to different conclusions -- if you take the wrong message you will come to different conclusions.

with a lot of people we have communicated with the media in a not very concerted way, and if you stick together, it you listen to the other arguments, and then you find better ways. you may have to do create from the g-20çó ua b-20, business 20. it is not just to talk about your own interest. it is very important to know if they are negative impact on others. real estate is also question of funding. we cannot do it just me via the lending market. the same is true with the other statements. i think we have to join forces

more often, and the interdisciplinary course -- approach is probably right. >> that is nicely put. if politics is the driver of bad regulation, and this led to the securitization of the hedge fund market, it is a potential issue that we as real estate professionals are going to find we are not served by financial industry, which allows huge burdens -- huge booms followed by a huge bust. that is our concern. unfortunately, emotions are on this side of the banking industry in a rather in discriminatory way.

it feels like there has to be something to counteract that. >> if i could ask, in light of this stress on communication, you mentioned that the new media voices were getting larger. how does that change the equation? any thoughts house some of these other industries should be mindful -- any thoughts about how some of these other industries should be mindful? >> i do not want to give any thoughts people should take to the bank, but i would say a thing we have to be conscious about theñr fact we are in an entirely new world. it used to be we would wait for the news ever to come out tomorrow, and then we would wait

for the news programs tonight. waiting five minutes today is not even possible. we live in a society where it is measured in seconds, and i think this is an opportunity for everybody here and something we cannot ignore. it can be problematic, and it can be used to great effect, so i think old ways of dealing with media are not sufficient anymore, but i think embracing the new method set can also help are important for each of us, and i do not think you can ignore it. you ignore it at your own peril. >> i would like to turn to the audience and give an opportunity for questions. we are going to pass around the

microphone. please give your name and the name of your organization. if you have anyone in particular you would like to direct a question to, please say so, and we will take as many as began over the next 20 minutes or so. if you can raise your hand if you would like to ask a question, i will look to the audience. there is one right over here. >> i am the ceo of real estate firm. you talked about reactivating the securitization market. right now the balance sheets of many banks are clogged up with assets, and the continued the leveraging makes it hard to put more loans out to real estate. at the height of the market, 75% of the loans were securitization, so in order to have a healthy market, we are

going to need as securitization market to get things going. what do you think it is going to look like? what do you think is the likelihood of the securitization market getting activated? >> first, i think it is a crucial development. if people assume we can move from a market-based system to a bank-based system, they are absolutely mistaken. that is not going to happen. we will not agreeable to finance. the securitization has started, but we will need more transparent products. we will need more information on the products in the course of the transaction, and one of the big questions is we need investors, and investors have

one response. the price has to be right, and sometimes for more complex products, investors feel a price level is not where they would like to see it, and i think we will have to find this before we move. in addition, we have to do everything on the regulatory side, and banks are willing to play that role and invest in capital requirements. it will be part of the infrastructure, which we're doing right now under the leadership of the committee, but that is a very important element, and we should seize what the outcome will be in terms of region we should see what the outcome will be in terms of securitization, but it is essential the reactivate securitization markets.

>> i want to find out from an investor perspective what some of your decisions are. >> it is an essential part of bank lending. there are a number of issues. one has to do with a lot more information. there are not such many, and given the issues, there is a higher discount rate associated with the, but i think it is more likely in the short term the price it -- the types we have sold to the market will be much more secure.

over time as people get comfortable, they will be comfortable with underlying research as they rebuild their credibility. you will be able to get lower into the stack, but i do think the pricing is going to have to be right, and the price we saw during the boom was not just appetite from investors old so the high leverage available against those securitization us a themselves as well as regulatory framework, so with those having changed, even with it having come back, i imagine it will be wider spread.

>> there is a question over here on the back. i am making this comment as the chairman of the nonprofit setting data standards. on the restarting of securitization, the pricing issue you mentioned is the heart of it, and at this very minute in washington, there is an effort to bring substantially more transparency into these securitized packages using the knowledge installed in the system. the technology is there. it works. the first 400 companies are using it now. all companies are required to use it next june, and the discussion is going on this morning ad agencies to hold a lot of these securities. it is all about how to bring the type of transparency that the

securities exchange act brought and the whole composite legislation that brought so much transparency to equities. equity did not fail in the last cycle. it was the unregulated securities that were hard to price. i would like to ask mr. ackerman whether the banks in europe are doing anything about bringing transparency as a logical way of getting healthy markets rather than micromanagement. >> one element is quality of underlying assets. people will watch the quality of underlying assets, but yes, they are working on transparency. if you're seeing more recent transactions, i think you're seeing more information, and

people are encouraged to revive less on ratings, but they need the right price level and the right quality of assets, and they need the simplicity of products in order to regain trust in securitization market, and in then, it is all a question of trust. >> the question here in the front row. >> i am from the global leader'' group. just to take this discussion, i think the idea we have been discussing is regulation. in the past we have regulated, and there was some over innovation. that will be an issue the new regulation as well. some people may find as well, and how much are we going to see

it internal risk-management practices coming up in the organization, things will be checks and balances, and it will allow us to make those decisions without big brother, and that is something they are looking at. the concern is how much we will regulate, and is that going to stifle competition? it will become much more internal. of risk management is said to be enforced, but i think the failure of the last several years has not been lack of risk systems. in many institutions, they were well-defined, very sophisticated. they were very often ignored.

they were made despite the system's saying this is too much of a risk, and joe talked about understanding the underlying assets, and i think many of the institutions, they did not understand what they were dealing with, so i think a key area is to make sure not just that the systems are there but they are being applied and adhered to. no regulation will prevent people from doing stupid things, but it is important to insure within banks and companies people do use their systems and make the right decisions based on what the systems in just a. it ultimately is the risk- taking of a type of the sides, and people understand what they are dealing with. >> i was going to ride that

risk-management systems are incredibly important, and they are being improved, but ultimately, it is judgment, and you need to have people in place exercising good judgment. most of the people did not think they were taking a lot of risk. it is important that the regulations were safe and had low capital charges associated with them. all three of the system, people view them as low risk. that is why we take positions that ultimately were in difficulty. it is important that we do not have the ball -- but if we do not have people exercising good judgment, you can have all the systems you want, but it does not going to solve the problem. >> the importance of aaa securities has remained pretty good. they were chervil a for a reason. people who bought the aaa were not seeking so much risk as

those buying the lesser traded securities. those taking a risk of lower quality securities? >> i would say there is no doubt that aaa has performed better than lower rated instruments, but it did not perform according to what it was meant to, so folks knew they were taking equity risks when they decided to what -- to do what they did in proportion to that. they would own sense of billions of dollars without thinking they needed a cushion. it was throughout the system, but it was of the most highly rated things that failed, and there are lots of examples of aaa securities that did poorly. >> [inaudible] >> i've seen enough to determine

what is actually good. >> if you analyze those banks that did badly, it is not that much lack of juratory. it is bad management, lack of discipline, lack of acquisition discipline, and i would even and lack of qualified supervision, and in that sense, risk management has become an important element of an improved banking system, and the bank association has published of best practice recommendation on waste management to our three years ago. we have learned some lessons, and one is what is marketplace, and what is value. i do not think 65 percent and are not going to pay back their loans.

if the quality is so different from the marketplace -- secondly, what has -- we do see a completely different risc development. for instance, many have recognized subprime is the problem, but almost no one has anticipated this will lead to the same impact on all other asset class moves, and that is something of a complete drying up of liquidity in the market and the demand for not only one product but leveraged loans for commercial real estate -- you name it, and i think that is one thing. we have to approach with a much more holistic massive, and

revelation will not take place through mismanagement. >> to reserve question right over here in front of me. >> -- there is a question right over here in front of me. >> i have a question on a completely different topic. we talked about changes in communication, and suddenly, there is a change in the amount of information coming people's ways, but a lot of it is coming into companies. we have heard a lot of them coming back in two constituencies. my experience has been the companies are not that good at listening, so the flood of information coming to them. can the media companies help in dealing with this flood of information coming into companies? >> i think media companies can

certainly play roland that, but i think the big difference is media companies do not control all of that information, and that is where you have to make a decision on what is important and what is valuable. the fact is this is the age of information that is controlled by the individual, so all of our companies are being flooded with feedback information, instant communication, instant feedback on how we are altering, how we are perceived, and i do not think it is just love to media companies to make a determination as to what is important and what is valuable. -- i do not think it is just up to media companies to make a determination as to what is important and what is valuable. we bring credibility that each of our brands has been sifting

through information and putting out or reporting what we think is correct, what is important, what people need to know. i think that is the value we bring to it, but i think that ignores an entire new world where today everybody is a journalist because they have of blog, and today we write the story and many will ask questions later. it used to be that we would ask questions and then write the story, so we cannot pretend that does not exist, so i think all companies and all industries have to recognize there is credibility that comes from brands that disseminates information, but there is feedback an instant feedback in communication that comes from every individual in the world, and you have to make a

determination as to what is important and what you're going to deal with. >> let me turn to the floor with another question. if there is anything else you would like to add, let me know. we talked a little bit about information and of powering the consumer. an unknown number of you have talked about change of consumer preference. i know there is some question about new consumers demanding environmental aspects in construction and real estate, and that is impacting how many people are thinking of construction. i wonder if you can comment on some of that discussion plus the fact of 40% is connected with real estate and building. >> the employees of large companies have increasingly become aware of issues of the

environment and climate change, and they look around them, and every aspect of what they der are seen as potential areas they can contribute to. when it comes to working environments, we're seeing more and more of their employees have been taught by teachers who work very environmentally aware -- who are very environmentally aware employers have started to listen. the process started with the corporate use of real estate, and the owners are starting to listen to what they give from their customers. some companies have taken a lead in reacting to this, and deutsche bank is one of them. i suspect that is partly

because their customers find it attractive as well. that is why -- were the source of the push has come from. >> we have almost no time left. i thought i would give you 30 seconds to a minute for any comments, and i am afraid i will have to rough up. >> i sometimes -- i will have to wrap up. >> we were close to wrapping -- meltdown last year, but we do see a lot of risk on the horizon, and some parts of the world are increasing, so in that sense, there was confidence we're having the worst behind us but still somewhat fragile in terms of the economic environment.

>> we need to be careful but we're not focusing on the needs of people in europe, north america, japan, but also really making sure globalization continues because it has raised the standard of living across the world, and i think the economic crisis has exacerbated the discussion, and it has benefited all of us, and i think we need to continue to push the and make sure we continue on that path rather than going back because it will globally hurt us all. >> it feels a lot better this year than last year, and the general sentiment will feel a lot better and 2011. despite the short-term challenges we have described in financing and the industry as oval, the senses longer term it

is in tact. it is a complicated subject. the fact that it is rising and everybody's agenda and an increasing view of it as an asset class, all those are back on track. >> rather than discussing a sense of optimism, i would discuss it as being back to business and doing normal business you need to do, and i think not only about the economy but having an eye on some of the risks out there. >> the technology is changing the way we all communicate and the way the media: disinformation. we are all involved in that, and

this is both an incredibly exciting and dynamic time throughout the world and an incredibly and powering time for individuals, and the key is to know how to deal with that and how to embrace it and to know what is right and what is wrong, but it has never been more exciting or more and towering to the whole world than it is today. >> on an optimistic note, let me give my thanks for joining us today and an invitation to join us next year, when i think it will be more optimistic. thanks to our panelists. thank you very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> now a discussion on the situation in haiti fro.

this is about 25 minutes. some of the photographs are graphic and may be disturbing to viewers. host: one month after the >> an aerial view of port-au- prince. our guests spend a number of weeks in haiti. in haiti. we have been seeing these pictures but what did you see and feel? guest: i think for most, it was probably one of the worst things anybody had ever seen. it was difficult to stay detached and be a start of the

story. it was really hard. just to see such devastation. >> remind our audience that our phone lines are open. jane will be with us for the next half hour. >> one of the issues is who is in control? you have the government and the u.s. and western country relief efforts. you have the non-government organizations. food for the poor. the american red cross, other agencies trying to help these people, who is running the show.

there is just not a support system that is working. yes, there is still the prime minister, but essentially, the un arm of the government's is functioning as the head of the government in the sense that they are coordinating u.s. troops, and even they lost nearly 150 people. people. they are still trying to get they are still trying to get their full capacity back.

it is a tough situation. amount of relief in aid is difficult. guest: i arived in haiti less than three days after the earth earthquake. friday midday. i was there for nearly two weeks. these photos are taken for the first two weeks after this happenedñi you look at the absolute destruction of the earth earthquake to seing the next round of the dead.]x

there were people that have internal bleeding, people who had crush syndrom which they found difficult to treat. there was probably less than 10 you nights of dial sister in the country. anyone with gangrene that didn't have broken legs or arms treated.çóçó they were the6d left on the streets for body collection. host: on a good day, haiti was a troubled nation. if you look at long-term efforts, what are we looking at? is the u.s. committed to this?

guest: certainlyly -- the u.s., i didn't think he left the country yet. he's been there the entire time.4hqjeát u.s. has been more necessary enter.jfçó0lxjkxd if you don't, you are going to get hundreds of thousands of hatians that are going to set sail for u.s. shores. it will become more of a mass tragedy. across the u.s. and ngos and other countries. that something needs to be done. a plan has to be made in order to form and rebuild a country and market.

you are starting from less than zero. there's probably not banks. there's no schools. they are really starting from less than scratch. >> one of the photographs you posted is a van. it says optimism. ifment guest: there where are these huge -- they call them tap taps. they are these enormous vans that are kind of illegal.çó they paint them in thesexd ways. there were tons of the people heading to the border. these are people trying to leave haiti to get out and find

a better life some place else. even through all that, there is a sense of optimism. you see renee who two days held a day of mourning for haiti. there was this pause where everybody said we need to start saying goodbye to our dead. even in that speech, he said haiti cannot be abandonned. we have to move on. people were trying to open shop and get back to the semblance of life. even if your shop ended up being half of a tarp with a continue roof over it.

part of the spirit of having so many zsters tough tropical storms. the scale is so much more enormous i'm going to have to move on and provide for my family. i'm going to have to keep going in this trooper spirit. >> we'll bring in our viewers and listeners. this is from the twitter comment getting to the earlier point. how did they come up with the number after so many bodies had been dumped into mass graves? that was really striking for

me. it was hard to see the mass graves. it just looks like something, you couldn't imagine of hell. just these piles of bodies. in other countries like, say, china. they would try to photograph and fingerprint each body. this wasn't happening in haiti. the scope of the disaster made it impossible. with the tsunami, you had this wash of wave come in. there wasn't a huge amount of dead bodies. here, they were everywhere. you needed to get them out of the populations so they weren't spreading disease. that was a really important priority.

almost every building over four floors were gone. thank you, her reporting available on line attime.com. we'll share more photographs she took. also want to point out this story from the "new york times" this morning. education also leveled by the earthquake. the country's main nursing school, medical college, the science building has been ripped open, the teacher's college is now tetering on its side. michael joining us from obama.

good morning. whoever does the character generators seems to take them off the air quickly and take 30 minutes or so before putting them back on. host: it's hard to find the right ambulance so we don't keep repeating them. caller: my question has to do with the long term -- that wonderful tv reporter. my concern is about long term economic rebuilding.

i don't know how many c-span viewers remember or even know how much -- how many blame france bears in the underlying causes of haiti's poverty. sometime in the 18 20's, france demanded all these tributes back to it getting their rightful freedom. i heard france i am also concerned the deforestation is one of the reasons he is vulnerable to earthquakes in the way the

dominican republic's is not. i am ashamed of this. so much of france 19th century furniture was pulled from haitian wood. >> thank you for your call. people who have been to haiti comment on deforestation of the country. >> absolutely. the comment goes back to the history of haiti. part of what made the problem -- part of what contributes to haiti's isolation today. they declared independence from france, and in many ways, he became an orphan child of the caribbean, where it lost the patron country, where it lost its colonizers. it gained independence, but it lost help from the country's third of the u.s. was not interested in helping of the

time. the u.s. was still expanding and becoming its own country, expanding west, and they did not pay that much attention, and they were not a superpower as they are today. france eventually demanded to compensate them for the land lot of. haiti had to boor row money in order to pay france back. they were indebited to us and france in paying for their independence for the decade of generations. that led in many ways to haiti becoming much less developed it is striking when you go. i drove across and you drive through this amazingly lush land. all the way west through the

dominican republic. it's green and beautiful and you get to the hatian border, it's like a dust goal. the difference is so striking. it's been completely did he forested. part of that is because the island is so undeveloped. it's really the poorest country. out of 9 million people, only 1 million people had power. there really was almost nothing left. you would get these terrible mudslides because there's no trees, nothing, no roots to prevent the sliding of the mud. one of the main things they will focus on is rebuilding the

agricultural. they were all former slaves and none of them wanted to farm anymore. haiti turned from the land. now they need to rebuild that and say, you need to be able to feed and rebuild ago culltuffer and make the land healthy so people can live on it and not be so focused on urban areas. the u.s. government. we want to share more on the photographs that she saw. welcome to the program. >> yes. thank you for having me. thank you for your insight. our prayers go out to them. i have one question and one comment. my question is all the millions

raised through various charities and celebrities so forth and so on. that stuff happened by design. bank car tells sucked this dry. host: i want to stay on topic. i want to go back to your first point. how do you find jobs for all of the hatian people? do we just keep them fed and clothed forever? guest: that's the real challenge.

certainly, a building haiti's economy is a major priority, because you need to employ all these people. i met a young boy -- a man who was 27 years old -- and i went to cover a factory in a blue collar area of port-au-prince,

and one of the worst losses of life was a factory where there were more than 2000 people inside when the factory collapsed. it was a textile factory that made t-shirts, and it collapsed, and when you think of the people who remain under the rubble, and he was standing outside, and i asked him why he was there, and he said, my sister is in side, and my mother and my other brother died. i am here because i figure they're going to need to hire people because they lost all their workers, and i am here to get a job. sister's body but i also need to find work. it is certainlyly a huge priority for those rebuilding the country to get aid flowing and investment >> haiti is a tragic example of what happens without freedom, a

free market or free enter prize. >> what has been the role of the dominican republic in aiding haiti, if any. and accepting refugees across their immediate border? >> sure. great question. it's been difficult sharing an island. it is very different cultures. they have been amazing in this. the government has been great. they could land a lot of planes and truck through enormous amounts of supply and gas.

they are totally afraid of their island being overwhelmed. they are going to try to come to santa doningo. you saw several check points where you saw police shaking down hatians. every time, they stopped us and we said we were foreign journalists. it's their way of preventing anybody but the richest of hatians from coming across and living in the dominican republic until now.

they didn't a lue the mules being hired. it's kind of a tough situation right now. >> more images while in haiti, the first two weeks after the earth earthquake host: good morning. welcome. caller: i'm a first-time caller. >> this might be a really stupid question, but i'm looking at all this horror in haiti. you have this lovely reporter. i know this is a stupid question, i hope you take it seriously. i want to know how much money

she spends on getting her hair done every month? host: i fail to see the relevant vens, mary. all this horror in haiti, she's got this beautiful hair. how do you justify that? host: you mentioned this earlier. you are in this country, you are witnessing the poverty, pain and suffering. for you or any reporter out there to chronicle what you are seeing, what is going through your mind? caller: it's very tough when you are there. when you come out and go to santa doe ming oh , which is ufuoñrñi untouched.mpi notice see women who are beautifullycñ put together.

there's food everywhere and grocery storesxd andxdñi ca)ñrñ around and gas and water and thingsçó nobody has in haiti. you have this real -- we gave away every]/>xdxd i can do witmore with my time telling their story so you're more informed, and a lot of my time in the beginning, we were

the first people in a community that had not seen any aid, and we spent a lot of time writing down and relaying the information back to the un and saying we were in this community. they had a mass grave, and they felt they might have made it too close to their water sources. people were getting ill. need help. relaying information to simp and rescue teams. we heard rumors of signs of life.ñi we would provide immediate new when's they needed it. host: will you be going back? caller: i hope to go back in april or the spring.

there is a real worry. there's still 750,000 without tents. there's a real worry when the rains come, this will cause huge amounts of disease just because people living in tents. there's really no sewage systems. this is a real concern. this is a real emergency. so people could at least have shelter during the rain. >> tomorrow, douglas brinkley compares the current presidential administration to past presidents and their administration, and james alan

fox, a public policy professor at northeastern university, examines crimes and violent crime rates nationwide, especially in cities. coming up next, david boxxie and prime minister gordon brown at the british house of commons. after that, a forum on the global industry outlook. and then another chance to talk about haiti. booktv weekend continues all day monday with programs devoted to american presidents, including fdr, president oma