week. author of the terror courts examines the military commissions act after the september 11th, 2001 terrorists attacks. and harvard university lecturer talks about the legacy of iraq and afghanistan. "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. a little marriage, -- political marriage, she would lobby. she was always careful to say, my husband advocates this. she herself was during the pitch, and one of her husband's

opponents said he held -- he hoped if james was ever elected president she would take up housekeeping like a normal woman, and she said if james and i were ever elected, i will neither keep house or make better. >> one of the most influential first ladies, sarah polk. will also look at her successors. live monday night on c-span and c-span 3. also on c-span radio end c- span.org. >> michael o'neill says some of his top concerns include gridlock in washington, and the european economy, and cyber terrorism. mr. o'neill expressed confidence in the state of the industry, saying financial institutions are ready to start lending more money once demand picks up. this is 25 minutes.

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome [indiscernible] [applause] you can get used to this, know? thank you for joining us this morning. i learned a lot yesterday. i learned about latin america, mexico. regions for strong growth. one of the big innovations we might have with the data and how that might affect marketing decisions and how it can make better decisions on how to target efforts.

i heard from a small business panel talking about the importance of social media, twitter, things like that. the twitter feed and qr -- you have a smart phone. i hope you will download the program. we will do all of our surveys online. that is how we find out the programs you like and which panels you like. we will do more of what you liked and less of what you didn't like next year. my mother said you cannot dance at two weddings and i try to dance at four. david average age in china is 26 and in india is 36. maybe a slower growth, but long-term and a lot of opportunities. a lot of back to the is -- a lot of activity in seoul area.

they have an election next year in india. things slowed down before federal elections. no one has ever heard of that in our country, but sometimes things slowed down a little bit before the election. you will hear from denny rodrick about a lot of nuclear opportunity as countries look at energy security and reducing their carbon foot rent. another of interesting factors in that. i heard that he talks about the balance return market and -- about the market and the state. those are some of the things i picked up yesterday. last evening, we signed an agreement with a council. we signed a memorandum of

understanding. i was just there. we signed an agreement to provide financing for up to 5 billion dollars. it depends on the industry. a lot of infrastructure in dubai. power, water. it is our fourth largest country of exposure globally. number four, right after india. india is coming up fast.

a lot of opportunities there. i had a meeting with the chairman of a bank. they have every turn on equity at 24.5%. i'm not allowed to buy stock and i cannot make stock tips, that sounded pretty good. we signed an agreement less than a year ago with them for $1 billion. they announced this week a purchase of 12 boeing aircraft with the leasing company. we are closing in on that on the next several months. i'm hopeful that you are also finding opportunities, deals, and the new relationships that you can make here at this conference so you come out of here with the understanding up

opportunities and perhaps an order or two or the beginnings of an order. after this, larry summers had some airline problems coming down here, so we will have a conversation with michael o'neill instead. after that, a panel on competitiveness. was one of the best panels we had last year. following that, ray lahood on transportation and infrastructure and how it impacts global trade. we have the vice president of -- she has some advice on how we can do a better job at the banks. and the vice president will be here. that is a little bit later. as soon as you can come back to get screened for the luncheon speech, if you have to make a phone call, better to do it inside this area. the only other thing i would add, the unemployment figures came out this morning. unemployment has dropped to the lowest it has been in years. 88,000 jobs in the month of

march. i will ask michael o'neill to join me. i have had the privilege of getting to know him. he is that chairman of citigroup. he also ran the bank of hawaii for a number of years. probably nicer weather there. one of the best banks in the country. let's give him a round of applause for that.

[applause] i'm always reluctant to say -- you have been in the banking industry for a long time. as citibank, you're one of the largest banks in the country. what are the big changes in 30 years? what are some takeaways from that perch you are in? >> where do i begin? first of all, it is 40 years in

the industry. the environment we are in now is clearly one with economic prospects are less clear. i started thinking, i think, when there was great confidence in the u.s. that is no longer the case. another key point that needs to be made is regulation. it has become a much bigger part in the banking business than it was then. i learned early in my career what not to do them what to do. thee is a name that some of older audience members will remember. the bank failed. it was perceived too big to fail at the time.

the government basically got its money back. it was an awkward situation. jpmorgan is a trillion dollar bank. we are an -- you can imagine the change in scale here that has occurred in the last 30 or 40 years. that creates all sorts of issues. it also creates potential problems like those we saw in 2006, 2007, and 2008. it really did threaten the global economy. it is night and day over that time. we are still struggling not to right the ship,

but ensure the safety and soundness issues that occurred in 2008 do not happen again. there are things that are being now explained. how do i describe this? identified by the regulators. we're not done yet, but i think it is time we are with the implementation. we will see. we are already much safer and sounder than we have been in a long time. that has not been completely

troubled, but we are making terrific progress in that area. the economy is going to determine our earnings prospect. i'm a little less sanguine than i am about -- >> in 2008 in the aftermath of the crisis, what many broker firms and others became bank companies. what are some of the good outcomes from that? what are some things we need to keep an eye on in the merger of those kinds of financial markets?

>> let's first start by asking ourselves why those brokerage firms became bank holding companies. the market environment at the time was toxic. the liquidity, visitations could not sell their assets quick enough. it was absolutely critical that the banks and the government established by those large banks were safe. and the way they did it was to allow those brokerage firms to become banks and have access to the federal reserve window. very quickly the liquidity

issues that threaten to become more serious than they were were resolved. this evidence to do it it was making sure that they had liquidity. the consequences of doing that was at these companies now have to live in a much more heavily regulated world. that is not all bad. i think some of that disciplines they are having to live with our good. certainly for the economy overall. the risk of mixing capital banks with banks that take consumer deposits has been well discussed. everyone is concerned that these consumer deposits that are guaranteed by the fdic will be used to make imprudent investments.

the uk has gone so far to suggest that the investment banks unfairly described as casino banks, separated from the consumer banks. we in the u.s. are taking a different approach. it is a concern that consumer deposits are used inappropriately. i would say it that would be the area that one would want to continue to watch and continue to make sure that banks are being prudent and well capitalized. >> before this conference started, several people met with some of the largest banking partners. one of the things that came out of that is that a number of bankers in the room said that they felt like they were underlined.

moore capital could be put into projects. working people in this room think about underlend? >> i think the statement is true. what we are seeing is a massive deleveraging both by consumers and companies. that is not all bad. it is a reaction to issues that occurred in 2008. long-term, it is not sustainable. largely we were overlent. not because the banks are unwilling to lend. at this point we are willing to make any good -- there is good news on the

horizon apparently, but there really isn't long demand from people that are strong credits. i do not think there is a policy. some would argue because we are building capital to meet the standards that we are unwilling to make love. i do not think that is true. i think we will make whatever good loan we can. >> i was trying to be generous by saying 30 years and you said 40 years. tell us about a country you visited early in your career that blossomed much faster than you thought and looks like it has a lot of potential that longer to come to pass. >> let me take a second to think here.

as a child and teenager, i lived both in europe and asia. in the late 1950s and 1960s. i think the place that impressed me the most is singapore. i recall leaving the u.s., i think it was kennedy, flying on panam. and ending up in singapore. >> it was a boeing plane. >> it was. there was no airbus, my friend. >> those were the good days. [laughter] a you can tell that it needed lot of work.

i'm happy to report that a lot of work was done. it looks fantastic when you go today. it is state-of-the-art. now you can board an airplane as singapore happily and travel back. there is a different feeling than you had four years ago. it is we that we need the work. i think there are a lot of challenges that need to be met. i'm also confident that they can be met. if we have the political will. that is a contrast -- the contrast. financialthe global crisis, i think that people around the world, model market

economy, so forth, it has gotten a little kicked around based on the financial crisis. how does that change from your perspective our country's ability and financial institutions to provide models for the rest of the world? does that change in your opinion? and how? >> i think it has change, certainly reputationally. the perception was that it was the u.s. that it's greedy ways cost of the crisis. i do not think the financial situations were the only parties. i think fannie and freddie were -- it was suggested that they

make loans. monetary policy was such that it sponsored it. i think there were some dishonest people in the business. certainly not all of them, but some. it would fraudulently filled out applications and make loans. there is plenty of blame to go around. mortgages were bundled up. also in europe and asia.

results were not good. the perception of the u.s. as a bastion of capitalism has certainly been hit. when you look at the economies that have been successful in the last 10 or 15 years, there has been a good combination of government and business working together. i think that is the direction that would be the right one today -- to take. we will talk more about that on the competitiveness panel. i think we will see more of that in the future. obviously there are advantages and disadvantages to to both. that has not always worked well, at least not recently.

this is important. >> what keeps you up at night? >> well, assuming this position, i sleep less well. what keeps me up at night, well, i worry about the sustainability of the economy. europe continues to be a problem. i think it is being dealt with in an unbalance. it is a long-term problem. given europe's problems and our slow growth, things are performing ok, but not the way they were in the past. we have our own any problems at this point. the government increasingly --

dare i use the word, dysfunctional. the issues that people are wrestling with the need to get resolved, hopefully sooner rather than later. i'm no expert. i'm not terribly confident that any big solution will happen. another issue that keeps me up is cybersecurity. secretary panetta and one of his last speeches describe the single biggest threat to the united states.

when he says that, you certainly have to listen. we have been targeted, all of the big banks have been targeted. cybersecurity is not just about hackers. it is not just about guys trying to get your credit card number. in the case of many economies, there has been a lot of press about china and iran and israel. it is a reality. sophisticated people. building firewalls against them will be difficult. we have got a strong team. this is a threat. it is one that should keep us all up at night. >> on a more positive note, you have traveled around. this is a personal question. where do you see opportunities that people should take a second look at?

i think columbia is a strong market for u.s. exporters. do you have a couple of places in mind? >> yes. there is a term that we use internally. we call it frontier economies. mongolia, etc. they are actually quite strong. they have got hard-working people and are increasingly well-educated. typically pretty strong leadership. there are more. i think it will be good. >> i will wrap this up so we

had time to reset for the next panel. let's give him a round of applause. [applause] we will hear more from michael o'neill in the next panel. this is just a warm-up act. give us a few minutes and we will start the competitiveness panel. we have got a full day. we would have you plenty occupied. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> also a discussion on u.s. competitiveness in the global market. it includes michael o'neill and ursula burns. this is an hour. >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our first panel to remain competitive in global markets. we have ursula burns, michael o'neill, and general james

jones. >> good morning. my name is steve pearlstein. i'm a colonist at the washington post. i'm also a professor at george mason university. that is where i spend most of my time these days. it is a privilege to be here again.