(laughter) politician jon corzine saw lehman brothers as a cautionary tale. financial firm honcho jon corzine saw it as a dare. (laughter) 30-1? pussies. (laughter) you know, no, it's not his fau fault. corzine just couldn't resist the sweet nectar of the private sector. (laughter) but i'm wondering, what did politician john corzine say about c.e.o.s who try and circumvent regulation again? >> there would have been pushback, but that's when strong regulation has to be in place. >> jon: and what did m.f. global head john corzine do vis-a-vis being regulated? well, when the financial regulatory agent told him he needed more capital to lower his leverage he went over their head and lobbied the s.e.c. to make the regulators go away. which apparently on wall street is an option. like when a cop asks you or know step out of our vehicle and we call the police commissioner and go "hey, get this jackass off my behind! i got places to go, that's why i was speeding!" (laughter) now, in case all of this is making you depressed, giving you the sense that wall street is a

comparisons are drawn to lehman brothers' fall in 2008.panies alone have a combined $2 billion loss. deutsche bank and jpmorgan. jpmorgan told reuters that their loss is only a small fraction of that number. that's one reason it may not have the effect that lehman did. they had several times more assets also when it went bankrupt than mf global but this is certainly the sharpest side yet that the threat of contagion from europe is very real, very powerful. >>> felicia taylor there. you're watching "world business today." as clouds gather once again over the economies of europe, they're bracing themselves for a bruising. we'll have that story next. if you've just signed up for medicare or will soon, there's no time like the present to consider all your health insurance options. does medicare alone meet your needs? would additional coverage be better for you? well, now is a good time to take a look at an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. get started by calling for your free information ki

lehman brothers or closing down a bank. it is a country that remains there and a factor in all kinds of economic decisions in europe. and here in the u.s.. >> other count reese went through default and came back and survived. the problem with greece i think, that you have twen percent of the population that is working for the state. the state has been in the center of the political life literally for centuries . chuck is right it will not happen in 36 hours or happen in two years. we are looking at a problem that is not solvable it is not going to be fixed. the question is how do you prevent it from spreading to italy and spain and elsewhere. italy with a debt of two trillion. and the question is, can you wall it off and how as policy makers do you do it? >> what is president obama's goal. i have been to a lot of g-20 summits and not a lot happens there and a lot of the communicatication and talking about the next summit. but as far as big deals they don't come together in two days. what do you think of their expectation .

to say that it is -- that -- to suggest that the financial crisis of 2008 was -- was lehman brothersault, as if lehman brothers invented $600 trillion worth of uncollateralrized credit default swaps. let me finish my point though. it's the same as saying that it's greece's fault that a bunch of western bankers and financial engineers, got together and rewrote the laws in america, rewrote the laws in western europe, created and distributed risk all over the earth, rob cox, when it doesn't work. it's rob cox's fault in greece. you built a global system that was designed to be very fragile and very profitable for the major banks. >> isn't,isn't that different than saying we're bramg greece, greece has it but like blaming the guy, possibly a mexican immigrant who was sold a bill of goods. look, you get this note, only costs you 3% to get your house down. we can make up, don't worry about it, sign here, sign here. all of a sudden the guy is finding he's got a mortgage payments that balloons. >> can't pay it. >> is it his fault we've created a structure that allows that, of course not. gre

and what we've seen is that when if anyone starts to sniff around then they do something about lehman brothers did with the famous republic one of five scam where they simply moved debt off the balance sheet temporarily to satisfy a regulator that might be looking at them and then when the regulators leave the room they put that back on their balance sheet isn't that also the case these off balance sheet entities are hiding huge debt first of all what lehman brothers did with no five that's just broad says this let's not mince words let's not pussyfoot around with this they're a bunch of criminals some of those some could go to jail and unfortunately most of our prosecutorial staff are too busy chasing all their nonsense but there's just no doubt in my mind that the folds and his c.f.o. should be wearing stripes suits with numbers that is criminal you cannot hide one hundred billion dollars or fifty billion dollars at a time in spending and then put it back at the end of the quarter i don't know where the f.c.c. is i don't know where the u.s. attorney general is this it's laughable that's numb

is not also the case these off balance sheet entities are hiding huge debt first of all what lehman brothersdid with one o five that's just broad as this let's not words mince. let's not pussyfoot around with this there are a bunch of criminals some of those some of them go to jail and unfortunately most of our prosecutorial staff are too busy chasing other nonsense but there's just no doubt in my mind that dick folds and his c.f.o. should be wearing stripes suits with numbers that is criminal you cannot hide one hundred billion dollars or fifty billion dollars at a time in spending and then put it back at the end of the the quarter i don't know where the f.c.c. is i don't know where the u.s. attorney general is this it's laughable that's number one number two if you look at them the movement that's starting to pick up a little speed in the united states people have been moving their money away from the big banks to the small local community banks and what we found is that these small community banks they're much more solid they weren't involved with the rivet if they were involved with subp

ago now, during the financial collapse i remember watching news foot footage of the failure of lehman brothers and thinking, this sounds familiar. as each month passed and as each phase of the financial crisis gave way to a newer, more ominous one than the last -- and this crisis is still move anything transitory phases now -- i began to wonder if i was watching gerald ford's worst case scenario from 1976 start to play itself out. until that time it hadn't occurred to me that modern nation states could go bankrupt. individuals can be deplayered bankrupt, but entire countries? i mean, it seemed unfathomable. but there we were, and there they were lined up in a row of dominoes about to fall onto each other; iceland, greece, ireland, portugal, spain and now italy are in trouble. i watched with fascination as financial instability claimed banks and corporations. and then as ford had spoken about in his meeting with the body, the social unrest began. there were riots and disturbances in athens, madrid and london, governments were ousted in iceland, ireland, portugal and britain. and i remember thin

they've also had to simulate a major economic meltdown such as what we saw back when lehman brothers collapsed, proving their ability to try and keep a buffer zone on at least 5% of their capital in the face of 13% unemployment, also another statistic that they'll be testing for is a slump in economic activity as well as crucially a european debt crisis. now, all 31 of these particular institutions which includes some pretty big names here muss keep operating as usual, but it's these six, the largest of the lot that will be tested harsher than any others in terms of their criteria. and it's because basically we all know what happened with lehman brothers and the crisis that prompted. these are equally as big institutions and equally as important to the world's financial melting pot. >>> still to come, a big win for the australian prime minister, julia gillard. mining companies aren't too pleased. the latest on the country's controversial mining tax. that's next. there's a moment where everything comes together. where there's magic. and you now understand what nature's been hiding. ♪

economist, says systems are now in place to fleevepbt lehman brothers collapse. >> it's true we can see stress in the money markets. all show banks shouldn't lend because the e.c.b. is supplying banks with unlimited liquidity. but they are actually taking the liquidity back to the e.c.b. that must -- on the other hand it's different, because when we had the lehman disaster, we didn't have the policies in place to save the stress. >> a quick flash of the markets. markets all over the world are down, down quite substantially. asiaa followed suit and european markets are following suit. they are simply worried about the debt crisis in the euro zone and many are saying it's on the press pus -- precipice. or it could be the periphery is on the precipice all eyes on spain. >> you're on the periphery now. >> i am. >> let's take a look at the impact of the euro zone crisis in feign. -- in spain. heavily among the young and indebted. not a great platform on which to run a platform. the conservative opposition, popular party which is tipped to win is promising a program of shock therapy. more fro

borrowing easing fears of a global credit crisis like the one that followed the 2008 collapse of lehman brothers. taking a live look at the board, you can see the dow is up 386 at 11,942. >>> the deadline for occupy sf protesters to leave justin herman plaza has come and gone but so far police have stayed on the sidelines. david stevenson joins us live to explain what's happening there now. >> reporter: good afternoon. take a look behind me. right now under that pink tent the city's director of the department of public works is meeting with occupy sf members about a proposal that was pitched to them to move the protest to a nearby school across town. in the meantime, occupy protesters are continuing their protest and mission to educate people about economic inequality and expectations that this camp could be raided soon. now, last night the group rejected the city aproposal as it was written to relocate to this empty school. the city says the school is a more stable space that would put an end to raids and ease tension at justin herman plaza. we witnessed this confrontation in which police inter

lehman brothers was 5 to 1. bear stearns was 30 to 1. those are numbers that absolutely reflect the mind set of 2007, 2006, 20208, not the mind set of 2011. you really do have to wonder what was corzine thinking to create that much debt, that much leverage in an environment that is pretty risk-averse now. >> suarez: but before everything started to unravel in the last decade, there were people on wall street making very big fortunes with bets just like that one. weren't there? >> well, sure they were. there were also fortunes that were being lost the same way. think about long-term capital management a decade ago. so, yes, i mean, the whole point of the exercise is the more risk you take, the more reward you can gain. but by the opposite is if the risk turns out to be wrong, you can lose everything. that appears to be what happened in this case. >> suarez: joe notice suero of the "new york times," thanks for joining us, joe. >> thanks for having me, ray. >> woodruff: now, two takes on the struggle to find common ground on tough budget is

who is this republican calvary rushing in to ohio to slave the governor/fox news celebrity/lehman brothersng guy? pause here and think about this for a second. close your eyes -- no, don't close your eyes, squint. who do you see riding in to save the day, save the union busting bill in ohio in this post-citizens united world? oh my god neodness. it's citizens united. as of yesterday, citizens united, the group for whom the supreme court case is named will, quote, begin blasting six figures worth of advertisements throughout ohio. the president of citizen the united said running this anti-union rights ad would cost them at least $100,000. at least. which puts the total amount of money citizens united is spending in ohio somewhere between 100 grand and infinity. beyond the actual group, citizens united, when you think after shady third party out of state groups driving dump trucks of money into an ideologically charged issue, what do you think of? which individuals come to mind? perhaps the koch brothers? yes, that's right. the koch brothers are not just herman cain's brothers from another m

italy is the lehman brothers up 2008. is a large country that could cause -- is a large country that could cause a complete crash. it is way too big for the international monetary fund to deal with. if it cannot sort itself out, the political conditions will not just be regional, but global. >> he has not been a very successful leader of italy's's economy, but are the italians ready to grow up and accept the responsibility that comes with austerity? >> italy has a ratio of its government debt to its economy of more than 100% suggest it is not just silvio berlusconi. it has been years and decades in which italy has now difficult to control its public finances. given that the population is growing quite slowly, that is really a serious problem. is certainly going to require a change in national attitude, a realization that it is not just silvio berlusconi. >> ok, thank you for coming in. just as the government of italy is dealing shockwaves from the economic crisis, the u.s. is going through serious debate all of its some.

we saw the same thing after lehman brothers failed.urope has serious political issues to decide in order for the debt crisis it not affect the core economies over there. yet investors do like the short term fix plus some decent economic info. adp saying there are 206,000 jobs created this month, more than expected. that bodes well for the employment report coming out on friday. and also we have a 10.4% bump in pending home sales in october a nice level right there. as you can see, the dow is shooting higher up nearly 400 points just below 12,000. nasdaq is also up by 84 points and the s&p, frank and grace, is up by 40. just another blockbuster day on wall street this week. >> i was going to say, you got the tie loosely around your neck there. it's been a wild ride. >> it's one of those days. i'm surprised i haven't ripped it off. >> when it hits 400 we'll see you rip it off. >> thank you. >>> the first civil suit has been filed against former opinion state coach jerry sandusky. now a 29-year-old man claims he sexual abused him 100 time

. >>> we last saw this concerted action when lehman brothers went down. i asked the german institute of economic research if things are really that bad again. >> yes, i think so, this is true. if we look at credit default swaps, they are at an unprecedented heights. also, the interbank market has dried out. there may be big problems emerging at the moment. >> how long can the positive effect last? >> usually this only blasts some days because everybody is clear about the fact that governments have had to reform and that using the printing press is the lowering the effect of the governments to go for structured refunds. at the last couple days, but in the end, everybody is aware of the fact more has to be done and politicians have to be more active than they have been in the past. >> will this send to inflation soaring? >> i don't think so. not in the short to medium run. in the medium to long run, we will see inflation in the raw material sector, the real-estate sector. this is the usual pattern. in the short run, we feel a slight recession in germany, an

if you remember what happened with lehman brothers, we all know that whatever happens in the united statesicularly significant for asia and also europe. 31 banks are going to be subjected to these tests by the federal reserve which will essentially evaluate whether they'll be able to cope with another lehman brothers-like situation which prompted the onset of the credit crunch. what will they be facing? on the one hand, they'll be having to simulate a major financial meltdown in the world's finance industry, see whether they can cope with that, and also keep capital buffers. so essentially the amount of money that they have in their vaults and on their balance sheets and about 5% even in the face of unemployment that could be at about 13%. that's one of the things that they're going to be having to test for, and also crucially, they will be testing for a potential meltdown in the euro zone debt situation. we have had our banks here in europe tested but not for that particular last point, carol. >> got you. okay, let's switch to shopping malls. they actually want to track shoppers by follow

a lot of people think back to lehman brothers in 2008. it kind of takes that lehman brothers scenario that we saw in the united states off the table. and that's what wall street is so encouraged about. >> thank you kindly. the dow up now over 380 points. greatly appreciate it. coming up, the senate takes a vote. the big question republicans say, how they'll pay for it. we'll get a live report from capitol hill. and later we'll hear from president obama who is in scranton, pennsylvania. we're following developing news after the uk embassy attack in tehran. britain issues an order to iran. >>> plus, a 104-year-old woman and her 83-year-old daughter were just minutes away from eviction. wait until you hear who stood up for them. >>> and join the conversation online. you name it. i've tried it. but nothing helped me beat my back pain. then i tried salonpas. it's powerful relief that works at the site of pain and lasts up to 12 hours. salonpas. ♪ and just let me be [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ your ticket home ♪ [ male announcer ]

that's the most since august 2008, a month before the collapse of lehman brothers. but the news isn't all good. even though there are more open jobs, there's heavy competition for each one. on average, four out-of-work people apply for each posting. that's slightly better than august, but more than the two- to-one ratio that economists say is healthy. and here on wall street, bonuses are expected to shrink by between 20% and 30% from last year. even steeper declines are expected for bond traders. the cutbacks reflect the difficult times many banks and securities firms are experiencing in this year's market turmoil. after weeks of a stalemate over the president's job bill, the senate will finally vote on a piece of the legislation this week. tonight's commentator weighs in on the impact divided government is having on the legislative process. here's bill rodgers, professor at rutgers university. >> last january, many americans cheered the return of divided government. neither party can implement policy that the other views as extreme. so, with respect to economic pol

if you want to sound smart tell your friends that lehman brothers 2008 bankruptcy filing is the largest in u.s. history at $691 billion in assets. mf global ranks seventh in the history of the american bankruptcy filings. >>> let's huddle up around the water cooler to watch will ferrell pick up and drop comedy hardware. he was given the mark twain prize for american comedy last week in washington. don't worry, it's all part of the gag. he picked up the award, dropped t it shatter into tiny pieces on the floor at his feet. the show aired last night on pbs. >> as i stare at this magnificent bust of mark twain, i'm reminded of how humbled i am to receive such an honor and how i vow to take very special care of it. if my children try to touch it, or even look at it i will beat them. vivi vivica, all i can say is thank you. thank god i found you. you -- you've given us three beautiful boys, and we have a wonderful life together. but i do have to say, sometimes you get a little lippy, okay? i'll tell you one thing, one thing only, okay? tonight is my night, all right? do you hear me? tonight,

was make sure we didn't have a failure of a major financial institution that could have caused lehman brother's type impacts. >> reporter: the markets like the key numbers on jobs, housing, and manufacturing, all coming in stronger than expected. more fuel for the near-500-point rally. the next mile marker for the markets will be the unemployment number that of which comes out friday. >> pelley: anthony, does this mean we're out of the woods on those enormous debts owed by some european governments? >> reporter: well, european leaders are holding a summit in brussels on december 9, scott. that's a week from friday. the markets are expecting and will be disappointed if they don't get some kind of deal out of that meeting. the feeling down here is that the stock market wants to rally but the only thing that's holding it back right now is europe. >> pelley: we'll be watching. anthony, thank you very much. even china got in on the effort to ease lending today. it reversed its policy and freed up cash so its banks can lend more, all to add fuel to the chinese economy which has been slowing. presiden