plus former fdic chair sheila bair coming on the second hour of "closing bell." >>> and it is 4:00 on wall street. do you know where your money is? hi, everybody. welcome back to the "closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo on the floor of the new york stock exchange. it will be a photo finish for the markets today. the dow and s&p 500 trying to close in positive territory after being in the red for much of the day today. looks like we are just under 14,000 with a gain on the session of 6.5 points. as you can see there, 13,985 on the industrial average. this market does not want to go down. we are moments away from a batch of earnings tonight including visa and news corp. we'll see what the numbers are and see if they set the tone for tomorrow but, first, take a look at the market action. michael yosikami and michael pento and chad morganlander and our own rick santelli. good to see you, guys. thanks for joining us. michael, beginning with you. >> thank you. >> more of a lack of market action. what do you make of that? >> pento or yokishami? which michael? >> michael yokishami. >> the mark

. >>> sheila bair thought so but she was opposed by other people in the administration. get to jack lew? >> maybe the most interesting job in early 2008 he takes the helm of alternative is investments that ran hedge funds and exotic balance vehicles. it was basically a unit if it wasn't the inspiration for the volcker rule that wanted to stop banks from gambling with taxpayer's money. >> paul: the defense of him would be he came on in 2008 and all the bad decisions had already been made. you can't blame jack lew for other bankers did? >> he is now setting himself up. he is now --. >> paul: is that a fair point in his defense? >> it is fair because a lot of bad bets were already made. whether they could have made some different decisions starting in early 2008, possibly, but i think the key issue for them, his job as secretary of treasury would basically be in charge of spotting risks in the financial marketplace. he is running something called the financial stability oversight council. this is deeming certain companies and identifying risks. was he able to identify any r

years ago, as the american economy was melting down, jack lew was an executive at citigroup which sheila bairescribes as the most toxic of all those troubled banks. >> they were the poster child in need of government aid. >> reporter: citigroup needed three government bailouts. over $460 billion in taxpayer dollars and loan guarantees just to survive. but at the same time, they still managed the pay lew a bonus of nearly $1 million. >> explain why it might be morally acceptable to take close the a million dollars out of a company that was functionally insolvent. >> senator, in 2008, i was an employee in the private sector. i was compensated in a manner consistent with other people who did the kind of work that i did in the industry. >> reporter: lew's tenure included a post as the chief operating officer of alternative investments. and when he arrived in 2008, when he arrived the division was in deep trouble. bleeding money. both investors and citibank's own financial advisers were in open revolt which you can see in internal e-mails obtained by abc news. i'm watching a slow-motion movie of m

at noon eastern, former fdic chairman, sheila bair. a bit later, the alliance for health reform host a forum on medicare policy in the future of the program. that gets under way at 12:15 eastern. we're live this afternoon at 1:30 this afternoon with a press conference with bipartisan members of the conference -- congress. >> as you might expect, given the breadth of products we have, one of the areas we are investing a lot is the multi- screen connectivity, because we have already seen humans will pay tasking. you were on your couch watching tv but also texting on your phone are on the internet. how do we link those devices to reach other and link them to the internet? one very good example is the camera. and a camera now built in with 3g and 4g connectivity so you can take photographs were you go and instantly upload of tool website or to social media. bringing wireless connectivity to a camera. linking products to each other is a big thing for us and we think of value to the consumer. >> david steel from this year's consumer electron

we start with sheila bair.income unequality in "the new york times," and it's entitled "grand old parity." "i am a capitalist and a lifelong republican. i believe that in a meritocracy, some level of income inequality is both inevitable and desirable. but i fear that government actions, not merit, have fueled these extremes in income distribution through taxpayer bailouts, central bank engineered financial asset bubbles and unjustified tax breaks that favor the rich. this is not a situation that any freethinking republican should accept. >> amen. >> it cuts against everything our country and my party stand for. government's role should not be to rig the game in favor of the haves but to make sure that the have-nots are given a fair shot. having worked for senate republicans in the 1980s, i remember a time when republicans stood up to special interests and purged tax code of preferences for investment income and other special breaks. they managed to survive re-election by showing leadership, taking principles po

and if it will spread to other ratings agencies when we speak exclusively to former fdic chair sheila bair after the bell today. 40 minutes before the closing bell sounds for the day, a market down about nine points on the dow jones industrial average. >> i think we'll finish positive today, we'll see. disney ceo bob iger breaking news about the "star wars" franchise right here with you on "closing bell" yesterday. let's all remember this. >> we are working on a few stand-alone films. larry kazden and others are working on films derived from great "star wars" characters that are not part of the overall sagas. >> "star wars" fans have their fingers crossed. the stock hit a record high today as a result, so is the force still with disney, or is there a danger it could turn to the dark side for investors? that trade coming up next. >> also, the post office ending first class mail delivery on saturdays. now, that could hurt a lot of businesses, but you'll never guess which industry could actually benefit from that. that's coming up. stay with us. [ shapiro ] at legalzoom, you can take care of

for the last five years and i have noticed brian lamb is had excellent interviews and i have seen sheila bairm the fdic. the biggest point that everyone seems to be missing is it is not whether or not people are receiving bonuses or who has paid back on much of tarp, who cares how much they have paid back? the big point that they are missing is the glaring contradiction. the last four decades as factory workers lost their jobs and small farmers got wiped out, we were receiving these lectures about the free market, free market capitalism, about the loss of free market capitalism and free trade agreements wiping out the american middle class. it was because we had to bowed down to the religion of the free market and what has never been repaid beentarp is the double standard that when these plutocrats got into trouble, all that garbage about the free market science and milton friedman got thrown right out the window. it is the double standard, the hypocrisy, the contradiction -- that can never be repaid, thank you. guest: the caller raises a really interesting point. this is something i put a re

i have noticed brian lamb has had some interesting interviews and i have seen sheila bair from the fdic and i think on bill moyers at one point, but i think that the biggest point everybody seems to be missing is it's not whether or not people are receiving bonuses for who is paid back how much of t.a.r.p., who cares so much the feedback but the big point everyone seems to be missing is the glaring contradiction for the 70's, 80's and 90's as factory workers lost their jobs and small farmers we were receiving a lectures about the free market, about free-market capitalism, but the free market capitalism and the free trade agreements, all this stuff wiping out america's middle class that was all because we had to bowed down to the religion of the free market and what can never be repaid regarding t.a.r.p. is the contradiction, the double standard that when the plutocrats got into trouble, all of that garbage about the free market milton friedman and all that stuff got thrown a right out the window and said it is the double standard. it's the hypocrisy, the contradiction that can never be

for the last five years and i have noticed brian lamb is had excellent interviews and i have seen sheila bair from the fdic. the biggest point that everyone seems to be missing is it is not whether or not people are receiving bonuses or who has paid back on much of tarp, who cares how much they have paid back? the big point that they are missing is the glaring contradiction. the last four decades as factory workers lost their jobs and small farmers got wiped out, we were receiving these lectures about the free market, free market capitalism, about the loss of free market capitalism and free trade agreements wiping out the american middle class. it was because we had to bowed down to the religion of the free market and what has never been repaid beentarp is the double standard that when these plutocrats got into trouble, all that garbage about the free market science and milton friedman got thrown right out the window. it is the double standard, the hypocrisy, the contradiction -- that can never be repaid, thank you. guest: the caller raises a really interesting point. this is something i put

it will incorporate ideas put forward by tom honnig, richard fisher and sheila bair. the american public doesn't want us to wait. they want to ensure megabanks will never again gamble away the american dream. to those who say our work is done, i say that we passed seven financial reform laws in the eight years following the depression, so it's clear there is precedent for not just one time, one fix, but a continued addressing of this problem until we know we have the strength of the american financial system in the way it once had. thank you, mr. president. mr. vitter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. vitter: thank you, mr. president. i'm proud to join senator brown on the floor to echo those comments. i agree that too big to fail unfortunately is alive and well, and that poses a real threat, a real threat to all of us, to consumers, to citizens everywhere, fundamentally to the american economy. coming out of the financial crisis, it seemed to me that the biggest threat and the biggest problem was continuing too big to fail. and i