alan may, as we break this down t caps started well. the mapleleafs had a very good center period.but this was a take-all 3rd period. as we watched this, it looked like the caps were a tired hockey team. >> they looked very tired. in the 3rd period they were blowing coverages right on the face off. he just tucks that in. you have to question whether neuvirth was a little too far back. his stance wasn't good. later backstrom, a risky pass off top. can't get back. and, you know, it looks like a pretty easy goal, but the big thing is, you can see ovechkin can't get his legs. reaching the time. that is the sign of a tired hockey player. that was the nail in the coffin for the mapleleafs over the caps. >> let's take you back to center where we are ready to meet the media with bruce boudreau. >> i think what usually happens, you get a 2-0 lead real early, looks easy, you let up, don't do what you are supposed to be doing. a couple of chances you are way too casual on. all of a sudden they get one, then 2, and they are silting there saying, hey, boys, let's go. obviously i thought the las

he was a memo the federal reserve board under alan greenspan. he worked a while for george bush in the white house as chairman of the council of economic advisers. and i think you really are two very simple answers. one is simply a failure of imagination. a lot of people have likened this to 9/11, and it is a metaphor that makes me uncomfortable because a lot of people died in 9/11 and this hasn't been that kind of event. there were people who said maybe someday some terrorist will seize an airplane, but really the people who defended our country did not think it possible that someone could commandeered three or four airplanes and fly them into the pentagon and the world trade center. this was a similar thing. it simply didn't occur to the people who were responsible for managing the financial system that so much of the financial system could be built on a single premise, that turned out to be wrong. that housing prices across the united states will not fall everywhere. we might have the balls in one community or another but they wouldn't fall e

so peter, you paint a compelling portrait of alan greenspan as peter pan and larry summers as his lost boys. and there was a slightly different picture. a particularly vicious business cycle that we're in right now. and, of course, he did lay much of the blame in where we are right now on the chicago school of economics write went as an undergrad i might say and some overly complex financial models which aren't working very well. but i do think that he thought the current version of larry summers perhaps like robin williams in the more recent version of hook is now much more grounded. he has a family. he owns a house. and he doesn't believe anymore in pixie dust i'm wondering do we believe your own version of larry summers or do we believe the other? >> i think larry summers has certainly had his views altered by the crisis. and, in fact, at the conference that i was alluding to earlier, he said, if i remember this correctly, he likened it to the impact of the cubin missile crisis on the need for serious nuclear disarmament. so there's no question that larry summers has been frightened

the second effect is -- and i agree with alan. it is unfortunate in some ways for people like me, but with all the competition, i would say it improves probably the average product and put pressure on people like me to make our stuff relative region relevant -- hours of relevance so we can survive in this competitive marketplace, but it is also going to produce an awful lot more diversity, and that is to say you are going to have a lot more in junk, and you have more high quality stuff, and in general, it is a good result, but i would prefer to go back to the bad old days. >> this gets to your second point, which we have not talked about, which is what this is doing to the economic market. it had to do with what technology is doing to the economic model. as a consumer, being able to read paul krugman or simon johnson or having those voices of people who want to analyze things or study what they are thinking or willing to do it free on the side to keep auriana huffington happy is a good thing, but a lot of us really think it is imp

alan greenspan was of course a supporter of and a friend of ann rand. he was in the group of people. in the 1960s, he wrote the fantastic article about how bad debt was and how bad the wang was and confiscating money. it was a wonderful article. we had one session one morning before we were going to banking committee. it was to go in and personally say hello to the federal reserve board chairman because he was getting ready to testify and get a picture with him. i dug out the copy of the objectivist news letter where the original article appeared on the gold standard. so i dug that out. and i took it with me. when i was meeting and i pulled it out. do you recognize this news letter? i recognize that. i handed it and flipped it open to the article. do you remember the article? he said, oh, yes. i said would you autograph this? would you want to add a disclaimer on this? he says, oh whereby no. he said something amazing to me. no, just reread that recently. he fully endorses everything that he wrote back then. now that he's out of being the chairman he sa

alan greenspan was get a supporter of a little group of people in the 1960's. he wrote a fantastic article about how bad the debt was and how bad the central bank was and we confiscate wealth by printing money. it is a wonderful article. we had one session and one morning before orlin to the banking committee and it was to go in and say -- before we go into the banking committee. he was getting ready to testify. i dug up an old copy of the objective newsletter with the original article appeared on the gold standard. a doug that out and took it with a. when i was meeting him, i said, and d recognize suspects i had it and flipped it open to that particular article. he said, yes, i remember that article. i said, would you, autograph this article? he took his pen out and signed it. i said, do you want to add a disclaimer? he said that he read it recently. host: ron paul in september this year. the best nonfiction book 2009 is the topic. nancy, good morning. caller: good morning. merry christmas. thank you for c-span. i will put "the soldiers education" as my book.

alan westin. you have done some work in the health area. what what what have you found about assumers' tusde with respect to their health information opposed to just buying a toy online? >> whenever you ask people what is the most sensitive information about you that can be collected and used, health and financial information are always the winners. we have done a number of surveys on how the public feels about the emerging electronic health record movement and also personal health records. in general when we asked do the priesi risks outweigh the benefits, what do you think that the benefits outweigh the privacy risks we get an absolutely 50/50 division in the surveys that we have done. half the people feel it is the privacy risks that outweigh the benefits. but i think that as electronic health records are now unfolding throughout the healthcare system, trust in the keepers of the electronic health records is absolutely central. when promises are made and explained as to limits of who'll get to see a health record without your explicit co

bernanke said his top priority would be continuing alan greenspan's policies. ben and i have never had a serious disagreement, mr. greenspan said. does anybody seriously believe that with a record like that, that this should be an and reappointed as chairman of the fed? the fed has four key responsibilities. this comes from their web site. to conduct monetary policy in a way that leads to a maximum employment and stable pricing. to maintain the safety and soundness of financial institution. to contain systemic risk in financial markets. and to protect consumers against excessive and unfair financial risks. those are the main activities that the fed is obliged to undertake. to my mind, and i think to the mind of any fair minded person, mr. bernanke as chairman of nbd has failed in every one of these four areas. since bernanke took over, the unemployment rate has more than doubled 317% of our people are either unemployed or underemployed. not since the great depression has the financial system been as unsafe. more than 140 banks have failed since he became chairm

alan murray is managing editor and executive editor on line for the wall street journal.ly managing editor of a wall street journal and author of the weekly business column. he has served as washington d.c. bureau chief for nbc and the wall street journal. we are very fortunate to have alan on our governing council at the madison of public affairs at the university. a member of distinction for many years. next we have robert sanders, contributing editor of newsweek and the washington post where he has written about business and economic issues since 19707. his articles also appear in the los angeles times, boston globe and other reading newspapers. his latest book is entitled the great inflation and its aftermath, past and future of american capitalists in case you are wondering about a holiday gift. paul sullivan is the economics and occasional correspondent for the cbs news hour. the answers questions on the business desk. recently he has become a fellow at yale's berkeley college and the brady johnson political economy at yale. for those of you in our discussion this a

but the next federal reserve board chairman but i had confrontations with and discussion with was alan greenspan, and i tell the story in there about time i think most of you in this audience would know the story that alan greenspan of course was a supporter of and friend of ayn rand in their group of people but in the 60's he wrote this article how bad the debt was and the central bank was and that we confiscated wealth by printing money. it is a wonderful article, and so we had one session one morning before we were going to the banking committee and it was to go in and personally say hello to the federal reserve board chairman because he was getting ready to testify and get a picture with him so i thought i would do that and had been scheduled so i dug up an old copy of the object of gist newsletter where de our original article appeared on the gold standard, so i dug that out and i took it with me and when i was meeting him i pulled it out and i said do you recognize this and he said yeah i recognize that, so i handed it and flipped open to that particular article and said to you r

alan, you want to make a comment?>> if you lay the consumer privacy surveys alongside larger surveys of consumer knowledge, it's quite consistent. consumers are ill-informed about financial affairs, investments, about, home protection, about medical affairs and so forth. so the, the base has to be that we have a largely uninformed majority, consumer population in the country. second point would be, that, most consumers then get signals from the organizations they trust to tell them what they think about and what to do in that situation. consumer organizations or business organizations idealogical organizations or aarp or et cetera. if that is your model, how can you make privacy relate to that? the other point i make studies we've done show the american public divides into roughly three groups when it comes to privacy. about 25% are intense, will reject ben fits and insist upon strong privacy protections. about 10 to 15% are privacy unconcerned. they couldn't care less because the benefit is find for them and they're

alan and i were living in southern california. he was directing all the presidents men, and i went up north to see the sun of the romanian prime minister who was working at hoover at the time. at that point in my life, i had written nothing more than book reviews and pieces on bluejeans and shopping bags. so i was amazed of the cordial reception i got. all, mrs. pakula, we are so happy to have you here. we apologize for not giving you the first class tour, but governor reagan is here today. now you know how long ago it was. here, let a show you the diaries. why were they treating me so well? i worked there for about a week or two. got ready to leave. as i was walking out, the powers to be stopped me. mrs. pakula, mrs. pakula, it's been such great pleasure having you here. do you think you could get woodward and bernstein's papers for us? [laughter] >> the list of archives credited in the back of my book on madam as she was called is ridiculously long. letters to the library of congress, the national archives, the fbi, cia, need no

alan may. that will do it here for geico sportsnite. fred harris here. woe will get you ready for a couple of games tonight. wizards fan wills head out to verizon as the wizards take on the pacers, and of course, capitals fans, try to send you out to toronto for the toronto mapleleafs and washington capitals, coming up next on comcast sportsnet. plus, enjoy the games tonight. we will see you right back here at 10:00. girl: my name is emily, and in 7 years... i'll be an alcoholic. all: hi, emily. announcer: kids who drink before age 15

alan? >> that was good. that made the trip all worth whooil. thank you, david.r panel than the last panel and each panelist this time only gets 5 to 7 minutes. we have a bit of a problem because three of theÑi people o this panel have worked in the u.s. senate which knows no time limits, but i'll do my best to enforce it. we're going to start with frances lee. >> it's difficult to find optimism in the near term about the quest to bring government expenditures into a sustainable balance. when democrats control the presidency and enjoy solid molecular weight martian of control in both chambers of underestimate the need for a legislative bipartisanship. nevertheless, data collected over long periods of time testify to the great importance of bipartisanship for successful law making. congress rarely legislates with narrow margins of victory. generally speaking, most successful legislations, including significant legislation on verbcontroversia matters garners widespread bipartisan support. according to yale political science, 80% of all important legislation passed

>> thank you, alan. let me just begin by the young man out here in the previous panel. am also bankrupt in the health care system. all cards on the table. i work for cigna, a private health insurance company, and i just have to put that -- and worse yet, i'm a registered federalÑi lobbyist. okay? >> you are the problem. >> i am the problem. >> creating all the problem. >> that was only after three decades of trying to meet the solution. >> and a comment was raised -- and i'm just going to -- everything has been said here, but i haven't said it, so i'll get a chance to make my comments here. since there was a question raised and seeing the young students here from virginia, university of virginia where i send a lot of money with my daughter when she came down here, and what is the purpose of the senate and so many of us have heard the story so manyñr times that i assume you have heard this, but it goes back to jefferson in france and wrote back to washington and said what's the purpose of this united states senate? and he used the analogy at that time here in the south w

tell the story about the time i think most of you here in this audience would know the story that alan greenspan of course was a supporter of and friend of ayn rand and was in their group of people but in the 1960's he approached this fantastic article about how bad that debt was and how bad the federal central bank was and we confiscated wealth by printing money. it is a wonderful article and so we had one session one morning before we were going to the banking committee and it was to go in and personally say hello to the federal reserve board chairman because he was getting ready to testify and get a picture with him so i thought i would do that and it had been scheduled so i dug up an old copy of the object of this newsletter where the our original article appeared on the gold standard. so i dug that out and buy a ticket with me and when i was meeting him and i pulled out the shell and said do you recognize this new and he said i recognize that and i'd flipped open to that particular article and i said do you remember this article and he said i remember that article and i said what

alan murray is executev editor on line for "the wall street journal" and author of the papers weekly business column. he has served as washington bureau chief for snbc and "the wall street journal." we are fortunate to have him on our govern n counsel ill here at the university. next we've robert sam uleson, contributing editor at "newsweek" and "the washington post" where he has written about business and economic issues since 1977. his articles have appeared in the wall street journal, "new york times" and other papers. his latest book is on the past and future of american avenue will youence, in case you are wondering about a holiday gifment paul solomon is occasional correspondent for the pbs news hour. he answers questions on the business desk. recently he has become a fellow at yale's berkeley college and for those of you who were why our discussions this afternoon you know that he was a loud -- lovely moderator in the panel that just preceded dinner the with that i'm going to turn to bob franken and ask that he cuck the discussion on has the financial crisis changed the nature

former fed chairman alan greenspan said on thursday that it is next year. >> why do so -- i think so, too. i am not a hoover righ-ite. we cannot add taxes in the midst of a downturn. we have told focus on long-term debt reduction. this is not a one-year or two- year process. this is a plan that will be multiple-years in duration. it fundamentally changes the trajectory we are on. we will all be the better for it. otherwise, we wait and the longer we wait, the stronger the solution will have to be. >> it will still raise spending. >> no. if you look at what has happened under this administration under this congress, taxes have been substantially reduced, not increased. the spending increases have largely come as a result of the need to provide liquidity to the economy. that is exactly what we should have been doing. we have to help people understand the difference between what makes sense in the short term and what makes sense in the longer term. when your ended sharp economic downturn, -- when you are in a sharp economic downturn, you have to increase debt. in the longer term, you hav

i opposed him because i knew he would continue the legacy of alan greenspan and i was right.did not know how right i was and could not imagine how wrong he would be in the following four years. from monetary policy to regulations consumer protection. transparency and independents. chairman ben bernanke's time as fed chair has been a failure. we must put an end to his and the federal reserves failures and there is no better time than now. as i said two weeks ago the greenspan legacy on monetary policy was breaking from the taylor rule to provide easy money and thus inflate bubbles. not only did chairman ben bernanke continue that policy, when he took control of the fed, but he supported every greenspan rate decision when when he was a fed governor before becoming chairman. sometimes if you read the minutes of the fed, he wanted to go even further and provide easier money and chairman greenspan. yet at recently as last month chairman ben bernanke continues to deny that fed action played any role in inflateing the housing bubble. as recently as one month ago. on consumer protect

alan grayson and ron paul are opposites. guest: there is a minority in the congress with people discontented with what is going on. i do not think picking on the biggest bully on the playground is a good idea. guest: think it is appropriate to target ben bernanke. he was at the fed. it was their job to stop it. host: we have about 20 more minutes with peter morici and dean baker. we will be switching topics in terms of home ownership. the home ownership rates could slump. what has the administration done and what still needs to be done in terms of the housing market? guest: they have made low- interest mortgages available to people through fed policy. they have the program that is to allow people to stay in their homes through mortgage modification. those are the main programs. they have had relatively little impact. you still have close to 200,000 foreclosures going through each month. some people have been helped. it has been scattershot. a lot of people were not helped. a lot of people have been able to take advantage of

and i believe former fed chairman alan greenspan said that on thursday.think next year is important as well? does it have to happen in 2010 this. >> i absolutely do. by that i don't mean that you start taking the steps when the economy is still weak. that would be a mistake. as i've said to my colleagues, i'm not a hooverrite. i don't believe in cutting spending or raising taxes in the midst of a downturn. and we are still in the midst of a downturn. but at the same time i recognize that very soon we have to pivot and focus like a laser on long-term debt reduction. this is not a one or two-year process. this is something that requires multiple years in duration, that fundamentally changes the trajectory we're on. and if we do it we'll all be the better for it. because otherwise you wait and the longer you wait the more draconian the solutions are going to have to be. >> but senator, this congress has been raising taxes and raising spending. >> no. in an overall basis, this congress has been cutting taxes. if you look at what has happened under this admini

. >> sir alan beith. >> what is the prime minister prepared to do about the fact that some of the most vulnerable people who have the greatest difficulty in heating their homes pay the highest tariffs for their fuel, either because they have pre-payment meters or because they live in areas with no gas supply and do not have access to dual-fuel tariffs? >> i am grateful that he raises this, because the energy bill is an attempt to deal with some of the problems that arise and to ensure that the social tariff is far fairer for people with difficulties. however, i also have to remind him that into the homes of thousands -- indeed, millions

wh whenever wall street needed a boost, alan was there. you went farther than that when you bowed to pressure of the bush and obama administrations and turned the fed into an arm of the treasury. under your watch, the bernanke put became a bailout for all large financial institutions including many foreign banks. and you put the printing presses into overdrive to fund the government spending and hand out cheap money to your masters on wall street which they used to rake in record profits while ordinary americans and small businesses can't even get loans for their everyday needs. now i want to read a quote to you mr. green -- mr. bernanke -- that's a freudian slip. believe me. here's a quote. i believe the tools available to the banking agencies including the ability to require adequate capital and an effective banking receivership process are sufficient to allow the agencies to minimize the systemic risk associated with large banks. moreover, the agencies have made clear that no bank is too big to fail so that bank management, shareholders

host: thank you, alan. guest: first of all, we are a much bigger country. things are done from more of a distance in all aspects. the litigation system is much more paper driven than it used to be. the whole process, the whole discovery process in the federal system is that you spend a lot of time in pulmonary work before you get into trial. -- preliminary work before you get into trout. in some respects more complicated. host cut 10 more minutes with greg stohr from bloomberg news, he covers the supreme court. we will bring it interviews with the supreme court justices, starting tonight with the chief justice john roberts and also john paul stevens. we spoke earlier about his possible retirement. are there already interest groups working on the side, bubbling up names of possible replacements for justice stevens? guest: that has been a permanent campaign in the last few years. barack obama and -- and his advisers started coming of names not only before the vacancy but before he took office. he interviewed, i believe four candidates. certainly people will l

for you and alan.e returned or unused tarp funds and unobligated stimulus funds should be spent for further economic stimulus or should be returned to the treasury? >> there are often appropriated funds which don't get spent and they are automatically returned to the treasury. >> as you know there is a proposal to use the unused tarp funds. do you support that? >> no, i do not. >> i agree with the chairman. >> my final question. and i -- you probably don't have an answer to it. maybe you can help us out a little bit. in 1970 foreign investors held 5% of our debt. now it's over 50%. we have deficits, according to mr. walker now and greenspan of $38 trillion in medicare. i had forgotten the number in social security. what is it? >> a little over $7 trillion. >> $7 trillion in social security. a $12 trillion deficit. and of course $1.5 trillion this year. i guess my question is, given the path we are on, in other words let's say we don't really change anything. at what point, alan, do we have a severe fis

>> alan hersh is the best person to talk to. we've done a lot of sports screening and a lot of event greening and we have the template now, like we did the oscars and we did the grammies, so we really know actually what you need to do, so he's the best person. that's great. that's wonderful. never thought about it. >> i think with this president, i think it will be a neat statement to make. >> i think it will be fantastic. >> i'll send you an e-mail about it. >> are you kidding. i've accepted already. >> great. i'll send you the details. >> great. >> congratulations. >> oh, hi pete. thank you. congratulations to you on all the good work you've been doing. >> well, it's been a lot of fun. >> i bet it it's fun. i bet it's fun. >> keep people on their toes, right? >> absolutely. >> it's very exciting. this is nice. >> so do you feel like -- >> i feel like an author. >> is this going to be a higher level of jetting around the country. >> a little bit more compressed. we're going to go to san francisco and almost a. i was -- and l.a.

for you and alan.eve that the returned or unused tarp funds and unobligated stimulus funds should be spent for further economic stimulus or should be returned to the treasury? >> there are often appropriated funds which don't get spent and they are automatically returned to the treasury. >> as you know there is a proposal to use the unused tarp funds. do you support that? >> no, i do not. >> i agree with the chairman. >> my final question. and i -- you probably don't have an answer to it. maybe you can help us out a little bit. in 1970 foreign investors held 5% of our debt. now it's over 50%. we have deficits, according to mr. walker now and greenspan of $38 trillion in medicare. i had forgotten the number in social security. what is it? >> a little over $7 trillion. >> $7 trillion in social security. a $12 trillion deficit. and of course $1.5 trillion this year. i guess my question is, given the path we are on, in other words let's say we don't really change anything. at what point, alan, do we have a

host: and the to the point about alan greenspan haunting the room? >> absolutely.s were as much if not more about greenspan than ben bernanke. one of the reasons ben bernanke is getting a second chance right now is because a lot of people feel that maybe many of the big mistakes being made before this crisis were made by ben bernanke's predecessor. interest rates were held low in the later stages of the greenspan era. more importantly, they took their eyes off ocpáhe regulatory ball. they were not aggressively regulating financial institutions. greenspan had a lazy fair -- was a fair -- lasse fair attitude about institutions looking after themselves. that it would be i am and institutes self-interest not to drive itself off of a bitch, but it did not work. -- off of aÑi ditch, çóbut it dd not work. caller: i remember parties in the 1990's where people were bragging about the textiles that they were buying. same with real estate. the problem with real estate is people borrowing. once those loans go under, of the problem becomes worse. looking at the current market a

to do his own thing on the ground to the greatest degree possible and showed me how intangibles -- alanintelligent independent general could produce an effect in the mosul region which was positive. others were more pork -- forceful in their military approach and in less resourceful in fighting money to feed into the local community. there was a sense of dissatisfaction in the whole area. i do not think there was a strategic change in november but there were adjustments to tactics and there were failures of the administrator to accept the wise advice of his regional commanders to do things rolla differently which are regarded as a pity but that's the way i would say it. >> i was thinking of what became apparent after november -- the move to elections the next year in the sense that the cba's days were numbered and their ability to carry on with momentum to take the lead in running the country almost became a lame duck as 2004 started. >> i think adjustments were made after the november 15 agreement. at the same time, ambassador bremer had a decision from washington as to what the and ov

inni joining us now, 16-year-old sidney alan, a tenth grader. 16-year-old andrew altman, also a tenth 9-year-old kneeshy border in fourth grade and 10-year-old tyler jones, also in fourth grade. let's start with sydney. you're 16 years old from georgia. how long you've been at the school, sidney. >> i've been there for lee years now. >> larry: what do you like about it? >> i like the opportunities that the school gives you to grow as a person, because you don't have your family to rely on, so you just have yourself to do well. >> you get a lot of support there, though, right? >> lots. >> larry: andrew, how do you like it? >> i like it very much. >> larry: you're from bath, pennsylvania, you're in the 11th grade. how long you been there, andrew? >> six years. >> larry: is it difficult in living in a kind of new house? >> it can be, especially getting along with usually about 12 other of your peers. >> larry: how do you like having queen latifah has your centennial ambassador? >> i like it a lot. she's great. >> larry: she sure is. all right, niece, you're 9 years old from allentowallen

intervention was appropriate had been resolved, and the correct answer as if limited by people like alan greenspan and ben bernanke, was let the market settle everything. and yet, it didn't work out as they planned. and when you look at the meltdown that we witnessed last year, and subsequent government response to that, it puts us in a place that i would argue very similar to where benjamin roth was 80 years ago, 70 plus years ago. we had a massive, unprecedented multibillion dependent as you calculated, bowled like a billion dollar bailout of the banking sector. was that the right thing to do? was that the wrong thing to do? would have unintended consequences? we had government takeover of major corporations, including in the automotive industry. again, unprecedented in american history. we were supposed to have a distinction between a public sector and the private sector. that seems to have evaporated rather quickly. we have a stainless program, the result of which we can talk about this later, but the result of which is to make people invisible and some people actually deleterious. a

it's interesting because you've seen and there are sort of two points in here but what alan was just talking about is basically not just the democratization of the media face -- space in that anyone can sort of express their own views in whatever form, block, twitter, the media is -- believe it or not there really is life to this thing, 140 characters, you can get some sort of thought out there. people are forling it and investing in it. then there is this self-selection process which you're right, is ha louing people to just hone -- home in on the information they want. i'd like to think there is a little change of the opinion in that process in cable news last year because i've had a lot of people come up to me and say they are tired of that, tired of the noise and looking for the nuggets. how do you get a news organization that can afford to give you the nuggets right now in in environment, that can afford to publish the papers and get them out there? >> you get the sense you should call the nielsen organization and get a box in their house because that's not what the nielsen numb

wh whenever wall street needed a boost, alan was there.you went farther than that when you bowed to pressure of the bush and obama administrations and turned the fed into an arm of the treasury. under your watch, the bernanke put became a bailout for all large financial institutions including many foreign banks. and you put the printing presses into overdrive to fund the government spending and hand out cheap money to your masters on wall street which they used to rake in record profits while ordinary americans and small businesses can't even get loans for their everyday needs. now i want to read a quote to you mr. green -- mr. bernanke -- that's a freudian slip. believe me. here's a quote. i believe the tools available to the banking agencies including the ability to require adequate capital and an effective banking receivership process are sufficient to allow the agencies to minimize the systemic risk associated with large banks. moreover, the agencies have made clear that no bank is too big to fail so that bank management, shareholders

and alan, could i make one final summary?> we'll give john a chance -- >> you could concede some of your chance. >> i think we will have plenty of time for discussion and i would like to have bill hoagland, and folks should know john wrote a -- what i would consider to be a president clinton book called legislating together and, i think, was on the '97 a balance budget act that got passed where he was working for the clinton administration and managed to have house republicans, senate republicans, senate democrats all on one page using reconciliation. but he couldn't get the house democrats on board. so it's a -- it's a very good book and very skillful. if you look at the team here, you'll see -- i think the audience should know a heavy senate presence and i think anybody that looks at the present healthcare legislation would see that for some reason in american legislation, the game is usually a foot in the senate for a variety of reasons. and i know over the years, i've had some theories on it and i do remember once -- i op

thought that this crisis should help that narrative, because i hope that it will have discredited the alan greenspan fundamentalism. at the end of the day, all that you could fall back on in this government. and the fiscal package which was absolutely essential. and if that narrative comes out that this is what the society needs, that can pay bogle -- paved the way for social concessions. entitlements do need to come under control but equally, some taxes also need to be part of the discourse. i don't see that to the same extent as i see the emphasis on entitlements. >> you don't see public support for higher taxes? why would you? >> as i was telling you, the medicare panel was talking about lots of elderly people in this country don't think that medicare is a government program. that is a problem here. it needs to be addressed. >> please, go ahead. >> 160 million americans get their health insurance not for medicare and medicaid -- and i want tighter tax issue, because i agree totally with the commissioner. we have had a tax discussion and it got blown out of the water. the quickest way as

to do his own thing on the ground to the greatest degree possible and showed me how intangibles -- alanintelligent independent general could produce an effect in the mosul region which was positive. others were more pork -- forceful in their military approach and in less resourceful in fighting money to feed into the local community. there was a sense of dissatisfaction in the whole area. i do not think there was a strategic change in november but there were adjustments to tactics and there were failures of the administrator to accept the wise advice of his regional commanders to do things rolla differently which are regarded as a pity but that's the way i would say it. >> i was thinking of what became apparent after november -- the move to elections the next year in the sense that the cba's days were numbered and their ability to carry on with momentum to take the lead in running the country almost became a lame duck as 2004 started. >> i think adjustments were made after the november 15 agreement. at theç+ time, ambassador bremer had a decision from washington as to what the and overt

alan greenspan was get a supporter of a little group of people in the 1960's. he wrote a fantastic article about how bad the debt was and how bad the central bank was and we confiscate wealth by printing money. it is a wonderful article. we had one session and one morning before orlin to the banking committee and it was to go in and say -- before we go into the banking committee. he was getting ready to testify. i dug up an old copy of the objective newsletter with the original article appeared on the gold standard. a doug that out and took it with a. when i was meeting him, i said, and d recognize suspects i had it and flipped it open to that particular article. he said, yes, i remember that article. i said, would you, autograph this article? he took his pen out and signed it. i said, do you want to add a disclaimer? he said that he read it recently. host: ron paul in september this year. the best nonfiction book 2009 is the topic. nancy, good morning. caller: good morning. merry christmas. thank you for c-span. i will put "the soldiers education" as my book.

a story in there about the time i think most of you here in this audience with know the story that alan greenspan of course was a supporter of and a friend of an land and he was in their little group of people. but in the 1960's he wrote this fantastic article about how bad cop was and how bad the simple bank was then that we confiscated wealth by printing money. i mean it's a wonderful article. and so we had a session one morning before going to the banking committee. and it was to go when and personally say hello to the federal reserve word chairman because he was getting ready to testify and get a picture with him. so i thought i would do that it had been scheduled so i dug up an old copy of the newsletter where the original article appeared on the gold and dirt. so i dug that out and took it with me and then i was meeting and i pulled it out and said do you recognize this news? so i handed it inflicted open to that particular article and i said do you remember this article? i said yeah, i remember it. i said would you mind signing this? so he took his pen out and find it and i said

he gets partial blame for the fact that the crisis arose, although more went to alan greenspan. but he gets a lot of credit for the way he coped with it. >> larry: ron, what do you make of the selection? >> i think it's pretty neat. he is the most important guy in the world. and anybody who can create trillion of dollars behind the scenes and spend it with no oversight, i mean, that's pretty important. and he is a counterfeiter. he's the chief counterfeiter of all history. and i would say that's very good. and i like it because it draws attention to the fed. because the source of so many of our problems come to the fed. the business cycle comes from the fed. this to me is a real delight. i don't have to agree for the reasons that they, you know, gave him man of the year. >> larry: a negative man of the year. >> yes, it's very important we understand why he is so important and powerful. >> larry: tanya, were you surprised at the selection? >> i was a little surprised, but i have to say, with all due respect to senator paul, there is -- i think that this was -- here's a man who ha

alan blinder was vice chairman -- vice chairman of the fed in the 1990s. >> i think the fair answer is nobody thought this might happen. things can go wrong. but the number of things that have gone wrong and the ferocity with which they have gone wrong, i think, was beyond the imagination of almost everyone. >> reporter: or as standford's caroline put it. >> it is easy to say this individual housing and mortgage business is risky but it was very difficult, for even a very good economist to say i understand how all of these different investments when they all start collapsing together, even just a little bit, are going to aggregate up and roll on to one another it is like understanding how all the dominos are going to hit one another. it is a much tougher problem. >> reporter: and how you can ever know that ised finance professor. >> disasters can happen at any time. in fact, what makes them disasters is we're not expecting. if we were expecting them, they wouldn't turn into disasters. >> reporter: but in fact there was plenty of data to suggest the worst. and plenty of economists who s

in the worst of the computer scientist alan kay, the best way to predict the future is to invent it. as 2009 is way to 2010, researching conservatives seem determined to do just that. nevertheless, spirit alone cannot do it all. ideas, too, have consequences, as richard weaver long ago reminded us. and it is in this realm that conservatives face long-term challenges that should curb any tendency to relax. consider, for example, the phenomenon known as globalization. when we use the word, we tend to think first of the globalization of markets. of free trade, goods and services across national borders. but far more significant, i think, in the long-term is the accelerating globalization of human migration patterns, with total and political consequences that we have scarcely begun to fathom. more people are on the move in the world now than at anytime in the history of the human race. and more and more of them are making america their destination. a number of international students, for instance, attending american colleges and universities is now approximately 600,000 per year. a figur

guest: you know, alan, i am thrilled to be here for your first call.what we want america to do, getting our soldiers out into the community, showing them what we ca -- what they can do. we have a lot of programs like this with other organizations. there are a lot of therapy programs like this that we're doing and other units. this one is a great idea. we have excursions' we do, we have a program called "ride to recovery," where we take a soldiers out on 600-mile trips. i did one of them, and the last time, the soldiers put me to shame. the little vignette i gave about the guy missing an arm -- i could not keep up with him. they proved themselves with abilities that maybe they thought were lost. they are rejuvenated a programs like this. the wounded warrior program does a number of things like this. there are great organizations out there that bring our warriors out of the hospital rooms and get them back into society and prove the things that they can do. that little bit of restoration restored the confidence, the self-esteem, and it starts to encourag

. >> "after words" with judd alan biskupic and ted olson continues. >> host: joan, at the end of the conference for some reason -- i mean, they don't, right? the votes are tallied up. they've each casting vote, right? >> guest: that's right. >> host: someone writes an opinion, whoever -- tell us how the opinions -- >> guest: we are talking about private conference the justices have after they've heard oral arguments and everybody results a case and the taking a vote. and the majority side is then going to prepare the opinion for the court. and the most senior justice on that side then assigns the opinion. it's the chief justice, the chief justice has seniority on the opinion. and back in the 80's, chief justice rehnquist often in the majority, sometimes it would be senior level brennan, could be majority but when it was chief justice rehnquist he would then assign it. early on, i know what you're getting at. when he was assigned to antonette scalia, and it was a close vote justice scalia would sometimes lose the fifth vote because you have to write an opinion that will keep all five

wade, alan derek wit, the famous professor from harvard who's to the left, says that was a legal decision. and then you have gore v. bush where the republican justices who had the majority basically cooked the decision, said it could never be used as precedent because, frankly, it was an illegal decision. never before had the equal protection clause been used to invalidate an election. so you have this kind of hypocrisy, and i'll give you one more example. antonin and ally ya, not one of my favorites. i'm basically a populist. scalia says that the death penalty is in the constitution. it's not in the constitution. there's no death penalty there. he gets that mr. the fact that at -- from the fact that at the time the constitution was written, the death penalty was being administered by the states. he reads into the constitution. so what am i saying? the constitution is not a monolithic thing. there's ambiguity in that constitution, and both conservatives and liberals have to understand that you do have judges to interpret things otherwise all we'd need are computers. and there's this fight

, alan.ler: i just want to state that the federal reserve needs to be returned to the federal government, to the state treasury in congress so they can regulate our interest rates so that we do not

for convict -- commencing this crucial examination of children in them did -- digital media age and alanur questions. >> what would you feel about a little red button on the television monitor which a child could push or a child's parent could push, just a little button sitting right up there, bright red, and you push its and you find out how what is to follow is rated in terms of family values and things of this sort? was it that few charitable trust that came out and said that 16% of people know how to work all the stuff? i hate to embarrass them, but there are a couple of ladies and gentleman sitting behind me who cannot work that themselves. easy ways to empower people to make decisions about what they are about to see coming easy ways for children -- how do you make children, if they see it is now rated very well -- it is not rated very well, and that will entice them. i cannot answer that, but i am looking for a way to solve our problems and a friendly way which works. enough of that. children's tv act is tw a decades old -- is two decades old. technology has changed. the cable cha

guest: you know, alan, i am thrilled to be here for your first call. what he is doing is exactly what we want america to do, getting our soldiers out into the community, showing them what we ca -- what they can do. we have a lot of programs like this with other organizations. there are a lot of therapy programs like this that we're doing and other units. this one is a great idea. we have excursions' we do, we have a program called "ride to recovery," where we take a soldiers out on 600-mile trips. i did one of them, and the last time, the soldiers put me to shame. the little vignette i gave about the guy missing an arm -- i could not keep up with him. they proved themselves with abilities that maybe they thought were lost. they are rejuvenated a programs like this. the wounded warrior program does a number of things like this. there are great organizations out there that bring our warriors out of the hospital rooms and get them back into society and prove the things that they can do. that little bit of restoration restored the confidence, the self-este

for you and alan. that the returned or unused tarp funds and unobligated stimulus funds should be spent for further economic stimulus or should be returned to the treasury? >> there are often appropriated funds which don't get spent and they are automatically returned to the treasury. >> as you know there is a proposal to use the unused tarp funds. do you support that? >> no, i do not. >> i agree with the chairman. >> my final question. and i -- you probably don't have an answer to it. maybe you can help us out a little bit. in 1970 foreign investors held 5% of our debt. now it's over 50%. we have deficits, according to mr. walker now and greenspan of $38 trillion in medicare. i had forgotten the number in social security. what is it? >> a little over $7 trillion. >> $7 trillion in social security. a $12 trillion deficit. and of course $1.5 trillion this year. i guess my question is, given the path we are on, in other words let's say we don't really change anything. at what point, alan, do we have a se

the guests include alan greenspan. this is 10:00 eastern here on c- span.2:00 eastern, they examine afghanistan contracts, and they hear from representatives of the department of defense and state, and the u.s. agency for international development. >> "book tv" this weekend. tim carney says obama is a champion of big business. then greg mortensen on olall girl's schools. get the weekend schedule at book tv.org. >> now, a hearing on information security at the transportation security administration, including the airport screening operations. this is a little over one hour. >> the subcommittee will come to order. let me acknowledge mr. thompson of mississippi. and the ranking member. he is from pennsylvania. let me welcome those of you who are here. let me take a moment of personal privilege. knowledge the family of mr. edward kelley, who, in this business, is considered family. many of us gathered after 9/11 in respective positions. we gathered as members of the committee on homeland security. many of us were there from the beginning. he comfortably retired