let's bring back in neil barofsky and mr brodsky is this wimpy d.o.j. that you paint in your book the d.o.j. that we've been relying on to investigate prosecute and charge higher profile wall street executives at too big to fail firms for crimes in connection with the financial crisis. guide not just in that case but in a number of cases i saw a real lack of sophistication in a lot of the prosecutor's offices around the country when it came to complex accounting fraud cases and you know those cases are different from other types of white collar cases they require a level of expertise and experience and you know part of what i saw as a prosecutor was there is a huge shift in white collar law enforcement resources particularly the f.b.i. after nine eleven away from some complex accounting fraud over to counter terrorism investigations and i think that has created something of an experience gap which i saw all unfortunately time and time again and i think it does impact why we've seen fewer cases will you just touch on something that there aren't something

previous conversations with great minds one with former special inspector general for tarp neil barofsky and one with g.m.o. expert jeffrey smith and we're going to begin tonight with the conversation tom had with neil barofsky just a few days ago on thursday the federal reserve sold off its last remaining shares in troubled insurance giant. you might remember in two thousand and eight to bring down the entire economy so was bailed out with one hundred eighty two billion dollars in taxpayer money as part of the tarp program well today fed officials are calling the move a huge success saying taxpayers earn nearly eighteen billion dollars off the rescue but it's an irresponsible bank or insurance giant benchmark of success neil barofsky would say no and in this conversation he explained why tarp was alternately a failure that did nothing to address the ongoing housing crisis and nothing to put an end to too big to fail on wall street so here it is tom's conversations with great minds with neil barofsky. joining me tonight for a special edition of conversations of the great minds is neil ba

banks richer and given them an even greater feeling of invincibility so at this half of last deal barofsky special edition. of the great also want to understand just how far right and radical the republican party has become its really official republican party platform more on that and tonight's lone liberal rumble and if you are eating something that could kill you when you want to know before you put in your mouth the g.m.o. industry does not want you know it so what secrets are they hiding explain more so i still take. joining me tonight for a special edition of conversations with a great minds as neil barofsky you know was the former special united states treasury department inspector general charged with overseeing the seven hundred billion dollars tarp bailout prior to coming to washington neil was a former united states assistant attorney for the southern district of new york here and a bachelor's degree in economics from the wharton school of business at the university of pennsylvania and graduated with honors in the new york university school of law in one thousand nine hundred fi

s and dotting their i's and getting away with these kind of practices but you know i asked neil barofsky about this earlier he's special and former special interest specter general of tarp you just came out with a new book bailout and he can probably answer better than i can with more authority at least from having been on the inside working with wall street in washington as to why these banks would still be thinking they can get away with this let's take a listen. in part it's because of the toothless settlement that resulted out of the bank's misconduct in the robo signing with the foreclosure fraud you had a settlement that had almost no accountability money that was being credited to the banks for a whole bunch of conduct that they would do otherwise and no criminal prosecutions whatsoever in attending it other than they now it's been of some show task force the banks hear that and that's empty deterrence. and that taskforce that he mentioned we haven't heard a lot from we certainly haven't heard about any big cases that they're going after criminal cases and so you know mr prosser g

." >> reporter: neil barofsky was a 38-year-old u.s. attorney in new york, prosecuting colombian drug lords and domestic housing scam artists when president bush chose him, in the fall of 2008, as special inspector general to oversee tarp, the troubled asset relief program. a lifelong democrat, barofsky was retained by the obama administration. the job as top cop at tarp meant guarding the $700 billion bailout fund from fraud. but in his two-year tenure, barofsky clashed repeatedly with treasury officials in charge of the program, who he says undercut or ignored his efforts to hold big banks accountable for what they did with taxpayer dollars. he's now written a tell-all account of his disillusioning years in d.c., bailout, his attempt to disillusion readers as well. we sat down with barofsky at new york university school of law, where he now teaches as a senior fellow. neil barofsky, welcome. >> thank you. >> reporter: what are you trying to accomplish with this book? >> there's so much anger out there, you know on the left, on the rig

well neil barofsky was the special inspector general for tarp that gave money out to the banks. it was his job to keep track of whether the banks got an unfair advantage, whether the homeowners did not get enough. where the money went, et cetera. what did he find out? it turns out all of the protestors were right. you got screwed. the homeowners only got $1.4 billion which is comically low. because think about this. the bankers got $4.7 trillion. $1.4 billion versus $4.7 trillion. in fact, in his new book, neil bra roff ski writes the american people should be outrage and the unending protection of wall street. so we decided well, that's pretty powerful so let's have neil on. here is neil barofsky. his new book is bailout an inside account of how americans were abandoned. tell me how we got screwed. >> i got to washington, cenk, you know, i was a former federal prosecutor up here in new york, wasn't really familiar with too much of the regulatory apparatus of this country. when i got there, i was really shocked to find how much control the wall street banks had over our economy.

path to another financial crisis and less we take control and break these banks up amazing neil barofsky thanks so much for being with us and for writing this brilliant book. thank you to see this in other conversations the great minds go to our website of conversations with great minds dot com. thank. the so.

. >> eliot: coming up, the former general inspector neil barofsky joins me.stion. what is the matter with kansas. as you know, the united states took a sharp turn to the right last night with a bunch of all traditionultraconservatives being voted into office. we'll tell you who did their bidding and why it's so scary. we'll talk to the mayor of most dangerous city in america. stick around and we'll tell where you that is. >> eliot: wait a minute. you're not even going to tell us what city it is? >> you got to watch. >> eliot: i got to watch now. give it to us in the preview the initials the state something. >> you'll be s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s s ou have an opinion, you better back it up. >>eliot spitzer takes on politics. >>science and republicans do not mix. >>now it's your turn at the only online forum with a direct line to eliot spitzer. >>join the debate now. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> eliot: the entirety of mitt romney's economic agenda and the agenda of the republican party led by grover norquist for the past quarter of a century

taken on the big banks so i want to get my guests reaction but first i want to tell you what neil barofsky his reaction was because he was the former special an inspector general in charge of tarp oversight and he says this guy's just doing his job and they'd rather trash a potentially legitimate case then admit that they were asleep at the switch especially now after the recent revelations about their failures with live war and h.s.b.c. now he of course is talking about regulators so a few different. issues to address here let's bring back gerald celente founder of trans research institute publisher of the trends journal to give us his thoughts on this so in general we hear that this new york regulator maybe is going grow maybe he's the first guy willing to take on the big banks i don't know eliot spitzer when he did that years ago or maybe this is a case where someone else is going on i'm curious what your reaction is to this new york regulator well you know i only know what i'm reading yeah and what i'm reading is that the bank had been cooperative since two thousand and ten and has bee

neil barofsky comes to us tonight from new york city. welcome inside "the war room." >> thank you.m so young and full of hope back then. i don't know what happened. [ laughter ] >> jennifer: a little bit of gray hair, who knows what little bit of wisdom and experience. do you wish you had spoken out more forcefully about tarp back when you were inspector general had you known how it would play out? >> well, i mean i was legitimately full of hope. there was the potential for tarp to fulfill those original promises to help the middle class and homeowners. it was a series of policy decisions that really followed that interview where the administration, treasury department consistently made choices that favored the large too big to fail financial institutions and wall street over that of homeowners and everyone else. so back then, i was pointed in my criticisms but there still was a chance it was all of the terrible choices and decisions that followed. >> jennifer: i speak to you as a former governor when this was all going down, one of the programs under tarp was called hamp. it was s

neil barofsky right now travels back in time. the house of representatives, has seen what will happen with t.a.r.p. implementation but is now back sitting in the well of the house casting a vote. you still vote for it? >> i still vote for it but i don't trust treasury to to the right thing. >> it it is key to understanding why we are where we are. you spell it out very well in this book. we've got some real jaw-dropping stats on that. and we're going to get to those and talk about it right after this break. scratching ] you're not using too much are you, hon? ♪ nope. [ female announcer ] charmin ultra soft is so soft you'll have to remind your family they can use less. charmin ultra soft is made with extra cushions that are soft and more absorbent. plus you can use four times less versus the leading value brand. don't worry, there's plenty left for you dad. we all go. why not enjoy the go with charmin ultra soft? throughout our lives. one a day women's 50+ is a complete multivitamin designed for women's health concerns as we age.

i conducted a interview with neil barofsky, bush appointee, democrat attacked by obama administrationservatives. he says a plague on both houses. he says neither mitt romney nor barack obama will do anything to real in the financial industry, and make it, hold it accountable or protect us u.s. taxpayers from too big to fail. the president going to do anything? he didn't do it this term? >> i think dodd-frank does. it requires higher capital requirements, greater transparency. mortgage brokers and servicers many which benefited from signing, giving people loans without checking their credit. no background checks. the government may have wanted to expand homeownership. they did not tell the banks not to check people's credit. adam: even tim geithner said in regards to that, you know, the financial help for underwater mortgages geithner said, he said we're foaming the runway for banks. >> can i throw some facts in here? the banks are more concentrated now than ever. >> right. >> we have had more concentration in the top five banks. now in the past four years when the president has been i

neil barofsky is in the guest spot. why let constipation slow you down? try miralax.differently than other laxatives. it draws water into your colon to unblock your system naturally. don't wait to feel great. miralax. >>> we show you the clip at the top of the show, but lost in today's dustup over vice president biden's use of the word chains is what he was actually saying when he invoked it. at issue, regulating america's financial system. biden and the administration pushed for a greater wall street regulation and mitt romney and the republicans say they want to get rid of it. our next guest served both presidents bush and obama and he says that when it comes to mishandling the financial crisis, both of them are to blame. in his new book "bailout," he confirms the government and leaders of both sides of the aisle are looking out for their most important constituents and it isn't you. in the guest spot today, neil bore rof ski, the former inspector general for t.a.r.p. and author of the inside account of how washington abandoned main street while rescuing wall street

time for thanks so much for watching and be sure to come back tomorrow because on this show is neil barofsky he wrote bailout you may remember he was the special inspector general for tarp in the meantime you can follow me on twitter at warren lister give us feedback on the show any you missed i you tube dot com slash capital accounts you can watch us in h.d. on hulu and from everyone here in the meantime have a great night and. those stories are here. for going global and. viral. load you. choose your place. take your stuff and. make your statement. with the words. if you plug the street. wealthy british films on. time to write for. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger or a no holds. hard look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our. feet.

bailout could put thee country in danger of bigger problems.hank youor having joining me now neil barofskyd his brand new book made the bailout and how washington abandoned main streeto while rescuing walltionp street. it is a terrific book withma the players in thethe regulator relationship with the government. i want to congratulate you. he is a democrat, republican appointee, and you went to ob. battle with democrats andocra republicans alike and haverom emerged but let's find out.e [laughter]ecutorbefore how? s> i had more hair when i got to washington. but i was very grateful for my time i was a federal prosecutor before i went to to washington. lou: and highly successful. >> es.it was a great opportunity but it was disturbing it did not matter fu coming to the influence our economy was so often putting their interests ahead of everyone else's. it almost didn't matter what party you were in. lou: as you so vividly write about in your book, the fact that the banking industry is in desperate trouble, saving one or two of the largest banks -- desperate trouble. no conditions put forth fo

. >> eliot: coming up, the former general inspector neil barofsky joins me.n. what is the matter with kansas. as you know, the united states took a sharp turn to the right last night with a bunch of all traditionultraconservatives being voted into office. we'll tell you who did their bidding and why it's so scary. we'll talk to the mayor of most dangerous city in america. stick around and we'll tell where you that is. >> eliot: wait a minute. you're not even going to tell us what city it is? >> you got to watch. >> eliot: i got to watch now. give it to us in the preview the initials the state something. >> you'll be surprised. >> eliot: more view point coming up next. we'll be watching. >>join the debate now.

time for thanks so much for watching and be sure to come back tomorrow because on the show is neil barofsky hero bailout you may remember he was the special inspector general for tarp in the meantime you can follow me on twitter at more and list or give us feedback on the show and you missed a you tube dot com slash capital account you can watch us in h.d. on hulu and from everyone here in the meantime have a great night.

bailout could put thee country in danger of bigger problems.hank youor having joining me now neil barofskyd his brand new book made the bailout and how washington abandoned main streeto while rescuing walltionp street. it is a terrific book withma the players in thethe regulator relationship with the government. i want to congratulate you. he is a democrat, republican appointee, and you went to ob. battle with democrats andocra republicans alike and haverom emerged but let's find out.e [laughter]ecutorbefore how? s> i had more hair when i got to washington. but i was very grateful for my time i was a federal prosecutor before i went to to washington. lou: and highly successful. >> es.it was a great opportunity but it was disturbing it did not matter fu coming to the influence our economy was so often putting their interests ahead of everyone else's. it almost didn't matter what party you were in. lou: as you so vividly write about in your book, the fact that the banking industry is in desperate trouble, saving one or two of the largest banks -- desperate trouble. no conditions put forth fo

we will talk to neil barofsky about that. and of course isaac is still wreaking havoc. our own jeff flock continues his live coverage from the state of louisiana just moment trs now. -- just moments from now. at the top of the hour, lauren simonetti with stocks, every 15 minutes. >> we finally have moves after some steady trading all week. we are down 111 points right now on the dow jones industrial average. if you look at the level, we're below 13,000. we haven't been 13,000 since early august. in fact, now for the month of august, for the dow, at least, the nasdaq and the s&p are higher for the month, but the dow is now negative for the month of august. so you can see it's looking pretty ugly on this thursday, the day before jackson hole, but amazon.com is a bright spot today. it did hit an all-time high $250 a little bit earlier. the kindle fire, the best seller on the website, 22% market share for the tablet market for the kindle fire. we called in to amazon.com and a specialist says they are not sure when they are going to have more kindle fires in stock. if you ar

and neil barofsky, the former t.a.r.p. special inspector general. our audience here at the studio. >>> but before we begin our discussion, let's take a quick look at what the stakes are. do you hear that in the distance? two ticking time bombs threatening to send the economy back into recession or worse. the first, just over four months until it detonates, it's that fiscal cliff that you hear about unless washington gets its act together. >> let's get the job done. >> a big if. as we ring in 2013, the ball will also drop on the economy, huge, automatic government fu spending cuts. good-bye, mount rushmore. simultaneously tax increases will go into effect. the bush tax cuts, good-bye. the long-term picture even worse. and that brings us to the second time bomb. as the baby boomers retire the commitments that we have made to seniors will balloon, over the next 75 years, medicare will run a deficit of more than $30 trillion, two times the entire size of the united states economy. social security will run out of money in just 20 years. in short, if noth

neil barofsky. thank you for your insights. that's "viewpoint" tonight. stay tune to enter the war room with jennifer granholm. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> jennifer: i'm jennifer granholm. tonight in the war room, run for your lives! [ ♪ music ♪ ] two sinter being descend on kansas and leave carnage in their weak. jennifer surly you're talking about science fiction plot. no, my friend, i'm speaking of koch brothers, and backing up sam brown. you know, the same ones. jennifer i eight the koch brothers as much as you. i don't live in kansas. how does this effect me? >> truth is scarier than fiction, my friends. and when it comes to the koch brothers, the draconian laws they want passed, what happens in kansas has a habit of not staying in kansas. [ ♪ music ♪ ] >> we are not crazy. listen before it's too late. >> listen to me. listen, if you don't, if you won't, if you fail to understand then the same incredible terror that is menacing me will strike at you. >> jennifer: that is the invasion of the body snatchers mild manner town converted by aliens into unfeelin

>> reporter: on our "making sense" blog, you can watch excerpts from paul's interview with neil barofsky "bailout." today, the tarp cop discusses trying to deal with the washington power structure. judy shares voter views in this week's "notebook" as a preview of her upcoming report on the swing state of virginia. that's on our "politics" page. and on "art beat," musician jeff tweedy of "wilco" talks about his recordings of songs by woody guthrie and what he sings to his kids at bedtime. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, margaret warner has an interview with supreme court justice antonin scalia. i'm judy woodruff. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank y

on "making sense," find our last installment of former tarp cop neil barofsky's take on the financialsis, plus a response from congressman barney frank. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. on monday, we'll have gwen ifill's interview with mitt romney on the campaign trail in virginia. i'm judy woodruff >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. "washington week" can be seen later this evening on most pbs stations. we'll see you online, and again here monday evening. have a nice weekend. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and with t ongoing support of these stitions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org