last year, i had ben bernanke coming before the budget committee. this was during the whole bail-out process. as you know, what the very least over $2 trillion with the zero interest loans to financial institutions. you put the americans money at risk can you tell them? who got the money? he said i am not going to tell you. $2 trillion? by the time the day was over reintroduced legislation to make them. but talk a little about that. how can ahead of the fed say with a straight face i was not tell the american people where $2 trillion of their money at risk has gone? >> guest: i know. it was astonishing. i think at the same moment he said it would be counterproductive. are remember the word counterproductive. how you get to that term? i guess the reason besides the fact that a lot of banks still want that information disclose because that would indicate how weak they truly are even with the bailout and subsidies and i think bernanke was basically using that and trying to justify by saying people knew how weak their banks might be we would have catast

last year i had ben bernanke came before the budget committee. this was during the whole bailout process. as you know at the very least we know that the fed lent out over two trillion dollars in zero interest loans to financial restitutions. so i said to chairmen bernanke, can you tell the american people, you're putting their money and risk. who got the money. he said i'm not going to tell you. $2 trillion and you're not going to tell the american people. by the time that day was over we introduced legislation to make him tell us. but talk a little bit about how can the head of the fed say with a straight face i'm not collected tell the american people where $2 trillion of their money at risk has gone. >> i know. it was astonishing. at the same moment or a few minutes later he said it would actually be counterproductive. the remember the word counterproductive. how do you possibly get to that time. i guess the reasoning beside the fact of a whole lot of banks it, that information disclosed because that mation disclosed because that would indicat

even the head of the federal reserve, ben bernanke, admit that had moving the date up would probablyefit consumers. kellogg's is going to pull the label on rice krispies boxes that claim the cereal could boost your child's immunity. it was right across the snap, crackle and pop. you can see the yellow band there. it has to do with the h1n1 virus. a san francisco city attorney kind of called out the company saying it's a company trying to play to fears about the swine flu. kellogg's said, no, that wasn't what it was trying to do. it was about antioxidants that added to the cereal but says it will pull the label anyway. >>> okay. you think you know the news? prove it. challenge your friends, challenge yourself, test your knowledge. you can pick your favorite anchor like maybe our very own robin meade to lead you through it and play now at cnnchallenge.com. that's a new name you can choose from all the different anchors. we know who you'll choose, robin. >>> the most storied team in baseball history back on top again. what it all came down to for the new york yankees to take home their

ben bernanke, the chief of it, he is appointed by the government but it's really a body of bankers essentiallying, look, bankers aren't going to split up big banks. maybe we have to get the government to do that. i'll tell you, though, the white house still trusts the fed so this plan puts him at odds with the white house. they have not said let's shift everything to the government. they're okay with the fed just stepping it up. >>> if you've got a home, listen to this. you're going to like it. home prices may be bottoming out. look, we've had a lot of little signs here about housing. this one looks pretty good the relentless march to the bottom could be almost over. that's some good news in a bad economy. a realtor's group says two quarters in a row now so for six months home price have is been rising. coming up out of the bottom for a single family home, the median price is now about $180,000 so it's up $7,000. used to be more than $200,000 but still coming up, right? right directed. and even in some of the worst hit markets, ft. lauderdale, phoenix, there have been signs of life. back to yo

committee, he has these hearings over the last month and half and he brought up kenneth lewis and ben bernanke and he brought up in paulson. and you can see the tension because now he is out of the headlock but he has already made these purchases countrywide, kenneth lewis the ceo of bank of america bought countrywide first and i think on orders and i think he bought merrill lynch second and i think under orders. in the nature is that they really needed when we kind of joke around a bank of america became of the fourth branch of the u.s. government. i think he felt it was a patriotic thing, build long-term was making a good investment bell was making terrific investments. they paid $50 billion to merrill lynch, waited a week and a half so i can't explain. >> the point was two convince the markets that they really are worth that much. >> as wright, a poker game. the whole role was to put everybody andes and let lehman go but nobody else was when to let go and we're going to solve this crisis. another theory is in this is a deep dark theory, a lot of people feel that they let lehman go because y

last year ben bernanke came before the budget committee. this was during the whole belau process. as you know -- i'm going to get into this at some level. at the very least we know that the fed went out over $2 trillion in zero interest loans to financial institutions. so i said, you know, can you tell the american people who got the money? most of us would like to know who got the money. he said, not going to tell you. $2 trillion of money and he's not going to tell the american people. by the time that day was over we introduce legislation to make him tell us. talk a little bit about that. how can the head of the fed say with a straight face and not going to tell the american people where $2 trillion of their money at risk has gone. >> i know. it was astonishing. i think at the same moment for a few minutes later he said it would actually be counterproductive to tell people. i remember the word counterproductive. how do you possibly get to that term. i guess the reasoning besides the fact that a whole lot of banks don't want that information disclosed because that would indicate

last year i had ben bernanke before the budget committee. this was during the whole bailout. as you know i want to get into this. at the very least we know that they lend out over $2 trillion in 0 inches loans to financial institutions. so i said, you know, can you tell the american people who get the money to back the putting their money at risk. most of us would like to know. who got the money. he said, this is pretty amazing, i'm not going to tell you. $2 trillion you're not going to tell the american people. by the time that day was over we introduce legislation to make can tell us, but talk a little bit about that. how can the head of the fed say with the straight face and i'm t going to tell the american people where $2 trillion of their money at risk has gone. >> guest: it was astonishing. at the same moment for a few minutes later he said it would actually be counterproductive to tell people. i remember the word counterproductive. how do you possibly get to that term. i guess the reasoning besides the fact that there are a whole lot of banks that don't want that infor

september asking for $700 billion was very nearly written in a memo april 15th and presented to ben bernanke. it was called break the glass, as an break the glass in case of an emergency. and so, as i started peeling the story back it became clear to me that the story actually wasn't about six days any more, it was about much more, and was a much longer period, and that's when the book for those of you that haven't had a chance to read it, starts the day after bear stearns is sold for $2 a share to jpmorgan. and i use that moment as a sort of an inflection point both on wall street and washington in that it was clearly a major and important policy shift for washington. it created this issue of moral hazard, a discussion we haven't been having in this country before, and it also put pressure on lehman brothers and the rest of the dominoes in ways i'm not sure we even appreciate. for me the spring and summer didn't feel that bad. i remember lloyd telling people i think in april april that the worst was behind. i actually remember dick fould saying the same thing, so there was this almost sense

front an october 5th audit that former treasury secretary paulson and the federal reserve chairman ben bernanke weren't truthful with the american people when they said the t.a.r.p. was meant for healthy banks especially because they knew citigroup and bank of america were in danger of collapse. has the obama administration done a better job based on what you've observed? how would you rate the secretary of the treasury geithner's handling of the program so far? >> i think our criticism of the prior administration, in particular then-secretary paulson was being less than transparent. in saying that the banks were healthy when he had his own private concerns about individual banks -- in coming out and saying that they were healthy was a lack of transparency. it also created unrealistic expectations. it created the expectation that the financial institutions would return to lending. which we see is not happened. and that was our criticism there. and i think in many ways our criticisms about transparency continue. secretary geithner have done some good things and they adopted our recommendations o

slide 5, -- a slight six, ben bernanke and henry paulson spoke to tim geithner.e our commitment is will be resolved. you will get additional investment. that's from bank of america lawyer. none of these are in dispute here today. none of the testimony we have had until now this beats the fact that in various ways, the then new york bank chairman, tim geithner, was in the loop because this was after he was the likely and in fact now is the secretary. knowing all of this, do you believe today and that if the money had not been made available, and this is for the board members primarily, in the form of a loan or a loan through preferred stock with interest, do you believe you would have likely pulled the mac, and it is going through with the deal as currently cost, $18 billion in losses. since your career has been in banking, if you take $18 billion out of your balance sheet and try to have the fdic come in and take you out, is that not a real concern you have to deal with? >> it was a confusing time, for sure. i can tell you that as we, the board, originally on dec

we're pleased, delighted, and honored to welcome ben bernanke. are obviously very interesting times from economic perspective with questions about recovery, the federal reserve drawn into a number of political regulatory discussions. obviously, chairman bernanke stands at the center of this. he was sworn in february 1, 2006. prior to that time, he was previously a member of the board of governors. he had a very distinguished career as an economist at princeton university. t at princeton university. his clear thinking, his clear speaking, his research, his intellect, his experimentation me can definitely the man for times like these. mr. chairman, the floor is yours. [applause] >> glenn, thank you very much. nice to be back here again. a few of my dearest friends here. [laughter] when i last spoke at the economic club of new york a little more than a year ago, the financial crisis had just taken a more virulent term. in my remarks that that time i describe the extraordinary actions that policy makers around the globe were taking to address the cri

fed chief ben bernanke says the bad weather in the jobs market is going to stay with us for a bit of a time. my next guest jen westhoven, we got to lynn? >> not only have we had enough economic news out there, but this is the number one guy it comes to the economy unemployment is like to remain quite high through 2010. mostly because banks are refusing to lend money and they are not lending to small businesses. the startups can't start up. if that's where a lot of new jobs come from, then we're losing a serious source of jobs in the new recovery. don't get a case of coke in cosco for a while. they're having a price dispute. coke is working to resolve this. it looks like costco is saying coke is not giving us a good deal. they have got to get it at some kind of a discount. >>> especially if you have got some kids in your life and you want to give them the christmas gifts, they got to be under the tree in time for christmas morning. the deadline will be on december 17. you can wait until december 23rd, but you'll pay more and i think it's a risk, right? but you can ship as late as dece

. >>> bad news from the man who oversees the company, ben bernanke said the bad weather in the jobs marketoking up, gdp was looking up. but not what matters most in our households. >> yeah. and they still are doing ook. he's not taking i away from that. you know how we talk about the jobs market taking a longer time to heel heal? he's saying, yeah, they don't see any turn-up yet. pretty gloomy speech. this is the state of things. he was speaking to lots of financial executives at the economic club of new york. bernanke says that unemployment is likely to remain quite high through 2010. he said it's partly because banks right now, we know they're still in trouble. we've been talking about banks failing and how they can't lend irresponsibly anymore. they're not lending to small businesses, traditionally where a lot of mechanic's job growth comes from. if start-ups can't start up, they can't generate new jobs. we'll keep watching for signs of goodness. for now, he's saying we may be stuck for a while. >>> don't go looking to get cases of coke on sale at costco for a while. it's no longer carr

guest: chairman ben bernanke's reconfirmation and his being questioned next week. ery good job. the balance sheet has expanded by over $2.20 trillion. we should audit him before he is reconfirm. jim benning in the senate was the one member who did not vote for his confirmation -- that is jim bunning. jim demint, either. we hope that they will put a hold on this. i think that chris dodd as chairman of the banking committee would be hard-pressed not to call for this audit, or he would look like he is covering for the fed and the bank. host: jane hampsher, thank you for spending some of your thanksgiving with our viewers. up next, we will speak with craig shirley about his new book "rendezvous with destiny" and ask him about the future of the conservative movement today. ♪ >> it is on thanksgiving day on c-span. at 10:00 a.m. eastern, clinton is on hand to present the liberty medal to stephen spielberg. also, these people as part of a panel assessing the obama presidency. and from the jfk library and museum on terrorism and nuclear weapons. his part artist and actor on

host:" the new york times" says that the reappointment of ben bernanke will be the subject of a senate hearing. that is set for september 3. oklahoma, on our independent line, good morning. caller: i don't think the stimulus package should go through. they need to do something about the corruption in all forms of government in cities and states. i have lived in new england and vermont and there is not that many people in vermont. they have not such a loud voice for the whole mission there. -- the whole nation there. if they are doing a public service, they should do it for free. host: do you think it is too soon to talk about a second stimulus package? caller: yes, people don't know what is happening in this country among the county's merging and companies going out of business. texas has amassed a lot of the wealth in this country. people need to wake up. texas seems to be a source -- it is almost an act of the people. host: the group acorn is back in the news this morning. the justice department has not awarded any federal grant money directly to the poverty group over the last eight

no one is saying this and the new media but this is backed up by ben bernanke, timothy geithner -- they will not say september 11, but they all said that this run of the treasury happened the morning of september 11. our nation was attacked. this is two attacks. one in the first year of the last presidency and one in the last year of the last presidency, both on september 11. the media has not reported what happened. guest: sorry i don't have the specifics what you are referring to. i will say as a general matter, the issue you are raising, the potential for a cyber attack on the nation's financial system is quite real and i think treasury officials and intelligence officials taken very seriously. an interesting anecdote that kind of illustrates that that goes to some of the people you were mentioning in positions of authority at the time. in the may, 2007, meeting, when mike mcconnell got present a bus -- bush to sign off to do his that attack -- cyber attack and iraq, he made a point how dangerous is cyber attacks on our financial system could be, and the analogy was if the 9/11 terro

i don't know if we've decided on the exact day, the confirmation hearing for ben bernanke to become the chair or continue his chair of the chairman of the federal reserve board. with the view in mind that the following week we come back, we would move forward with a markup. now obviously there's a lot of time between now and then. this as i said is a discussion draft. i use the words carefully, a discussion draft. it is designed specifically to invite members to share their views and thoughts. many of you have already, about the provisions in this bill. i look forward to the coming days for continued engagement with each and every member of this committee to share their thoughts and ideas on how to make this a stronger and better bill and to reflect not only what we think needs to be done but also the realities in which we've got to operate. so that's sort of a rough framework. i want to be flexible, i don't want to have a rigid process where people are under a gun to perform and within tight frameworks. as richard shelby has said, not likely to do anything as important as this undertak

moreover, according to federal reserve chairman ben bernanke, if the stimulus package did not exist, our nation's unemployment situation would be far worse. and on the positive side, in the third quarter of this year we saw the first growth in gdp in over a year. that being said, today's hearing confronts the question, "how do we know the recovery act is working?" the truth of the matter is that while recipient reports provided for an unprecedented level of transparency, we must be able to rely on the reported data. at this point it is clear that errors found by gao and others should be corrected immediately, not months later, no matter how difficult. recipient reporting should be subject to strict quality control. the american taxpayer expects reporting to be done, and done well. and $787 billion weighing in the balance is certainly far from pocket change. taken as a whole, the big picture seems to indicate that the job trend is positive. overall, there are some signs that jobs are finally being created, both as a direct and indirect result of recovery act spending. but while we are

rallied today on the heels of solid gains investors focused on the positive parts of fed chief ben bernanke's comments as he spoke today in new york. he said high unemployment and tight credit will make for a weak economic recovery but dismissed wor ris about another recession and says he's seen economic conditions improve over the past year and that continued growth is likely to happen into next year. the market saw signs of improvement as well. at the close the dow industrials rose 136 points to 10,406. the nasdaq composite gained 1.3% the s&p 500 rose almost 1.5%. also helping the gains a fresh report on retail sales. commerce department says sales jumped 1.4 from the month before. if you strip out car and truck sales, the number was up just slightly, indicating that consumers are still very cautious. retailers are hoping for big gains this month. many of them can make as much as half of their annual profits during the holiday shopping season. richelle, they're hoping people get out there and spend, spend, spend. >> that's exactly what they're hoping for. some people may be doing that spen

and as i say i have a lot of respect for ben bernanke and i don't see -- say that lightly. i think he's done a very good job and i do welcome these changes. but are these sufficient rule changes going to be adequate enough and doesn't it -- let me take advantage of the panel here. i say this not because it should be punitive or adversarial but merely to complete the entire picture. if you're looking at creating stblet and safety and soundness, at the same time it's very important that mr. -- people like mr. livieri, hard-working, ran his business for 50 years. does a simple transaction and ends up paying $140 for a $2.17 overdraft. unfortunately this happens with great regular la later and the idea that in this reorganization of the regulatory process -- look, all of you understand and know the senate pretty well. the likelihood i could take a bill like there, get it out of committee, get it on the floor of the united states senate, get it in a year or two to be completed by the body of the 135 other people, thoff the -- to have the president of the united states sign it in