let's get more on ben bernanke's testimony.et's go to our senior economics reporter steve liesman. steve? >> mark, hampton gave us a lot of details and if i had to boil it down to one important phrase, he said that the fed will remain exceptionally low for an extended period. those are the words the market needs to hear. if i did it on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being more dovish than expected and 1 being as dovish as expected i'd say it's bat 2 or a 3 which is just a little more dovish than expected and some analysts speculated this morning that one of the reasons for that is because of all the sort of mechanical things the fed had done in terms of the supplemental financing program and the discount rise last week that the fed is a little bit afraid may give the impression is the beginning of a tightening cycle. it's trying to give the impression that it is not. a couple things here on the reagan la tri front. the fed saying it welcomes disclosure after an appropriate delay of institutions that borrow from the special facilit

are we talking ben bernanke, jobless claims, durable goods data?stay with us. >>> "squawk box" is up in just over nine minutes. carl haas moved down to washington where he's going to be hosting the show today. hey, carl. >> sounds like -- >> if he can hear me. carl, can you hear me? are you up and running? i'm not sure he can. we'll try to get down on carl. anyway, that is where the program is coming from. >> all right. very good. it looks like carl is having some fun over there in washington. let's bring in david kotok for a little bit more fun. he's actually in sayre so ta, florida, right now. and let's talk about what carl is about to cover. it's this huge health care summit in washington today. this is a six-hour long event with the president, democrats and republicans. >> it's a huge issue, a manu mental issue and it involves so many emotional parts and political parts. the monetary economic debate is over who pays who, so somebody has to pay it and somebody gets the subsidy. that's the politics of money side. the politics of appealing to peop

ben bernanke suggested we'd be better off if china saved less and we saved more. tonight's commentator is also worried about our largest trading partner. he's leo hindery, managing partner at inter-media partners, and chairman of the u.s. economy smart globalization initiative at the new america foundation. >> america's great recession has turned into china's great opportunity. american companies have cut both their payrolls and their capital spending and have driven business to china at the same time that chinese manufacturers are boosting their global competitiveness through massive subsidies from their central government. in just the last year, chinas share of our nations trade deficit in manufactured goods jumped from 69% to an almost unbelievable 80% today, while its share of u.s. imports overall increased 20%. no responsible american economist disagrees with president obama's assessment that china's currency is significantly undervalued compared to the u.s. dollar. yet currency manipulation is actually just the tip of the chinese trade iceberg. something on

stocks edged lower after those comments from ben bernanke. the dow lost 20 points, the nasdaq fell three points, and the s&p 500 dropped two points. speaking of the dow, the 114- year-old index has a new owner: the c.m.e. group. the chicago exchange is joining forces with dow jones, for dow's stock indexing business. the deal's worth $675 million and gives the c.m.e. a 90% stake, with dow jones and its owner newscorp keeping the rest. german politicians, euro zone finance ministers, and french president nicholas sarkozy spent the day working on the greek issue. so far, no decision on how to handle greece's debt. the issue tops the agenda at tomorrow's summit of european union leaders in brussels. treasury secretary timothy geithner says the u.s. financial system is healing, but there's a lot of repair work ahead. his comments came from a prepared statement summing up how the administration worked to stabilize financial markets over the past year. still ahead, will airlines stocks soar higher this year? we ask our "street critique" guest juliu

. >> sreenivasan: wall street racked up gains today after the federal reserve chairman, ben bernanke, said interest rates need to stay low. the dow jones industrial average gained more than 91 points to close at 10,374. the nasdaq rose 22 points to close near 2,236. public and private sector workers walked off the job across greece today. it was the second 24-hour strike in the last two weeks aimed at a government austerity plan. demonstrators clashed with police in athens, after a peaceful march had ended. they were protesting plans to cut government spending because of a debt crisis. greece has announced wage freezes, bonus cuts and pension reform over the last month to save almost $7 billion. the u.s. house has stepped up the pressure on health insurance companies. it came a day before the president's bi-partisan summit on health care reform. health correspondent betty ann bowser has the story. >> this meeting will come to order. >> reporter: the target at a house hearing today was wellpoint-- the parent company of california's anthem blue cross. >> corporate executives at wellpoin

we have four people in the operating room that we were very fortunate as a country we had hey, ben bernanke, tim geithner and sheila bair at head of the fdic. i know a lot of people in finance and business and government. i cannot think of four people who would have done a better job to get us through that. it is fashionable to look back and look at one little aspect of what was happening our country's financial system froze up during that period. some of you were at a party i was at september 2008 when the talk of what are the money market funds save? when you have 3.5 trillion of funds held by 30 million people who on a sunday night worry about whether they can get their money, that was half of all deposits. you have a panic. you have commercial paper frees up entirely and some of the biggest companies in the united states that are described, worried if they would be payrolls in a short period of time. the six largest bank in the country with domestic deposits washington mutual and the third largest bank, wachovia, needed of shock on a monday morning to survive. most interesting, but this

ben bernanke will speak to the senate committee later this morning.toyota will stay put. some executives have resigned following the scandal of the recalls. akio toyoda is the only person that can save toyota. he said the as a personal commitment to restore the trust of customers. blockbuster is closing at least 500 doors. it is looking for ways to restructure almost $1 billion of debt. consumers are turning to netflix and red box. back to you. >> thanks. >> coming up, in the look at your morning commute with traffic and weather together. >> the hockey venue at the olympics turned into stars on ice. see if team usa stays in contention for its first gold medal hopes. we will show you ♪ hey bets, can i borrow a quarter? sure, still not dry? trng to shrink them. i lost weight and now some clothes are too big. how d you do it? simple stuff. eating right and i switched to whole grain. whole grain... [ female announcer ] pele who more whole grai tend to have a healthier body weight. multigrain cheerios has who gins and 110 calories per serving. more grains.

but ben bernanke will come back and testify on the hill today. yesterday he pledged to continue record low interest rates for, in his words, an extended period. >> one of the greatest challenges of extraordinary policies that we've both taken is at some point, we want to return to a more normal stance and finding a way out that's credible and understandable and clear is very important for confidence. >> today's senate banking session and the fed's semi-annual report on monetary policy and the state of the economy will begin at 9:00 eastern. i don't know whether we're going to do that music or not. i don't know whether we were going to, but -- >> we are now. >> but i requested it and i think the import and the serious and the gravity and the gravitas of the person we have down there, i think it's a legitimate thing to -- >> really? because the same laws of gravity apply here as they do in new york. >> across -- we learned that. probably across the entire universe and all the multi verse, carl. but you're looking fine, my friend. thanks. >> are you

we had hank, ben bernanke tim geithner and sheila bair the head of the fdic. i know a lot of people in finance and a lot of people in business and government. and i can't think of for that would have done a better job of getting us through that. now it's kind of fashionable to look back and pick at one aspect or another of what was happening and our country's financial system froze up during that period. some of you in this room were at a party i was at in september of 2008, one to talk was the money market funds saved. if we have 3.5 trillion fun missile by 30 million people who on is and they might are worrying about whether they can get their money that was half of all the process held by u.s. banks at the time you have a panic. you had commercial paper frees up entirely in the biggest companies of the united states and some are described in this book that worried whether they were going to meet their payroll and a short period of time to read the sixth largest bank in the country in terms of the domestic deposits, washington mutual failed over a weekend. y

all that came up at a senate hearing today with fed chairman ben bernanke. >> we have a situation in which major financial institutions are amplifying a public crisis for what would appear to be for private gain. i want to ask you here whether or not you think there ought to be limits on the use of credit default swaps to prevent the intentional creation of runs against governments. do you have any quick comments on that? >> using these instruments in a way that intentionally destabilizes a company or a country is... is counterproductive, and i'm sure the sec will be looking into that. we'll certainly be evaluating what we can learn from the activities of the holding companies that we supervise here in the u.s. and joining me with the latest on all this is roben farzhad, senior writer for "bloomberg business week" magazine. in general terms first, what exactly is chairman bernanke promising to look into? >> this has for the better part of the decade been the great big unknown, this world of derivatives which are largely unregulated secondary investment vehicles. they're almost train

we have ben bernanke. we have tim geithner, and we had sheila bair, the head of the fdic. and i know a lot people in finance. i know a lot of people in business. i know a lot of people in government. and i can't think of four that would have done a better job of getting us through that. now it's kind of fashionable now to look back and pick out one little aspect or another of what was happening then, but our country's financial system froze up during that period. some of you in this room were at a party i was at in september of 2008 when the talk was, are our money market funds safe? now, when you have 3.5 or more trillion of funds held by 30 million people, who on a sunday night are worrying about whether they can get their money, that money was half of all the deposits held by u.s. banks at the time. you have a panic. you had commercial paper freeze up entirely, and you had some of the biggest companies in the united states, and some of them are described in this book, to worry about whether they're going to meet their payrolls in a short bit of time. you had the sixth l

the gentlewoman from new york. >> we are listening to the question and answer session of ben bernanke's testimony before the house services committee. i want to bring in rick santelli who heard something interesting at the top. what was that, rick? >> there was cross-examination that was referencing why banks aren't lending and mr. bernanke said that the public so citiing mattized the t.a.r.p. program that the bank his to pay it back early and that's one of the reasons there's so little lending going and there were a lot of people on the floor scratching their heads because they didn't remember a whole lot of lending going on before the stag mattization occurred and they thought it was an swg point. >> he said elsewhere that they were uncertain economic conditions and that there was low demand for it as well. steve liesman is over here and wants to get in on it as well. steve? >> this is a pretty well ingrained that if you look at the timing when the t.a.r.p. money was given and how quickly they put the compensation rules and essentially changed the rules. the money was never, ever used

. >>> as he was sworn in for his second term as head of the federal reserve ben bernanke said he is worried about the pace of our economic recovery. he told his staff today the economy is growing but there's still too little bank credit, too many foreclosures and too many people unemployed. meantime treasury secretary tim geithner says congress can claw back what he is calling an outageus new amount of bonuses for aig employees. they are all set to pay out bonuses despite being bailed out by the federal government last year. tim geithner says the government can recoup the money by instituting the new bank fee that president obama called for in his 2011 budget. but aig says those bonuses were negotiated before the company asked for the bailout. what do you think about that? is it an outrageous failure of policy or do the aig employees deserve the bonuses, after all they were promised them. send your e-mails to me. >>> winning the seat of senator ted kennedy. an attorney wants brown to be sworn in tomorrow. once he is sworn in, brown will end the democrats majority in the u.s. senate. but pre

as ben bernanke was sworn in for a second term today, the federal reserve chairman said he was focused on protecting the agency's independence. bernanke said that independence is key to keeping monetary policy focused on the long-term interests of the american people, and not political whims. >> susie: you've probably noticed that the prices you're paying at the pump are holding steady these days. but can we count on them to stay that way? well, that all depends on what happens to the price of oil. and, as suzanne pratt reports, forecasts for oil prices in 2010 are all over the map. >> reporter: at this gas station in midtown manhattan, gas prices are among the highest in the nation. whether they spike even higher, head lower, or stay in the same range this year depends on who you ask. j.p. morgan's lawrence eagles expects crude prices, which dictate gas prices, to climb higher. that's after averaging between $72 and $76 a barrel in the first half this year. >> moving higher in the second half, up to $88 by the end of the year and moving appreciably stronger in 2011. >> reporter: for e

. >>> federal reserve chairman ben bernanke will be back on capitol hill today, for day two of his twice-a-yearday he made it clear that interest rates will remain at record low levels for several more months to support the recovery. the latest housing numbers show just how fragile that recovery is. new home sales fell to the lowest level on regard in january. >>> new concerns about greece's debt crisis are overshadowing bernanke's comments this morning. stocks fell in torque owe with the nikkei dropping almost 1% today. bernanke's testimony gave wall street a boost yesterday. the dow finished up 91 points closing at 10,374. the nasdaq gained 22 points to close at 2235. >>> chrysler is voluntarily recalling more than 350,000 minivans because of problems with crash sensors that control the air bags. the company says it will replace the sensors in 2005 and 2006 town and country and dodge caravans. but chrysler says it should wait until june to contact dealers because it needs time to distribute the replacement parts. >>> it appears to be the end for hummer. gm says it will shut down the brand, un

the federal reserve will release a statement today outlining chairman ben bernanke's strategy for eventually raising rates from historic lows. the fed faces a delicate balancing act. are a rates too quickly and choke off the modest recovery. wait too long and spark inflation. no matter what the fed says it's months away from making changes. >>> the man who helped engineer the financial bailout says taxpayers will recover neve spent. henry paulsen open was interviewed by warren buffett. both agreed the government may turn a profit from the bailout. another reminder of just how tough the rob jacket is right now. the numbers show there were just under six unemployed people for every job opening and the problem may get worse before it gets better. a separate survey finds more small companies plan to cut workers rather than add them. add the camry to the list of toyotas experiencing brake problems. the automaker is recalling about 7300, 2010 camries because of a possible fluid leak that increases stopping distances. this came after toyota announced it's recalling half a million dollars hybrids an

we have word that ben bernanke is set to testify. >> i'm sue herera. there are some bright spots.&t, walmart and dupont are among the dow's 30 winners. >> ppl beat the street. the ceo will join us first on cnbc. tyson foods smashing analysts' estimates. ate na pushing higher. we should get to the market. >> i'm dennis neil. let's get straight to this market action. let's go to bob pisani. >> here's a couple of headlines here. stocks close in europe at 1130, the stock market droops here. the second time in a row. guys in europe are getting concerned. they want to lighten up. second thing that happened that's important here, is dollarle rallied at the exact same moment we had yesterday. of course, what happens when that happens? it puts pressure on commodities and puts pressure on commodity stocks. all the big names in energy and the material groups on the weak side. and sharon, we saw a heck of a lot of contracts traded in oil in the last hour and a half. >> that's right. over 400,000 contracts traded today, bob, and this is the second straight day of massive contracts and massive

. >>> stocks rallied after federal reserve chairman ben bernanke told congress, record- low interest rates are still needed to help the economy. in his twice-a-year report to congress, bernanke said the economic recovery is still in the early stages and that moderate growth will only lead to a slow decline in the unemployment rate. >>> the ceo publicly apologized to the lapses that led to the recall of more than 8 million toyotas. akio toyoda admitted that the auto group grew too fast to stay on top of safety recalls. he says he is committed to regaining the trust of every consumer. >>> a report surprised economists who were expecting a rise in sales. while winter storms upon partly to blame, new home sales have fallen now for three straight months, despite low mortgage rates for some tax buyers. one in four homeowners owed more than their home was worth late last year. rising unemployment contributed to the rise of homeowners who are under water on their loans. for more money news, you can head to cbs money watch.com. in new york, i'm alexis christoforous. >>> coming up on wjz's eye

. >>> in another shift boost the economy ben bernanke told congress that record low interest rates arestillness. they said they will keep their key interest rate to near zero for what he called an extended period. it has been between zero and 2.5%. at some point the fed will have to tighten credit but he did not give a timeline. >>> another move on the hill to help the financial recovery. the jobs bill that will give tax money to employers to hire unemployed workers, they green lighted a more expensive measure, but the bill was some businesses who hired the unemployed from paying payroll tax for the rest of the year and gives them a $1,000 credit. >>> there are some good numbers to pass along. the federal government projects a number of industries will lose jobs in 2018 even after the economy picks up. department stores expected to lose the most, 10% of the 1.5 million positions compared to 2008. semi conductor manufacturing will lose 34% of the 432,000 positions and motor vehicle manufacturing could see an 18% trop from it's 535,000 positions. >>> martinez will begin recognizing same-

but the old bugaboo, inflation and ben bernanke, will the fed reduce the balance sheet and get rates to more normal levels in my lifetime? >> hopefully you will live a long time, larry, so yes. unfortunately i have never seen the fed or bernanke articulate how to downsize the balance sheet. i haven't seen a plan out there to say, this is how we can do it. they are owns and backing these mosh mortgage-backed securities now and they will weigh reducing the balance sheet with propping up the housing market. we may see another republican revolution and a cut-back on the huge obama taxes on hedge funds, bank pay, small businesses and letting the bush tax cuts expire, i am not confident that bernanke has a plan to deleverage and 2.7% year-over-year growth in the cpi isn't scary, but it's not comforting either. >> you have cut back on your equity allocation, is that right, mike? >> yes, i am. i'm pretty much now at about 20%. jim points out the strong growth in corporate profits. a lot of it is from cutting overhead, cutting employees, but some junk bonds are attractive now for the companie

ben bernanke back for round two, and stephanie elam back. another rally today? >> sorry, kyra, i don't think we will get a repeat one. >> that was a sarcastic, laugh. hell no, kyra. >> yeah, pretty much. we will not see the same picture. but bernanke will deliver the same testimony today but this time before the senate banking committee. yesterday, investors were happy to hear they were going to keep key interest rates for a while longer. they raised the discount rate on what they charge to banks, and if that happened it could slow the recovery and it's a precarious time for the economy. investors jumped up and cheered ben bernanke after he said he was staying the course. and then the debt problems in greece may be getting worse. as i was saying, we are looking for triple digit losses out the gate. and that's what we have. the dow off 137 points. and so no, as i was saying, no, not another rally, at least not to start. >> gosh, okay. shut me down. thank you, steph. definitive. there we go. let's move on. >>> hummer goes the way of pontiac, and stud baker. the de

i think this is an object less sunday for ben bernanke and the federal reserve, that there is a veryubstantial penalty for early withdrawal. we're seeing china and india tighten, now europe withdrawing its liquidity facilities. the u.s. would do well to mind this lesson. if we start to syphon off some of the liquidity, there really could be hell to pay. what we're seeing, when you mention gold, the deflation trade is being put back on. the dollar is going up, gold is going down, oil is collapsing, commodities across the board have been very weak. equity markets are falling all at the same time while domestic rates drop. for anybody worried about inflation in united states, the dollar is going up, u.s. rates are going down and the u.s. on a relative basis is still the safest market in the world no matter what anybody sayless. but there is a danger if the fed doesn't heed the lessons of what's going on elsewhere in the worldtion we, too, could face some of the problems like europe, although our banks are in better shape than yours. >> which is why, rick santelli, the china trade, you w

today, ben bernanke began his second term as chair of the u.s. federal reserve. ceremonial swearing in was held earlier in washington. glen b glenn beck returns in a moment but first, bret baier previewing "special report". >> bret: what really came out of the white house briefing over how the christmas day bomber was handled? and what is the national intelligence director saying about the process now? join me in 27 minutes for special report. now back to glenn beck. >> glenn: you know, i'm so tired of the so-called experts, because they haven't gotten on all of this. they're scoffing now at the idea that china is the next superpower. i think it's already happened. we better wake up. i trust the regular americans more than the so-called experts. your agenda is america. what is their agenda? i can't figure it out sometimes. 44% of americans now believe china is the leading economic power. what do the people know that the experts refuse to address? maybe experts don't know how to read. it just read the chinese government is cutting back on imports. i saw that and i

believe the nation was fortunate that there were a group of people-- and particularly three of us, ben bernanketim geithner and i-- who had skills and backgrounds that complemented each other because i understood enough about markets to understand what was interconnectivitys that what was going to happen when the entire system collapsed. and i... i didn't think i needed to reach out to a lot of people to say if we have, you know, the banks holding a huge percentage of the financial assets in this company collapse, are we going to be in deep do do? i mean, that was intuitively obvious. and i think one of the things that i brought to the party was a decisiveness and ability to move quickly because i was always reaching out, not just to the major banks and investment banks but industrial companies and so i was... and i was... so i knew for instance when we stepped in when we had... a good example... i'll give you an example. when... there was $3.8 trillion in money market funds in this country. 30 million americans had money in the money market funds. i had reached out to enough people to know the

by then treasury secretary hank paulson and ben bernanke. t.a.r.p.upposed to be used to counter the mortgage crisis, not to bail out the big banks. do you believe mccain was misled? >> no, i don't, monica. the night before on nbc nightly news, you may remember john yang had a record that feerchbd john mccain saying because of his experience, he was best equipped to rhett republic arizona. now, in western inventory knack ewe lar, this ain't john's first rodeo. when he suspended his campaign to go back to washington to sit face-to-face with those decisionmakers, now a couple years later, he's telling us he was misled? i have to tell you, this is isn't revision of history. that sounds more like john kerry in 2004 than the john mccain i used to work with. >> and the mccain camp is attacking your spending record. they have a radio ad saying you talk like a conservative, but you spend like a liberal. they're citing your vote for the bridge to nowhere. you supported the 2003 medicare prescription drug benefit. what do you think of those ads? what do you thi

ben bernanke, by the esteemed mr.t the fed -- something you will be humanly go against, which we can understand. you are a bank. if you go into a bank and audit and find things that do not add up, you try to fix it. host: we got the point. ron paul, etc.. guest: i get these questions often. it is interesting, the misinformation that comes forward from this kind of a call. let me explain first of all -- representative paulñr has every right to his views. he calls it "the fed, but it is really and the fed -- he calls it autit the fed, but it is really end the fed. the fed is audited by the government accounting office, or the government accountability office. it is audited by a major auditing firm. it is audited by the treasury. our bank is examined by the board of governors. so there is an enormous amount of auditing that goes on within the federal reserve. exceptions are found, we are held accountable for that and we correct them. in terms of allegations against the chairman or anyone else, they will not be, i think,

chairman ben bernanke outlined the effort in written testimony for a congressional committee.ernanke said the economy still needs an easy money policy for now, but he added: "at some point the federal reserve will need to tighten financial conditions." the talk of higher rates kept wall street at bay. the dow jones industrial average lost 20 points to close at 10,038. the nasdaq fell three points to close below 2,148. thousands of workers in greece staged a national strike today, protesting a government plan to freeze salaries and cut bonuses. the 24-hour strike closed schools, and brought air travel to a halt. we have a report from john sparks of independent television news. >> reporter: it's easy to say, the 24-hour strike closed greece filed a test case for other indebted states. its huge socialist government plans been cuts. for many here on the streets of athens today it is not acceptable. "the capitalist government has declared war on the working classes. we will respond with war-like measures," said this mp. the government wants to raise the retirement age by two years.

idea that once they come that they are going to come back into a government position and i know ben bernanke and hank paulson are well-known for this. could you talk a little bit about that in any ideas on how that could be stopped through laws or voter action or anything? >> i'm glad you reminded me about the revolving door. i see this happening. i see my friends do this. they dress like me when they are working on capitol hill and i see them two years later and they have really nice suits with a french cuff and offer to buy lunch. the left the capitol to up working for congress and a lobbying firm hired them because they knew that when the friend then calls his old underling on capitol hill to say hey i just want to talk to you about the farm bill, that his old boss or his old bosses colleagues are going to take the call and that is the revolving door. barack obama's said literally, i'm going to stop the revolving door. is white house chief of staff, rahm emanuel-- there is not, as the word for rahm emanuel because welby was working on the campaign is a chief fund-raiser he was getting pai

copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> coming up on c-span, federal reserve chairman ben bernankestifies on capitol hill. president obama discusses his economic policies at a meeting with the u.s. business roundtable. and toyota executives testify at a hearing about their company's recalls. on tomorrow's "washington journal," we will preview health care summit with members of congress, including michael burgess of texas, diana degette, james clyburn, and bill cassidy. james clyburn -- julie rovner as well. >> live on thursday, day-long coverage of the health care summit. live from blair house, it will also include your reactions on c-span radio and c-span.org. >> now, federal reserve chairman ben bernanke. he told congress that the federal reserve will maintain low interest rates to help preserve the economy. this is about an hour. >> chairman frank, ranking member baucus, and other members of the committee, i am pleased to present the federal reserve's semiannual monetary policy report to the congress. i will begin with outlook -- comments on the outlook of the economy and for mo

. >>> ben bernanke. >> yes. >> who oversaw the collapse of not only the united states, but pretty muchire world financial system. >> right. >> and brought our economy to its knees has been reappointed as head of the fed. >> right. >> does this give you hope for being re-elected governor of new york? because may i remind you, he screwed everybody. >> wow. >> eliot spitzer taking shots from colbert last night. here with us now, founder, editor of thedailybeast.com, tina brown. >> good morning, everyone. >> great to see you. we'll get to your explosive piece about andrew young. have you quite a bit to say about john edwards' body man. we may have to bleep that. but first, maureen dowd's don't ask, don't tell op-ed. she writes in part -- tinea it was a pretty remarkable day on capitol hill. >> i thought it was pretty believing. very moving indeed. one does ask whether it will ignite a cultural war thing and distract. that's the only thing that scares me, we do need to be focused on jobs now. the timing seems strange. but having said that, it was a moving moment. it is obscene we have had p

people like alan greenspan and ben bernanke gave us the largest downturn since the great depression. that is why we have a huge budget deficit. we didn't have a huge tax cuts. we had stimulus and response to the downturn. we have higher unemployment if we have not had that but let's be clear if we are upset about the deficit greenspan and bernanke, i don't know why we reappointed bernanke. in terms of the entitlement programs, yeah we have a public pension program, which is hugely popular. you look at polling day that-- i was at a conference this morning in social security is over 90%. they ask people would you be willing to pay higher taxes to sustain sosa security benefits and 70 to 80% said yes. i don't see any problem with running a pension program through the public sector. what is the problem with the? it is usually popular. health care costs, medicare again. we are providing medicare health care benefits for seniors. that is also hugely popular. you have these tea party people out there yelling don't let the government touch medicare. they are anti-government but they want med

how much -- how independent are you and how much is ben bernanke your boss?versight responsibility of the 12 banks to make sure that we are operated correctly. we are autonomous. the chairman of the federal reserve is the chairman of the board of the governors of federal reserve, and that gives him a lot of authority. but i also have a board of directors for my region, and they are my boss as well. or, they are my boss. and they can fire me or fail to reappoint me. i think is important to have this board of directors because that brings the independent you to the open market committee, and that is why we were designed the wehrli we were -- the way we work. host: you have the longest tenure, don't you? you have been at the federal reserve since 1981 in various positions. the stake to first call. your honor with thomas hoenig -- you are on with thomas hoenig. caller: it sure is a misnomer to say that they have federal oversight of them banks when you are not even federer. uri private bank. i'm working -- you are not even federal. view are a private bank. i'm wo

sino ben bernanke and st.are well known for this could you talk about that and any ideas on how that could be stopped through laws or voter action and? >> i am glad the reminded me. i see this happening. my friends do this to dress kind of like me when they work on capitol hill but two years later have a nice suits with french cuffs and offer to buy me lunch because they left their capitol hill job working for a congressman and a lobbying firm hired them because they know when somebody says the want to talk to you, the old boss colleague will take the call. that is the revolving door. barack obama reit literally said i will stop the revolving door. his white house chief of staff is from emmanuel it is almost up the right word because all he was werke ag bill clinton 1982 campaign he was getting paid by goldman sachs as a consultant at the same time for nondescript work. he may have been getting paid to work for bill clinton for all been no. then he leaves a couple years before clinton to work in a private equi

we had hank, ben bernanke tim geithner and sheila bair the head of the fdic. i know a lot of people in finance and a lot of people in business and government. and i can't think of for that would have done a better job of getting us through that. now it's kind of fashionable to look back and pick at one aspect or another of what was happening and our country's financial system froze up during that period. some of you in this room were at a party i was at in september of 2008, one to talk was the money market funds saved. if we have 3.5 trillion fun missile by 30 million people who on is and they might are worrying about whether they can get their money that was half of all the process held by u.s. banks at the time you have a panic. you had commercial paper frees up entirely in the biggest companies of the united states and some are described in this book that worried whether they were going to meet their payroll and a short period of time to read the sixth largest bank in the country in terms of the domestic deposits, washington mutual failed over a weekend. y

people like alan greenspan and ben bernanke gave us the largest downturn since the great depression. that is why we have a huge budget deficit. we didn't have a huge tax cuts. we had stimulus and response to the downturn. we have higher unemployment if we have not had that but let's be clear if we are upset about the deficit greenspan and bernanke, i don't know why we reappointed bernanke. in terms of the entitlement programs, yeah we have a public pension program, which is hugely popular. you look at polling day that-- i was at a conference this morning in social security is over 90%. they ask people would you be willing to pay higher taxes to sustain sosa security benefits and 70 to 80% said yes. i don't see any problem with running a pension program through the public sector. what is the problem with the? it is usually popular. health care costs, medicare again. we are providing medicare health care benefits for seniors. that is also hugely popular. you have these tea party people out there yelling don't let the government touch medicare. they are anti-government but they want med

also on the hill, fed chief ben bernanke saying that the congress action has helped to jump start themic recovery, but he worries about the unemployment rate which is near 10%. >>> in vancouver, an emotional moment on ice. joannie rochette took third place in the short program after in the sudden death of her 55-year-old mother on sunday. she will battle for gold in the free skate final tomorrow. >>> i want to tell you what is going on with weather. we have a blizzard moving in the next 48 hours. we have pictures across the country and you have -- can we pull these up, michael? put them on the screen? okay. the one on the left is washington, d.c., and that is the white house and central park, the view from time warner center where cnn is. the only snowflakes you can see are in the animation behind it. it is looking good and calm, bhau but it is going to change. let's look at texas. if you are in west texas, wow, five inches of snow. i have to say that the texans are getting used to this and they have reason to buy a lot of snow shovels this year and they have use of them. that big sto

how much -- how independent are you and how much is ben bernanke your boss?banks are set up to be independent, but the board of governors does have what they call a general oversight responsibility of the 12 banks to make sure that we are operated correctly. we are autonomous. the chairman of the federal reserve is the chairman of the board of the governors of federal reserve, and that gives him a lot of authority. but i also have a board of directors for my region, and they are my boss as well. or, they are my boss. and they can fire me or fail to reappoint me. i think is important to have this board of directors because that brings the independent you to the open market committee, and that is why we were designed the wehrli we were -- the way we work. host: you have the longest tenure, don't you? you have been at the federal reserve since 1981 in various positions. the stake to first call. your honor with thomas hoenig -- you are on with thomas hoenig. caller: it sure is a misnomer to say that they have federal oversight of them banks when you are not even

. >>> ben bernanke has been sworn in for a second term as chairman of the federal reserve. bernanke vowed to preserve the fed's independence, despite a move in congress to tighten control over the central bank. >>> and preparing for a snowy weekend from 1 inch in new york to almost 2 feet in baltimore. meteorologist rob marciano tracking this massive winter storm. what's going on. feast appetizer. [dinner bell chimes] high quality ingredients like wild alaskan salmon in a delicate broth, without by-products or fillers. fancy feast appetizers. celebrate the moment. in the north of england to my new job at the refinery in the south. i'll never forget. it used one tank of petrol and i had to refill it twice with oil. a new car today has 95% lower emissions than in 1970. exxonmobil is working to improve cars, liners of tires, plastics which are lighter and advanced hydrogen technologies that could increase fuel efficiency by up to 80%. >[t:p][n:e plastics which are lighter and advanced hydrogen technologies announcer: the smallest moments can have the biggest impact on a child'

the federal reserve chairman, ben bernanke, said that we cannot allow ourselves to be in a situation debts continue to rise and are unsustainable. the former treasury secretary said that it is clearly unsustainable in. the former head of the gao said it we are on an imprudent and unsustainable long-term fiscal path. as the former chairman of the federal reserve, alan greenspan said the the budget is on an unsustainable path. notice any similarities? unsustainable, unsustainable, unsustainable. look, i know that there is a sense of denial amongst our colleagues. about the seriousness of the threat. i see it every day. i just came from a meeting where i saw it. this is tough, but it has got to be dealt with. if we let this get away from us, we will rue the day, rue the day. regretting forever the consequences for the country. whether it is through a proposal from the president or some other method, we have got to deal with the consequences of a failure to act. so, we have to back. the sooner, the better. we will go out to our witnesses. doctor, thank you so much for being here. it woul

host: a couple other items, business section of "new york times," that ben bernanke has survived a challengeent the financial system from imploding. they did that by lower the interest rates, and now they have to pull that back. they have to pull the federal reserves investments in the economy back. and they have to do that carefully because they don't want to cause problems in doing so, which is something that could happen. it will be delicate. markets are watching when this will happen. if he doesn't do it right, you will see plunges in stock values. host: what is the update? guest: last week senate dodd announced he was at an impasse with senator shelby, and it's not a good sign. there are some republicans who said they were committed to get a bill. one thing to watch is bob corker, a new senator from tennessee, he's working with mark warren, the former virginia governor, and they are working on some aspects of the bill. if they can get an agreement that could roll into a larger package. host: one last caller. caller: my comment is straightforward. i can't be more blunter. i noticed throu

on the currencies, i would only say that, as you know, ben bernanke and tim geithner are saying a strong dollar is in the interests of the united states, in relation to the other major floating currencies. i say myself, on my part, i fully agree. a strong dollar is in the interests of the united states. i would also say that it corresponds to the overall superiority interest of the global economy as a whole, and certainly of the interest of europe. i echo what they say. i would also say that, as major floating currencies, we have the sentiment that a number of other currencies that are not floating could themselves have a progressive and orderly and timely appreciation. that is the way i see the running of the present situation. in the very long run, we could imagine other solutions, but at the present moment we are running a set of free floating major currencies, and there you have the terms of reference that we agree upon. >> another question? yes, sir. in the front row. >> while every country has its own problems and is thinking of its own solution, how do you see the doha round will

. >> ben bernanke will testify on the hill today. >> we'll get his prescription or a forecast on whatill happen with the overall economy. a lot of questions. when will this economy be back to normal and what is normal? that means your job, home and bank. let's take a look at where we stand. the national association of business economics predicts job growth is on its way, forecasting 140,000 jobs per month will be added in 2010. in the new normal, no thing is ever as it seems. yesterday we found out mass layoffs rose last month for the first time since august. more than 180,000 folks fell victim to mass layoffs in january. we saw consumer confidence tumble. consumers are still very nervous. how about your house? your biggest asset most likely or what was once your biggest asset. one out of every four mortgages is under water. it means you owe more than the house is worth. foreclosure will continue. speaking of lenders, banks still in trouble. one out of 11 banks is at risk of going under. that's the problem bank lift, 140 banks were shut down last year and the number of bank failures i

ben bernanke, the chairman for the federal reserve goes to capitol hill this morning. him on what he can or will the to ease the jobs crisis and make sure the economic crisis -- economic recovery lasts. you can hear the first hour on c-span radio. there is a new study showing hispanics at high-level staff positions in capitol hill are almost nonexistent. this is in spite of the fact that they make up nearly 1/6 of the u.s. population. a of a hundred senate chief of staff, only one is hispanic. there is no hispanic legislative directives -- directors and only one hispanic staff director. hispanics only hold 12 of the roughly for a 40 chief of staff jobs and only nine legislative director slots. -- 140 chief of staff jobs and only nine legislative director slots. some say that is an outrage. the european union wants to halt all executions by 2015 as a step towards abolishing the death penalty. the prime minister did not know how the eu would persuade countries like the united states, china, and i went to change their laws. he was to set up an international commission aga

on the currencies, i would only say that, as you know, ben bernanke and tim geithner are saying a strongs. i say myself, on my part, i fully agree. a strong dollar is in the interests of the united states. i would also say that it corresponds to the overall superiority interest of the global economy as a whole, and certainly of the interest of europe. i echo what they say. i would also say that, as major floating currencies, we have the sentiment that a number of other currencies that are not floating could themselves have a progressive and orderly and timely appreciation. that is the way i see the running of the present situation. in the very long run, we could imagine other solutions, but at the present moment we are running a set of free floating major currencies, and there you have the terms of reference that we agree upon. >> another question? yes, sir. in the front row. >> while every country has its own problems and is thinking of its own solution, how do you see the doha round will succeed? if it would not, what would be the challenges? the key. -- thank you. >> peter, you brough