bill fletcher, jr. [applause] and is a lot warmer with 800 people in here. just to quickly say how we will do this, the speakers', ious public shame they will give four or five minute introducty statements. we'll have a eighth discussion and they will respond for about 50 minutes then we will take questions from the audience which will be submitted by eight index cards that will be passed around and make their way up here. you should be under way by 930 after which will be signing copies of certain books which you can acquire here. [laughter] so please welcome joseph stiglitz [applause] what i thought i would do in this introductory remarkshis talk a little bit of the cause of the crisis. most of the discussion is focused on the problems of loose monetary policy, lax regulation, i want to spend a minute trying to explain why it is that we have those loose monetary policies. the underlying problem wasn insufficiency of global aggregate demand. at the end of world war ii, there was a worry that we would go back into a depression and one of the reasons for that

fletcher is in auburn. >> reporter: it took only a matter of hours for the fire to decimate everything in its path. everything except bill and tina meyer's home. >> i don't know, it's amazing. it had a halo over it or something. i don't know. >> reporter: today, while tina stayed behind at the evacuation center, bill drove past the police roadblocks to see first hand. >> reporter: what do you think driving in here? >> devastating. looks like a scene from a movie. >> reporter: wow, hang on a sec. what did you used to see over the fence? >> my neighbor's house. >> reporter: on every side of their home, to the left, the right and across the street, the homes are gone. a black and white scape. nothing but chimneys and charred appliances remain. the meyers learned their fate while watching the news. >> you could see the house behind us in flames. you could see this house in flames. the whole neighborhood in flames, but our one house, nothing happened. i can't explain it. i'm so happy that i have everything. my possessions, my pictures. but, to see my neighbors with nothing, it just breaks my heart. >> reporter: officials woul

bill? >> it's a good question for the finance committee and a good question for republicans. again, i haven't seen jake's letter -- senator grassley's letter. thank you. >> "the washington post" also reported it. >> there you go. mr. fletcherams on here like the plane just landed at des moines airport. maybe they've got a report. but it's a better question for those republicans that have made the type of comments that we've seen over the past couple days. >> or max baucus, he's not let you know they happen to have a bill for you september 15? >> i think his deadline, best i understand it, is september 15. >> is there any reason to think you won't seek his bill? >> it's a better question -- >> let me follow-up, there seems to be no sense of urgency on the chris dodd report. more americans are dying than at any point in this war. >> don't misunder the fact that -- again, commip, the report has to go through -- chip, the report has to go through the chain of command and will be commented on those in the theater. >> like i want it on my desk by wednesday? >> we may have it on our desk by wednesday. i think to assume because we haven't gotten a report from the pentagon the president doesn't believe this is a serious problem, i