in the execution of contracts you have signed with black rock? >> we'll provide you with the contracts and with a letter explaining how it works. >> i thank you. some lawyers have said systemic fraud or controlled fraud have characterized the mortgage securitization process. will you permit the f.b.i. access to the mortgage instruments being managed by black rock as the fed contracts are executed and fulfilled? >> if there's a reason for the f.b.i. to investigate and the f.b.i. has the right to investigate, we would not stand in the way of an appropriate investigation. >> thank you. how many contracts has the fed signed with black rock to handle freddie mac paper and fannie mae mortgage securities under your purview and how much will black rock be paid for those services? >> we have hired four asset managers to manage our mortgage-backed portfolio, black rock is one of them. i don't know how much we are paying them. >> will black rock be handling freddie mac paper? >> um, they'll be managing g.s.e.-guaranteed papers including freddy, fanny and be

we don't run black rock. we have two or three seats on the board, but don't have a ceo or chairman and he doesn't report to anyone in bank of america -- >> you own 49.9%. isn't that a strange relationship. >> we don't own 51%. that would be the difference. >> do you know how much black rock will earn from that contract with the federal reserve to manage fannie and freddie papers. >> no, i don't. >> let me mention, "new york times" wrote the following, can a company being paid to sell troubled assets for the same kind of assets for private clients without showing preference and should the government seek counsel from a company that stand to make or lose billion fz the policies are enacted. can you outline how the bank of america will avoid conflict of interest in the mortgage portfolios and insider dealing charges as mortgage portfolios are resolved and bank of america mortgages are involved when black rock is actually the des ig knee to manage the portfolios on by half of the federal reserve. >> black rock wo

recently, that had to do with interrelationship between black rock and merrill lynch, as you know. recently the fed just hired black rock to execute at least four contracts, maybe five, to analyze and handle the troubled assets of at freddie mac and fannie mae, making black rock the dominant player in pricing these distressed assets. i am concerned that a black rock and its chief executive officer may not be fair and impartial in conducting these responsibilities because they in fact had been heavily involved in and venting, creating and trafficking in those instruments for most of the last two decades. indeed during the risk analysis associated with them and selling billions of them to the government of the united states. so one of my questions, mr. bernanke, is do you know what your mr. fink sold his first tranche to, do you know what your that occurred? >> i do not. >> you think that's important for you to know? >> why don't because the arrangements we have with black rock and other asset management companies are carefully set up to prevent conflict of interest to setup fire wal

we don't run black rock. we have two or three seats on the board, but don't have a ceo or chairman and he doesn't report to anyone in bank of america -- >> you own 49.9%. isn't that a strange relationship. >> we don't own 51%. that would be the difference. >> do you know how much black rock will earn from that contract with the federal reserve to manage fannie and

i am concerned that black rock and its chief executive officer mr. fink may not be fair and impartial in conducting these responsibilities because they in fact have been heavily involved in inventing, creating and trafficking in those instruments for most of the last two decades. indeed, doing the risk analysis associated with them and selling billions of them to the government of the united states. so one of my questions, mr. bernanke, is do you know in what year mr. fink sold his first trench of mother-backed securities? the first was a girlon dollar. do you know what year that occurred in. >> i do not. >> do you think that's important for you to know? >> no i don't because arrangements we have with black rock and other asset management companies are carefully set up to prevent conflicts of interest, to set up fire wals between the portion of the company that is working for us and the portion that is engaging in other market activities. >> do you know what other instruments black rock and its subsidiary sold to the federal government over the last

black rock is one of them. i don't know how much we are paying them. >> will black rock be handling freddie mac paper? >> they will be managing gse guaranteed papers that would include freddie, fannie and johnny. >> i would urge your staff to go back and look at black rock and operations at first boston before he founded black rock in relation to what they transacted with freddie mac and when they did that. >> the gentleman's time is expired. >> thank you. that we thank the chairman for his time and at the outset of this hearing, bayh said that it's time to shine some light on the events surrounding bank of america's acquisition of merrill lynch. at this point i would say we have got a peek, not much, but we don't have full sunshine yet. i would make three observations before we close. number one. there are significant inconsistencies between what we have been told today, what we were told to weeks ago by ken lewis, and what the fed's internal e-mails seem to say. it is still unclear whether bankamerica will fo

black rock although not bank is getting too big to fail perhaps? is black rock favoritism an example of how we should be rebuilding our financial system? paul krugman thinks not. i wish to place his editorial in the record tonight in which he states in short, mr. obama has a clear vision of what went wrong. but aside from regulating shadow banking, no small thing to be sure, his plan basically punts on the question of how to keep it from happening all over again, pushing the hard decisions off to future regulators. now is not the time to punt. it's the time for reform. the time has been not as ripe since roosevelt. we really need a president who will lead and

you also acquired with the acquisition a significant ownership in black rock? >> yes,sir, 49.9%. >> i'm aware, they do have contracts with the federal reserve and the department of treasury, black rock? >> yes, they do. i think they do. we don't manage them but -- >> i'm sorry? >> we don't manage the company, but i have heard they do have contracts, yes. >> you may not know then, were any of these contracts given to black rock in furtherance of financial support to bank of america from the government? >> no. there's a big distinction in the management of two companies and we in fact make it a point not to be part of the management team. >> but you could see the potential for a conflict of interest in -- you have to have some control over them? >> we actually don't. but i do see the cosmetics of the potential conflicts. >> and cosmetics are becoming important? >> yes, they certainly are. >> how about the appearance of conflicts or i am propriety in that vein? >> you make it very clear in terms of how the company is managed that you have nothing to do with the ma

i do not understand your question. >> you have signed a contract with black rock to manage freddie mac. i understood it was one of the four or five contracts that you had signed with black grout. >> i would have to go back and check on that. >> i would appreciate that. >> before you have to leave, i've -- we are going to make to fiscal policy decisions this summer. when talk about capt. trade and health care legislation. that is more to impact our borrowing and our deficits. the bill that is moving to the floor that is already in the commerce committee, they auction off 88% of the permits which dramatically reduces the ability to do the rebates such as you discussed. which therefore dramatically reduces the ability to do the rebate as needs to be off setting the blunt impact on the economy. gives away 88% of the permits. given that the lels we're looking at gives away 88% of the permits drying up the money to do rebates. do you think that has a negative effect on the economy? >> my understanding is that they'll be given to consumers? >> no, to various industries. >> if you give it to t

this was a bad day at black rock for this country. i yield back. mr. gohmert: i yield to my friend, mr. souder. mr. souder: you've made a number of parliamentary points today during the debate and on the floor, you're an experienced judge as well as a congressman. is he allowed to use factual science on the floor? i don't know if we're allowed to really debate this stuff. this is mostly an ideological bill, not a factual bill. as mr. conaway correctly said, did they come to a conclusion and then make the facts fit the conclusion? it is really disturbing. much of what's behind this is in fact that there is a group of people who feel guilty about us being such a successful nation and about western nations being so successful. and that we use a disproportion -- use more energy than the rest of the world and other western countries like australia and new zealand are, hey, what's going on here? do we have to buy into this? what does it exactly mean that we need to sacrifice and go down in our lifestyle and what will we gain? is the science really there? the

how many no-bid contracts has the fed now signed with private money management black rock and its subsidiaries? >> several. all that information is to be provided in this monthly report. >> will the contracts be released to the congress? >> i believe so, yes. >> what is the value of the assets being managed by blackrock? >> i don't have the information. >> will that be provided for the record? >> oh, yes. >> what is the fed paying blackrock? will that be provided? >> we have a committee, which has gone through and made a whole set of recommendations and writing a great deal of information. i don't remember every decision made, but i would like to defer to their decisions. >> do you know which foreign companies are a part of these transactions? >> i don't understand the question. >> what other business does blackrock do besides service the fed? >> so you wouldn't be aware? >> not necessarily. >> are you aware of one contract blackrock manages may be compromised, dealing with fannie mae and freddie mac? and i wish to state this for the record. lawrence bank, the head of blackrock, in which the m

james madison escape of course, but separate from his dolly, they also burn buffalo and neighboring black rock. the pioneers of western new york pledge east in terror, there is no different in the state's western flank and effective transportation of arms and supplies. the few roads were so abominable that the federal government spend a staggering $60 million on wartime transport including a dollar a pound for cannonballs the acosta fraction of that to produce. the cost of moving all telerate to the major naval or fan on lake erie was more than double its purchase price and transportation to washington to the lake was up to five times the production cost. the blockade of american ports forced coastal shipping on to piven of land routes and one wagoner, of course, applies loaded in massachusetts a rise in charleston, south carolina to a half months later. nothing had changed dramatically in the decade since peace was restored until the erie canal opened on may 5 holiday in 1825. so that sets the stage for what the country was light until the erie canal got built. before trains, planes and autom

it took one year from the purchase time to discover that blackness is rock, the company that was going to dissolve -- that blackrock was going to dissolve the top six assets at bear stearns. i do not think the american people are in touch with the incredible power. when clinton came into power, my line was -- why do we even elect a president and the federal reserve has so much power? they can basically manipulate our money. they are in a tremendous position of control. there is so little transparency. i find it troubling. they are just floating around with so much power and taxpayers are just sitting there and funding a. guest: those are several points that are part of this growing sentiment not only in the public, but also in congress concerning the fed. whether it has too much power and is transparent. the question of secrecy within the fed gets a lot more attention now because of some of the issues you mentioned. its loans to financial institutions -- we do for the most part the amount of these in the aggregate -- we know them in aggregate. the challenge is to find out who they are

he said i have a black man named rock obama, how much more change do you expect? -- a black man named barack obama. people come up to me and want to shake my hand. the weekend after in france when i changed airports, before the french had been hostile and they said [speaking french] are you an american? yes, i am american. i am so happy for america. i am like ok. i think about when i was in law school i was inspired by another young president, john kennedy. he was present while i was in law school. in the senate i have had the privilege of working with his youngest brother for the past 35 years on some of the most pressing issues in this country. next month the senate judiciary committee will hold hearings on president obama's historic nomination of judge sonia sotomayor to be an associate justice of the supreme court of the united states. we were meeting about this and i see my chief counsel here. a question was asked are we going to get her confirm? you better believe we will get her confirmed. [applause] >> take that one to the bank. just think of the number of

rocks and burning things. they should remember how we blacks had to fight for our freedom back in the day.e were jailed, killed, and everything. we kept on fighting. that is what they have to do. president obama does not have to say anything. why would we get involved in this situation? these people must follow a pattern that martin luther king said. maybe they will get something done. all those tactics they are using, throwing rocks, martin luther king did that do that. we did that do that at all. we marched peacefully. individually we sat in front of the bus. thank you. host: thank you for the call. in this twitter, "president obama speech in cairo and republicans say that he should worry about home. he rightly stays out of iran and now he should speak up"? in most of the leading newspapers, this story about the agreement between the white house and the drug industry. here are some of the details. "the pharmaceutical industry agreed to spend $80 billion improving drug benefits for seniors on medicare, deferring the cost of health care legislation, which has been tapping secret negotiatio

general patterson had a black man who was not a slave could use a free black man who was this lively character who was a great rock on tour and he used to tell stories about his father he said was a prince from africa and kosciuszko became so close to him patterson said okay from now one you work for kosciuszko. well, kosciuszko built a log cabin at west point from which he worked out as his headquarters and he would always go to different hills and to draw links to figure out how to do the blueprints for west point and one day he decided he was going to cross the hudson river and stayed there for three days, do blueprints and come back so he told grippy as everyone called him i will be back in three days. well, grip the habitat and to himself in three days so what did he do? he had a party and invite all of the black man at west point whether they were slaves were freed black man and they decided they were going to drink all of kosciuszko's one and they got happy drinking the line and started dancing around and trippi decided he was going to try on kosciuszko's uniform from poland and this dress uniform from pola

have new data that shows that there is a 40% rate of something of rock, and much, much higher in a number of communities, in the black community and in the hispanic community. in light of that, and in light of the importance of the family, how do you all think that we can make the case either in the election or through government policies for strengthening the family without seeming to be something else? >> well, mona, first of all, as you have for a long time directed the number one social problem facing this country. i tell audiences all of the time that if they gave me a want, the proverbial what, my wish would be the every child in the state -- if they gave me a wand, the proverbial wand -- we all know this. what what our policy to the most honorable. when i say that to african- american audiences, as have i done on dozens of occasions, there are some kids that at $100 sneakers but no one to read to them at home. they have a electronic gizmos that we did not have years ago -- they have electronic gizmos. every head in the room nods. it cannot be a way of scolding. it has to be spoken on behalf of the senseless, a