lawrence bank, the head of blackrock, in which the mr. summers who heads the national economic planning council, is a major investor, just got several no-bid contracts from the fed including one to manage fannie mae and freddie mac. does the fed now that he is the person who first created a collateralized mortgage and brought that instrument to freddy mac and sold it to them for over $1 billion? he's now the fed's go-to man through his firm on workouts. i have a question about the revolving door and how do you protect the public against the company's conflict of interest that relate to his own and his firm's historic ininvolvements with those portfolios? >> it's a separate institution. i don't understand your question. >> you have signed a contract with blackrock to manage the fannie mae and freddie mac -- >> not to my knowledge. >> i understand it was one of the four and five contracts you signed with blackrock. >> i'd have to go back and check on that. >> we'd appreciate that very much. >> one final question. before you have to leave, w

lawrence bank, the head of blackrock, in which the mr. summers who heads the national economic planning council, is a major investor, just got several no-bid contracts from the fed including one to manage fannie mae and freddie mac. does the fed now that he is the person who first created a collateralized mortgage and brought that instrument to freddy mac and sold it to them for over $1 billion? he's now the fed's go to man. how you protect investors? >> the federal reserve is a separate institution from freddie mac. 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 alread

caller: i was wondering if you knew how much money was being installed for private contractors like blackrock? guest: i do not know if it is broken out in quite that way. the money is going to the imf. the imf operates behind a veil of secrecy. there was a letter signed by 41 members of congress saying we want to know more about this. they want to make sure the money is going into court countries and not just disappearing into european banks. -- they want to make sure the money is going into poor countries. host: from alexander, virginia. tony is on the republican line. gcaller: good morning. thank you c-span. i have a question. i think bailing out the american banks was ridiculous, much less the european banks. that aside, there is a bill in congress, with i understand, a bipartisan bruce -- bipartisan support to make the books of the federal reserve transparent. that is to publish the audit of the federal reserve. obviously these kinds of decisions of the federal reserve had a huge role in these macro economic national decisions. do you know where that bill stands? guest: as a matter of fac

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 lending to. if you were to dis

the british also burned buffalo and neighboring blackrock. the pioneers of western new york fled east in terror. there was no defending the state western flank by the effective transportation of arms and supplies. the few roads were so abominable that the federal government spent a staggering $60 million on wartime transport, including a dollar a pound for cannonballs that cost a fraction of that to produce. the cost-of-living artillery from artillery from albany to them major-label warfront on lake erie was more than double its purchase price. transportation of material from washington to the lake was up to five times the production cost. the british blockade of american for a trip port, one wagon of war supplies loaded in worchester massachusetts arrived in charleston, south carolina, two and a half months later. nothing had changed dramatically in the decade since peace was restored until the erie canal opened on a fine fall day in 1825. so that sets the stage for what the country was like until the erie canal got built. before trains, pla