capuano for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. parmelee, which you agree or tripled the reading is not a really good reading. >> r. rating was triple b- and it darlow is -- >> i know what it is. which. but it's not very good? >> it's in our middle of the scale. >> would you invest in some underinvestment be keen to the triple b. with your personal money? >> sir, it is considered an investment grade rating, but it's the lowest investment grade rating. that's the only point was making. >> mr. cantor, pretty low? >> there is no rating that is a good reading archive reading. we have a lot of issuance. >> having received ratings in the past i was just not respect -- i respectively disagree when you get that rating, you well want a good one. we know the difference between a taa and in na. you shall? >> i meet with issuers regularly. some are extremely pleased to get one rating and send ncaa's two. investors are thieves. >> you're basically telling me ratings don't mean a thing. >> is a trillion dollars jump on the market every day on sp

roseman. >> chairman neugebauer, ranking member capuano, number said the subcommittee.men with michael grossman, chief risk officer of global group from august 2008, january 2011. thank you for the opportunity to testify today. i hope my comments will continue to grow on your knowledge of the events that led to the collapse of mf global. >> and ask you to pull your microphone a little closer to you? >> regarding my background and career as an aerospace engineer i'm graduating from the university of north carolina and university of delaware. as an aerospace engineer, since 1994 i received an mba at the university of north carolina and received a career in financial services. i first joined the responsibilities for the risk analysis function are the following year he moved and comanage the u.s. dollar otc portfolios. for a number of years as global head of market risk. in 2001, he joined the point of montrÉal and risk oversight of underwriting and investment that in the united states and with the mandated strength and risk management at today's in the u.s. then in 2004 i

capuano's question from and with the moody's and s&p representatives, can you discuss a little bit your regime, how often, what you look for, what do you rely on? just talk to us about how you do it be make sure. be make either of your. >> i'm happy to take that. also following up in this case, we downgraded mf global about six months before this disclosure. at the time we point out the fact that we expected that from would be taking on more risk including more proprietary risk. so that was factored in. in terms of our surveillance policies, we surveil companies on an ongoing basis. anytime there's new information is put into the marketplace the analysts are responsible to know what that information is, tough follow-up questions if they're wanted and to act on it. so it's really sort of a regular daily surveillance based on activity in the marketplace. >> mr. cantor. >> we look at a lot of things on an ongoing basis, including the macroeconomic environment, the firm operates in, sectoral environment as well. of course, we review the financial filing. we often meet with the firm in case

>> employee shareholders and subscribers i would like to thank german nuegebauer, ranking member capuano members for asking me to testify today. i am james gellert. as is clear by now mf global is a tragic story for wall street, main street in the futures industry. its bankruptcy follows trends with other notable failures in the last 12 years in one way. agencies that repay to provide professional opinions on credit risk bill to give sufficient warning of this firms risk. mf global investment grade ratings from standard & poor's from 2007 until october 31, 2001 and for moody's and fitch from 2007 until october 24, 2011. and contrast renderings provided two years of warnings at mf global is a high risk. we are a user paid non-issuer paid firm. financial statements no market inputs, no qualitative analysts and we have no content for the ratings process with management, bankers and investors or their advisers. we utilize a proprietary software-based system to raise private companies quarterly. ratings have an impressive record is outperforming the three rating agencies. shr financial health

congress, what do we learn in the highest staff retention rate, actual staff on the hill, michael capuanoverage rate, 64 the lowest, betty sutton, 19% did some things confirm what you knew about somebody that they can't hold onto staff, they are kind of an erratic member of congress? >> surprises on that list, betty sutton, for one. she is vulnerable but i don't think it is because necessarily she has a high staff turnover. she was redistricted into a seat with a republican incumbent nearby. >> michele bachmann, 29%. not a shock, right? >> it tells you all circumstantial, right? i think of rick larson in washington state and three of his staffers were drinking on the job and bragging about it on twitter. of course he fired them i don't think voters going to hold it against rick larson that happened. but also can feed into a bad reputation if an image a member is hard to work for, joe sestak in pennsylvania known as a pile drover of a boss that fed into the image he was eratic and hurt him in the senate race. >> anything that shocked you? >> nancy pelosi, 22, john boehner, 65, go out on a

capuano is recognized for five minute. >> thank you and i thank my colleagues for allowing me to run in and out. i have another markup down the hall. transportation and very important bill that i will be after all day. mr roseman leaders want to ask questions based on your written testimony. i will ask them in the order that they appear. on page 3-year-old statement that over time stakeholders and rating agencies gained confidence in mf global's improvement. i have the right of s&p's ratings and the only time there was i guess you could consider an upgrade was friday, july 18th, 2008, when all they did was take away the negative outlook. they kept the triple d rating but took with the negative outlook. that was before you took office at mf global. am i missing something? am i missing information i should have? >> during discussions with rating agencies, with myself and others and executive management they did continue to express their interest -- >> they didn't take action on rates. they said good things but didn't take into account the rating. >> i may be misstated. >> okay. i guess

capuano and ms. pingree. mr. speaker, i represent the last 70 miles of eastern long island where the primary industries are travel and tourism, everything to do with the second home market, agriculture and the fishing industry. thus, in my district, the environment is the economy in many respects. it can ill afford a disaster like gulf coast states endured during the deepwater horizon spill in 2010. oil-soaked beaches would devastate long island's economy, let alone the environment, and there is no reasonable person who can disagree with me on this point. the republican drilling proposals to offset the highway bill would raise less than $4.3 billion over 10 years, according to c.b.o. or less than .1 of the revenue actually needed. combine this with the other funding mechanisms for the highway bill and republicans are paying for their reckless legislation on the backs of middle-class families. for example, the republicans' spending package would require federal employees to increase their pension contributions whi

. >> chairmen representative neugebauer and representative capuano and members of the subcommittee ias formerly the chief risk officer mf global through january 2011. thank you for the opportunity to testify today i hope my comments will build on your knowledge to the events that led to the collapse of mf global. >> please call your microphone closer. >> regarding my background i started my professional career as the aerospace engineer after graduating unit university of delaware. as the aerospace engineer. 1994 i received a degree from the business school and pursued a career of financial services by first jolla named the financial products with the risk analysis function the following year i moved to the trading team to co-managed the u.s. dollar option portfolio for a number of years before turning to risk-management. >> then i joined the bank of montreal and then with the investment activity in the united states and a mandate and the management activities and capabilities of the bus. then in 2004 i became the chief risk officer of the americas with the at risk management capabili