fec hazmat de hash over-- the fec has made a hash over things, and they have taken a test at the supreme court and put it on the independent expenditure reporting pershing. what you have is a catch-22, not sure what report the fire. hillary the movie was the functional equivalent of an express advocacy, but if you would apply hal teh fec looks at the region, it is not clear that would be an independent expenditure. these are two completely different reporting regimes. if you are trying to figure this out and have 48 hours to file one of these i would see more of the vacation on that point. with that, i will sit down and we will have some questions and can continue our discussion. [applause] >> thank you. now, john samples from the cato institute. them every time i followed mary i remind the i am not mick jagger. you may wonder what that means. if you know that one time mick jagger had to pollack tina turner onstage, and only he could have done it. google it.- i want to integrate some responses, but i had some other things i wanted to talk about. i would want to say something about where

that fec promoted an inefficient distribution system of money. the parties were treated marginally better than interest groups. the response was to use soft money to help more candidates and more close races. when the soft money was shot off, the parties turned to independent spending. then came citizens united. sadly, some of the surgeons of -- surge in soft money could have been avoided if the federal election campaign act had been adjusted for inflation. if the $20,000 limit was adjusted for inflation, the parties could receive $94,000 per year or close to $200,000 per election cycle. 8 did a study of the 199 election that shows just 1% of soft money contributions greater than $100,000. simply making these inflationary adjustments might have solved the soft money problem. 99% would have been acceptable except for some source monday. we actually made it even worse and put the vice tighter on parties that the original federal election campaign that which was not too kind to parties. the value of a contribution in $1,974 was just $5,000. -- 1974

♪ >> a little television magic is saving us from an fec fine.ple pressing their luck on a new law against public nudity in san francisco. many people rebuffed the ban and took it all off. some were arrested and face a $500 fine and a year in jail. >>> it is a day of celebration and service in new orleans. just one day before the super bowl kickoff. dozens of exclusive a list concerts and parties are planned for tonight and volunteers will join the nfl for a day of service today. nbc's janet sham ling is covering it live from new orleans. is the big easy ready to to go for this big game tomorrow. >> reporter: they are ready. it's kind of a tale of two cities. right now everybody in town to enjoy this is out having fun. all these sponsored events with justin timberlake and jay z and the celebrities and the former athletes and all the stars. and then there are the people who are working around the superdome, they are setting up the -- what is that word? the metal detectors type thing. and closing off the streets and all the security that's involved

with congress's support, the fec's fy-2012 appropriation permitted us to begin hiring some of the new positions needed to fulfill these responsibilities. despite this, the s.e.c. does not yet have all the resources necessary to fully implement the law. enactment of the president's fy-2013 budget would help us to fill the remaining gaps by hiring needed employees for front line positions and also would permit us importantly to continue investing in technology initiatives that substantially and cost effectively allow us to improve our ability to police the markets. as you know, regardless of the amount appropriated our budget will be fully offset by fees we collect and will not impact the nation's budget deficit. as the commission strives to complete our remaining tasks, we look forward to working with this committee and others to adopt rules that will fill our mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation. thank you again for inviting me to share with you our progress to date and our plans going forward. i look for

n out to be wrong,r at the time the republican majority did not want to fund the fec. o i didn't say as much in public as i did in private because i was trying to get a lot done. i later came to regret that just because i think sometimes starting the debate are important. we need an economic strategy. if you do not have growth, you cannot fix this debt problem. [applause] if you look at what is happening here, it is true that the deficit are going to be below $1 trillion for the first time in several years. and it is true that the new revenues raised in spending that you did not do. it is true that the economy is beginning to grow again. but this is almost like the reverse of what we did in 1993. that is, i was prickly well aware if we raise taxes and cut spending, it could have a dragging effect in the economy. but not nearly as much as spending 40% of the budget paying interest on the debt. not nearly as much as having low growth. at nearly as much as having interest rates that were too high. so our gamble was that the explosive the fact of lowering interest rates, w

watch if the fec things them on this. my view is they are trying to get ahead of it. good. we have good earnings. we have investors piling on our side. we also have a repurchase agreement that is halfway through. long-term, this thing about customers and distributors, why didn't they do that in the past? there is a good chance, not think they will, there is a good chance we know they are being investigated. down a little bit. i think, you know, it is interesting. this whole thing with delineating between customers and distributors. that caught my eye immediately. the ftc goes after companies for disclosure. that gets at the heart of what ackerman is saying. connell: great stuff, charlie. charlie gasparino. dagen: more stocks now. the down near session lows. nicole petallides has today's biggest movers. nicole: we had moved to highs we have not seen in five years. getting closer and closer. we did go back into negative territory. we have a very strong dollar today. that is something that is factoring in. i want to take a look at some movers. of course, we are watching

with congress's support, the fec's fy-2012 appropriation permitted us to begin hiring some of the newpositions needed to fulfill these responsibilities. despite this, the s.e.c. does not yet have all the resources necessary to fully implement the law. enactment of the president's fy-2013 budget would help us to fill the remaining gaps by hiring needed employees for front line positions and also would permit us importantly to continue investing in technology initiatives that substantially and cost effectively allow us to improve our ability to police the markets. as you know, regardless of the amount appropriated our budget will be fully offset by fees we collect and will not impact the nation's budget deficit. as the commission strives to complete our remaining tasks, we look forward to working with this committee and others to adopt rules that will fill our mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation. thank you again for inviting me to share with you our progress to date and our plans going forward. i look forw

the fec and the cftc are still at work on detailed regulations. that will impact the entire process of trading swap in the united states and abroad. getting those rules right now impact not just the large banks and swap dealers that make markets. but also the american businesses that use swaps to lessen the vouchers to better manage capital for growth and investment in u.s. jobs. those rules will reflect the effect not just wall street, but economic conditions on main street. gfi group stands for a swaps regular regime that improved registry transparency, promotes competition and increases market participant access. gfi has been vocal in support of the clearing, execution, and reporting mandate of dodd-frank, through dozens of public writings and formal congressional and regulatory testimony. through decades of experience in the financial markets leads to concerned that some currently propose sec and see sec rules are overly prescriptive, may harm market liquidity, increase trading costs, and worse, may drive trading in some swaps products offshor