it's obvious to me that the audit the fed effort is to not address auditing the fed, because the fed is audited and every day you publish the qsep numbers of the things that you own and the -- >> correct. >> credit facilities you put in place during emergency, all of that is audited now. so to me, it's an attempt to allow congress to be able to put pressure on fed members relative to monetary policy. and i would just advocate that would not be a particularly good idea and it would cause us to put off tough decisions for the future like we currently are doing with budgetary matters, do you agree with that? >> i strongly agree. as i indicated -- well, let me say more generally, i think if you look around at the globe in modern times, and you consider every country that's gone through a period of chronic high inflation or hyper inflation, what you will find is, a central bank that was pressured to print money by -- >> politicians? >> politicians who were unable to balance the budget. >> so i'll close. i thank you, mr. chairman, for the extra time. i think one area that greater transpare

it might clip the tail off of risks associated with the fed moving too late, so perhaps the fed mightnk of getting started so that markets would say were moving early so we won't have to do as much heavy lifting could get done sooner rather than later. that is one possibility. we will hear from janet yellen next week. >> reason acceleration and economic growth, ok, that's fine. globally and u.s. yields a low. why? >> there are many. one reason is one statistic that is telling me were the european central banks policy was i want the private credit statistic long growth hasn't been strong. the money factories haven't been printing money, producing money and ways they used to. for decades they did. imagine you go to a bank and you have a thousand dollar around and you will pay it off, and you do, and the bank decides not to replace your loan with a $1000 loan to someone else. it extinguishes money. advantages from the system. it's no longer there. -- it vanishes from the system. pimco concurs with the idea that policy rates globally will stay low through the rest of the decade. for inves

the fed's general counsel or anyone at the fed's staff should not be picking and choosing which rulesenforce based on their personal views. i urge you to carefully review this issue and ss whether the -- and assess whether the leadership staff is on the same page as the federal reserve board. thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. chairman, thank you. always last. hopefully not least. chair yellen, i want to thank you for your patience and your responsiveness. i was to tempted to ask her definition of patients. i won't do that today. instead, i will look to the future. senator warner outlined one of the concerns i have. we always seem to be fighting the last economic war in the united states congress. you are a very astute and very respected student of the american economy. is what you do every day. i will give you a chance -- you have received a lot of advice from this panel. i will give you a chance to give us some advice. when you look at leading and lagging indicators, especially leading indicators, what troubles you and what keeps you awake at night about the american economy in the nex

but fed officials say nearly every fed chair held regular with the fed secretary and allen greenechair, back far as 1998 spoke about income inequality but still criticisms today. >> they've been out there for decades, the fed is somehow totally independent of partisan politics entirely and for that reason they should not be held accountable on either front on the monetary side or the regulatory side. >> reporter: there's considerable support for new rules to allow greater scrutiny and control for how the fed makes monetary policy including a bill to audit the setting of interest rate policy which is strongly opposed inside the central bank. >> the fed, the bill they were talking about, i think is misnamed and also misguided. it's not really about auditing the fed. the fed is audited. i think jan brought up the financials to show our financial statements are audited. it's really about having political interest and infiltrate the decisions on a short-run basis. >> reporter: out of setting interest rates to steer the economy is the exact reason the fed was set up as an independent body mo

it's obvious to me that the audit the fed effort is to not address auditing the fed because the fed isthe credit facilities you put in place during an emergency, all of that is audited now, so, to me it's an attempt to allow congress to be able to put pressure on fed members relative to monetary policy and i would just advocate that that would not be a particularly good idea and it would cause us to put off tough decisions for the future, like we are doing with budgetary matters. do you agree? >> i strongly agree. as i indicated, well, let me say more generally, i think if you look around the globe in modern times and you consider ef country that's gone through a period of chronic high inflation of hyper inflation, what you will find is the central bank that was pressured to print money by -- politicians who were unable to balance the budget. >> so, i'm closed. i thank you, mr. chairman, for a little extra time. i think one area that greater transparency could be utilized is in the regulatory area around things like sea car and others. i think that that's an area where we should focus

louis fed members and more. joining us to decode the minutes jon hilsenrath "wall street journal" chief economic correspondent. when the fed said markets, do they mean the stock market reaction? >> i think they mean all markets, and that includes the stock market. here's what they're worried about. they've been saying they're going to be patient before they start raising rates. if they take that word out, then people are going to think, they're raising rates tomorrow. really what they want to do and they're looking at doing this in march is take that word out just so they've got an option to do it later in the year, if they think the data confirm it. they're not committed to raising rates and i think that comes out of the minutes. they're doing a lot of waiting behind the scenes to figure out what the right time is. liz: right off the bat, people are figuring the fed has certain mandates. why don't you explain what the written mandates are and is one not to gyrate the stock market, which they've pushed people to

would you support the use of the monetary policy will have the feds choosing if the fed had discretion to modify it in terms of economic disruption? >> i i am not a proponent of chaining the federal open market community in its decision-making to any rule whatsoever. but monetary policy needs to take account of a wide a wide range of factors, some of which are unusual and require special attention which is true. in the original paper on this topic, john taylor himself pointed to conditions such as the 1987 stock market crash that would have required a different response. i would say that it is useful for us to consult the recommendations of rules and reducing routinely, and they are an important input into what ultimately is a decision that requires sound judgment. >> in a recent speech richard a recent speech richard fisher, the president dallas federal reserve bank is suggesting a reorganization. specifically advocating for a rotating vice chairmanship of the federal open market committee as well as a stronger role for regional banks. do you support any of mr. fisher's proposals? why

fed chair janet yellen testifying in front of congress today indicating that the fed sees improvementthe economy but only will be considering raising rates on a case-by-case, moment-by-moment basis. >> the employment situation in the united states has been improving along many dimensions. if economic conditions continue to improve as the committee anticipates, the committee will at some point begin considering an increase in the target range for the federal funds rate on a meeting-by-meeting basis. liz: okay. i need you to look at the dow jones industrials, it's up 101 points on "meeting-by-meeting." this is a subtle change of message, but she also invoked this term "near term," saying, you know what? we might not need to see rate hikes near term. it appears a hike may be just a question of timing, but timing further out. what does it mean for the markets and your money at least short term? we have this covered from every angle if you're a bulker joining me john hill -- bull, jon hilsenrath, michael cox, chief economist, and to our traders on the floor of the new york stock exchange,

you talk about the fed.ss i want you to comment on inequality and what you think the fed does to our economy. >> there are many factors responsible for the rising inequality. many factors are structural and they have to do with the nature of technological change. what we can do is try to assure a generally strong labor market where it is possible for those who want to work to find jobs in a reasonable amount of time. what sectors those jobs will appear in but the policies we follow and the general state of the economy have an important influence on the overall strength of the job market. we're trying to achieve a job market where we have individual -- individuals who want to work and are able to find work. >> thank you. we wrote you a letter -- >> i would say the most fiery exchange really was between the center and -- the congressman and janet yellen really around following the rupee read i was very impressed. she stood strong or you do not see many people sitting in the seat testifying to push back like th

it is time to audit the fed again. the new jersey republican sponsoring a bill that would do just that. lawmakers have tried to do this every years in 2009. what is different now? exclusive comments from the city fed governor. it looks like greece is headed towards a clash in the eurozone. angela merkel signaling she is not willing to compromise. eufinance ministers meet tomorrow to decide how much to lend the greek government. the situation is getting dangerous, he says. he talked with bloomberg television. >> the risks to the world economy, the risks to the british economy are a standoff -- it is growing each day. it is a miscalculation or a misstep growing as well. >> the greek exit from the euro could be damaging to the continents economy. the justice department turning up the heat on four of the world's largest banks. prosecutors want the banks to plead guilty to criminal charges to settle an investigation into currency manipulation aired. it may take months to negotiate a deal. ubs warning that profits may be hur

the fed knows this. that goes by with a healthy economy is one month closer. >>, i believe, to fed tightening. >> david, stay with me. thank you to matt miller and julie hyman this morning staying with me through the belt. we are staying on the markets. we will keep you updated on what stocks are moving right at the opening bell. recent bailout extension gets the greenlight, it appears. we will give you the latest up next. stay "in the loop." ♪ >> back to the big news that broke a few moments ago, you're a finance ministers have approved the greek bailout extension, according to an official involved in the talks. use our european markets react pretty strongly. it schatzker is live in athens and will be throughout his program. what is the latest you are hearing? >> well, this is the news athens was waiting for, without question. euro zone finance ministers met on a conference call starting at 2:00 gmt. according to the dutch finance minister who spoke just a few moments ago on television, the meeting went

that is the fed's job. >> you heard a fed pushed back from janet yellen from the proposal.he accuses members of congress of playing politics with the federal reserve. >> we should not a politics, but we should do strong oversight. >> right now, this federal reserve, is janet yellen getting the -- getting what she needs? >> no. the fed has been to independent p are we want him to be strong and we want him to be independent, but not independent of the congress. question made the case today that an independent said overtime, the central banks produced better economic results in the end. i second the market produces economic results. centralthe fed plays a role but not the central role. >> what is your level of confidence at the end of this year that there will be legislative changes for the federal reserve that will come out of your committee? >> we have to see what develops help people vote and what we propose. >> do you think democrats will be on board? >> depends on how it is framed and what it is. >> all right and i appreciated very much. the first of many hearings on the

that's something the fed's already told us about. the minutes have confirmed that the one place they're not sure about is where is inflation, and how long will it take to build to the point where inflation projections are rising. i'm looking for how strong is the economy, and how de pependent are the data or are we far away from an inflation increase. >> you know how the markets work. although we should be looking at the data they tend to look at the calendar more than the data. they want to know how many meetings before she moves. over at citi what are your expectations on the calendar side of things? >> i'm telling our clients that it's better in this world of uncertainty that the fed moves later. so for me it's probably late in the year probably december is my best guess. i'm later than the consensus, because the fed has one firmed in their minutes they're not sure where the inflation is. they're not sure how strong the economy is. there's a lot of debate not only where the inflation is but the underlying model with the inflation.

it will limit the degree of move up in yield even if the fed's behind, and the fed can catch up by moving on rates more aggressively if it needs to. mark: tony crescenzi, executive vice president and portfolio manager at pimco, good to see you here. tony: thank you so much. mark: now a bloomberg exclusive as returned to the greek bailout deal. erik schatzker had an exclusive sitdown with the finance minister yianis varoufakis. erik joins us from athens. what is the latest? erik: well, we need to talk about the banking system mark because anytime a country's economy is in jeopardy, the banks become a pressure point. we saw that in the united states after the financial crisis, we saw it in spain and ireland. he does most definitely been the case in greece over the past month. since syriza swept to power in january, it has been an open question of what happens to greece's banks. depositors have been voting with their feet. they have withdrawn by some estimates 20 billion euros from greece is thanks. and before that agreement with the eurozone, the future of the banking system was an open que

"bloomberg surveillance" this fed day. not a fed meeting, but janet yellen speaking today.coverage on bloomberg television and bloomberg radio. top headlines this morning. brendan: two stories where tracking -- greece will learn if a package of economic measures is enough to win more funding from the euro region. according to a draft obtained by bloomberg, those commitments include maintaining state asset sales, consolidating pension funds, and revamping tax collection. in ukraine, a spokesman says a peace accord is not working. pro-russian separatists are not pulling back the reverend -- pulling back their weaponry. they say that is not true. here is a look at other headlines this morning -- v.a. secretary robert mcdonald is apologizing for falsely stating that he served in the u.s. special horses. -- forces. he called the claimant accurate. the white house says it accepts the explanation that he never meant to enhance his service record. institutional clients over certain deposits, the move comes as tougher regulations require banks to hold more capital againsts some fund

that's the problem at the fed. they would like to raise rates in june, makes sense to them, but hard when the headline cpi prints negative because of the oil prices when the core numbers are not going up, when wage inflation is still at 2%, to come forward and say we're going to be raising rates. i think yellen is acknowledging that, that the data is not there, but what she onces is the flexibility to raise them, remove that patience word and it's going to be a big decision in march. one other point i would make it's clear what yellen is saying here. i make policy in committee, not in congress. this was a very bland report in her testimony to what the committee had already decided and what we're hearing her say now is, okay, the next decision is do we remove patient in march and i didn't get a feeling either way. >> before we go to break interesting fed fund futures are 5050 for september rate hike, before miss yellen took the hill and had been 63 before the minutes were released last week. >> that's a bit of an ov

fed. >> all right. >> unless we get danny devito up next and that's an interesting correlation. >> no, we need a basketball player next. come on. >> doug gordon, what do you do with that? do you look for a shorter fed chair or a taller one? >> i think maybe we're lucky that glenn hubbard wasn't the chair when ben bernanke was the chair. that would have raised it to rick's point. i think we're in a unique environment where it really benefits to be diversified in a multifaceted portfolio. what we're seeing is the most important events is tomorrow the gdp number wherein ven tors might lean lower and then it's the next fomc meeting as well as the nonfarm number. we've seen it deflect more positive momentum with respect to earnings inflation but we certainly haven't seen it manifest in the nfp data so we'll look if something follows on there. >> doug have you completely given up? >> so 2% handle tomorrow? do you think we'll have a 2% handle tomorrow sir? many think we won't on the revision for

but i don't think there's any issue about the fed that eventually, liz, the fed will raise rates. whole game has been when will they raise rates. everybody's reading the tea leaves, everybody's got an opinion, everybody's right and everybody's wrong. the fact is they'll raise them when they raise them, and i suspect whenever that is, it's going to be a negative for the market. i mean, perhaps the focus is greece today, i don't think greece really has a choice. i think just kind of another big game that they play on the world stage. but with, you know, there's a lot at stake for greece and the eurozone, and greece isn't going anywhere. liz: well, the new leadership in greece who is seen here having exchanges with vladimir putin, i don't know, i've noticed, charlie, that vladimir putin beat angela merkel to the chase. he congratulateed cyprus before she did by one day. this makes me wonder if we need to be very careful about watching greece exit the eurozone, and that really could frighten the markets. >> well, i think you're right, and i think you're bridging two things together th

fed-ex driver died after colliding with the bus. another crash involving fed-ex shut down the freeway in texas. in providence rhode island. traffic came to a stand still on the interstate after a car hit a fed-ex truck. here in california a memorial marks where a fed-ex driver hit and killed a father in brentwood. in orange county a driver of a big rig died after colliding with a stalled fed-ex truck on the freeway. the investigative unit discovered all of these accidents, are missing from the d.o.t. accident database. the possible reasons, law enforcement, never reported the crash. it coded the accident report or recorded the wrong dot number. >> starts out with initial officer who investigates a collision. he is required to collect all of that data. >> captain brandon johnson is the commander of the commercial vehicle unit in california. the california highway patrol investigated the two crashes in orange county and brentwood. >> bottom line. human error when you are looking at why the accidents weren't reported. >> it was human e

i think the fed, from what yellen said the past couple days, i think the fed wants to raise rates ifhey can. if they raise rates, i think you will see the front end of the curve sell off. the back end of the treasury curve is more correlated to global factors. in particular i'd rather be long rates in places like brazil and new zealand and short front end rates in the u.s. i think that's a good relative value trade. >> just a final question, eric getting back to the whole argument about whether it's the fed holding these long end rates low or other forces what's your sense? why is it that even as the data is improving and we're talking about the fed ultimately raising rates that the 10-year, the 30-year in this country and other places are effectively at record lows still? >> yeah. i think a lot of it is we're in a globalized bond market. german bund yeldsields, 32, 33 basis points. other yields switzerland are negative. you have global yields so low in many other developed markets, particularly in europe, that acts as a drag to keep treasury yields down low. in addition, given all t

oversight over the fed, what they do, because the fed should not be so independent they are subject one. olivia: senator rand paul introduced the so-called audit the fed bill, 29 republican senators and one democrat are cosponsors of that bill. and grace's creditors say talk is cheap, now they want to see action. ecb, imf, and others say greek proposals are just the starting point. the finance ministers and signed off on the greek reforms that clears the way for a four-month extension of the bailout. france's president press while francois hollande sounded optimistic that president hollande: it also respect the rules of the european union, and particularly the eurozone is charged with safeguarding. olivia: meanwhile, investors who did hold onto their greek bonds are reaping rewards. the greek sovereign bond index is up 11% right now, the best performance in the world. brendan: and ukraine, fighting with pro-russian rebels has subsided. still, authorities say the full cease-fire has not taken effect. ukraine and russia have battled over the diplomatic front over which side is breakin

what janet has to say and specifically about fed lift off or first fed rate hike. your specific question about europe is a key one too. we think it's going to be qe referenced. that probably influenced the language in december but come january, we have actually got that stimulus from the ecb. so farce international is concerned we would say the international outlook is actually more positive now because of what the ecb has done. >> in terms of the domestic situation, of course we have seen better numbers particularly on the jobs front but really we should be focussing on what she says about inflation and not so much about employment; is that right? >> that's key but i would reference both factors because the point we have to make as far as the market is concerned, the most recent minutes are ancient history now. they pertain to january 28th. the two key factors in our mind that changed since then is the payrolls report where we saw 0.5% earnings but there's been a cig significant improvement in inflation since -- >> oil prices. >> since october 28th. both factors a

maybe we should sit there and let the fed be the fed.e don't want the fed to have more intervention. he spun it so much. he's getting blow back from this. you have to make sure there's an interaction between main street and wall street. that's something not happening here. the fed is the big veil between the two. charles: i wish the fed didn't exist, guys. i think at least it should be audited more than that book that janet yellen shows us. we have to leave it there, jim. we'll come back. we wanted to talk about individual investors. guess what, folks, you no longer drive this market. how come the hedge funds keep getting it wrong? we have the guy who is advising all the big heads in the business. we'll be back to make you money in just three minutes. ♪ charles: all right, guys. let's blow that whistle. open up the second page from payne's investment playbook. now, the smartest guys in the room have anything, but for a long time, i'm talking about underperforming the market. in the last six years, they've underperformed by 7%, 5%, even g

senator rand paul's push to audit the fed is getting more traction than the fed would like. janet yellen, it's driving her crazy. is it such a crazy notion that the american public should know what the fed's assets are? we don't, $4 trillion? what is it? we'll debate that with the panel. cheryl: why just listen to the music when can you earn rewards for doing it. we're going to talk to the ceo of a music streaming site doing just that. david: and apple getting ready to introduce its own driverless car. could it be? we've got evidence they are working on that. is that a great idea? we have the details coming up. at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted. was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda. "what is it that we can do that is impactful?" what the cloud enables is computing to empower cancer researchers. it used to take two weeks to sequence and analyze a genome; with the microsoft cloud we can analyze 100 pe

to bear on the fed.t our financial accounts we are extensively addicted. i brought with me this volume which contains an independent outside auditor's, deloitte and touche touche's, audit of our financial statements. so in the normal sense in which people understand what auditing is about, the federal reserve is extensively audited. what i think is really critically important is that the fed be able to deliberate on the best way to meet the responsibilities that congress has assigned to us to achieve maximum employment and price stability and that we be able to do so free of short-term political pressures. i would remind you that in the early '70s when inflation built and became an endemic problem in the u.s. economy, history suggests that there was political pressure on the fed which interfered with its decision making. it was in the late 1970s that congress put in place the current feature of law that exempts monetary policy deliberations and decisions, the one area that's exempted from gao audits and

of the fed. that reason he's going to be sorely missed by us when he resigns his position next month. before he goes, kind enough to talk about fed strategy and where we and he actually goes from here. in a fox business exclusive, proud to welcome richard fisher, president of the dallas fed. when do you leave the fed? >> midnight of march 19th. you have to measure in dog years, 70 years of service. [ laughter ] >> talk a little about what's happened particularly since the financial crisis in 2008, 2009. the fed had a zero rate policy, .25% or 0.25. it has grown from $800 million which is big enough frankly to 4 $1/2 trillion, and then of course the fed has gone the actively involved in bank deregulation that i don't think we've seen since the depression. >> thanks to dodd-frank. david: the fed has been instrumental in make banks keep larger reserves, et cetera am the question is, has the fed gone too far in trying to affect our economy and in particular financial markets? >> well, you know my ans

>> yes, i would. >> i want to follow the fed -- auditor fed question a little bit and if you need a break that would be good. the first is with respect to the fed's lending facility and the discount window access during the financial crisis. there is questions about how these facilities were questioned but congress addressed this issue through the sanders' amendment to dodd-frank. can you respond to g.a.o.'s ability to audit credit facilities? >> in response to that amendment, the g.a.o. conducted a complete review of the use of our 13-3 emergency lending lending authorities and all of the programs that were created and conducted in audits that was concluded, i believe in mid-2011. in addition, the g.a.o. has the ability to audit open market operations and discount window lending and we now report regularly all the details -- the details of our open market operations and with the two-year lag our discount window lending. >> they are fully transparent and fully auditeded, correct? >> that's correct. >> the size and condition of the balance sheet. does the fed disclose the type of assets th

you'll never see that from the fed. >> you're sure you see that from the fed. when under the last election what was the partisan issue they were talking about and that was income inequality. just a week before the election you had the fed chair talking about income inequality. when was the last time you heard the fed talking about that? >> but that's not proof that janet yellen did that because it wasn't her idea to come up with it. part of the proof for this is you say she visited the white house 55 times to visit the secretary of the treasury. what's wrong with that? >> right. and you make a good point. if there was only one example here or one example there, then it would be just pure coincidence. but when you go through the entire list of their activities both by her in the past then you think it's more. when you have the former chair coming out, bernanke -- you've seen bernanke come before our committees and say can you tell us your decision on this. he says the fed is independent. we don't get involved. except of course when the president had his spending

the fed's general counsel or anyone at the fed past staff should not be picking and choosing which roles to enforce waste on their personal views. so i urge you to carefully review this issue and to assess whether the leadership of the fed's staff is on the same page as the federal reserve board. to her, mr. chairman. -- thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. always last, hopefully not least, chairman yellen, i want to thank you for your responses. i did want to ask you one question on what your definition is of patients. i will not do that. i want to look the future instead. they really out my mother concerns. we always seem to be fighting the united state's congress. you are a very astute and very prospective student of the american economy. it is what you do every day. i'm going to give you a chance, you have heard a lot of opinions and received a lot of advice from this panel. i'm going to give you a chance to give us some advice. when you look at leading and lagging indicators, especially leading indicators, what troubles you and what keeps you awake at night about the american econ

dovish fed minutes.ed officials judge that dollar strength and uncertainty in greece have inclined them to keep rates near zero lower. if you didn't get through all those minutes, i don't blame you. bloomberg has tracked the amount of words in the federal reserve minutes over the last number of months. we break through a thousand words. if you got bored reading that, i don't blame you. let's bring in manish singh. the words, it does mean something. they are scared of their own shadow. they are really struggling to communicate what they want to get across to the market, to investors, to main street. guest: there's a lot of talk. the fed doesn't want to create a wave. they want to stay on the sidelines and keep watching what is happening. the statement was very clear, that the fed would rather risk inflation then start tightening. what if you look at this, almost 35 central banks have eased. by even staying where they are they are actually tightening. i would say it is not a bad minutes. according to my vi

the fed won't hike rates in june but it could just as well have been seen as preserving the fed's flexibility to decide at the march meeting to signal rate hikes this summer. yellin maintained an upbeat view on the economy and said oil prices would be a net benefit for consumers but said there's still room for improvement citing slow wage growth and inflation running below the fed's 2% target. yellin was grilled as expected by democratic senator from massachusetts, elizabeth warren. this time over the issue of what warren said were criticisms of a dodd frank financial reform bill by the fed's chief council, scott alvarez. >> do his criticisms reflect your criticisms or the the criticisms of the federal board? >> i think i personally and the board considers dodd frank to be a very important piece of legislation. this has provided a road map for us to put in place regulations. >> i appreciate that madam chairman but i need a yes or no here. do his criticisms reflect your criticisms? >> certainly not seeking in any way to alter dodd frank at this time. >> reporter: from the gop, yellin strongly

. >> fed fears -- u.s. officials indicate they will keep interest rates low longer given worries about the strong dollar and a sluggish market. >> for your earnings from air france. we will bring you those as soon as they are released. >> welcome to "countdown." >> coming up more from a bloomberg exclusive with mark zuckerberg. well a social network is racing with the google to connect the world, there is room for the companies to work together. >> people need to be able to search and find information. whether we work with google on that or others in all these other countries -- that is an important thing and i would love to work with google. >> we are getting some breaking news. the benchmark share index and in japan closes high. where was manus cranny in may 2000? >> we will bring you the answer to that question a little bit later. pressure is mounting -- our top story is greece. its european creditors need to strike a deal before the money runs out. the administration will submit a request for a six-mont

the greenspan fed in 2000 i think their last hike took the fed funds rate up to 5.5%.r rising commodities were falling. it had recession written all over it which vernt is what happened happened. we had a mild recession. we have a growth story today. we have an easy money fed today, like it or not. as stanley fischer said the dollar is going up because the economy is doing better. >> larry, isn't the real story about the fact that we're talking about a completely different nasdaq today than it was in 2000 when it was really the nasdaq otc market? you have the largest company in the world composing 10%. off third of the volatility we saw back then. companies are more mature they have earnings a corporate balance sheet. i agree with you about it being a different world vis-a-vis the fed but isn't the real story the composition of the index? >> yes, i think you're dead right. the real story is the maturity of so many of these techs -- you have medium and small banks in there, some biotechs but your generic point is a great point. the technology area is different today. i

i think the fed appreciates that.ust think that people have been reading into the fed a degree of dovishness which even they are not capable of. >> mark what happens now to treasuries? i mean, since you were last on with brooirn and mandy, the treasury markets basically down aboutle 8% 9% at the end of january. what should we look to ahead? is there support just sort of even an artificial support in the corporate bond market because there are so many european pension investors looking for yield at this point? >> yes. you know, as we said two weeks ago, we thought treasuries were mispriced and yields would go higher. we still think the yields are going to go higher. keep in mind that the setup going into last week's auction, a lot of investors went into treasuries because of geopolitical concerns concerns over greece concerns over russia. those are now dissipating. so the reality is that as of fed eventually raises rates, those hedged yields to foreign investors will not look as attractive. also, people who bought trea

>> the fed is making it. every time they talk about these macro potential risks they want to try to address. >> they are the risk. >> let's say leveraged loan market, look at auto loans. how delinquency going up, loans going up. they're worried that they're creating asset bubbles. cheryl: we need to get back to reality. >> there is no inflation. or very little inflation. but yet there are pockets in the financial markets. >> that's true. >> the question when you do those pockets blow up into something like orange county or long term cap it will? -- capital. >> i will accept that. >> i'm not saying it was financial crisis. that was one of the contributors to the financial crisis was fed policy. >> here is the point i want to make. the reason prices are level in some cases falling it has nothing to do with the fed. because of one word, fracking. we are producing so much oil. >> that is true too. cheryl: i want to say one caveat to our viewers. we got ecb breaking news. they approved liquidity loan for greek ban

the fed governor, jerome powell. those stories and more in just a moment but first, we have breaking news on halliburton. let's go to our chief market correspondent, scarlet fu. >> halliburton, the oil services company is cutting 6.5 percent to eight percent of its workforce. no layoffs planned due to the baker hughes deal, but this is because of the challenging market environment. those were the exact words used by the company. total had come -- total headcount at halliburton is about 80,000. the houston business journal reported halliburton would be cutting between 5000 and 6000 jobs. oil prices have plunged from their highs of last year. if you look at how halliburton shares are performing, take a look at the bloomberg terminal. this is the intraday chart and you can see we opened lower and have been on a little bit of a recovery and yet when the news hit we had our lows of the day, down 2.8% at the moment. >> thank you. let's return to washington and our chief washington correspondent, peter cook, with more on hi

the anti-fed level -- i don't think you can underestimate how much republicans they don't like the fed. they blame the fed for the financial crisis for enabling obama budget deficits. and, i mean use that valentine's day theme. i think the republicans, they have an eye on another woman. a european hottie called the ecb. that's who they would like the fed to be like a very tight money, inflation obsessed central bank. i think it's been terrible for europe. i think it would be terrible for the united states. >> greg, can you clarify for our viewers exactly what the audit the fed really means? is it retroactive where you would be auditing essentially the fed's decisions or proactive where they could basically have to consult can congress before they did anything that was really important? >> no the bill would not require them to consult with congress anymore than they already do. essentially it removes a provision in the law that governs the general accounting office or i should say the government accountability office and says the controller general would now have the freedom to audit an

fed policy is.cy essentially trying to take advantage of the markets proclifty to discount future earnings. then the more transparency there is about future policy the more the fed is able to do that. >> how about rules? how about rules? how about rules? >> all the rules -- all the rules they've shown to have don't work either a, the policymakers ignore them or b, they don't fit. >> he wouldn't have had this 30-plus year run. >> tony -- >> i'm sure. >> last word to you. let's get some -- do you change your investing thesis based on what you heard yellin say today in. >> no. remember what the fed is trying to put our attention to is to path on rates, and not the timing of the first hike, and think of the ecb. the markets are priced for the ecb to keep the policy rate under 1% through the end of the decade. same for japan. around 1% for the u.s. in the low 2s or so. focus on the path. not the initial hike. >> and the path is up. tony. >> larry. >> there noz inflation or recession. that's what the numb

audit the fed legislation, that he said could jeopardize the fed's independence.e strongly against that in his final tv interview with us today. gerri: what does he say about interest rates peter? >> well, charlie is known as an inflation hawk and he actually would have liked to start raising interest rates yesterday, if we could have. but he would like the fed to raise rates sooner rather than later to get this process going. if the economy continues to grow and if it starts to accelerate and interest goes up faster, he wants to make sure the fed has launched interest rate increases. i tried to pin him down on a date. june as we heard other fed members talk about, but we wouldn't get pinned down. on the other hand he's leaving in a couple of weeks and won't have a vote anymore. he was cheering or yelling from the sidelines. gerri. gerri: peter, thanks for that. thank you for your time. should the fed raise rates? june possibly too late. john lonski, moody's chief economist. you heard him talking about the importance of doing it right away. do you think the fed wi

fed.d "another sign the fed does not take hungers seriously. that chair spent 18 hours -- does not take congress seriously." bill: what i'm trying to say -- pretty much weekly, the chair has lunch with jack lew. they are heavily indebted with the executive -- embedded with the executive branch. instead of coming twice a year we would like to see it quarterly. come to the hilt four times the year as opposed to twice. -- come to the hill four times a year as opposed to two. isn't the secretary of treasury also political influence. you're doing that weekly you are only going to come to congress twice a year? when they adopted this back with humphrey home inns act -- humphrey hawkins act it was viewed as true tony and coming up twice a year. -- it was viewed as for coney and coming up twice a year. betty: i want to play a moment when janet yellen was fighting back some of the comments from senators asking to audit the fed. here's what she said. >> a bill that would politicize monetary policy.

>> yes, i would. >> i want to follow the fed -- auditor fed question a little bit and if you need a break, that would be good. the first is with respect to the fed's lending facility and the discount window access during the financial crisis. there is questions about how these facilities were questioned but congress addressed this issue through the sanders' amendment to dodd-frank. can you respond to g.a.o.'s ability to audit credit facilities? >> in response to that amendment, the g.a.o. conducted a complete review of the use of our 13-3 emergency lending lending authorities and all of the programs that were created and conducted in audits that was concluded, i believe in mid-2011. in addition, the g.a.o. has the ability to audit open market operations and discount window lending and we now report regularly all the details -- the details of our open market operations and with the two-year lag our discount window lending. >> they are fully transparent and fully auditeded, correct? >> that's correct. >> the size and condition of the balance sheet. does the fed disclose the type of assets t

he says companies are able to benefit the same way the fed did. >> you have the fed and you've got thengineering and they go together like peanut butter and jelly into one yummy sandwich. and unfortunately, it keeps enabling. i was looking at some companies like home depot today announcing another buyback and their float. if you look at the shares they have outstanding year-over-year, it is like this. it's unbelievable. so i think that this entire fed intervention has just been a catalyst to increase more buybacks, increase returns of cash to shareholders to increase m&a activity. it doesn't mean the underlying fundamentals of these companies are any better, but until this goes away it's going to keep pushing higher. >> we're about to get results in hewlett-packard for one. that will be an interesting window into what's going on. you have to admit, because you raise the home depot, they've been performing extremely well. talk about peanut butter and jelly, it's like they have the fundamentals and the financial engineering but both of those pieces are there. >> the result is many stocks

the fed revealing its minutes from january.ed that raising rates too soon would put a damper on the economy. carmelo anthony is shutting it down. the new york knicks star opting for knee serge ri that ends the season for him. an announcement from the team due later today. coming up on "mad money" whole foods ceo walter robb. that's the cnbc news update for this hour. more "closing bell" when we come back after this quick break. >>> welcome back. the nasdaq about 100 points if you haven't heard from retaking that infamous 5,000 mark. morgan brennan is in the middle of the action in midtown. >> we've seen the nasdaq turn ever so slightly positive this afternoon in the final moments of trade, and one of the reasons is because we've seen apple turn positive. that stock is up half a percent and it's less than 40 cents away from yet another all-time high but besides apple, it's been all about earnings here on the nasdaq today. you have a small company company that's been making the biggest moves and that's angie's list soaring about