you mentioned bob reuben and hank paulson, two recent ones.here's many others i describe in the book. even this financial crisis we've just come through, goldman was able to see trouble coming unlike every other firm on wall street and do something about it. they made a big bet against the mortgage market that paid off in terms of billions of dollars for goldman that every other firm did not see and just pretended didn't exist and, basically, all went down the tubes. but i think what you do get out of this story is how often goldman found itself in trouble and how skilled it was at getting out of trouble. and so that was probably, you know, don't forget wall street has always been a dangerous place. firms have been going in and out of business their whole, you know, for the history of wall street. most firms don't make it. and most firms before 1970 when they started going public and becoming public companies were small private partnerships that had limited amounts of capital that, you know, they got from their partners. and if something happe

of the retail side he is you know basically you know the equivalent of hank paulson going into a liquor store not going over but he's the same mindset that from the same mother there sprung from the same case so much strauss kahn tart semen. well so here it's not political terror it's just affecting marc. that sentiment so let's look at the head politician of the world see if this is political terror or just affecting market segment let's look at those head politicians headline reads obama says u.s. default may on ravel global finances so is this obama doing the same thing so he's trying to get the republicans or will scare the population into convincing republican politicians to vote for an increase in the debt ceiling not that it matters apparently that you even increase it technically right well if i had a blue and red balloons together we get the right color for obama to listen to you could create the obama version of this yeah if you don't raise a. school over you have made poor made slave people there ok. go far enough obama is a financial terrorist just like dumb extra just like

hank paulson, interested in politics. the senior partner of goldman sachs and then was left alone when reubin went to washington and then eight years later i ron ackley steve got offered, steve friedman got offered the same job and the white house that bob rubin had in the national economic council you could come and work in the white house and that is exactly what he did. so, you know, yes, a whole nother book could have been written and probably has been written about the vignette of what ruben did in washington or friedman or paulson, paulson's book to get into that. i wanted to stick as you point out this is a long enough book as it is. if i had delved into policies rubin had pursued in washington that may or may not have benefited goldman sachs or paulson, people have already written the story of what paulson did in the treasury, during the bailout and what it may or may not have benefited goldman sachs i was mostly interested in how these guys would evolves in these positions at goldman sachs to the point they were

reads south korean staged bomb blast to cash in on stocks and this guy obviously learned from hank paulson he was the best that this whole story this south korean man staged two minor bomb attacks with homemade explosives and so last week in an attempt to cash in on stock investments by affecting market sentiment police said they said quote he invested fifty million won or forty six thousand dollars this month and said he believed bomb explosions will send stock markets falling giving the concerns of terrorism after osama bin laden's death well this is a huge issue this man has stumbled upon something very important markets are over leveraged markets are reflective of hundreds of trillions of dollars in leverage so yes a small thirty or forty thousand dollar bomb then. markets to crash because they are so highly leveraged by the professional hedge fund managers five hundred thousand dollars on nine eleven because of multi-trillion dollar collapse forty five thousand dollar investment here could cause a multi-billion dollar collapse this is not really this guy problem so much as the problem

of the retail side is you know basically you know the equivalent of hank paulson going into a liquor store not going over but he's the same mindset that from the same other there are sprung from the same tomac strauss kahn tarth seaman. but other top stories from around the world but many of the strauss kahn has signed as the head of the international monetary fund and insiders say it's also those who for bail for the charges and section sort of spending. is offering to go on the house arrest. uncle bracelet track his movements his lawyer say he's already ready to parent and one million dollars in cash. seven or seven times the plane has crashed north of point air base in southern california three people aboard managed to escape and then injuries the plane was operated by a private for tracked by the u.s. navy to support its. space shuttle endeavor successfully go to the international space station. shuttle come on astronauts mock the leverage the most expensive freight at the station to believe it is the last flight for endeavor and announcements of this space shuttle program. now t

let's look at the movie in this scene, former treasury secretary hank paulson played by william hurt,o save the insurance giant aig. >> it's another bailout. with no legislation. the hill is going to -- the country will go crazy. >> the plane we flew in on this morning leased from aig, construction downtown, aig, life insurance, 81 million policies with a face value of $1.9 trillion. billions of dollars in teachers pensions, it's everywhere, you want too big to fail here it is. >> peter, as where you wrote the script, who were the villains and heros of that crisis? >> it's very interesting. because i started off with a lot of preconceptions about who the heros and villains were. but the truth is, one of the ironies of the piece is that there are a lot of heros and a lot of villains and sometimes it was the same people. you have people in power like hank paulson who went from being the ceo and chairman of goldman sachs, and was certainly part of the wall street trend of working washington and trying to deregulate, and now here he is, in washington, as secretary of treasury trying to de

to see the human drama portrayed on the screen by william hurt, you know, who plays hank paulson, andothers. >> charlie: you play ben bernanke. >> extraordinary. >> charlie: the first thing people thought about was wow. how did you get all these people in the hbo film. >> i think they really nailed it. as someone who does care about the nuance i think that for the most part, you know, you watch these characters and they really captured the essence of what they were doing. >> charlie: tell me what you tried to capture. >> it's funny. when i was approached to play it i got the phone call. i had read the book. i was aware of the complexity of this story. i mean, you know, i went down... i think i can follow these things. you know, i just did not understand how dangerous this situation was. when they came to me and said this is the story. it's going to be told. i thought, it is really like a thriller. only the character was playing. i was i'll do it. we haven't you the script yet. i'll read the script. i'm going to be playing the villain. as i read it and did my research i thought there i

that run a three times leverage let's go back to two thousand and eight for a second we know that hank paulson went to congress to negotiated some bailout money and this was augmented by further bailout money do we know what the total price tag was for the bailout money and my second question is based on what you're saying here can we anticipate another round of bank bailout money and will it be approximately the same size or less or more well i difficult know what the total price tag for god is i could give you a number that's not. you know not an irish medical number and the price to be allowed is the economic future of the country if you bet the insolvent fail. crash hit the bottom or to be on our way back up we have economic productivity. at a brisk level. we decided not to do that we decided if you go about same place and now rejecting a lot so i have absolutely no idea what they're going to the number is but the actual true economic cost is future growth now as for any other bailouts also read another article this morning oh yesterday stating that the banks are considering settling their

you have people in power like hank paulson who went from being the ceo and chairman of goldman sachsart of the wall street trend of working washington and trying to deregulate. and now here he is in washington as the secretary of treasury trying to deal with the situation that he himself has been part of the creation of. so that's -- a lot of of it was very surprising. i have to say, one of the villains of the piece, really, is the idea that financial markets are inherently self-regulating and should be just left alone. >> you're absolutely right. >> maybe it's alan greenspan. not actually one of the big players in the movie, but if the villain of that idea, he's the guy -- >> there's so much deregulation. it's been a few years since this has happened. could it happen again? what's really changed to prevent what happened in 2008 from happening today? >> oh, it absolutely could happen again. i think, in fact, one of the really scary legacies of 2008 is that the bailout, although it was necessary, has probably made another bailout not less likely but more likely because before 2008, we

you had to get into the mind of warren buffett and your colleagues had to get into the mind of hank paulsonplaying at the end of the day? >> i have always liked warren buffett. i feel we have the -- so many similar traits, bank accounts, acumen, self-respect. we have all of those together. we'll topt invest with you like we want to invest with him shortly. >> i'm a clone. >> in terms of william, paulson has such an off-putting appearance that i was quite surprised and intrigued of the fact that william played that role. it creates a totally different person while he creates the life-saving function for the banks that he did in this movie. at the same time i -- i'll bend over and give him the credit that maybe he wasn't just saving the banks. maybe he was trying to save the country. >> who were the government folks trying to save? were they saving the banks, or were they saving the economy? were they saving the nation? what do you think they thought? >> that's a question where you can only give them the benefit of the doubt. >> right. >> but -- the bp thing is another failure. all tracing ba

guest: hank paulson gdid the watch of the treasury department.put into place the beginning of the federal bailout. he was there when regulators made their first steps to back away from prosecutions. in my reporting, i did not find a direct link to secretary paulson. why did not find any evidence that he specifically told regulators to back off, but he is certainly a very powerful player at the time when the decision to back away from the cases were made. host: is part of the situation the fact that part of the reason they do not. the ft these prosecutions the fact that in administrations, both democratic and republican, so many people work in wall street and in the financial sector come in and work for various administrations, the treasury, the fcc, and when they are over they go back to wall street? guest: the revolving door is well alive. i did write about attorney general, who is now the governor of new york. -- attorney general cuomo who is now the governor. one of his lawyers who had been overseeing a lot of these cases went right over to wo

>> i play paulson, which is what william hurt plays hank paulson, i play his chief of staff, jim wilkinsonisis and i'm kind of, we're trying to figure out if we should bail out aig or not. >> jimmy: and the movie is called "too big to fail." premieres may 23rd on hbo. >> thinking of taking over 80% of the company. >> hank, we can't. this morning we were lecturing the entire country on -- >> aig has collateral. they have assets. lehman didn't. couldn't let into a hole. it's not the same story. >> nobody's going to care. it's another bailout. with no legislation. the hill's going to go -- the country is going to go crazy. >> the plane that we flew in on this morning leased from aig. construction downtown aig. life insurance, 81 million policies with a face value of $1.9 trillion. billions of dollars in teacher's pensions. you want too big to fail, here it is. >> jimmy: well, there you go. congratulations. that's awesome. it's been -- i mean, must be great for you because you're on a sitcom and you're kind of a kid actor -- was "that '70s show" the first thing -- >> yes the first pig thing i

when the financial collapse occurred, hank paulson decided to save a i g by loaning them $100 billion. the next day, 40 billion was paid to goldman sachs as profits on these collateral debt obligations. i have a question. the gain of six has recommended that we cut the personal tax to 25%. we cut the corporate tax and make more in come through that. we will have a massive tax cut to the very wealthy and everyone else will have to pay more tax. corporate tax cutting is a race to the bottom. guest: the tax balance is a hard one. the white house is expected to come out with corporate tax reform. the idea is to live with the tax rate and not to the revenue. corporations manage to pay lower taxes than their actual rate is. the government wants to make it clear. here is what they pay period end the story, more or less. it is a complicated task for the government. host: what will we see regarding unemployment for the next numbers that come out? guest: similar numbers for the near term. the numbers have become pretty regular. if gas prices to rise, that will be a problem. it is a tough road b

when hank paulson to the congress and said the sky was falling, i voted against the first truncheon and second tranche. i have been a critic of the financial dealings with the american people that president bush did it. president bush was a big spender. he spent more money. even when you take out all of these wars. he spent more money than bill clinton did. barack obama has been a detriment as a model for monday that president bush -- barack obama has been spending more money than president bush. when president obama doesn't do good, i give him accolades. -- when president obama does something good, i give him accolades. the way to do is to stimulate the free private system. a free enterprise system is in the engine and that pulls along the trend of economic prosperity in america. we need to stimulate that engine so we can start creating jobs here in america. we are doing at of -- up here in washington today with this huge debt. we have to stop this tremendous spending. we have got to stop it and start creating jobs in the private sector. host: will go on to jerry in utah. caller: i hop

it is an issue i talked about with hank paulson when i started the bank. there is a view in some quarters that said, the bank should deal with the poorest countries. at a time when we have all these changes in the international system and we're trying to figure out how multilateral situations change with the circumstance, i think it would be a huge strategic mistake to take the countries that are middle income countries or moving in the process and say, you are no longer part of the banking system. because if i think about climate change, trade, learning from other countries in terms of how they have done different programs, i want these countries to be active participants engaged in the banks. we have a certain amount of lending that we do with china, but they are not looking at it for the money. they tend to have rather small projects they use for pilots to develop knowledge which they then expand. 80% of those are environmental. i think it is a good thenk thing that china improve the environmental market. and then we are drawing in china to be a partner