the imf to pay interest to those banks that were exposed. and, of course, that was without congressional permission and i think it makes a point -- one of the points that i've been trying to me and that is transparency of the federal reserve. now, it sounded to me like the majority here is for independence, which is a code word for secrecy and in opposition to transparency. and it's always used for the public interest. of cour, i think the public interest is served by exposure and knowing what's going on and whose interests are being served and that's why i would like to see a lot more transparen. the question i have for dr. meltzer, since he's aware of this, he's published this, is this a good reason for us to know a lot more about the agreements that the federal reserve makes because they can make agreements with international banking institutions and we have no right -- we may have a right under the constitution that we should but we don't -- we've given up that right and we've given up that privilege. would this be a good example of why

it does mean that iceland will need more help from the imf. the governor of nigeria's central banks has assured a meeting in london that the nigerian banking system is sound. he told foreign investors that their money was safe. the latest figures in britain showed the recession in the second quarter of this year was not as bad as predicted. fall in mfg. meant gdp fell between april and -- between april and june. there are still concerns about the recovery. a ship has been seized carrying weapons from north korea to iran in violation from the united nations embargo. at this seizure was some weeks ago. they have posted a series of actions -- sanctions to punish pyongyang about its lack of cooperation. iran ewing's president has asked -- iran's president has set up criticism of the opposition. he has called for the leader of the opposition to be punished. >> president ahmenijad did not name it anyone specifically, but he says the senior individuals in the post-election unrest should be dealt with decisively. he says there needs to be a serious co

>> yes, i knew the imf forecast. they do take a more pessimistic view not a star economy but every economy across the world. we insure that our forecaster based on the information we have. if you look at the imf and forecasting over the last three months, it has downgraded its forecasting three months since last october. that demonstrates the uncertainty in the system. i believe that because of the action we are taking, because of the fact we have low interest rates and inflation will be coming down this year, and because of the action that most other countries are taking to look after their economies, that will have an effect, which is why i remain confident we will see growth returning toward the end of this year. >> he said the chancellor's budget had unraveled in just a week. >> he said his tax plans were a breach of that bested promise that is damaging to the economy. today we have the prime minister getting a lecture on prudence while he is in warsaw. doesn't the collapse of the budget in the last week and the

gross has a lot more confidence than the imf research than the people on my floor.hey don't believe the numbers. if it is true, oh, my god a recovery will be so much worse on interest rates if they are 60 basis points lower. the other point is the program not on agencies but on the buy-backs of treasuries was almost exclusively stated to be six months now put a date october. they are buying more slowly. they are buying time and trying to have it both ways. he nailed that one. >> phil gross, how do you conduct yourself from here now that the program looks to be ending in october, later than expected? is it your expectation that the 0 basis point improvement you believe came from the fed involvement now goes away and rates rise that 40 basis points or more from here? >> i think you have to be cautious. the treasury still has a trillion and a half to two trillion to issue on a fiscal year basis. somebody has to buy the bonds, the chinese are pulling back and holders of reserves are pulling back. if the fed itself ends a program that was $300 billion, you'll have less d

we talked about gold in the past and that's not the imf's thing.. engaged in quantitative ea easing. $300 billion of purchases in the intermediate sector of the yield curve. now the imf is coming out about-w approximately $300 billion, slightly more, of new money in the form of fdrs, just giving it to members, creating a secondary market where they can trade it between themselves and that's received almost no public comment or debate, at least in the -- in terms of any democratic processes. so just a striking development. also selling 400 tons of gold and also issuing imf note for the first time.. so they're inflating their balance sheet, both sides, assets and liabilities, starting to look something like a cross between a hedge fund and a global fed. >> so are the -- these strs, arç they backed by hard assets? >> they're not backed by anything. they're in effect -- the executive director is -- they have a approval from the membership but they're going to issue them, about $313 billions equivalent, but denominated in strs. they go to the members. if

and then later, the imf declaring an end to the goebel recession. where in the world can investors find the best buying snunts should you still be cautious with your money? some answers next. >>> welcome back. now a look at the other stories we're following on the "closing bell" ticker tonight. goldman sachs is downgrading alcoa. the analyst says it's a neutral from america's buy list. citing valuation, weak industry fundamentals as well as including -- as well as rather historically high aluminum inventory levels and a lack of positive catalysts. alcoa shares are up 40% since being added to that goldman sachs america's buy list. the stock today down 3 2/3%. b.j. wholesale club reporting a second quarter profit down to $35 million. that still beat wall street estimates as cost controls were able to offset declines in food and gasoline prices. the nation's third largest warehouse club is also raising its full-year profit target because of improving margins. the stock today was up better than 2%. and drug maker eli lilly says it will not seek fda appr

all of the international organizations you could want from the un to nato, to eu, the world bank, the imf and nongovernmental organizations, and afghanistan will be solved by a better coordination of these elements. the troop strength is an important piece of it, and my message to general mccrystal and to the commanders when i went there was to say, think about the total strategy that we have all agreed to, general mccrystal is conducting an assessment at the request of secretary of defense, they -- the defense department will evaluate what general mccrystal has to say, and in due time it will come up for a decision by the president. but i did not say, i want to be clear on, this i did not say that troop strength is off the table for discussion. what i did say is that we have yet to be able to measure the implementation of the new strategy, so if you have recommendations make it in the context of the new strategy. we have learned one thing in six years, this is not just about troop strength. >> well, but that sounds like you are getting us ready for sending more troops to afghanistan. >>

it now that the imf was planning to flatly contradicted just an hour and a day -- a letter to r >> yes, and they do take a more pessimistic of not just our economy but of every economy across the world. we insure that our forecaster based on the information that we have. if you look at the imf and its forecasting of a last three months, it is ashley downgrading three times since last october. that demonstrates the uncertainty there is in the system. i believe that because of the action we are taking, because we have low interest rate and inflation would be coming down this year, and because of the action that most other countries are taken to look after their economies, that will happen at that which is why i remain confident that we will see growth returning toward the end of this year. >> mr. osborn said that the chancellor's budget had unraveled in just a week. he pointed to comments made by the former cabinet member. >> his tax plans were up rates up promised damaging not just in albour party but to the economy. and the prime minister getting a lecture in prudence while he adds and

the imf said no, we cannot do that. everything is [unintelligible] the second one is the bailout. i believe the bailout should be from the bottom up, people who are losing their houses, they are the ones who should be served first. what happened? guest: that is exactly right. you see that all over the world. i have seen in my work hell some many of these programs that were started or the people really want in brazil, where there is a land redistribution movement there but there has been no effort because globalization demands you do not pay money out for things like that. health care, education, you see so many countries cut back as a result of trying to find their way in this system. these are the demands that were put upon. i mentioned the case of mozambique, which cut subsidies for its cashew industry and it killed the cashew industry. this is that kind of things we are seeing, these choices made on behalf of the corporate class of the investors worldwide. they punish the working class. yes, in terms of the top down

the broad policies, across the world in terms of the world bank, the wto, the imf, and how much role. how much is that going to play in the solution of this? >> you know, i always say we have to fight thi on all guns all the time in this battle. the credit rescue and the recession and stimulus package. and i began adding a fourth got, and that was some kind of global coordination, both in the regulation and stimulus. china says they are stepping up. we are not so sure. the eu hasn't stepped up. eastern europe does not have the money. i think in global coordination has been serious for a long time. i think it is even more serious now. >> i strongly agree. one of the problems is that as the world has gotten a more integrated the bang for the box, how much stimulus he did at home is much less because we have become a more -- more of our income we spend abroad. and that is true of every other country. so if they look at this each from their own point of view there will be a tendency not to have a very effective stimulus. the prime minister of one country, very small country, said why shou

set 97/98 the reason they split was handled was a disaster countries lost economic sovereignty, the imf push them into pro cyclical policy is that converted a downturn in to recession and a recession into a depression. if you want to get a feeling of how badly things can be mismanage, unemployment in the central island in indofesia got up at 40% so we have a way to go to reach those achievements. the consequence of this bad management with the global financial crisis was countries decided they would never let this happen again. i talk to prime minister's in both countries that have affected and not affected said we learned the lesson of 1997. one of them said i was the class of 97. the only way they had to protect themselves was to bud up large reserves. and they have built up literally trillions of dollars, china's reserves by themselves are $2 trillion. they are good for protecting them, but it means that these countries are not spending all of their and come so it contributes to a global insufficiency of aggregate demand. one thing that concerns me is we discuss the details of how we

imf frank meyer fusion this disciple. frank meyer was the great anti-communist leader in the '50s and '60s and early '70s and he talked about using the some, wrote about it, and that is the only way we are going to come to power is bring this all together as ronald reagan did and we are going to have to try to square the circle. traditional conservatives would never ever-- libertarians were never know totally agree with this group for that group. we detected tried to do the best we can and move forward. >> tom. >> i'm going to endorse richard's comments. i was about ready to mention frank meyer, it was a pillar of the foundation conservative movement who wrote for national review and he showed how we could bridge the gap between the libertarians and the traditional conservatives. frankly we have to realize that you are a liberal-- excuse me, a libertarian you have got more in common with the fuddy-duddy old conservative than you do with the left. in the reverse is true. we need to help libertarians as well as conservative

imf the opinion that fundamentally we must come up and say we should have public discourse. billions. -- brilliant. [inaudible] it is not islamic it is surely a. it is something else. [inaudible] thank you. >> i am and from chad and member of the democratic center. [inaudible] middle eastern countries i would like to know what is the lessons learned from the middle east countries that should be used in africa? that is my question. >> when you said we shouldn't be afraid of bad results but how should the country's react that promote when the elections do not go their way like when hamas one in gaza out or i ran with the iranian election but there is still a probability that some voted for ahmadinejad although not with the high a margin. so i would like to know what makes you so positive, a laith kubba of your future? >> speaking in a purely personal capacity is came back from one hearing so my question comes from that angle. the i raki in your group and why did he go to israel? of these things you talk about looking as a patriot, he was on the west bank with the way that it i

. >> for those who are interested in stepping into the precious metals and the imf sale as well.ld you recommend that? do you view it topping the $1,000 mark? >> the gold market is really quite tiny. the investments are pushing in and it's possible to push it beyond that level. they are pushing at the market and inflation to really start in a big way. they could see investment coming and $1,000 is possible. >> thanks for joining us. appreciate it. >> we have a strong market performance and let's get to the reporter beginning with bertha coombs. >> we have the great manufacturing number today. better than expected.d. we have the s&p above 1,000. a lot of people wanting to see if they can hold the range. you talk to every trader and they are on the fundamentals. part of it is the big numbers out of ford. the increase in sales and that will be an effect within the s&p. 3 m because of the exposures. good year and goodrich among the s&p. the media and advertising getting a boost. if you bought tvs, you may have seen a lot of car ads. >> what about 2,000?0? we have not closed above 200

the ims, we recently put 100 million dollars into the imf. they provide billion dollars to iran.the israelis are put in a circumstance where we don't do what we should do. and iran is within a year or so of having enough material for nuclear bomb. israel then will have to decide what to do. had we enforced the iran sanctions act which we refused to enforce and gone further with other economic sanctions, we wouldn't be in this circumstance. >> host: the "wall street journal" hsz editerial about the killing of the taliban leader, massimi mai. they write the strike underscores the fact that pakistan has early obama administration foreign policy success. only three months ago taliban were marching on islamabad and fretting over pakistani will, but the u.s. worked behind the scene to encourage counter attack. pakistan military has retaken the valley in the north and the government has put aside petty domestic squabeling to focus on the enemy. president obama stepped up attacks thought to have killed a third of the top taliban leaders and yet a short time ago those were a source of con

in this type of situation that involve international law, what role does the imf and world bank play?ould there regulation go towards preventing further abuses and using swiss bank accounts to go round tax situations? guest: i am not intimately familiar with the specificities of their laws within the foreign governments. i don't expect they will have anything in the short run. what you have here is factual information to support people within ubs were engaged in -- were engaged in some form of fraud. those people were squeezed and provided more information regarding their operations and a set of facts where the u.s. government had an opportunity to lean heavily upon ubs. what i would think is this is a sign the irs will start doing that with other foreign companies that conduct business in the u.s. that operate under some secrecy laws in their jurisdiction. switzerland was probably the most formidable of those jurisdictions, but the other concern is there is one article suggesting france and germany may also seek to follow the u.s.'s actions. the secrecy laws started getting attacked

we like johnson & johnson, imf health, out of favor health group. >> what do you think, charlie, overrybody is scared about september. are you scared about september? >> yeah, what i've learned at this point is nobody knows about what's going to happen in the next couple of wooekeeks. j and j is trading at was 1994, and it went up five-fold over the next four years. >> five-fold for j & j. >> well, the '90s -- second half of the '90s, you could make a fortune in any phrma stock. >> well, that's exactly right, but that was because phrma was out of favor because of hillary care. we've got the exact same dynamic right now. >> oh, that's an interesting parallel. bob, i know you have a few names in it particular, as well. you like fluor. >> i do. i think fluor continues to go up. they're positioned for a global economic recovery. operating in five segments, but getting orders from all over the globe right now. good management, been able to control costs. second quarter earnings grow by 49% over last year. you know, they're trading above their 20-day moving average, just brought that, 5% ab

the imf, we recently put a hundred billion dollars plus into the imf.ut $2 billion of special drawing right to iran. so the israelis are put in a circumstance where we don't do what we should do. and iran is within a year or so of having enough material for nuclear bomb. israel then we'll have to decide what to do, but had reinforced the iran sanctions act, which we have deliberately refuse to enforce, and have begun further with other economic sanctions we wouldn't be in this. >> host: "the wall street journal" has an editorial this point about the killing of the taliban leader. "the wall street journal" says the attack in pakistan is an early obama foreign policies exist. they write the strike underscores that pakistan has been -- has an early obama administration foreign policy success only three month ago the taliban were marching on islamabad and u.s. officials were fretting about the lack of pakistani will to resist islamist extremism. but the u.s. work behind the scenes to encourage behind act if they essentially taken the swat valley in the nort

i believe the imf representative first, who has to listen and then explain why he does things.i love these town halls. second, i make congressperson who legislates. you cannot do that unless you communicate with everyone. >> now it is your turn for the elevator pitch. you are trapped in an elevator with a blogger, and you have two minutes to explain why they should support you in the primary. >> i have been very fortunate. i have done everything i have wanted to do in life, commanded a ship. i got married late in life. 47. i could not get a prom date, could not get someone to marry me. then my daughter had her tumor. and not in this to pay back. you go throughout this state, this wonderful place, where it is the birthplace of freedom, and people are hurt, and we've begun -- we forgot. when i see a man in the county and ask him how is the recession hurting you? he says not that bad because we were hurting so much anyways. something happened to the united states. i believe this president has it right. i wish we were more bold and more aggressive, but i believe he is on the right

imf and of soccer, so i can in debt friends based on that.r, they are screened? >> no one can come into the community until our verification is complete. one of the problem that exists in social networking sites is people setting up fake profiles. we get rid of anonymity. everyone is who they say they are. we know that anyone who connects with her is exactly who they say they are. gretchen: these are some great tips. the jets have become a large technology. i know it seems overwhelming. -- get savvy and learn technology. >> while it may be overwhelming, actually, she taught me how to text message. the point is, parents need to understand technology. the need to understand what their children are being exposed to. you do not need to be an expert, but you need to be a part of their life. gretchen: thank you so much. your body needs sleep to feel healthy... to feel better. tylenol pm quiets the pain that keeps you awake. and helps you sleep, in a non-habit forming way. special interest groups are trying to block progress on health care reform, d

the ims, we recently put 100 million dollars into the imf. they provide billion dollars to iran.e israelis are put in a circumstance where we don't do what we should do. and iran is within a year or so of having enough material for nuclear bomb. israel then will have to decide what to do. had we enforced the iran sanctions act which we refused to enforce and gone further with other economic sanctions, we wouldn't be in this circumstance. >> host: the "wall street journal" hsz editerial about the killing of the taliban leader, massimi mai. they write the strike underscores the fact that pakistan has early obama administration foreign policy success. only three months ago taliban were marching on islamabad and fretting over pakistani will, but the u.s. worked behind the scene to encourage counter attack. pakistan military has retaken the valley in the north and the government has put aside petty domestic squabeling to focus on the enemy. president obama stepped up attacks thought to have killed a third of the top taliban leaders and yet a short time ago those were a source of conce

the imf has said so, the european commission has said so, the markets have said so, which is why oururrency has devalued by 30%, and soon, the voters, too, will get their chance to say so. they can see what the markets have already seen, that you are the devalued prime minister of a devalued government. host: those remarks were addressed to prime minister gordon brown, who has an election campaign coming up. i was shocked by the fact that you picked up on a headline in "-- i was struck by the fact that you picked up in a headline in "newsweek" this week that britain is finished we are britain's best days behind it? guest: this and things were written at the end of the last labour government. there was a headline in "the wall street journal" saying "so long, great britain, it was nice knowing you." we had spent the money, and to our treasury, exhausted our credit. look how quickly we can turn things around we were months away from the thatcher renaissance. people still argue about the general legacy of the thatcher ism, but no one disputes that she turned the economy around and made a

i am impressed the imf have tabulations how many other countries, china jumps to mind for quickly steppingarge stimulus programs. i think also the discussion at the g20 level has been very effective encouraging countries let's not go back to the trade protectionist measures of the great depression were tit-for-tat we start the trading system. most countries have been very positive on that with minor exceptions, everywhere there always a spot on the whole the story of cooperative action at the international level to try to manage this crisis i think has been very positive. i think another aspect we have gotten away from this u.s. european dominance through the g8. we are moving to ag20 type of structure which is much more global so i would give very high grades. i think our government deserves a lot of credit. i think they did reach out. so they are a very active player in this. >> france and germany reported growth unexpectedly in the last quarter to earn what extent of the u.s. package necessarily but there was well reported that president obama and germany were at odds over whether how m

i believe the imf representative first, who has to listen and then explain why he does things. i love these town halls. second, i make congressperson who legislates. you cannot do that unless you communicate with everyone. >> now it is your turn for the elevator pitch. you are trapped in an elevator with a blogger, and you have two minutes to explain why they should support you in the primary. >> i have been very fortunate. i have done everything i have wanted to do in life, commanded a ship. i got married late in life. 47. i could not get a prom date, could not get someone to marry me. then my daughter had her tumor. and not in this to pay back. you go throughout this state, this wonderful place, where it is the birthplace of freedom, and people are hurt, and we've begun -- we forgot. when i see a man in the county and ask him how is the recession hurting you? he says not that bad because we were hurting so much anyways. something happened to the united states. i believe this president has it right. i wish we were more bold and more aggressive, but i believe he is on the right