federal reserve bank of new york that aug twentieth commerce bank of germany with three hundred fifty million at the fed discount window two days later citi group j.p. morgan chase bank of america and rocco via each received five hundred million dollars now banks only go to the discount window when they're in serious crisis and they're facing a liquidity crunch thus began gretchen morgenson says the bank run that set off the financial crisis of two thousand and eight so in retrospect it was mexican drug gangs the ending of the money laundering via the banks without that access to liquid cash they froze up because it turns out it appears that drug money was the only cash in the system americans don't have jobs nobody we only have. ok ask there's no liquidity there's only crime all right so we covered the story at the time and we've said it we've talked about this and we said about expected it yeah and we said that the the crash of two thousand and eight the only way that the wheels of global banking system started turning again was that the money was released by the drug mexican drug lords but what we're saying today is that the reason why the crisis happened to begin with exact

interest loans like one percent after sent quarter percent to some of the biggest banks in the nation like j.p. morgan chase bank of america and citi group the idea was that the banks would use their money to loan out to small businesses to hire people again basically to jumpstart our economy or so we were told and the truth is as revealed by senator sanders those loans were merely vehicles to transfer billions maybe annoyance of billions of dollars from you and me the taxpayers directly into the pockets of the banks toure's on wall street or so worked the fed would give a bank like citi group a couple billion dollars at let's say a one percent interest rate then what citi group would do is lend that money they just got from the fed back to the u.s. government treasury at a much higher interest rate so if i asked you to loan me a hundred bucks at a one percent interest rate then next year ought to pay one hundred one dollars but if as soon as you lent me the hundred bucks i turn right around and want to back to you at a five percent interest rate and while i'm paying you a hundred one dollars next year you're paying me a h

banks and the overall economy. >> reporter: the agreement covers just 14 mortgage servicers. that may not sound like a lot, but these are the titans of the industry. j.p. morgan chase, bank of america, citigroup, wells fargo and u.s. bancorp are among those included. together, all the firms involved hold roughly $7 trillion in mortgages, nearly seven out of r.b.c. analyst gerard cassidy says the deal is a big win for financial firms. >> by lifting this cloud, it is certainly going to give stock investors the ability to say "okay." the dollar amount has been quantified, it's going to occur in 2011 earnings, and as we look about to 2012 and 2012 those charges will not be present. >> reporter: the settlement will also benefit some homeowners facing foreclosure. that's because banks will repay borrowers if they lost money due to bungled paperwork. the firms will also have to hire staff, upgrade document tracking systems and have an independent audit of their foreclosure practices. most big banks temporarily suspended foreclosures during the government's investigation, but now they are likely to resume those actions. that's bad news for some delinquent borrowers. economist bob brusca th

of its range it has been trading in since december. big financial stocks though, they saw buyers too. american express, j.p. morgan and bank of america were three out of the top five performing dow stocks today. all moving about 2% or so. cisco led the dow, jumping almost 5%. volume more than doubled as shares popped off of recent lows. cisco stock has seen a series of drops as earnings guidance has been disappointing. c.e.o. john chambers, in an email to employees, says the company has been slow to make decisions, has lost accountability and calls on cisco to be more disciplined as it grows. the share price clearly responding today. cisco and many other multi- national firms have been helped by the weaker u.s dollar. today, the euro hit a new one- year high against the dollar. tomorrow, the european central bank is expected to raise interest rates for the first time since the recession to battle higher inflation rates. and that led to euro gaining today. the weaker dollar helps commodities. look at this trio. copper prices are at a one-week high. demand from china also helps. silver continues to hit new generational highs. and gold

banks including j.p. morgan chase and bank of america. as april 18 draws near our tax expert kevin mccormally is back. monday, if you're running way behind, tips on filing your 2007 return before it's too late. >> susie: johnson and johnson will pay $70 million to settle civil and criminal charges that it paid bribes and kickbacks to win overseas business. it's the first major settlement since the obama administration started cracking down on the pharmaceutical industry over a year ago. j&j was accused of paying doctors in several european countries and officials in the iraqi government. the company did not admit or deny guilt. >> tom: starting next week, toyota will begin cutting production at its north american plants adjusting for supply disruptions from japan. the automaker hopes reducing its work week will prevent it from running out of parts. toyota will produce 35,000 fewer vehicles in north america from mid-march to the end of april. that's when the company will re- assess its production plans. >> tom: not the threat of a government shut down, nor high energy prices will knock down the bull ma

of the nation's largest banks. j.p. morgan chase reports tomorrow, bank of america on friday. both are expected to show how banks, like the economy, are stuck in a holding pattern. so is now a good time to invest in financials? suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: these days it isn't easy being a financial stock investor. sure, the cloud of uncertainty that hung over banks and brokerages from the financial crisis has lifted somewhat. still, bank stocks, as measured by the keefe bruyette index, are flat this year, lagging the overall stock market. and, first quarter earnings are unlikely to provide much of a boost. financials are expected to rank a lowly seventh out of 10 sectors reporting results. that's due to the fragile economy and the cost of financial reforms. nevertheless, analyst fred cannon says many of the shares are undervalued. >> part of that is justified because they are a lot different today than they were before. but, some of it's not justified and we think those valuation multiples will expand for certain parts of the financials, including the large banks and so

bank of new york mellon corp citigroup j.p. morgan chase morgan stanley goldman sachs wells fargo bank of america a.i.g. the big banks of america now these people in between are the interlocking boards of directors stephen hall and martin feldstein an f. who is who is on a john chen those goes on and on and on without we don't really need the names but what you see is that there is there are direct links between the boards of each one of these banks and each one of these media companies so you wonder why was it so easy when george w. bush went to the media and said you know the big banks need some help. there's these connections it's all about connections and maybe we should be thinking about legislation that says you can only serve on the board of one company. time for our daily poll your chance to tell us what you think here's today's question s. and p. is warning about a new five trillion dollar big bank meltdown will the u.s. taxpayers with this bill your choices are a yes we'll do it on the back of the new deal by social security unemployment minimum wage or no we will all see the right and start r

before me, most people do not know that the federal reserve is a private bank, just like bank of america or j.p. morganthey have shareholders. they are so secret, we are not allowed to know who those people are. for the first time in history, congressman paul actually got a small audit. we were able to see where some of the bailout money went. come to find out, aig was up funnel to send money oversees the bailout private banks, but of course bernanke could not go to the public and say, we need to bail out of europe because we are hurting here. that is a big move for the freedom movement. another comment, your reporter said that bernanke cannot comment on the dollar. i find it funny that he defers that the treasury, because on the dollar, it says federal reserve notes. they print the money. our treasury does not. a private bank controls the money supply. host: we will have to leave it there. only if to take other calls and he did bring up congressman paul who made an announcement yesterday regarding his exploratory committee during that series of comments he made on that. he took a question on the feder