john allison says the this is extortion, plain and simple. it's so good to be revealed.lways appreciate your writing and editorial in your thoughts on banking and bank regulation. what do you make of what is going on? >> thank you, it's so good to be with you. if you are a bank, you depend on a government charter. if they come after you, practically speaking, you cannot write them. so it's the same kind of thing that happened and the government is now on a roll. in forcing banks to make ridiculously high settlements and if these were real problems, private parties that were supposed to be victims would be suing and winning in court. but you can see that it's only because of government having the power of the gun, that they are able to get this done. >> i love you brought that up. when you think about it, the watchdogs did not bark in the run-up to the crisis. but they had all of the regulatory powers all the way back to 1991. they have gone after the bad guys on wall street. this seems like enforcement theater that the general public is ignoring. so william douglas, he b

we have john allison, president and ceo of the cato institute.alson, prior to joining cato, was chairman and ceo of the bb&t corporation, the tenth largest financial services holding company headquartered in the united states. during his tenure from 1989-2008, bb&t grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets. he has received the coupling award for the -- cumming award for business leadership and received the lifetime achievement award from the american banker. [applause] next to mr. allison we have p.j. o'rourke, libertarian commentator and humorist. he was born and raided in toledo, ohio, and attended miami university and johns hopkins. he began writing funny things in 1960s underground newspapers, became editor-in-chief of national lampoon, then spent 20 years reporting for rolling stone and atlantic monthly going to wars, riots, rebellions and other holidays in hell in more than 40 countries. he has written 16 books on subjects as diverse as politics and cars and etiquette in economics. mr. p.j. o'rourke. [applause] last but certainly not

john allison says the this is extortion, plain and simple. 's

wander in from other things and then we will have a fascinating conversation with p j 0 work and john allison the topic who will save us from big government? i hope between those three people one of the has an answer. we will get that started in a couple minutes. in the meantime, bear with me. ♪ nt we want to hear from you.

john in us is that jim allison >>: well as you stated the, same station is closed and has been evacuatedo police and that the county sheriffs are investigating and will not reopen until it's determined that it's safe. we do understand there are major delays from pleasanton said daly city as well this remind and richmond we are working to establish a boston bridge. that may take some time. >>: for many bart commuter is this is obviously a big inconvenience when unnecessary one when looking at public safety. >>: if you're not running trains you have to stop them in place and turn them that how long what will it be on to other lines are affected? >>: there are running trains from a base fare to free my so the good news is the no- fly north of coliseum's stationed it's not going to really affect york me too much. we are pretty robust and the number of trained to have right now. >>: however south of the coliseum stationed your step. and were trying to resolve this situation of but not before realizing that it's safe. >>: what about those long to the airport are many provisions made for them?