mr. buffett said, in god we trust maybe on our occcurrency. but the hand that prints our money is all too human. bonds though so many with a warning label. mr. buffett is advising investors to shy away investments such as treasury securities. it's interesting to know if you agree. i hope it's not a new buffett rule for investors to not buy treasuries. if investors see thoat advice ad then shies away from that investment and that will be a problem for the country. we need to -- the federal government's massive purchases of securities to help push rates down, unfortunately the administration remains luled in by the siren song and uses the low rates to finance for debt to advance a bloated european government. i look forward to your opinion to budget, i received it late last year after the deadline that was supposed to be honored submission, but i'm really concerned and ai do not see a resolution to the problems that the country is facing. >> i'm pleased to welcome our witness, secretary tim geithner, as you know, mr. secretary, your statement wi

mr. buffett is advising investors to shy away from investments such as treasury securities and it will benteresting to know whether you agree with his advice. my hope is his recent musings don't become a new rule for investors not to buy treasuries. if investors heed that advice in large numbers, the spikes in interest rates that i worry about will materialize and the low cost financing of our $15.3 trillion debt that the u.s. temporary enjoys will evaporate in a hurry. we need to resist the siren song of cheap financing partly brought on by the federal reserve's massive purchases of treasury securities to help push rates down. unfortunately, the administration remains lulled in by the siren song and takes current low rates as a reason to spend more and pile up even more debt to finance a bloated europe-size government. secretary geithner, i look forward to your testimony on the president's budget which i only received late yesterday. after the deadline you were supposed to honor for submission. i want to thank you for holding today's hearing, but i'm really concerned. and i don't see any

mr. buffett, bircher hathaway reports after the close today.l see how things are going in omaha these days. >> only 60% have beaten expectations. normally it's about 75%. >> expectations were too high, weren't they? >> yes, they were. companies are lower. they've said pressures are going to continue on margins, and as you know, the fourth quarter earnings are supposed to come in at 9.3%. bill, if you take out apple, fourth-quarter earnings are up only 3.7%. two-thirds of the gain is one company. >> by the way, i forgot to mention, that vix is back to 21 right now, the biggest jump in three months. so the volatility index is starting to signal that we're back in yellow flag territory right now. a little caution right there. >> we had a light nose blow this week, except for today. next week, retail sales on tuesday. industrial production, you've got philly fed, new york empire state index. just want to wish a very successful, peaceful, diplomatic visit for jingping staying at the white house, where he stayed as a young student years ago, and he'l

mr. buffett's still bullish on stocks and he's not alone. one market watcher thinks the dow at 17,000 is possible by the end of next year. we'll also drill down on why the oracle of omaha thinks now is the time to buy a home. actually, maybe even a few of them. is he crazy? or is he crazy like a fox? and also america is going coupon crazy. we'll show you which states are cashing in the most coupons. but first let's check in with courtney reagan and see what else is happening at this hour. >> it might be new york because i'm a coupon cutter. the books as we head into the last two hours of trading the s&p 500 rose above its 2011 intraday high to reach its highest level since june 2008. we've pulled back a bit. next up, the dow going for first close above 13,000 since may of 2008. can we do it? transcanada is building a $2.3 billion oil pipeline from oklahoma to texas after separating that proposal from the rejected keystone project. it's also submitting a new application for keystone with an alter route. and another day, another all-time high

mr. buffett, it appears to be all about affordability. record low mortgage rates and bargain basement prices are leading him to say if you can, get in. >> if i had a way of buying a couple hundred thousand single family homes and had a way of managing them -- the management is really the problem because they're one by one, not like apartment houses, but i would load up on it. >> now you noted his optimism an investor taking advantage of these distressed properties to turn them around as rentals. that of course implies he doesn't expect rental demand to fall off any time soon. while sales have begun to rerebound, home prices have not. we'll get the latest reading tomorrow morning. kp expectations there not quite so bullish. >> diana, if as mr. buffett says it's such a great time to get in and buy, what's holding back the bulk of the ordinary market from getting in? >> getting a mortgage, sue. that's what i hear every single day. a lot of folks are not qualifying for those low rates on mortgages. they either don't have enough money to put d

mr. buffett's case 11% tax rate, how do you evaluate those two priorities and what kind of an offset should we be thinking about in terms of diminished job growth when the so-called job creators are no longer treated so magnificently under the tax code? >> senator, i think we would be hard pressed to provide any analysis of the effect of a tax change, as narrowly target as the ones you're suggested. the effects of changes in tax rates and other features, the tax code and people's behavior involves broad swathes of the population. you don't get a lot of people who are in the top 400 in the country, so i think as the tax policy focuses more and more in your example on the smaller, smaller group, then our ability to analyze the economic effects of that become increasingly attenuated. i don't know what we could do on that topic at all. >> as a practical matter, does it make sense to think somebody who is making $270 million a year which was the year number for the last reported year would significantly change their behavior because their tax rate moved from 18% to 30%? >> i don't know. i just d

mr. buffett himself.s is a campaign document, both sides know that the other side's vision will not be resolved until after november. until then they are positioning. >> this is all about november, people do not realize how about big that election is, and we have six weeks to do tax reform. that is fantastic. >> we are good at getting these two-month extensions. greg, thank you. still ahead t the politico briefing, the contraception fight, round two. my heart attack happened completely out of the blue... i was so young... you just don't think that that's something that can happen to you. i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. first line of defense, right? one chance to hunt down the right insurance at the right price. the "name your price" tool, only from progressive. ready, aim, save! grrr! ooh, i forgot my phone! the "name your price" tool. now available on your phone. get a free quote today. ♪ imagine zero pollutants in our

mr. buffett. not mr. soros. >> excuse me. the other guy you do not like. republican colleagues make several arguments for building the pipeline. they say we need the oil and the lower gas prices. the facts do not support these claims. the energy information agency is projecting that america's oil consumption is not growing. it is no longer growing. the reason is because we have insisted on more efficient automobiles that have better mileage. the standards for these will further reduce our oil dependence. with growth and consumption in check, i do not think we have to be stampeded into something like this deal. this pipeline will not reduce gas prices. last year, transcanada admitted that the pipeline will raise oil prices in the midwest. there is a debate about how much but it will not lower them. that to leads to national security as a reason why we need to go along with this pipeline. we have the general anderson, could you explain your experience? >> 31 years in the army. i served in the pentagon for two years as a chief would guess -- logistics officer

mr. buffett. so i consider that a political kind of argument. but my republican colleagues and the american patrolling institute makes several arguments of building this pipeline. they say we need the oil. it will lower gas prices. it will make us more secure as a nation. but the facts just don't support these claims. the energy information agency which is part of the department of energy, is projecting that america's oil consumption is no longer growing. is no longer growing. the reason it's no longer growing is because we have insisted on more efficient automobiles, that have better fuel mileage, the standard for these model years 2017-2025 will further reduce our oil dependence. so with growth and consumption now in check, i don't think we have to these didn't get into something like this oil tar sands deal from canada. this type line will not reduce gas prices. in fact, last year transcanada admitted to the subcommittee that the pipe line will raise crude oil prices in the midwest. there's a debate over how much it will raise those prices, b

mr. buffett as well. it's great to see him. thank you very much. when you said printing press, i thought you were at the fed this morning. a different printing press. >> yeah. a little different printing press this morning. this is the "omaha world herald the". >> if it was the fed we probably couldn't hear you because it would be running right now. >> because they would be running right now. >>> let's do these headlines. oil prices slipping after five days of gains last week, pushed crude to a ten-month high. oil at this hour, as you can see, indicated down about a that a are. still close to $110 a barrel. deciding who should pay for the 2010 gulf of mexico oil spill has been delayed by a week to allow more time for settle many talks and g-20 leaders meeting told europe let's put up extra money to fight its debt crisis if it wants more help, the leaders trying to pressure germany to drop its opposition, bigger european bailout fund. >>> and "the artist" winning the academy award for best picture and won awards for best director, best actor, best o

mr. buffett, who is widely regarded for his success in business as well as in philanthropy, has been quiteoken, as is his right, on what he believes is an issue of tax fairness. he simply believes, as one of the wealthiest men in the world, that he should not be paying an effective tax rate lower than his secretary. i don't know why the governor mentioned or others think that's a bad idea, but this president believes it's the right approach. >> do you think he should go ahead and write the check until that -- it becomes law? >> i mean, that's a quip that tries to draw attention away from what is a very serious issue, which is the need to have a tax code that's fair and that helps the american people as they recover from this recession, and helps us achieve the kind of balanced approach to deficit and debt reduction that this president has pursued for some time now. so, quips aside, we think the buffett rule is absolutely an important principle to apply to individual tax reform. jared. last one. yes. >> rhetorically, when you're talking about the energy policy, the president has had this gr

mr. buffett says he has no intention of stepping down, it may be years. >> he's 81 years old. >> i saw people all weekend nicely -- he's a gentleman that's done a great job. rose from burlington northern. i come back and say do i really want to play this game? give me the man. >> any other publicly traded company where they say i'm here, have i no intention of retiring, my health is good and we do have a successor, would they actually name that person? they probably would not. when have we heard about a publicly trading company say we have a succession plan and that guy is it. >> that's a good point. >> when you think about jack welch, with ge, he knew a number of people might be his successor in this case they seem to have one person already in mind. it seems a bit different than what many companies would do in terms of. >> i thought it was going to be david sokol. again, i feel like kraemer, you're saying it's a bad stock. but there was someone i thought we had in mind. the man had ethical chal ngss. >> one more listen to beffett, it time talking about prospect of investing in europe. >> at

mr. buffett's company announced they increased capital investment because of expensing so people respondthe united states, both the corporate rate and the punitive tax on repatriation of money abroad are big disincentives for investment in the united states. >> hey, fred, a question for you, a little off topic but the postal service in the news, we don't know what's going to happen to the future of the postal service. it's good for your business ultimately but if you were put in charge of the postal service i'm curious what you would do. >> the postal service is run by a competent gentleman. he was in memphis last week and talked to our management team and we carry priority mail on a wholesale basis and we have a partnership with them in smart post. obviously their issue is the digital diversion of their first class mail. so they have proposed a number of things to the congress that if, were adopted, would allow them to flex their expenses down, so my strong recommendation to the congress would be to listen to what postmaster general donahoe has to say and give him authority to run his e

mr. buffett. not mr. soros. >> excuse me. the other guy you do not like. republican colleagues make several arguments for building the pipeline. they say we need the oil and the lower gas prices. the facts do not support these claims. the energy information agency is projecting that america's oil consumption is not growing. it is no longer growing. the reason is because we have insisted on more efficient automobiles that have better mileage. the standards for these will further reduce our oil dependence. with growth and consumption in check, i do not think we have to be stampeded into something like this deal. this pipeline will not reduce gas prices. last year, transcanada admitted that the pipeline will raise oil prices in the midwest. there is a debate about how much but it will not lower them. that to leads to national security as a reason why we need to go along with this pipeline. we have the general anderson, could you explain your experience? >> 31 years in the army. i served in the pentagon for two years as a chief would guess -- logistics officer

mr. buffett, who is widely regarded for his success in business, as well as in philanthropy has been quite outspoken on what he believes is an issue of tax fairness. he simply believes, as one of the wealthiest men in the world, he should not be paying effective tax rate lower than his secretary. i do not know why. i do not know why the governor thinks that is a bad idea. but, the president believes is the right approach. >> he needs to write the check and tell that is the possibility? >> that is a clip -- quip that tries to draw attention away from a serious issue, which is the need to have a tax code that is fair and that helps the american people as they recover from this recession. it helps us achieve the kind of balanced approach that -- to deficit and debt reduction that this president has pursued it for some time now. quips aside, the buffett rule is an important principle to apply to individual tax reform. >> rhetorically, when you are talking about the energy policy -- when we are talking about tax reform, it seems like what is going on is there are more things we can do on indivi

are in much of a different position than warren buffett is except that they are on different sides of the benefits. i yield back the balance of my time. >> mr. chairman, i would suggest based on your view that maybe you should invite warren buffett and the coke brothers here. that would be a dandy of a hearing. >> that would be, we would get a lot of press in here. >> yes. i want to ask mr. poole, regarding the bureau of land management's current role, i want you to expound on this, how will this affect the role of your agency? >> pardon me? >> how will this affect the role of your agency? >> it does raise concerns, the blm has a history of authorizing right of ways. we have the experience and experts in the field that are familiar with the right away program and the importance of working through nepa and taking into act any cultural and biological concerns. so, and we have that experience, we have dealt with pipelines many times in the past. so the bill, the way it's worded seems to confer all of our responsibility under the leasing act to furk, and in some of the accelerated timeframes in the bill, it begs the question whether or not ther

mr. chairman. i hope -- well i won't -- i do want to comment an warren buffett. pa kur peculiarly, pays himself an income of $100,000, who's never contributed anymore to the federal government, doing all he cannot to pay taxes to skirt his responsibilities. so that's a complete aside and i apologize for it. mr. chairman, i thank you for coming and i want to talk, i want to turn our attention to the european situation. the european situation to quote your testimony is, "leading to substantial increases in sovereign borrowing costs, kearns about the health of european banks and associated reductions in confidence and the avail ability of credit in the euro area rolfing these problems will require action on the part of the european authorities." my first question is, do you believe that loans to european countries today carry a greater risk than they did two or three years ago? >> when you say to countries, do you mean to the governments? >> yes. >> surely they do, and you can see it in the interest rates that they have to pay. >> and would you, please, explain what

mr. lerrick it was a number of years ago i remember an article in which warren buffett was replacing his effort -- the threat out there could have profound consequences both enormous shocks but it's also an instrument or a change that would have an impact on the cost of our goods to the world. and to the degree the dollar becomes weaker, making them more affordable to the world. that's another interesting conversation, i'd love to have. i'm sorry i'm going to miss the sweden solution, but i look forward to hearing about it. thank you. >> thank you, senator merkley. >> senator thune, would you like -- >> i can ask a couple quick questions. >> then we're going to go to a second round. >> thanks for holding the hearing. i think it's a really important issue. it critically important to our country both in terms of the impact on our economy but also helping us to recognize fiscal challenges we face in the long term as well. i'd like to get your perspective, if i might, on the panel to certainly that's been reported, and that is many of the u.s. banks and money market funds have significantly

i would call to the stand warren buffett, and i would also call out as a witness mr. bill gates. let me let you hear part of what they want to testify to, senator. >> if this is a war, my side has had the nuclear bomb. i mean, we've got k street and lobbyists. we've got money on our side in terms of contributions. >> the united states has a huge budget deficit. taxes are going to have to go up. i certainly agree they should go up on the rich more than anyone else. that's just justice. right now, you know, i don't feel like people like myself are paying as much as we should. >> did i come up with the right witnesses? >> you came up with good witnesses, reverend. it really makes no sense to claim that it's class warfare when all you are trying to do is bring up the rates of a group of people, many of whom are earning as much as $250 million a year to the same rates that their drivers, their secretaries, the guy who comes in and fixes the plumbing on their sink are all already paying. that's just bringing it even and doing what the tax code is intended to do. it's the opposite of cl

of fundamental tax reform and the buffett rule would be part of that fundamental tax reform welcome a simpler code, lower rates would all be part of tax reform. >> mr. flores, last but not least. >> certainly not least. thank you for your testimony today. this ipad cost about $600. that's the same as about six barrels of oil that exxon produces. who makes more profit? >> i don't know the answer to that question. >> apple makes substantially more profit on that ipad. so the question is this. let's say that apple's making too much money on this, so let's go to apple and raise their taxes. now, are we to assume if we do that that apple's going to make more of these at a cheaper cost for the international community? >> i don't know what specific tax expenditures -- >> you know the answer like i do -- let me get in the rest of my question. >> i do know there are outdated tax breaks and expenditures for oil and gas companies that no longer -- >> we expect apple to be able to reclaim its intellectual property investment and its investment in plant property equipment and people. the same thing that we allow energy companies to do. and to somehow come up wi

mr. obama's reelection message is a push for what he calls economic fairness and a proposal to raise taxes on millionaires, called the buffett rule named after warren buffett. >> i think asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes is just common sense. >> reporter: two-thirds of americans-- 67%-- agree taxes should be increased on households making over a million dollars a year. including, for the first time, a majority of republicans. but bud faircloth, an independent from delaware, doesn't believe the president will make good on his goals. >> i'm not sure if he'll ever get the congress to work with him and i just don't think he'll ever get the job done. >> reporter: but in our poll, independents have shown a shift towards mr. obama. a month ago they favored mitt romney. today independents favor the president. and, scott, that swing among independents is why for the first time the president has a clear advantage against his republican opponents if you put them a general election matchup. >> pelley: and independents decide these elections. norah, thanks very much. there is news in the numbers for r

principle embodied in the buffett rule which is that millionaires and billionaires shouldn't be paying a lower effective tax rate on their income than average folks, in this case the mr. buffet's secretary, so that's the approach to carried interest. it is not aimed at an individual. it is a matter of bachk fairness. >> shouldn't we expect to hear the president ultimately here in the coming months talk about mitt romney and carried interest in the same breath assuming? >> again, this is not about -- i can refer you to the campaign if they want to preview campaign lines. i know because i have heard him talk about it, this about -- this isn't about raising revenues for the sake of raising revenues. it is about having a balanced and fair approach to ensure that as we get our deficit and debt under control we're investing in the things that will help the economy grow in the long-term and that includes education and innovation and making sure that we're investing in clean energy technologies so that we enhance our energy independence in the 21st century. it is about building a foundation for competing and winning economically in the 21st century, and we need to make sure

mr. chairman, i would suggest based on your view that maybe you should invite warren buffett and the koch brothers here. [inaudible] >> that would be. we'd get a lot of -- [inaudible] >> right. right. i want to ask mr. poole regarding the bureau of land management's current role in the permitting process, how was -- you hit on it, but i want you to expound on this. how will this effect the role of your agency? >> pardon me? >> how will this bill effect the role of your agency? >> um, it does raise concerns. the blm has a long history of issuing rights-of-ways in the leasing act, approximately 32,000. we have experience, we have the practitioners in the field that are familiar with the right-of-way program and the importance of working through nepa and taking into account any cultural and biological concerns. so, and we've got that experience, we've dealt with pipelines many times in the past, so the bill, the way it's worded, seems to confer all of our responsibility under the mineral leasing act to ferc. and some of the accelerated time frames in the bill, um, it begs the question whethe

mr. shiller's comments are probably optimis c optimistic. i think it could be longer than that. but i think the real issue is, warren buffett said if he could, he would buy all these houses. he's a billionaire. why can't he and why doesn't he? if there was money to really be made, i think he'd be doing it. >> pricing certainly shows it's a buyer's market. if you've got billions of dollars, go and buy. >>> another big fail for two education stocks. you guessed it. it's herb. he's here with a double "disaster du jour." >> you have the entire group getting whacked today. but the post irchildren for that would be apollo group. giving forecasts for new enrollment on the case of apollo is much less than the street expected. and there are investigations going on. you can see thth from the stocks, investors don't like it. i said the stock would go through a hard reset. it's going through that hard reset. some analysts are continuing to be somewhat bullish on apollo. >> really, really tough slides there in apollo and career education. >>> coming up next, some people just can't get i enough of apple. but as the stock hits another all

they are in much of a different position than warren buffett except there are different sides of the issue. i yield back the balance of my time. mr. rush, i recognize you for 5 minutes for questions. >> maybe we should invite warren buffett and the koch brothers. regarding the bureau of land management permitting process, expound on this. how does this affect the role of your agency? how will this bill affect the role of your agency? >> it does raise concerns. blm has experience and practitioners in the field familiar with the right of way program and taking into account any cultural or biological concerns. we have got that experience. we have dealt with pipelines many times in the past. the bill way it is worded seemed to confirm all our responsibility to ferc. some of the accelerated time frames. the question of whether there are additional requirements -- beg the question of whether there are additional requirements. the other thing that is very important is that blm has established relationships in the west. with many offices geographically in the west. we're accustomed to working with county and state governments. we work wi

magazine report last fall, billionaire warren buffett -- and i quote -- "paid just 11.06% of his adjusted gross income in federal income taxes in 2010." mr. buffet is the first to express his dismay at this circumstance and acknowledges that he rate he pays is lower than the thabgs rate paid by -- than the tax rate paid by his own correction. mr. buffet called for a correction of this anomaly, and i tkpwra with him, and so do president obama who in his state of the union address said washington should stop subsidizing millionaires. i agree. we should celebrate the success of people who are earning $1 million and more a year, but we really don't, particularly in this time of tight budgets and hard choices, need to subsidize that. the legislation that i've introduced today, the paying a fair share act of 2012, would ensure that those with extremely high incomes pay at least a minimum federal tax rate of 30%. i want to thank senators akaka, begich, leahy, harkin, blumenthal, and sanders for being initial cosponsors of this measure. the structure of our bill is pretty simple. if your total income, capital gains included, is over $1 million,

buffett saying not so much. with enit comeso equities we have the contrarian views as well. dr. death, mr.ositive on the markets and equities. where am i going with this? we have a contrarian balance. trader osen the floor i talk, to evenly matched. that's important because the market on the surface is about the way it's going to be for a while. equities are probably going to slant more positive and the fixed income markets can yields go lower? yes. can they go higher, yes but most likely many believe they'll stay in a range. let's switch topics. investment grade corporate supply, i thank thompson reuters ifr for this information. if you look at dollar denominated global corporate supply, some fun things going on. on the week, approximately 26 billion. month to date, about 47 billion, year to date, 127 billion. why is all this important? here we are what the 10th day of february at 47, a record february from '09, 72 billion, we're on pace to test that. it's also something people have talked about that hasn't happened, maybe not happened for a while but think about all the governments and d