mr. de widener. -- geithner but you did not mention mr. bernanke. is there a reason and is there a story to the fed being in china? guest: it was my personal mission. i have no interest in sliding mr. bernanke. -- selecting mr. bernanke. my point was that the chinese television coverage emphasize the critical importance of the economic relationship and treated as secondary the issue of the dissidents. american media created an impression that the main event was the dissident and a minor event was the economic relationship. host: here's a story from the united states trade representative, a press release that came out today -- is this the kind of story that cc tv news would cover? guest: i cannot say for sure. i am sure this will be on the agenda for consideration. the general policy is to take a story like this and presented from both sides. so long as there is a chinese position to be voiced and alternative positions, both sides will be represented. there has been a lot of debate will last several years about the remembyi and where should be verses

mr. geithner would admit this but it's been good for the u.s. to have a weak dollar.nefitted us to the chagrin of our neighbors. >> i agree. they have had the strong dollar policy. but it clearly has been anything but. i think we have to come to the realization that we may have a new administration come the next six to eight months here. how does that work? what happens come november? what happens with the debt ceiling in the next six to eight a months? the other real problem is where do you run now? where do you go? if you don't want the dollar, where do you go. you certainly don't go into euro dollar. >> would you go into the australian dollar? >> it's something a lot of people have been talking about it. you discussed china. we're back north of parity. we went to the 102 to 103 level. it's hitting a nice ceiling there. if we see china slow and china is doing everything in their power to not see it slow. if we see it slow, i think the aussie could take a nose dive. not just beneath parity but something toward 90, 85, maybe 80 in the next year and a half. >> thank yo

mr. geithner yearns for higher spending. i had to respectfully disagree with that. maybe you disagree with my disagreement. what's your take? >> smart spending can help if it is investment to make our economy more competitive. all of the things secretary geithner said are good, but just spending to boost consumption, consumption got us into this mess. we need to invest to make the economy more competitive. the right kind of spending could help but not just more consumption. >> dave? the right kind of spending? >> good spending would be good, but we don't have that. the way government works is they waste a lot of money. i want to focus on the process. what we have to find is a way that washington can make decisions on what to downsize. now they have to budget. no intention of cutting anything. it's not a matter of smart spending. they just want more spending. i think we need to rewrite the debt limit so that there is some downward pressure on washington spending. the stock market would love it if they did it. >> neel, the problem i have with the idea of smart spendin

mr. geithner.'t. we had a gentleman on earlier and andrew asked a question about an overall grade for the president in terms of jobs creation. we got an a minus for that. i mean, i'd like you to pose the -- >> a little bit of inflation on the set. >> we thought at harvard they give nothing lower than an a minus. would you ask the same question? >> i'm not going to front run my own interview with mr. geithner, but it would not be an a minus. how's that? >> what did you think about bernanke's comments yesterday on the hill just in terms of laying out, yeah, the economy is getting worse? he's very worried about europe. >> i thought he was very realistic. his assessment was a bleak and dower assessment. the economy is losing altitude right now. we're just above the treeline right now, just above the waterline. a very difficult situation. it this is the third time in the last three years that that's happened. i thought bernanke was brutally honest, and i might say that i thought it was one of his best t

mr. geithner. you think -- how is schaeuble responding to any pressure in letting the ecb do more? >> reporter: in all honesty there isn't an awful lot more the ecb can do. they can start buying bonds again. we know what happened the last time they bought bonds. it lasted a half hour. it can be prearrived. the ecb said it's not dead we don't feel the need to lose it right now because there was no turmoil in the bond markets even though yields were creeping up sponsorship the ecb will step in. but it can't do anything to really solve the issue. the bonds, they can keep a little bit of a lid on yields but they can't really bring them down significantly. they might prevent them from blowing up completely. okay. but we all know that on the other side we do have a problem with seniority because the more the ecb sucks up from the bond market the more we have a problem should there be some kind of a hair cut somewhere down the line because the hair cuts for the private-sector will get more severe. there's

mr. geithner and bernanke could be in for a couple more uncomfortable weeks. >> do we need more big banks? >> dick thinks we do and he explains why next, and we have a lot more heading your way here on "closing bell." >> is former new york attorney general elliott spitzer in trouble for bullying the former aig boss? and later, south dakota, south carolina, and virginia cracked the top five for business. today, our financial advisors lead from a new position of strength. together with bank of america, they have access to more resources than ever before. a steadfast commitment to help you achieve your financial goals in life. that's the power of the right advisor. that's merrill lynch. >>> big banks have been a target since the financial crisis. the next guest says they're critical to growing the economy. >> he saying the big banks serve to protect the dollar as the world reserve currency. he joins us now to make his case. you say big banks are critical to the u.s. economy and that we cannot grow if we have more regulation, right? >> absolutely. if you look at the history of the united stat

mr. geithner sent $500 billion to support the european union, he would not be doing as good of a job as he is right now. the day europe does manage to get some order back in place, you will see the dollar fall 20 to 30%. >> the way you're describing it doesn't sound like that day is close at hand. >> i believe it's in the next two years. >> if europe does right it's ship, could it sink ours? let's ask michael who says our interest rates will soar and jeremy who says that's an extreme view. michael, that would be if that basis point range is correct would be a pretty dramatic move. do you think that would happen and how fast would that happen? >> there's three things that could under mine the euro right now in the near term, and it really is about greece, the euro bond market, and about continued turmoil and uncertainty. we get a closure to any one of those this summer, and the u.s. dollar is set to fall. it's set to fall on a reversal of what we have seen so far. it's set to fall on the fact that the u.s. is committed to zero interest rates for as long as the eye can see. >> zer my, you do

mr. geithner, but you did not mention mr. bernanke, the head of the federal reserve, who was there sitting to the right of mr. geithner. is there a story behind the head of the fed being in china? guest: it was my personal mission. i have no interest in sliding mr. bernanke, believe me. my point was that chinese television coverage and the size the critical importance of the economic relationship, and treated as secondary the interest of mr. chaen. the american media at give the impression that the main event was chen and the minor event was the relationship. host: a report came out today saying that the obama administration challenges china's on their imposition of duties on american-made automobiles. the u.s. is challenging china's in positions of anti-dumping and duties on a $3 billion in exports of american-produced automobiles. is this the kind of story seat -- cctv would cover? guest: i cannot say for sure. i am sure this will be on the agenda for consideration. when i can say is that the general policy is to take a sto

mr. geithner and you worked with him.ay he did the right thing, but there was something else that should have been done given the fact that he came out with the warning back then? rather than having this continue and engulfing so many other banks? >> he gave, you know, specific recommendations to the bank of england. they were in a consultation between the bank of england and the british bankers associated. it could have been impossible to detect immediately if those reforms that the british bankers association were putting in were enough. the concerns were not really about individual traders manipulating libor for personal gain or their friend's profits. the general concern was that the libor rate wasn't fairly reflecting at the rates at which feds could borrow. >> darrell makes a good point, let remember what we were going through in 2007, 2008, and 2009. they had bigger things to worry about than libor at that time. >> absolutely. i will emphasize the primary responsibility for getting libor vigt with the banks that ar

mr. geithner talking about the fiscal cliff in the news media this morning, he used the possibility of slipping back into recession. >> that's been going back and forth for a while and everyone's been saying it's not going to happen, not going to ppen. the macro data reports have been telling that story and forewarning it. it's a confirmation of that reality. >> we tested technical levels a little bit and key indices bounds off those. what are you watching? sn>> it was 13034 and we had broken through. if we get to 13029, you will see a lot of momentum jumping in and technically broken and initiate sale orders and there you go. and then you find a lot of support. >> we will talk to you a little later in the hour and get your recipe. i think we may need comfort food with this market. kenny, see you in a little bit. >> recipes are always great. here to tell us how to play a down day. it's starting to feel a lot like last summer. >> if we can hold this range after the bad news we've had, it's not such a bad thing. one thing we learned over the last year, leg into your position, don't buy anything o

mr. geithner has an idea of what will fix the economy or that anyone else in the democratic white house has an idea of what will fix the economy. that doesn't seem clear. >> juan: all right. but simon one thing that bill clinton has said is that he would not, he would not end the tax cut, the bush tax cuts for anybody and now we hear that president obama says, yeah, he wants to maybe extend it for a year. but he is not making open-ended commitments. so why is president clinton now saying oh, it's the plus who are at fault when in fact he has differences with president obama. >> well, that happens in all parties. i think it's also true in the republic side but i think what the president said if you heard the end of that tape, he said the republic embrace of austerity will do more to reduce employment, slow job growth, increase the deficit than what the democrats are proposing. that's what he said. the reason why last summer when we did that deficit deal, right? remember the debt ceiling debate that took place. we did all gdp estimates were lowered. the economy started to slow because if you

mr. geithner flagged the issue while he was the head of the new york fed.ut he did not appear to follow up. senator richard shell sbi the ranking republican on that panel and joins us now for exclusive interview. senator good to have you on the program. >> thank you, maria. >> did tim geithner do enough? >> absolutely not. he's got -- got started but then he stopped. he stopped when he should have been walking to the next level. he should have been investigating what was going on. he had information that something was amiss. but he didn't do more. >> what would you have liked to see him do? what will you be focused on when these guys testify in front of your committee? >> first, we have got to get to the bottom of all of it. in other words, see exactly what he did. we have seen some -- information. you know, about the banks and saying something is wrong. he forwarded that to the bank of england. but nothing really happened in the meantime. there are hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of loans predicated on libor every day. so you have to have trust, you

mr. geithner, come over. if you think you can do it, smack some heads together.e the idea of teetering on the edge of the abyss which we plainly are and only there because they want political -- using it as a political maneuvering to sort of force countries to reform. no, i don't think that's the case. i really don't think that's the case. none of them can make up their mind what the solution will be. >> do we go over the cliff? in to the abyss? >> we're not too far away from it, to be honest. look at spain. so what happened with greece? austerity was imposed on greece. the gdp figures collapsed and what happens with austerity and the debt position out of control. a downward spiral of austerity, gdp, debt. downward spiral. what do we do to spain? guess what? we're doing the same. 65 billion year of austerity last week. spiral down on the gdp figures and spain is following the same path as greece. why are we not learning? >> but here's the problem, we don't have to get to december 31st at midnight for there to be a problem, right? we are talking about it. we are t

mr. geithner, we have a standing invi nation, whether it's the head of the cftc gary gensler or the secretaryhe topics picked out. join us. back to you. >> thank you very much, rick. members of the british parliament doing grilling with the libor rigging scandal. on the hot seat today, barclays former chief operationing officer. kelly? >> tyler, hi, yeah. an uncomfortable jerry said he instructed the head of the desk to low lore the submissions and that it's flagged to compliance and raising fresh questions about risk management at barclays. jerry dell missier said he understood the instruction to come down from the bank of england and the focus to whether banks colluded to lower interest rates because the bba's definition leaves room with individual bank submissions but if there's evidence that banks were acting together in order to suppress or move interest rates that could leave them much more open to criminal charges, the likes of which we have seen perhaps indications of interest coming from authorities in the u.s. tyler? >> all right. thank you very much. unfolding and complicated story

mr. geithner yesterday for an interview. every year we have a false up and it comes back down.e said because we don't have enough government spending. do you agree? >> ask japan. japan's been doing it for 20 years. their growth and national debt is 200% of gdp. what's it gotten them? what's hurting the u.s. economy? you have hit it before. the weak dollar. weak dollar means weak recovery. you don't have king dollar, you have pauper dollar, it drags the economy down. what are stocks about? it's about future income streams. if you don't know what the future income streams will be denominated in, is it ten cent dollar, 50 cent dollars? people discount that. it has you going into things like land, commodities or sitting in cash that doesn't earn anything. >> you have won a lot of forecasting awards. let me ask you, are we going into another recession? >> we are going into the equivalent of a walking pneumonia or a bad flu. not enough to put you in bed, but people will feel punk. it's like going in a car 25 miles an hour on the turnpike. we should be going 75 and if no one was looki

mr. geithner for being here. i would like to expand and revisit, i was watching "squawk box" this morning when sandy weil made his comments and then saw the crawler about glass steagall, and i was, like, did he specifically say that? he did go back and revisit it. i don't know if you've had a chance to see it or read it. certainly would like to then get your reaction, both here, but then more in-depth as i'm sure you will be looking at that time. so if you have any reaction or comment. >> i haven't seen those reports and i don't know exactly what he said and i don't know what he meant, but on the broader question about laying out to this committee the extent of the actions congress has authorized and taken to limit this risk, i would be happy to walk you all through that in as much detail as you like. i was getting to the too big to fail element and just whether the organizations are too big. . that is a widespread and common subject of concern and it's something that people will be looking at that time for a lon

mr. geithner. we'll have the latest details for you.to you. >> thank you, mary. >>> a new research note out this morning calling on amazon to hang up on any and all plans to launch its reported smartphone. the person behind the call is colin sebastian at r.w. baird. thanks for being with us. >> great to be here, thank you. >> amazon, you say, may not have to make money on this. isn't it a loss leader in some respects, a smartphone candidate, engage consumers in a different way and make them more loyal and therefore there are other benefits to having a smartphone? >> certainly. there are justifiable reasons that amazon wants to be in the smartphone market. they certainly don't want to sit behind google and apple in terms of where their customers are. and there's also a foundation for amazon already from the e-readers and kindle fire that they can leverage in the phone market. but our concerns are largely based on several factor that is make it much more expensive. phones are more utility devices, requires carrier distribution, requires d

mr. geithner had sent $500 billion of u.s. good a job as he's doing right now and the day europe does manage to get some order back in place, you're going to see the dollar fall 20% to 30% and u.s. interest rates rise 200 to 300 basis points. >> it doesn't sound like that day is very close at hand, the way you're describing it. >> i believe it's within the next two years. >> so you're saying europe gets its act together in two years? >> i think germany drives it into a fiscal union in two years with central control. >> haven't people been arguing for years foreign investors are going to flee the dollar and u.s. interest rates are going to soar? i keep waiting for it to happen. few years ago the chinese were going to take all their money out of u.s. dollar assets and here we are and long-term interest rates keep falling and the dollar is no different today than it was four or five years ago. >> you're absolutely right and i'm one of the people that has been predicting it. the u.s. government has a false sense of security. u.s.

mr. geithner as well for being here. i'd like you do expand a little bit and revisit, i was watching squawk box this morning when sandywhile made his comments, then saul the crawl -- view the crawler about -- okay, did he say that? i don't know if you had a chance to see it or read it. certainly would like to then get your reaction both here but then more in depth as i'm sure you will be looking at. so, if you have any reaction or comment. >> i haven't seen those reports and i don't know exactly what he said, don't know what he meant. on the broader question about laying out to this committee the extent of the actions congress has authorized and taken to limit this risk, i'd be happy to walk you through that -- >> struck me that maybe he was getting at the too big to fail element in the question of whether some of the organizations are too big. do you -- >> that is a widespread and common subject of concern, and it's something that people are going to be looking at for other long period of time. i think it's important to

mr. geithner i no longer remember but everyone had been concerned about the behavior of libor because this was something that, the particular concern was dollar/libor not so much sterling/libor, but dollar/libor. through the period of '07 and ultimately through october of '08 it was moving up and down a great deal. libor was like the temperature of a patient. it was how you measured the health of the system. so it was so volatile in moving up and down that everyone was thinking of ways in which they could introduce policies that would bring libor rates back down to where they normally were in relation to official policy rates. so we had a conversation bba we want them to carry out a consultation, we would like to you submit thoughts and ideas that you have about the future of libor to the bba or to us and we'll make sure that there's a full discussion of that. >> okay. you mentioned concerns and volatility, talked about bringing libor rates down closer to the official borrowing rays. that's quite important. are you saying there was a policy desire shared across central banks to bring libor

mr. chairman for yielding. secretary geithner, i know you are here to talk about the stability of the nation's financial system. as i travel around the northwest corner of wisconsin, my constituents feel like the system is far from stable. they are concerned about the economy. i would like to hear today your commentary on the libor scandal, the american debt crisis, the american jobs crisis, the american economic growth crisis, the codification of too big to fail and dodd frank. i want to hear your views on why you think this has been along best and latest recovery since world war ii and what we can do to turn this ship around. i yield back. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you, mr. secretary, for appearing before us. your work and comments about the fsoc are so important. i share the concern of mr. fitzpatrick regarding having a robust economy in the face of the new regulations being imposed as a result of dodd frank. the office of financial research and fsoc are working together to formulate the designation non- bank financ

mr. geithner this morning for this hearing we are seeing live right now.early focused on getting into that hearing and what his testimony was going to be on libor. inside the hearing, democrats are already reacting to what sandy had to say on "squawk box" this morning. >> the statement made earlier today by sandy, the former ceo of city bank. and he said earlier this morn ing what we probably should do is go and split up investment banking from banking. have banks be deposit takers, have banks make commercial and real estate loans. have banks do something that is not going to risk the taxpayer dollars. that's not too big to fail. >> interestingly, i talked to one republican member of congress. surprising to me to hear he told me that he thinks the comments are a game changer in the debate about big banks. >> all right. this story is clearly taking on a life of its own. >> you have to identify where the risk is. and it's not necessarily in investment banking. what did we learn from jp mor fwan? in the backbone of the bank which would remain in retail bank.

mr. geithner and ron bloom. they reviewed and approved this. in assessing gm's decision to honor the top of agreement, the bankruptcy court found no violation of the bankruptcy code or applicable case law and concluded that as a reality or the purchaser needs a properly motivated workforce to enable the new gm to succeed and enter into satisfactory agreements with uaw, which include uaw retirees. in addition, the district court approved the transaction in every step. none of those judges serves the question the legal process, which is typical for bankruptcy. in fact, the bankruptcy stated while because of the size of this case, and the interests at stake, the case hardly could be regarded as routine. jim's proposed section 363 breaks no new ground. this is the situation where there is a good reason for an immediate sale. as of march 30, 2011 review of the key events leading to the determination of the plans, gao stated, and i quote, that the auto task force did not indicate what should be done with the delphi pensions. we are committed to conti

mr. geithner, i just want to get the context. you. mr. geithner, i just want to get the context because what's some of the financial institutions of the world behaved in an outrageous fashion. these were not bad guesses about derivatives. these were not over confidence about mortgages. this was conscious deception of their own self-interest done not just by individuals but an association that was given powers to self regulate in some ways. when i hear my colleagues talk about the need for more self regulation, libor comes to mind as a strong reputation. part of this that is troubling to me -- in the press, there has been an effort to blame you for this because you happen now to be the secretary of the treasury in the obama administration. it seems to be extraordinary. you were an important but not one of the top officials. i did not mean to denigrate you. the presidency of the federal reserve is an important institution. importance recently than it ever has before. people want to say you were running the world back then. you had a chairman

mr. chairman. secretary geithner, welcome. in the council's report one of the emerging threats you identify in the fiscal policy outlook of the united states and uncertainty posed by the impending fiscal cliff over the past year the constant dysfunction has caused frustration on wall street and this week a report was released showing the treasury department was forced to spend $1.3 billion in associated borrowing costs with actions taken to avoid the default last year. that was self-inflicted wound which was completely irresponsible and i don't like the situation we found ourselves in. we do need a long-term plan to get our fiscal house in order. there's no doubt about that. i also don't like having to tell folks that because folks in washington couldn't get it together to solve our country's problem it cost us over a billion bucks. that happened because some were willing to see the federal government default on its debt resulted as the downgrade by standard & poor's. there's a real cost associated with our lack of action on t

mr. chairman. secretary geithner, welcome. in the council's report one of the emerging threats you identify in the fiscal policy outlook of the united states and uncertainty posed by the impending fiscal cliff over the past year the constant dysfunction has caused frustration on wall street and this week a report was released showing the treasury department was forced to spend $1.3 billion in associated borrowing costs with actions taken to avoid the default last year. that was self-inflicted wound which was completely irresponsible and i don't like the situation we found ourselves in. we do need a long-term plan to get our fiscal house in order. there's no doubt about that. i also don't like having to tell folks that because folks in washington couldn't get it together to solve our country's problem it cost us over a billion bucks. that happened because some were willing to see the federal government default on its debt resulted as the downgrade by standard & poor's. there's a real cost associated with our lack of action on t

mr. geithner, what is happening here is some of the leading financial institutions behaved in an outrageousfashion. these were not bad guesses about derivatives. these were not overconfidence about mortgages. this is conscious deception inherent self-interest in this and not just by individuals, but by an association that was given powers to self regulate in some ways. so your colleagues talk about the need for more self-regulation more prescriptive regulation, libor comes to mind is a strong reputation. the part that's troubling to me and hasn't happened yet this morning. i hope it doesn't, but in the press and elsewhere an effort to blame you for all this because you happen to be the secretary of the treasury and the obama at it seems pretty extraordinary. you were an important, but not one of the top officials. i don't mean to denigrate you. the president of the federal reserve is an important institution and has been more important recently as ever before. you had a chairman of the federal reserve who is studying libor to set the race. mr. bernanke was all under the administration of pr

mr. geithner about. isk, tim geithner, willing to take the risk on the high end rates. i am not. i think this is no time to take any tax hike risk in an economy that is in a growth recession, if not an outright recession. >> joe, you're our representative of american business sitting at the table. >> as far as, one of the things that strikes me immediately is that over the last month or so i know that larry has been bearish but this is the first time he's been bearish in 25 years so that raises a red flag, number one. number two, when you think in terms of the issues going on in europe and our clients ask us about this all the time. when we had our blow-up in 2008 we had 50 states come together under the direction of one government. you've got 17 independent countries with 17 independent perspectives in terms of what's going on. i'm not quite sure how they figured that out. question for larry or marty, in terms of is there anything, anything that either obama or romney might be able to say or do that they

mr. geithner? do we say that mervin king was diddling? what do we say? >> andrew, i've said all along that regulators are shooting themselves in the foot with all this libor stuff in the first place. basically what they've done is slapped record fines and drawn the global public's attention to an issue that in some way they had dropped the ball on themselves from the get-go. and it's not clear what replaces this important benchmark going forward or whether any new transaction-based benchmarks would introduce volatility in the financial system and then sort of have adverse consequences. that way at a time when they're super worried about short-term funding conditions. that's my libor rant of the morning. i suspect the more people learn about this, the more they'll realize there's a degree that they known about these problems should have reacted. we'll give you a sense of what's going on this friday the 13th. there is a better tone to markets. the unlucky date notwithstanding. outpacers -- there are more advancers than decliners this morning by about 4-1 r

mr. geithner, of what to get the context. what has happened here is that some of the financial institutions of the world behaved in an outrageous fashion. these were not bad guesses about derivatives. these were not over confidence about mortgages. this was conscious deception of their own self-interest done not just by individuals but an association that was given powers to self regulate in some ways. when i hear my colleagues talk about the need for more self regulation, libor comes to mind as a strong reputation. part of this that is troubling to me -- in the press, there has been an effort to blame you for this because you happen now to be the secretary of the treasury in the obama administration. you were an important but not one of the top officials. i did not mean to denigrate you. it has been given more importance recently than it ever has before. people want to say you were running the world back then. you had a chairman of the federal reserve setting the libor to set the rates. you have the secretary of treasury pau

mr. geithner and i may disagree of the ways and means to deal with this but he has problems.isten to me. he has democratic problems. he's got senator pat ri murray of state of washington saying if we can't raise taxes on rich people, the whole game is off. we won't play ball and let it expire. that's no way to do business. you have to try to do business and what i liked about tim, he said at the end of this thing, we've had worse situations in this country where we have made deals. i like that. i think that there's going to have to be some give and take in washington. look. when i came to washington as a kid working for reagan, '81 and '82 for brutal years for the economy and the stock market but we made deals on taxes and spending. okay? in 2008 and 2009, brutal years. the bush administration, hank paulson is here today, moving in to the obama and geithner administration. we had brutal periods of time. what i'm saying is right now maybe this is to jimmy's point. things are not so bad compared to then. we need to do some political legislative business in washington and make s

mr. chairman. secretary geithner, welcome. in the council's report one of the emerging threats you identify in the fial policy outlook of the unid states and uncertainty posed by the impending fiscal cliff over the past year the constant dysfunction has caused frustration on wall street and this week a report was released showing the treasury department was forced to spend $1.3 billion in associated borrowing costs with actions taken to avoid the default last year. that was self-inflicted wound which was completely irresponsible and i don't like the situation we found ourselves in. we do need a long-term plan to get our fiscal house in order. there's no doubt about that. i also don't like having to tell folks th because folks in washington couldn't get it together to solve our country's problem it cost us over a billion bucks. that happened because some were willing to see the federal government default on its debt resulted as the downgrade by standard & poor's. there's a real cost associated with our lack of action on this im

mr. chairman. >> secretary geithner are, thank you for your statement. we will now begin questions of our when the spirit will the court -- questions of our witnesses. will the clerk put five minutes on the clock. last week by ast chairman bernanke what did he do about libor. secretary geiger, you stated you were aware of weaknesses and vulnerabilities with libor and you make recommendations on this matter in 2008. were you aware of any actions in the members of the president's working group took after they were brief at that time, and in light of the enforcement action, is there more that should be done? >> in early 2008, as the crisis intensified, as concerned about the strength banks in europe in particular, and as those banks found it harder to borrow dollars, you saw the libor rates increase. libor is a reference to the london interbank offered rate which is a rate set in london by the british bankers' association, which is an average of estimates of what a group of banks like to pay to borrow in 10 currencies at 15 different maturities. at that tim

mr. barofsky well. >> secretary geithner struck back last night. >> it is fascinating.k when i talk about the misleading responses, he followed that play book almost perfectly. we saw some faux outrage about how deeply disturbed he was and upset and then set up a series of straw men, suggested i said he worked at goldman sachs, which i never said. it's very disappointing instead of engaging these very important issues, which have not resolved, we'll create another financial cries, possibly worse than what we saw in 2008, we saw this juvenile misleading. it's very disappointing. >> so how could things have been done differently? what should have been done to make sure that these billions and billions of dollars that went to rebuild the banks and wall street, what could be done to make sure that more would have gone to main street? >> when they first put the money out, they announced they were going to do this for the purpose of increasing lending and reinvigorating the economy. but when the rubber hit the road, they didn't put any conditions or incentives in doling out t

mr. chairman, and i appreciate secretary geithner your being here today. i will ask only one quick question. some of the questions have been asked. fsoc recently exercised its authorities when it designated market utilities. these companies which are referred to as the plumbing of the financial system has not challenged those determinations. the timing of these mid-july determinations made it impossible possible for the fsoc to include a discussion of the -- in its updated report. why were those eight firms selected, and will there be other firms selected for a designation? what does that designation means going forward. >> two types of designation authority provided in the reforms congress enacted. the ones you refer to specific date involve key parts of the infrastructure, and we designated eight firms. we have the authority to make sure they are run with conservative christians against risk. we're protecting the system from systemic risk. we went through a very careful process within the council to identify the criteria we should use to decide where we

geithner in which you raised certain questions regarding the corporation decisions related to the certain former employees and retirees of the delphi corporations. you submitted these questions previously to mr. ron bloom who has since left his position with the administration. please allow me to respond on behalf of the secretary. we recognize that the bankruptcy of the delphi has been extremely difficult and challenging for all its employee, and we are acutely aware of the significant hardships that the entire united states automobile industry has faced in recent years. the issues you raise in your letter pertain to certain agreements entered into by general motors corporation in 1999 when the old gm spun off delphi into a separate company as well as decisions made in connections made with the 2005 bankruptcy filing. around the time of delphi's 1999 spin-off of old gm and it entered on top of agreements and commitments to pay supplemental pension benefits to participants in the delphi pension plan represented by three unions and the united autoworkers and the international union of electrical workers and the steelworkers. those agreements provided that in the event that benefits of the hou

geithner's move over in germany right now. he is begin a meeting with the german finance minister, mr. , saying no major announcements are planned for the geithner meeting with schauble and he'll meet later in the day with mario draghi, telling me he planned this meeting, looking for an opportunity to do this for several weeks. >> right. >> and that he wanted to get it done before the august holiday, the europeans as you know will take off for a goodly amount of time in august. >> steve i have the same question for you i just asked rick. what is baked into the cake? what do they think is absolutely going to happen. >> because i have the same question you have, that's why we do the cnbc fed survey. in the old days rick and i debated this, which is interesting we debated it but it was a factual expectation which was in the fed funds futures market. we have the interesting debates whether or not what it was telling us, was an optionality aspect to this, rick's point of view and i came to share that over time but right now because as david rubenstein was saying earlier, because the actions

geithner. we're writing in response to employees of the delphi corporation. mr. ron bloom has since left his position. please allow me to respond on behalf of the secretary. we recognize that the bankruptcy of the delphi has been extremely difficult and challenging for all of its employees. we are aware of significant hardships of the entire united states auto industry over recent years. the issues that you have raised pertain to certain agreements by the general motors corp. in 1999, when the old gm spun off into separate companies following the bankruptcy. around the time of the delphi spin off from the old gm, they entered agreements and commitments to pay supplemental benefits in the delphi pension plan, represented by three unions. united auto workers, the international union of electrical workers, and the united steelworkers. those are provided in the event that benefits under our plan were frozen or that the plan was terminated. although gm would cover any shortfall below the level of benefits promised. -- kolbe -- old gm would cover any shortfall below th

geithner making a case for why he thinks the euro will survive. but that's not where goldman sachs's ceo lloyd blankfein thinks you should put your money. in an op-ed from politico mrhe u.s. is the best place to invest now saying, quote, when i meet with chief executive officers and institutional investors and they ask me where to invest, my response is that the united states remains as attractive as ever. pete, love to get your take. a theme we've been talking about. invest on opportunities here in the united states where you don't have some of the issues. the best house in a bad neighborhood if you will. he says u.s. remains as attractive as ever. a safe port in the storm. i would assume you would agree. >> 100% agree. when you look at a lot of the names you and i, anthony, oftentimes have agreed on, some of the big pharma names when you're talking about the pfizers of the world, absolutely. i think there's a lot of different names in the u.s. right now you can be very confident in as far as investments. just look at the performance of a disney, for instance. they were supposed to be done. yet disney just continues to hit new 52-week highs. a lot of these names a

tim geithner as we now know was well aware of issues regarding libor. he's a regulator. he did nothing about it. mr see they did anything about it. you can put as many suits at these firms, it's not money. it's qualification and intensity. they have no can do, will do attitude to find fraud. >> i guarantee call a peer review system will knock out most of these things. madoff, if there were peer reviews, madoff would have been uncovered, can guarantee that. >> guys, thanks a lot for that important. an important story as sad as it is. we'll talk to you guys in a little bit. when we come back, former chairman harvey pitt regardless jpmorgan's multi-million dollar trading number a few to look around on. "squawk on the street" back in a moment. . this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where innovation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. fin

mr. -- marvin king and the govern of the bank of england are now in dispute of what secretary geithner told him. there doesn't seem to be any dispute for the referral. why was there not a referral for criminal prosecution? >> as i understand, what the information came across was not as explicit. it was more market chatter about -- >> that's directly from the transcript of a conversation between a barclays employee, barclays trader, and an employee of the new york federal reserve. >> the barclays trader was based in new york and was talking about rumors and things he had heard. he didn't have explicit information. the real point and relevant point and important point that the federal reserve bank of new york did inform the appropriate authorities. and it believed all of the financial regulators and who in turn under took investigations which began about the same time, including especially the cftc investigation. >> you said yesterday you did not know. no one in the federal reserve or new york fed knew the reports that they were providing -- barclays was providing false information to ef

mr. chairman. i appreciate it. >> thank you again, secretary geithner for being here today.our work and the work of the council is greatly appreciated. thanks again to my colleagues and the panelist for being here today. this hearing is adjourned.

geithner. we're writing in response to employees of the delphi corporation. mr. ron bloom has since left his position. please allow me to respond on behalf of the secretary. we recognize that the bankruptcy of the delphi has been extremely difficult and challenging for all of its employees. we are aware of significant hardships of the entire united states auto industry over recent years. the issues that you have raised pertain to certain agreements by the general motors corp. in 1999, when the old gm spun off into separate companies following the bankruptcy. around the time of the delphi spin off from the old gm, they entered agreements and commitments to pay supplemental benefits in the delphi pension plan, represented by three unions. united auto workers, the international union of electrical workers, and the united steelworkers. those are provided in the event that benefits under our plan were frozen or that the plan was terminated. although gm would cover any shortfall below the level of benefits promised. -- kolbe -- old gm would cover any shortfall below th