robert frank takes a look at whether sports franchises are becoming a new collectible for billionaires>> reporter: call it billionaire inflation. the prices of things that billionaires really want are soaring. sports teams may be their h hottest new status symbol. steve ballmer, former ceo, has bid to buy it for $2 billion. he is obsessed he says with basketball, and needs something to do. he as $18 billion. >> ultimately, $2 billion was the price steve ballmer had to pay because this was a very competitive bidding process and he knew if he came in low he would not win this team. >> now if this deal happens it will underscore a fundamental shift in sports. sports teams have become more like collectibles, driven by the money and desires of today's billionaires. basically they're more like picassos than profit machines. here are the ways in which they're like a collectible. the list of bidders, david geffen, oprah, and tony wrestler. ballmer did with nearly twice the competing offers, and after missing out on two previous deals he didn't want to miss another. the nba, the nfl and the mlb

our robert frank has more.e opening is $3 million. >> the art of the deal will make big deals in the next three weeks. sotheby's is expected to sell $2 billion worth of art during this spring sale. >> that marks an increase of over 70% from last year and the prices paid are likely to highlight the growing wealth for the world's wealthy and the values of rare works of art which right now shows no sign of slowing down. >> christie's is likely to get the biggest prices. it is expected to go for their 75 million, that sounds high and it's half the price for one that sold last fall for $140 million. a painting by mike rothco is expected to sell for $60 million and a piece called black fire, is expected to sell for more than $50 million. most of the excitement today among global collectors is among post-war and contemporary artists, but a few classics are still holding their own. one of monet's water lily paintings from 1907 could top $30 million. there is no balloon dog this time around, and jeff will bring some pla

we'll ask robert frank, among others, about that coming up. a lot to get to.k around for us here with "closing bell." stay tune the. you're watching cnbc, first in business worldwide. you see the thing is geico, well, could help them save on boat insurance too. hey! okay...i'm ready to come in now. hello? i'm trying my best. seriously, i'm...i'm serious. request to come ashore. geico. saving people money on more than just car insurance. in a we believe outshining the competition tomorrow requires challenging your business inside and out today. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present. female narrator: through sunday, it's posturepedic through sunday, it's posturepedic versus beautyrest with up to $400 off. serta icomfort and tempur-pedic go head-to-head with three years' interest-free financing. mattress price wars

robert frank will be here. . >>> welcome back to "squawk box," everybody.after returning to fork city after the absence. three navy ships are scheduled to arrive the morning. the usual sea services wasn't held last year because of sequestration. the event costs money for security, home rooms, porting large ships and aircraft. >> talk about transportation. if you feed a helicopter this upcoming memorial day you can't boy pine, there is an app for that, a new company blade is offering on demand travel from new york city to the hamptons with the goal of expanding across the country. robert frank took the trip. >> reporter: if you are lucky enough to have a beachhouse this summer, you still have to get there. >> that means traffic. unless you take a helicopter. a new company blade uses an app that makes booking a helicopter faster and cheaper tan existing charter taen companies. with three taps, you can book four flight which costs about $500 for a single trip. can you use played's crowd sourcing function to fill those seats. >> we've had many, many conversatio

let's bring back robert frank for more. what's behind this?hat he gave the newark schools, a lot that have was waste and went to bureaucracy and to accounting firms and various people that were advising. what was great about this, people said maybe this will disincentivize to give to education. they will see this and be afraid to give to education. if you're going to apply business principles to fill anthony pye and have you to take a ring. took a risk in newark, didn't quite work out. what you do as a business guy you learn from that mistake and go forward. >> is he learning if he's basically doing the same thing? >>. >> what he's probably going to do is say here are the mistakes we made in newark and here's how we make sure it doesn't happen again. look, you'll make mistakes. when you give away that much money, you'll have startups that work and some don't. he's young and will become a great philanthropist if he keeps learning from his mistake. >> how much do you think that has to do with the big wealth divide? there's hatred -- not hatred b

what do you think of the findings that robert frank gave us? >> self-delusion.of the rich, they come from either inheritance, cronyism, you know, family contacts, know who more than know how and above all corporate welfare. they make money from media license, using the public air waves free, real estate magnates, huge guarantees and subsidies and they have to live with themselves and say it's hard work henry ford. >> maybe we're both right in a sense, the survey and your own views. you could be a mid-level worker at a company that happens to go public and you become a millionaire on paper because you got stock in the early days or you could be with a gentleman that started with $500 and busted you know what and built a company. can't both be the correct example? >> the latter example is true, but it's in the gross minority. most of it -- like warren buffett said. it's the lottery, luck in life, and all of these -- government research and development that's built all these industries, biotech industry, a lot of the pharmaceutical drugs come from nih. you know, th

robert frank is the man who knows all about this. what is the story and what is the price?er: the story starts on a little road in the hamptons called further lane but it should be called richer road now. this rod now has the most expensive listing. an 18-acre estate that just sold for $147 million. the buyer is barry roens stein and steve cohen just purchased a home nearby for 62.5, jerry sign field and jerry chanos. before that only two properties ever hit that nine-figure mark. fleur de lis in l.a. sold for $102 million in march followed by copper beach in greenwich, 52 acres for $129 million but these are cheap next to london. just sold a flat in london for $230 million. >> who has that kind of money? >> rich people have that money. >> thank you so much for that, robert frank, and thank you very much for watching "street signs" as well. >> "closing bell" is next. >> welcome to "closing bell" on a monday. i'm kelly evans here at the new york stock exchange. >> welcome back. >> i was just celebrating the anniversary. >> yeah. >> for an extended bill. >> markets struggling

poor robert frank, you wanted to jump in. >> no, no. >> i saw your lip is bleeding. >> i'll work it intot on art somehow, triple-threat stocks coming up after this. stick around. chocolate is very individual. white chocolate lovers don't like dark chocolate. milk chocolate lovers don't necessarily like dark or white. before we couldn't really allow the consumer to customize their preferred chocolate. we needed the scalable cloud solution allowing them to see all 800 products and select what they are looking for. now there is endless opportunity to indulge. could mean less waiting for things like security backups and file downloads you'd take that test, right? well, what are you waiting for? you could literally be done with the test by now. now you could have done it twice. this is awkward. check your speed. see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. >>> welcome back to "street signs", check out what's happening with "new york times," at session lows, the paper is announcing that jill abramson is unexpectedly leaving

robert frank has the story. >> i'm selling it here at $75 million. >> reporter: it was the best single auction ever for christie's auction house. their post-war and contemporary sale pulling in a record $744 million. about a dozen pieces sold for more than $20 million. buyers went for big paintings that made a statement. and asian buyers accounted for about half of the top ten sales showing that chinese collectors have become the biggest new force in the soaring art market. the top seller was the big surprise, it was "black fire," by barnett newman, way above the estimate, and twice the previous record for newman. while not well known, newman is a big trophy for wealthy collectors. >> this is sort of like big game hunting. if you collect jackson pollock and roscoe, getting a newman is sort of like the white while. >> the second was francis bacon's called "three studies for a portrait of john edwards" it was a slight disappointment compared to earlier estimates. it became the most expensive piece ever sold at auction. warhol was a big winner, his race riot piece went for $63 million and

one of today's panelists robert frank is burning up today's hot list.aging editor adam wasler. is it art? >> that was yesterday. this time robert took a little more serious tack for us and took a look at billionaire trains and decided the rich are smarter, found a stud freduke university claiming that so thank you, robert, for adding that to the website. >> made it sound like you had the theory before you found the supporting -- >> look, guys, you don't know how robert plays sometimes, but that story has been eating it up. robert, there's about 400 comments on the story right now. you may need -- >> i will read none of them. >> well, if you want to be able to sleep. >> i'm sure everybody is disagreeing. my number two today, actually i'm getting warm and fuzzy feelings towards india because i've gotten lots and lots of information about prime minister modi. the headline we've been going with most of the days is how he can't visit the united states, he can't get a visa. he was barred when from when he was a governor over hindu muslim violence and the stor

sarah eisen and stephanie link and our own robert frank.ay's market action f-fun trader brian kelly. brian, you mentioned this in your note this morning saying you're worried about target, about retail, about the consumer and s&p more broadly. so then what's -- why today are we still so strong here? why didn't the market care about the fed minutes? why didn't it care about any of that and we just keep powering forward? >> the market keeps powering forward. i think a lot of it certainly has to do with -- you just had larry mcdonald on this hunt for yield so you certainly see some of the names that have big yields doing well. you haven't seen the s&p, the broader market adjust yet. i happen to be in the camp that i think we are going to see that adjustment. not necessarily saying we're going, to you know, fall into the abyss or we're going into recession. seems is to me that the s&p price earnings ratio hasn't adjusted to the slower growth that we're seeing. >> do you agree, stef? >> well, i think -- no, actually not. i actually think -- >> t

check out insidewealth.cnbc.com and get updates from robert frank on that auction. a few things that will be sold. >> yeah, last night. >> including the rothgo, which i'm a huge fan. i'd be interested to see how much that goes for. >> i think that's for the auction next week, which is post-war and contemporary, and incidentally in that, there's a frances bacon, remember the $140 million for the most expensive art. they put together another trip tick. that's the star attraction, and ins dpentally, leonardo dicaprio turned up last night, so he may well be in the audience. but looking rather grungy. >> i wonder if he'll be an art collector. it will be interesting to see where the big investments are. always an interesting barometer. >> are you a rothgo fan? >> yeah. just looking at the markets, remember tuesday was a bullish day? we've crunched the numbers. 15 of the last 17 tuesdays of 2014, the stock market has risen an average .5%. >> completely now disapproving your theory. >> yeah, maybe we'll break the hot streak, friday the worst day for trading. >> somebody wri

robert frank, what do we know about geithner and this recommendation to the president?what's interesting to read andrew sorkin's article in the times, and excerpts from the book, he tried to resign so many times, he was just trying to find anyone around him who the president might accept as a replacement. at some point heside jack lew, and then what about hillary? he was just throwing names in there. i don't know whether to believe it or not, but it sounds like he really wanted to resign many times since 201. >> what's interesting to me, it's no surprise to washington insiders, the circles that they people run in are extremely small. >> yeah. >> the same names keep on coming up over and over and over again, regardless of position, whether state, treasury or otherwise. so it will be interesting to see how many of those names have come up in other books. >> and hillary clinton already had the job. >>> andrew ross sorkin will sit down with mr. geithner this monday morning on "squawk box", author of requests stress test" kehl a.m., eastern time. >>> and maher relievi -- mar

robert frank joins us now from the nyse. talking a lot of money here, aren't we?t of money but also the great american dream, right, to go from the streets of compton or bed-stuy, hitting it big. show you how hip hop's wealthiest guys made their millions. number four is curtis "fifty cent" jackson. total deal price, thirsty for other deals, created a competitor to beats calls sms audio and his networth is estimated around $140 million. coming in at number three is jay-z. of course, he's got 99 problems and money is not one of them, especially when you're worth half a billion. this artist made his for town from deals ranging from clothing to basketball and the co-founder of roca wear without by the iconics brand and also the co-owner of the brooklyn nets sports agency, rock nation sports, record label rock nation. "forbes" put his networth at $550 and next is sean coombs, at least today he's still going by puff daddy and also been calling himself as a vodka brand and part owner of the revolt tv and a clothing business. "forbes" says he's worth to around $700 millio

cnbc's wealth reporter robert frank will join us with who gets what coming. up.ng the competition tomorrow requires challenging your business inside and out today. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present. >>> welcome back. courtney reagan has another quick earnings alert. >> annie's getting had hit hard in the afterhours. organic food producer posting weaker than expected earnings. shares taking a hit after hours down more than 12%. >> is that the one that makes the cinnamon rolls? >> no. they make the cheddar bunnies. >> i got it. all right. trying to keep that straight now. >>> our next guest says contrary to what might be popular opinion on main street, retailers catering to higher income shoppers are also struggling these days because the high-end shopper is also struggling. >> justin layhart is a reporter at the

robert frank has the details. >> china only created 100,000 new millionaires in the past year. way down from previous years. we're going to take you nd the life of a chinese millionaire. we're going to tell you about their hobbies, their favorite exercise and how much they read every week. that's coming up after the break. we needed 30 new hires for our call center. i'm spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. [ female announcer ] need to hire fast? go to ziprecruiter.com and post your job to over 30 of the web's leading job boards with a single click; then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. you put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. makes my job a lot easier. [ female announcer ] over 100,000 businesses have already used zip recruiter and now you can use zip recruiter for free at a special site for tv viewers; go to ziprecruiter.com/offer2. at a special site for tv viewers; can you start tomorrow? yes sir. alright. let's share the news tomorrow. today we failrly busy. tomorrow we're booked solid. we

other wealth editor robert frank is here with us. >> up next we'll tell you who american millionairesare occupational, political parties and most importantly marital status. the deference between millionaires and the rest of america. that's up next. that's up next. in a world that's changing faster than ever, we believe outshining the competition tomorrow quires challenging your business inside and out today. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present. >>> we're talking about financial millionaires. from the outside there are a lot of differences between millionaires and the rest of america. we're going to show you some charts from this survey. the main thing, the main difference is they tend to be more caucasian, higher percentage of caucasian, more likely to be married, and 87% of millionaires have a college degree or graduated from colleg

cnbc's world expert robert frank has been following this story, it's a serious and sad story. >> a guyse voice was everywhere and he owes disappeared. the 82-year-old famous, of course, for his top 40 countdown, gone mission after a judge named his daughter carrie as his temporary conservator. carrie and her four siblings have said they have been denied access to their father by caisse 'em's husband jeanne. he's been worth an estimated $80 million in, poor health. we don't know how poor because the kids haven't had access to miss medical records. he's suffering from advanced parkinson's disease. he has so many fans around the world and we hope they find him and hope he's getting care. >> good luck. fashion show benefiting the humane society. >> yes, absolutely. >> walking down the caught walk with a little cat walk. dogs are hitting the caught walk. see the irony. >> try to stop in. >> good luck tonight. >> thank you very much, and thank you, robert. thanks for watching "street signs" as well. >>> welcome to the "closing bell." i'm kelly evans here at the stock exchange where today any

. >> whether it's art or cars, robert frank, our wealth editor, talks about it all the time. >> right of two different cities now when you're looking at these names, because you look at what christie's did just the other day, right? it depends where in the art market you are right now, whether you're contemporary or impressionist. you can see when you look at the sotheby's numbers, they were awful. maybe they're in the wrong area. it's just like in technology, wrong spot at the wrong time, it will hurt you. you look at the stock price, it's been beaten down pretty good. meanwhile, you look at something like christie's, the record number was incredible. >> you have the argument in the market now, on the heels of the christie's sales, the biggest auction ever, whether there is a bubble or not. we know one investor who thinks there is, and that's jim chanos. he is here in las vegas. he'll be on the "halftime" tomorrow. it's an exclusive interview, so tune in to see mr. chanos and the guys at noon eastern. >>> up next, jamie dinan joins us with the best investing idea now. he has $22 bill

robert franks at hq. >> prices kept going up but last night we saw a sign that maybe prices got too rich's take a look at sotherb's. auction total was okay. around $219 million at commission. that was the low end. the estimate of 218, 219, half of the pieces went for less than $3 million. di dealers just say that buyers have gotten smarter. momentum stocks are starting to show up. look at fail to sale. this is a portrait by picasso. and we're going to show you another piece by therese. it was expected to sell for 20, 30 million and only went for 19. and then this monet water lily was supposed to sell for 25 to 30. only went for 24. now people said one of the reasons it didn't sell is because it's vertical and not a horizontal. i guess horizontal sells better because it goes behind your sofa. that's what people said. the big news will be tesla. this gets the really big tripri. here's my favorite. popeye. he's expected to sell for $25 million. guys, back to you. >> it's fail safe at this point. >> it has really important implications. you know this space better than i do but these houses h

rick harrison from "pawn stars" and cnbc contributor howard dean and our own mary thompson and robert frankion bob pisani and "fast money" trading guy adami. welcome, everybody. >> you've got rick harrison there. >> yeah. >> that is the best show outside of your show, our show, the best show on tv. those guys are stud. >> you've got get down here. i'm on my way. i go, what do you think of these markets? asking if the russell 2000, i think there's some warning signs out there. the activities of our fed and global central banks to me are troubling, and that's an understatement. i think the russells are trying to tell you something. obviously been underperforming. i'm in the minority that says the lower interest rates, the fact that yield continue to go lower in an environment where they theoretically could be going higher. that's troubling and the transports turns, the s&p will be the last time. >> you're throwing in cold water. >> no, i'm not throwing anything. >> how could would i be doing if i didn't point those things out? none. >> bob pisani, what say you? >> i think what we're seeing is

something robert frank speaks often about. with l.a., this is a scene. right? of these guys know each other. could you almost say that it is not within the realm of possibility or impossibility that a boxer like a floyd "money" mayweather can get together with maybe a former boxing champion like the golden boy, oscar de la hoya. maybe they get some of their friends together. you want to build these groups of people, these syndicates, if you will, to all take little pieces. they all get to sit in the box or their sideline seats and play along. the ownership thing is interesting especially because there are so many big names involved and speculation runs rampant. >> l.a. is a city that's been through this before. many of those names are familiar from the option for the dodgerd. david geffen, guggenheim partners. magic was there as well. they've got money to burn. >> all right. thanks. sorry that the champ is not with us. we hope he can resul but we will talk to don peebles about this next hour. >>> about 30 minutes left in the trading session. the dow backing awa

robert frank at hq with that. >> good morning, simon.tuation for the buyers and seller. one friend of steve ballmer's told me this morning, he's obsessed with basketball, he needs something to do, and by the way, he has $18 billion. that about sums it up. we can't extrapolate too much from this yet. it does underscore a fundamental shift in sports, that is, teams are valued more like picasso's now and rare diamonds and vintage ferraris than fundamental companies. driven more by the supply of billionaires and their money than the bottom lines in the win/loss records. how clippers are like a collectible. the main buyers are rich people, not companies. most big companies have divested of their teams, but the clippers' bidders included david geffen, and oprah. of the franchise, values are determined large lly by more emotional bids from millionaires. they're scarce assets. look at the nba, nfl, mlb, not making new expansion teams so like a picasso he's not making more paintings so it's not replaceable. third and perhaps most important, an ac

. >> thank you so much for that, robert frank, and thank you very much for watching "street signs" as well. >> "closing bell" is next. >> welcome to "closing bell" on a monday. i'm kelly evans here at the new york stock exchange. >> welcome back. >> i was just celebrating the anniversary. >> yeah. >> for an extended bill. >> markets struggling to be positive on this first trading day of the week and didn't get much help from europe. european markets down on news from asia. >> theme that's been underplayed. not a lot of people on the floor or generally across the inbox talking about asia and general and when you look at the ten-year and wonder what's eating at it, that would be one of the real reasons why we haven't seen it do better. >> also watching these stories today. why did the target ceo have target on his back? a weekend board meeting, a sudden departure that takes effect immediately, so why now? target stock is down about 3% today on that news. many are asking is another shoe about to drop in that story? they will be reporting earnings on the 21st and i know expectations are n

industry the initial public offering industry on wall street robert frank quattrone in the credit suisse case during the dot com crisis he was accused of laddering buying stock in the after market to force the price higher in poland suckers that has been with us cents time and the morial it's a classic wall street scam this is not news it only for a few days will be news then it will be forgotten and then will be another rate wave of i.p.o.'s and then people will say oh my god this is a scam and then it will be forgotten as this is a cycle that i have seen observe the wall street insider myself for thirty years well just go over one case because they do mention twitter as one of the biggest examples twitter's perhaps the most high profile example investors that got in that the i.p.o. price back in november at twenty six dollars are sitting on a twenty three percent gain those that jumped in and paid the first a closing price of forty four ninety though are down nearly twenty nine percent but the spend. stablished fact for decades that you won does not stumble into the i.p.o. on day one t

people in the united states who collapsed the world economy in 2008, rubiny geithner, robert is number one, and barney frank. host: your response? interesting, and this has been written a lot as well. one of the big issues that came up in the financial crisis was how did this happen? as a list look at it there is a lot of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle. under the clinton administration, banking regulations were loosened. there was a lot more liberalization of the financial somets which allowed excessive risk taking to take place. only happen under the republican watch, it also happened under the democratic watch as well. there is plenty of blame to go around. host: i want to ask you about what he faced from a number of leading critics of the president from his left flank. tookis an exchange that place. i want to ask you what he faced from elizabeth warren. [video clip] >> you talk about leaving the homeowner. this is what about whether or not the investors in these mortgages, some who made substantial profits during the glory days should be required to the the losses when mortgages that they

frank somerville. we'll see you again next week. robert: want to visit latin america, but no habla espanol? well, no problema, my friend. of the seven countries in central america, there is only one where english is the official language. but it's not the language that draws people in. this remote, sparsely populated area, is full of incredible natural beauty and wildlife. but i have a hunch even this is not the reason people fall in love with belize. it's the people who, despite sometimes crippling poverty, are so welcoming and hospitable and proud of their little corner of paradise. it's time to delve beyond the glitzy tourism ads. it's time to meet the exotic, the real and the raw belize. travel! for some it's a luxurious escape,

the first politician i heard talk about welfare reform was robert kennedy. right, frank? who worked for him. governor in 1980 when jimmy carter that the authority to give five states experiments to change from an income system to work a system. i apply. we were accepted. the time i was a senior governor any 1980's, -- in the 1980's, i worked with the reagan administration. here is the only thing you need to know. forum for the governors in washington. to go lobby to congress. we brought in a bunch of people would pin on welfare. -- who had been on welfare. i said, lily. she was talking to the governors. i said, do you think this program should be mandatory? she said, oh yeah. i said, why? she said, because people like me are scared. we don't think we can amount anything. we will watch tv unless you make us get out there and get job training and take a job. >> i said, are you glad you went to work? >she said, yeah. the bestthing thing -- thing is when my mom -- bouygues the best thing is when my boy goes to school and ask him what his mom does for a living. i thought there

the first politician i ever heard talk about welfare reform was robert kennedy. right, frank? he worked for him. i was a governor in 1980 when jeremy carter got the authority to give five states experiments to change from an income-based system for poor people to a work-based system. i applied and we were accepted. by the time i was a senior governor in the country in the late '80s, i worked with the reagan administration on a welfare reform bill. here's the only thing you need to know so you don't forget about the people. we were about to pass this bill. i had a big forum. for the governors in washington here to go lobby to congress, and we brought in all these people that had been on welfare, including a woman from our native state arkansas named willie harden. i said lilly, she had been talking to all these governors and looked like she had been doing it all her life, very comfortable. i said do you think this program should be mandatory? she said, oh, yeah. i said, why do you think that? she said, because people like me are scared. we don't think we can amount to anything

frank leith jones vietnam and the american cold war strategy. >> thank you offer coming this afternoon. if i mention the name robert coe heard today many people would not recognize it. 20 years ago that wasn't the case. over the last 10 or 20 years robert calmer's role in the vietnam war and the book really transcends that because he was a principle figure in the cold war era right from 1947 in that 30 year period it is best known for vietnam. he is forgotten except among perhaps vietnam vets and also scholars. but history and current events have a way of sometimes coming back together again. people are rediscovered. their ideas are rediscovered and that's the case with calmer. it would take two wars recent wars iraq and afghanistan to have his ideas about counterinsurgency be discovered again. while i was doing the research for this book i had the opportunity to go into neal sheehan's papers at the library of congress and we remember that mr. sheehan wrote a very famous book, and award winning book. in the notes that he took interviewed mr. komer and as i read the notes i was fascinated by it because he described

people in the united states who collapsed the world economy in 2008, rubiny geithner, robert is number one, and barney frankhost: your response? interesting, and this has been written a lot as well. one of the big issues that came up in the financial crisis was how did this happen? as a list look at it there is a lot of blame to go around on both sides of the aisle. under the clinton administration, banking regulations were loosened. there was a lot more liberalization of the financial somets which allowed excessive risk taking to take place. only happen under the republican watch, it also happened under the democratic watch as well. there is plenty of blame to go around. host: i want to ask you about what he faced from a number of leading critics of the president from his left flank. tookis an exchange that place. i want to ask you what he faced from elizabeth warren. [video clip] >> you talk about leaving the homeowner. this is what about whether or not the investors in these mortgages, some who made substantial profits during the glory days should be required to the the losses when mortgages that they in

frank jones, blow torch, rob comber, vietnam, an american cold warring extra. >> thank you, art. and thank you all for coming this afternoon. if i mention the name robert comber today, many people will not recognize it. 20 years ago that is the case. and so what over the last 10, 20 years, robert comber's roll in the vietnam war and the book really transscents that because he -- transcends that because he was central figure in the cold war during the 30-year period and best known for vietnam but is forgotten. but history and current events have a way of sometimes coming back together again. people are rediscovered. their ideas are rediscovered. and that is the case with komer. it would take two wars, iraq and afghanistan, to have his ideas about counterinsurgency be discover again. i was doing the research for the book, i had the hunt to go into neil sheehan's papers at the library of congress. mr. sheehan wrote a very famous book, an award-winning book, "a bright shining lie" and in the notes he took he interviewed mr. komer and i was fascinated because he described mr. komer as a badger. i thought, that is a very apt description. feisty. difficult. a

at the consulate, but he says general robert leveille isn't privy to all of the information that was available to those on the chain of command. congressman frankoining us now. thank you for joining us today. let's talk for a moment about the comments. what do you make of his remarks about the committee and how effective do you think this new committee will be in the long-term? >> well, i think it's important to keep in mind that chairman mckean and issa have two different jobs. i don't think he was questioning his -- he was simply wondering if he was in the position to have all of the information. on the other hand, i think general leveille kind of represents a general consensus within some of the military ranks, especially in this case. that this administration, civilian command structure, ignores reality to the extent that sometimes, it put it is military in a very bewildering position. the real scandal in this entire situation is that number one, the personnel on the ground there in benghazi begged this administration for additional security support. and they were ignored or refused. and secondarily, the president of the united states in th

no offense, but i think if you read robert kyser's book "an act of congress," she and jim siegel are as much responsible for that statute as are messrs. dodd and frank. amy is senior deputy comptroller of the currency and chief counsel. and this is her second session at the o.c.c. you could say that she's o.c.c. through and through with a brief stop off at the promentoly grew group. if you read that book you'll have great admiration for somebody who acted in congress in the good old days when people acted as though there was a tomorrow, when they had to deal with the same people the next day. and sadly those days are gone. hopefully just temporarily. so i'm not going to occupy any more of her time other than to say welcome, amy, welcome, senator, and welcome, barney. good to have you here and we appreciate your taking the time to be with us. >> thanks very much. >> thank you. so, it's really my pleasure and privilege to be joined by senator chris dodd and congressman barney frank, former members of the u.s. house and senate. and of course they're well known to this audience for many reasons but particularly as the architects of the sweeping financia