the financial parts of t.a.r.p., you may recall t.a.r.p. then started getting used for everything, including the automobile bailout. but the financial parts of t.a.r.p. have turned to profit for the taxpayer. so it worked, turned a profit for the taxpayer, made sure that we didn't go into the kind of depression scenario that many people were fearing at the end of 2008-2009, and yet it's vilified. it's a code word for an awful government program. that's just a misreading of history. it's not to say it couldn't have been done better, and you read the chapter on the t.a.r.p. in this book, i have a number of criticisms where i think it could have and should have been done better. that withstanding, the best baseball player hits about .330. that means they're out 67% of the time. so it is not a -- i don't take it to be a damnation of t.a.r.p. to say they made these mistakes, and it could have been better. it was a tremendously successful. the other thing i worry about is that the whole country but especially the financial system is drifting back

you sort of validity people being under the umbrella of t.a.r.p. and the impact of that had on employers and on morale. why did you feel it is so important to move quickly to get out from underneath the government program? >> guest: welcome as i said, thought the employee morale was not the best it could be, as you can imagine. i think some were shunned by their neighbors. i think some felt defeated, beaten down, worth not much. the label -- >> host: detroit is a look at every small town, right? your neighbor works for ford or -- >> guest: right. maybe it's for on one side and chrysler on the other side. so that was a big factor. the other factor was moore labeled a government motors. that was hurting us at the dealers told us that. the potential customers i talked to told us that. that label, we had to get rid of that label. also found some of the things. we weren't selling in the lower end of the credits, and we found out quickly that people were more likely to make their car payment been a house payment. and we theorized you could live in your ca

and gm is still in the t.a.r.p. bailout as well as allay. company needs a plan to be and stay strong p. >> shelia, what's your take. and give me your take on this conditional approval for jpmorgan and goldman sachs. >> we knew there could be some adjustments there, because actually, the big difference between goldman and jpmorgan chase and the fed was in their assumptions for the pre-provision net revenues. they were closer on what they thought the losses would be on the asset side, but there were some divergences. and we still, apparently, don't have clarity. which is unfortunate. i was hoping having this two-step process with the capital distributions this week, we'd have a clean process, and we don't. so it's evolving. it's getting better, but that does create some uncertainty. clearly, it doesn't take a stress test to know that allied capital, allied bank shouldn't be distributing any capital. bb&t's a little surprising. that's a bank that performed well during the crisis, and from the standpoint of shareholder reforms, has performed wel

. >> imagine if you did that here during the t.a.r.p. program it. >> would have been armageddon. led to a lot of fear across europe. we haven't seen as huge a falloff as some expected in the markets but because we're waiting to see if they are going to make changes. let's show everybody where cyprus is. it's a small island close to greece and turkey. thank gosh we have google maps to show you what's going on. it's become a haven for money. this is a country that despite it wanted to be a financial center so it tried to attract deposits in very large scale with low corporate tax rates and discretion. in other words, they would look the other way when it comes to monte laundering, tax evasion, et cetera. they bought a lot of greek debt if banks in cyprus. and they went bust because of it. now they need a bailout. here's are where things stand. over the weekend they said, this bailout, we're going to start taxing depositor, even insured deposit depositors. now we are wait for another another plan to emerge where perhaps the small insured depositor doesn't get hit but we haven't seen

then you move on to the t.a.r.p. program rejected first by republicans and it was democrats that saved. all i compare that to two things. first is what happened with the president who came in under not the same circumstances but without some great momentum or mandate and that was bill clinton in 1993 and the first thing that happens is every republican votes against this economic plan in both houses acting like a parliamentary minority and then a series of programs including the health care plan was a contraceptive to make sure he couldn't get what he wanted to be and it's also true that he couldn't keep his own democrats together and they have some culpability but a very significant difference. and then you move on to 2009 and. we have a president that has been elected in a landslide with enormous coat tails of bass line of where the public wanted a president who comes in with a 70% approval rating in the the worst economy since the great depression. three and a half weeks into his presidency he has his economic stim

. >> after a house majority -- after the house in the fall of 2008 december pass t.a.r.p., the marketip operation that the house has ever seen. >> polls are not moving republicans on this thing. >> right. the market knows they can count that it's only about $44 billion in an economy that's approaching $16 trillion. it's not a very big macro deal. there's no question, there will be great stories of acute pain here and there. there's no question. as a macroeconomic issue. >> you can't predict what . s are common. you should not start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if you have symptoms such as persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. since enbrel helped relieve my joint pain, it's the little things that mean the most. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biologic medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 pleas

you alluded to people being under the umbrella of t.a.r.p. and the impact that had on employees and on morale. why did you feel it was so important to move quickly to get out from underneath the government that ground? >> guest: as i said i thought the employee morale was not the best it could be as you can imagine. i think were -- some were shunned by their neighbors and some felt defeated and beaten down, worth not much. >> host: it was a little bit of a small town, right? >> guest: it is. you go home and maybe there's ford on one side and chrysler on the other side. so that was a big factor. the other factor was we were labeled government motors. that was hurting us. the dealers told us and potential customers i talked to told us that. we had to get rid of that label. also found some other things. we weren't selling in the lower and it we found out frequently that people were more likely to make their current -- car payment in their house payment. they theorized you can live in your car but she couldn't drive your house. we didn't participa

the potential losses. so we would have to have a huge bailout like t.a.r.p. and where would the money come from?ven if there is a bailout and the fed has to print money, the losses to depositors to inflation will be far greater than what the cyprus depositors are losing due to this tax. >> hank smith, it is pretty extraordinary depositors have to pay for a bailout they didn't necessarily authorize. what do you think about what peter said? is this a recipe that would be used elsewhere in the world? >> i highly down it, maria. look, i think we should take great confidence in our banking system now compared to where we were four or five years ago. our banks are very healthy. t.a.r.p. was a good thing. it protected the financial system and the confidence in the financial system. and our banks are in great shape -- >> they're in the worst shape they've ever been. >> oh, no. >> they're a few interest rate hikes away from insolvency. that's why the fed is keeping rates at zero. >> wait a second. peter, you're saying the banks are a couple interest point ace way from insolvency? >> why to you think when

bail out wall street, he was only one of 20 republicans to do it he bucked the vast majority of his own party to vote for t.a.r.p doesn't mind spending federal money as long as it's on the rich. >> i think joy is hitting on something important, the twin falsehoods even apart from the hypocrisy of his record. one is just because it has numbers in doesn't make it a budget. my lottery ticket is not a budget. just because there's a bunch of numbers on the page. >> that's your way to get the american dream. >> this thing has a lot of numbers that doesn't add up. it's more like fan fiction for ayn rand that it is a budget. he's not a deficit hawk to joy's point, he's a health care hawk. he's interested in going after every health care program that's on the books, from obama care as you just articulated to medicaid, the program that is the most important for poor people, who need help and also for our society, because when we use medicine and preventive care for poor people it saves all of us money. it's good on moral and efficiency terms. that's what's so frustrating here. i think washington has called him serious for

the lesson i have come away with, having watched this is i'm incredibly skeptical of bipartisan consengss. i'm serious. bipartisan consensus, in my recent memory, two big bipartisan consensus votes were t.a.r.palso, what you said patrick, and this is the really

and i think that the government was difficult. because t.a.r.p. established many things around the business. and everybody could understand that. but over a period of time, you obviously had to be able to pay the same salaries as everyone knows. you had to be competitive on the market. the sooner that we could do that, the better off we were. it was important from that standpoint for us. >> host: it sounds like you were a little bit surprised that they didn't extend an invitation for you to come to washington despite your offer to talk to them. were you surprised by the dynamic between the company in the federal government? was a not quite what you expected? >> when i reflected back on it, there were other companies as well. other companies going on in the world. several companies with the government had bailed out. we were among the smallest. he didn't seem to be the top priority. we needed to do that. we needed to do that in a reasonable period of time. >> host: when you reflect back on american business, i am struck by how low the confidence lev

they want people to manage the city's properly, but where there's a crisis like detroit, if we have t.a.r.p., if we have bailed out all the big corporations and big banks on wall street, why can't we help a city? >> you're here in new york to discuss equal pay for school safety agents. >> it's unbelievable what's going on here. we have over 5,000 members of the teamsteres union here. basically who are working very hard in the schools. they're the school safety agents. and they're out there basically making sure that they're taking away guns, taking away machetes. they're taking away clubs from kids. and they are paid $5,000 less than similar people. similarly situationed that are in, basically called special officers and what we want to do is to talk about that inquality between the two. >> why are they not paid as much? >> because we don't have the collective bargaining power to collect that situation and what's happening is the people are basically female. and latinos and people of that type and the other people with male. so there's a despairty between the way people -- >> there's discri

and i think that it's especially poignant, considering that ally is basically the only legacy asset that's still in t.a.r.p a little bit unclear whether it will be able to go public, whether it will end up getting sold. this is the one where it really matters. so it's obvious if they weren't going to pass this, there were going to be some bones that got thrown. >> kayla thank you for giving us that update. we'll see what happens. >> still ahead. 8:19 now. and that means 11 minutes till the february employment report up next we're going to get some final predictions from our panel of experts before the number comes out. and then they're going to stick around for some instant reaction at 8:30. >>> can't catch "squawk box" on television, we're just a few keystrokes away. find the show online and on mobile on twitter hand handle @squawkcnbc. like us on facebook. and visit our show page squawk.cnbc.com. your investments and the information you need, at your fingertips. "squawk box" on cnbc. >>> welcome back, everybody. let's get back to our panel for a quick round of final predictions. economist jared bernstein

t.a.r.p. never cut the dividend.irst open market acquisition since the credit crisis and one of the hardest hit markets from real estate perspective was boise and as that comes back and jackson hole, wyoming, comes back, the credit profile improved dramatically. >> that company has a market cap of 1.3 billion. we've talked to several investors who think smaller banks won't continue to exist. is this a takeover target? >> i don't think so. i don't think you should focus necessarily on market cap but size of assets on balance sheet. it's a much more onerous environment from regulatory perspective and more expensive market to do business in. we think bank consolidation will continue but they have a fantastic currency in their stock. there should be consolidation. what we have focused on are better capitalized, better run banks that can buy and sort of gobble up their competition at attractive prices. >> some stocks you like are ford and google. why? >> let's go to the auto companies. the oems are supplying to companies

you were very vocal about being against t.a.r.p., against bailouts, you even made almost a joke and a parody by saying, fine, give theindustry a bailout. would you tweak your feeling about that? >> i was against bailing out the banks. i wasn't against bailing out detroit. and there's a big difference there. and i think we've still got a serious problem with the banks, and i think the politics has got to rectify the situation because if they're too big to fail, they're also too big to exist. and until the government recognizes that and does something about it, we've got a serious problem. liz: i'd be remiss if i didn't bring up the fact that you were a victim of an attempted assassination. somebody tried to kill you. they shot you, and that's why you're partially paralyzed today. there's so much talk right now, harry, about gun control after the newtown school shootings. where do you stand on that? >> i think you should have a right to defend yourself, but for these wing nuts that don't want to be reasonable, they think, you know, you can have a tank in your front yard or a bazooka. there seem to be no limitations in

the electorate and i will give you an example. there are a lot of strong conservatives out there that still pull their punches. i think after t.a.r.p 2008 financial system, after the failed stimulus there was room for a candidate to come forward and say the banks have become too big to fail. we don't own the banks anything. they are on dominating the economy, the other way around. and i think we should have gone after corporate welfare and because the obama solyndra program and other favors to friends was the end of corporate welfare. one of the things we know and by the way the national committee's autopsy of the committee is coming out next monday, one of the things in the early draft, there were about 3 billion blue-collar and pink collar voters, people who were not professionals, people that have a degree who didn't vote in this election or voted for gary johnson, the libertarian candidate, or even a few of them voted for obama again. mitt romney was the antithesis of the populist candidate. and i think that hurt and i think not going after too big to fail and not going after the banks or corporate welfare sends a message to po

t.a.r.p.. he dined her frequently. there was a tavern on this site as early as the early 1770s. in the current building where the museum is today, it was build circa 1785, and the new addition on the corner was added in 1792, so the new addition is over 200 years old too. some of the famous people who dined here included john adams, thomas jefferson, james madison and james monroe. thomas jefferson had his inaugural dinner here. john gadsby had a terrific reputation for hospitality. he was known for the really great dinners that he would serve, so he was well known all over the area, and that's why the presidents of the united states would come here, because it was probably the best place to eat in this entire area. he left here to establish restaurants in baltimore and then in washington city. when you think about george washington, you always think of him as winning the revolutionary war and being the president and being this real stiff character on your dollar bill. but here at gadsby's tavern, you can see him as a human being. you see him dining and drinking, having a glass,

t.a.r.p. things are better. >> i certainly am concerned about cyprus, but if i only focus on cyprus then i will be mystified why thehe green, and i cannot say, you know what? the market was down 2% yesterday and that is right because it wasn't down 2% yesterday. >> we actually touched green a little bit. >> i know. during "street signs" 2:00 p.m. eastern time. >> you have to be skeptical because you try to avoid bank of america at 18, but being skeptical means buying at 5. >> when everyone is too negative, it's skeptical and when everyone is too positive it's skeptical. on thursday those banks -- there will be line, okay? i used to say at my old hedge fund, i used to say, you know what? i think the guys who are bearish are paying actors to stand in lines at banks displaying actors to stand in line for -- >> how much are they paying? >> nine bucks? >> i don't know. look, it is a very easy thing to spin negativity. >> being negative is cool. snarky, sarcastic is cool, unfortunately. >> by the way, in sports it's not. what do you make of that? what do you make of the fact that in sports is not cool? >> that's a real c

- >> it's funny, we always think about the fall of 2008 as a particularly worrisome period, which, of course, it was. then we got through it. aig was saved, t.a.r.pere revisiting seriously fritdenning levels in march. and worries that the banks would be nationalized. lots of things going on. >> it is amazing that four years later, we're on the anniversary of the bull market. and we are, what, 29 points or so away from the high. >> there is the opening bell. ishares at the top of the screen at the big board this morning. celebrating the ishares funds. and xilinx. interesting news today. the month of february in dollar terms, biggest buyback on record since they started tracking data in 1985. we know with low rates and bernanke, companies have been able to essentially refi like a household would, and buy back -- >> it's authorizations, by the way. not necessarily the follow-through. but they have followed through. that's a key part of the dynamic in this market. we pointed out many times you can actually buy back stock and have it be to cash flow. >> that's why we always hear about what happens when the punch bowl's taken away. despite the sterno,