during the civil war, at the treasury of the united states approached the secretary of the treasury and said you wanted to employ women. as was the case of most wartime experiences when men were scarce, women were hired and massive -- enmass. just two years later, a woman was hired as the first counterfeit treasurer. she was hailed as the sherlock holmes of the treasury. the female sherlock holmes was one of the many exceptional winning in this hall. the first black woman hired in treasury was sophia holmes. she worked as a custodian. the division of issue at $15 per month, and became famous for finding two hundred thousand dollars that had been mistakenly thrown away as trash. when she died in 190079 -- in 1979, the secretary of the treasury was among the notables at her funeral. another woman hired in the early part of the 20th century, that congressional members repeatedly asked her to interpret charts and graphs for them. she was appointed the first woman treasurer by president truman, and the position has been held by women ever since. women have held other leadership roles through

made about a third of a billion for the treasury. how does the situation with chrysler resemble that or differ in this instance? >> i think it's dramatically different because we do have this direct equity investment. as you said before and i by no means am an expert on the original chrysler bailout, but my understanding is here we're not guaranteeing debt. we have actually given them money. and a lot of the money's been written off. the investments in chrysler preceded their bankruptcy and was during their bankruptcy, so it was money that was given, and a good chunk of it was recognized as being lost in bankruptcy. it went to the old institution. there's a bankruptcy plan that's right now pending and hasn't been improved with the money that we have that's been lent to old chrysler, and there's no real expectation that we're going to get that money back. >> how much money was that roughly? >> i don't have the precise numbers -- >> less than ten billion? >> i don't, i don't have those numbers at my hand, but i can certainly get them to

the first women were hired by the treasury department well over 200 years ago. n 1795, sara waldrake was hired as an adjuster for the mint and earned 50¢ per day. she filed gold coins down to the correct weight. helen benning was the first professional woman hired to work in the treasury building in 1861. she copied and recorded in the name of her ill husband. no one officially acknowledged her existence as she earned

the treasury secretary believes we're about to give way to a period of growth and that recovery must be reinforced. >> two key things. the first is about basic protections for consumers and investors. and the second is about ending too big to fail, making sure the country doesn't ever again face a crisis like this which cost 8.5 million americans their jobs, put billions of dollars of taxpayer money at risk. we want to make sure that never happens again. >> there has been some debate about too big to fail and whether or not the dodd proposal really addresses that. you received a less leather from richard shelby saying it does not cure too big to fail. the power could be abused. the fund that banks have to buy into. can you tell us about that? >> the dodd bill talks a lot of republican ideas, ideas from senator shelby and others. it makes the key point. if big banks ever again manage themselves to the edge where they can't survive without government assistance, the government should have the ability to come in and dismember them to unwind them and sell them off in pieces without puttin

for the first time, treasuries point to sponsor that. e did that ourselves in an audit report back last summer, but for the -- it was a voluntary audit report, but treasury is now going to require and report on how tarp recipients are saying they are using the funds. >> have you seen the proposed regulations? >> is actually just a survey. we commented on the design of the certified. >> are you satisfied with the design? >> we made some suggestions. some were adopted. but we work overall ok with what the treasury plan was and the question is on execution. we think that getting -- the quantitative data and making it -- matching it with a qualitative dead at -- data, putting that together and putting the other -- together a comprehensive report will be helpful. one of the recommendations we made that they adopt it is making sure that there was a high-level official certifying it under criminal penalty. we want to make sure that the people signing on that would be incentivize to be accurate and truthful. >> i appreciate that. any other though

the treasury would like to see a postfund. they'd like to see it come after the fact. i want to digress for a second and say that i hope the reason that treasury wants a post-fund is not because in lieu of having a pre-fund of $50 billion from these large institutions, they want to see a bank tax. as a matter of fact, i'm going to be surprised if, after republicans argue against a pre-fund and it's changed and the administration comes back and chairman dodd comes back and we end up with post-funding, both of which do the same thing, i might add, and both of them work, it's going to be interesting to me to see if whether that argument basically has led to treasury then having the ability to come back and -- and do a bank tax. i think at the end of the day, that's something that they've

coming out of the notes coming out of treasury. maria, here is something we were looking at, the march deficit came in line with $65 billion versus $62 billion which is the estimate, but this is the largest improvement in the deficit on a monthly basis year over year on record. and my data goes back to sometime into the 1940s. the march deficit is a $126 billion turn around from '09. the receipts were up $24 billion and outlays down by $101 billion. don't expect it to continue, maria, those kinds of numbers or that magnitude, but there is the question that has to be out there in the fixed income market as to whether or not we are passing through some sort of threshold when it comes to all of the debt issuance coming from the treasury? i can tell you that all of that is going to be contingent on what is happening right now all across america which is people putting their tax returns together for the year 2009, and if those numbers come in the way they are expected, we might see some of that debt issuance coming down, and that is goin

losses for the treasury. that is a small part of the tarp. i forgot the last part of a question but tlf is a relic -- talf is a relatively small part of the program. host: "i'll look for the economy, corporate earnings, individuals on the sidelines." that is from "the wall street journal." is this discussion related to the stock market going up? >> the stock market has been up since the lows of march of 2009. there is a lot of recent optimism about the economy. at the same time it has been an economy that has not seen a lot of government support. not much more than is normal. it has been on training wheels. we are just getting away from that point with federal reserve support for the bill being the largest part of tarp spending. and lot of question marks are going forward about how it will continue to be. host: democratic line, michigan. caller: if we have a stake in these companies and the government is making a profit on the stake of these companies, why do we not hang onto that and continue to use that prof

a nice sentiment from the treasury. t's really the case and the lobbyists aren't controlling what happens on behalf of the banks so they can continue to gamble on an infinite level in secret, then why did you miss today's opportunity to shed some light on the shadow banking that exists in the derivatives market? >>> and finally the supreme court, even more out of touch than you might have thought, during arguments in a case about text messaging, chief justice john roberts asked what's the difference between email and a pager? and justice antonin scalia apparently didn't understand the concept of a cell phone provider and an email. asking -- you mean the text doesn't just go right to me? >>> much more ahead on the "dr show." straight ahead, a hummer heads to the chop shop. this trip was all about going green. we'll explain in the town square. and then in "hardball," bank reform with andrew sorkin, the author of "too big to fail." [ crowd cheering ] [ male announcer ] competition... it pushes us to work harder. to be bette

look, the central bankers are the authorities in the treasury and the central banks in the '30s took patient that was sick and applied precisely the wrong medicine. you know, they let the banking system collapse. they tried to control the budget deficit. they raised interest rates in the middle of the depression. i mean, they were like 18th century doctors that thought, you know, the way to cure illness was to draw blood from a patient. we're not doing any of those things. we now know better. >> host: uh-huh. >> guest: so no one -- the federal reserve has cut interest rates to the bone. no one is planning to raise interest rates to defend their currency. we've done just about everything we could to prevent our banking system from collapse. >> host: which one of those in trying to control the deficit, raising interest rates at the wrong time -- which are those -- in this country leaving aside the european problems, which of those do you consider in retrospect to have been the crucial mistake that made the depression worse and extended its life beyond what it might have been?ñ f >> gue

at goldman sachs, robert gibbs said nobody at the white house or treasury department had any idea the charges were in the work. bret? >> bret: major garrett live on the north lawn. thank you. get more on the goldman sachs charges from fox business network correspondent peter barnes. good evening, pete. >> reporter: when you buy a new dishwasher, tv or car, the government says the manufacturer must by law provide you with basic information about it. just look at toyota right now. it's in big trouble because the government says it failed to tell customers about problems with sticky gas pedals. the same thing with goldman sachs. the government says it broke the law when it sold investment products to two european banks since 2007. and that it did not tell them basic required information. the products were securities backed by billions in subprime mortgages. goldman did not tell the banks that a very savvy investment manager john paulson helped to create the securities and then turned around and made bets they would eventually blow up. which they did. it was financial car wreck. costing t

dan was delighted when reporters place the cost of the suppers for the secretary of the treasury at $12,000oon the key senators and representatives on both sides of the currency debate were sitting down to dinner at sam's table. although macola was disappointed when he didn't get all he wanted, he was not disappointed in sam who claimed credit for the partial victory. thanks this work for macola in a string of successes with other kinds, sam star was rising. tuccillo he boasted he was a figaro, everyone calls me, everyone wants me. but what exactly do they want from sam and what did he do for those who called his name? in a letter to new york millionaire casino bar low his friend as well as his most important client about what she was doing for him in washington and sam wrote: it's taken me a week in my congressional elements. at length able to read you favorably touching all of your projects. i can get the furniture bill passed any day. but how did sam caruthers congressional elephant? see them doing a recipe for success when he tasted it. tinkering with the ingredients that i should promi

whether we are holding it or somebody else, it's the liability of u.s. treasury and were not adding to the taxpayers risk by buying them. >> the gentleman's time has expired. gentleman from texas, mr. marchant. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. bernanke, banks are also experiencing a historically low cost funds, are they not waxed >> yes. >> in the recent praise from a quarter point to a half a point actually many banks -- their cost of deposits is much less than that. at what point will the banks decided that they will -- that they're better off turning back to loans van keeping their money liquid and placing it perhaps in short-term treasuries where there are making not a risk-free, but a relatively risk-free yield? at what point does the fed have a plan or an idea at what point? or is that an object is to wean the banks of the lower cost at least for the fed and begin to put that liquidity, which is massive back into traditional loans? and then the economy will come up with it. >> so, we are supplying liquidity. we're not, you know, blocking its use in any way.

in fact, the treasury and the white house wanted a somewhat weaker bill on derivatives. how is it going to be amended as it goes through your committee and gets merged with what you're producing? >> again, they'll have to offer an amendment to the bill as we move along. we've got jack reid and judd gregg on our kmid tee. the banking committee as a major, major responsibility in the derivatives area. 13 titles to our bill. one-half of those 13 titles is dealing with derivatives. >> is what they produced too tough? >> i haven't read it yet. i haven't seen it yet. i've been talking to people on the committee. until i have an ability to look at it and respond to it, i can't answer your question is it too tough or not too tough. clearly we need a sense of balance about it. >> let me ask you this. you just said senator shelby, others are talking to you. at the same time the republican national committee has produced a web video still calling what you guys are working on a bailout bill because of that $50 billion fund that would be paid for by the banks. this is what the rnc ha

it comes from a special fund, out of the treasury department. it automatically renews. last year, it was $15 million. >> members of congress, say they do need to do this official travel. and all of the expenses are disclosed. they can make up their own mind. >> reporter: their disclosed to a degree. you learn how much you spent on travel. and how much you spent overall. and there's a category called other. and sometimes the expense reports are filed up to a year after the trips are made. >> thanks very much. >>> when we come back, from happy baby to her majesty. a rare look at queen elizabeth's baby pictures. ♪ presenting the new toyota avalon.

are you concerned that there will be efforts either by the banks or the treasury to reduce the amount of transparency that you seek? >> i have not heard of those conversations. i hope that that's not the case. i think the transparency and 100% transparency is really critical. shining the light of day on these dark markets and on the activities, making sure in that transparency with real-time reporting to both regulators and to the public, it gives us the kind of information that we need to insure that whatever is happening, is, is being reported. and that if there is fraud and abuse that's occurring or mismanagement or people taking advantage of the system, then we know that. and giving regulators the amount to go in and fix that problem is critical. >> the bill away from your contributions to it, does preserve too big to fail through a two-class system. do you believe it is appropriate to preserve these two classes of banks, with or without the resolution authority? and why is there such a hesitancy to simply break up the megabanks that were effectively too big before the crisis, and

losses for the treasury. that is a small part of the tarp. i forgot the last part of a question but tlf is a relic -- talf is a relatively small part of the program. host: "i'll look for the economy, corporate earnings, individuals on the sidelines." that is from "the wall street journal." is this discussion related to the stock market going up? >> the stock market has been up since the lows of march of 2009. there is a lot of recent optimism about the economy. at the same time it has been an economy that has not seen a lot of government support. not much more than is normal. it has been on training wheels. we are just getting away from that point with federal reserve support for the bill being the largest part of tarp spending. and lot of question marks are going forward about how it will continue to be. host: democratic line, michigan. caller: if we have a stake in these companies and the government is making a profit on the stake of these companies, why do we not hang onto that and continue to use that prof

the treasury is trimming down its stake in citigroup. 1.5 billion shares of citi's common stock will be sold. that's just over a quarter of the 7.7 billion citi shares uncle sam owns, shares it got as part of the federal rescue of the bank. and a federal appeals court says wal-mart must defend itself against a class-action sex- discrimination suit, the largest of its kind. nearly a million current and former women workers say the stores paid them less than male workers. wal-mart may appeal today's decision to the u.s. supreme court. still ahead on the program, do you trust your financial advisor? we ask a leading psychologist about what to look for when seeking money advice. >> susie: tomorrow, the federal reserve begins its two-day meeting on interest rates, with a decision likely on wednesday. it's widely expected that fed policymakers will keep interest rates near zero, where they've been since december 2008. so, what will it take for the central bank to finally start raising rates? suzanne pratt reports. >> reporter: super low interest rates sure are sweet, especially if you need

the clerk: nomination, department of the treasury. lael brainard of the district of columbia to be an under secretary of the treasury. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the time until 12:00 noon will be equally divided and controlled between the senator from montana, mr. baucus, and the senator from iowa, mr. grassley, with the senator from kentucky, mr. bunning, controlling 15 minutes of time controlled by the senator from iowa, . grsley mr. bunning: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky is recoized mr. bunning: mr. president, thank you very much. i probably will not take the 15 minutes but somewhere between 10 and 15. mr. president, i rise in strong opposition to the nomination of lael brainard to be under secretary of state -- excuse me, under secretary of treasury for international affairs. mr. president, i don't think it's unreasonable for the american people to expect nominees to an important post in the treasury department to have a clean record in the payment of their taxes. after all, t

there's only a -- you say the treasury's not going to be out of the way. they're going to be hanging over this thing for a long time. and i just think if i'm an investor and as a trader i don't want to go near that. >> but i like the fact morgan stanley is holding the order. they're professional traders. they'll hold the order in a way that does not knock the stock down and i believe it will get done over time in a manageable way as the improvement at citi's business model occurs also. >> as the unwind occurs that's where you've got to go to the option markets because it makes much more sense p you've got very, very dirt cheap options. if you really believe citi once this unwind starts to occur and all of a sudden there is some up side why not own -- >> so how would you establish position? what sort of trade would you -- >> you can easily go to a five strike in just about any month all the way out to the leaps. you're talking about very incrementally small amounts of money up to put out there. and then you take away a lot of the risk factors you've got wit

overall we were ok with the design and what treasury's plan was. e question is always in execution. we think getting the quantitative date ande matching it with the qualitative data the information that's received from the regulators as well as from the banks and putting that together and putting together a comprehensive report will be helpful. one of the recommendations that we made is that they don'ted was to make sure that those returning the survey had a high level official certify it under the penalty -- criminal penalty and we think that will help assure that those people who are signing that will have the incentive to be accurate and truthful. we'll monitor how treasury performs. >> ok. i appreciate that. any other thoughts on small business? i've heard so much from community banks and also small businesses and a lot of small businesses say they can't borrow because banks aren't lending. >> it's a very difficult problem and i think a lot of it has to do outside of the controversial of the tarp. we've all heard anecdotal information about the

so with yesterday being the worst day since last july for 10 years for 10 year u.s. treasuries is the federal reserve considering getting back into the business of buying u.s. treasuries or are we laying off of that approach for a while? >> congressman, that number isn't correct. we purchased last year $300 billion in treasuries which was much less than 80% and that total number brought us back to 790 or so billion which is abwhere we were before the crisis. so at this point the fed owns the smallest share of u.s. government debt as it had for many, many years. we are not monotizeing the debt and we have no immediate plans to do so in the future. >> let me ask you another question and i appreciate your analysis on that. i was struck when i read the analysis from pimco and i don't know how they perceive the amount of government intervention into the market here, but let me ask you one last question. the dallas fed president richard fisher said of the easy money policy during the most recent housing boom rates held too low for too long during the previous fed regime were an accom

first, i flew down to washington to have a candid conversation with timothy geithner, secretary of the treasury about all this and the broader economy. stay with us. >>> mr. second fair, thank you for joining us. >> nice to see you. >> when people talk about you, there is often a mention of your ties to wall street. and in point of fact you have never worked on wall street. you were chairman of the new york federal reserve, but you never held a private sector job. you worked in the public sector, kissinger for a brief period. >> i don't think most people count that as the private sector. basically almost out of graduate school i came and worked as a very junior public servant at the treasury, and spent my entire professional life since in some form of policy job. >> but how does it make you feel when you hear these charges that you are somehow in bed with wall street firms? >> i find that the charge that the myth that i worked in wall street amusing. but it is part of a narrative that hardened, which is that people came to view the judgments we were making through the prism of a myth, that we w

the american treasury, the taxpayers of this country.and they said under the bush administration, we need a bailout. $700 billion in taxpayers' money to wall street to overcome the mistakes that we made and keep our banks afloat and insurance companies in some cases because of the big problems that we have, problems many times of their own creation. and they received the money. many of us had a stark choice. we were told by the secretary of the treasury and chairman of the federal reserve, if you don't send this money to wall street and these banks and insurance companies go down, the economy will follow them. so we voted for this bailout money, and i didn't want to do it but i thought it was the responsible thing to do. it turns out that some of these banks and other institutions are paying back the money with interest, and the taxpayers are okay. but by and large a lot of others are not. and we have to ask ourselves: do we want to run through this script again? do we want to see this movie all over again, happen next year or the year a

at 800-974-6006 tty/v. >>> the treasury department has a new and improved version of the currency featuring the founding father with features aimed at protecting your hard earned cash. karen has more. >> reporter: cash with a bit more flash. the treasury department unveiled its first revamp of the $100 bill since 1996 and it's more than a makeover. this is crime fighting cash. >> complex enough to detour even the most sophisticated counterfeiters yet simple enough for consumers to authenticate. >> reporter: new few tiers are aimed at spotting counterfeit bills like a blue 3d security ribbon and a copper ink well that changes to green as the bill is moved. >> most people will never encounter a counterfeit u.s. note. that being said, we are conducting personal or business transactions just take a few minutes to ensure that your notes are truly genuine. >> reporter: while it may not be part of your every day cash flow, the $100 bill is a hot target for counterfeiters and the government says these features are the best steps yet to thwart crooks. >> we continuously monitor the counterfeiting th

we'll be watching that website. >>> the yield on the ten-year treasury hit 4% for the first time in 18 months, or are treasuries still rather cheap? we'll check out the ten-year. back in a moment on "closing bell." >>> all right. look at the vix index, it hit the lowest left since october '07. volatility has plummeted on wall street. now a look of the stories we're following tonight. one the analyst is telling clients that it's experiencing a strong routing, and the stock is up today a fraction. autonation hiked just a week after issuing its guidance. and business software maker, announced it will cut 1,000 jobs, 8% of its workforce as part of the company's restructuring plan. c.a. shares down about 2%. the yield on ten-year treasuries is trading at a fraction below 4% today. in light of the recent up tick in the yield, signs of a risk appetite or reflection of ongoing inflation fears? we get the thoughts of tom tucci, managing director of fixed incull rates and trading in government, and hichum, from dmp paribas. >> there's a couple technicals pushing them higher, for good reason. bas

that's down sharply from last march because the treasury cut its total cost estimate for the tarp plan by $115 billion. still ahead, april 15 is just around the corner. did you make changes to your roth i.r.a. last year? if so, we'll tell you how to handle it on this year's return as our "tax tips" heads into the home stretch. >> susie: takeover rumors heated up at palm, inc. today. the smartphone maker's shares soared 17% on word the company is getting ready to put itself up for sale. bloomberg reports palm has hired goldman sachs and investment banker frank quattrone as advisors. buyers would get palm's pre smartphone and its web o.s. phone operating system software. the company has struggled to keep up with rivals like blackberry maker research in motion and iphone maker apple. >> tom: microsoft also has been struggling to keep up with apple, rim, and others. the software giant has sold windows for smartphones for many years, but its mobile operating system has been steadily losing market share. so today, microsoft kicked off what it says will be a year of smartphone launches, start

the stock market overall. i think there's more than adequate demand for treasury at this point is a plus. the fed's out of the mortgage market now. there's a lot of mortgage supply out there. some of the product is cheap. there are a lot of people who say let's go buy mortgage instead of treasuries. that might be more -- >> and this will bring down -- guy, this is important, this will bring down mortgage yields, i think. >> absolutely. >> wait a minute, while we have our citi person up. i'd like to ask a question. everybody's talking about the mortgages. i'd like to ask our expert, if i look at the march 16th levels last fed meeting, we had a 4.60% yield on the fannie which is 30 basis points higher, and whe had a 30 basis point runup in treasuries. the spread has hardly moved. freddie and fannie are still in the morning game. do you see easing when the spread hasn't moved at all? >> well, it did influence it in the past. it did influence it in the past. what we have seen is that as the fed has stepped away, it has been such a well orchestrated move, that the private sector moved in to rep

is there anything that the treasury department is missing in its approach that you think they should do? it's certainly what we hear from the servicers that we work with. is that the program is still far too administratively complex. the guidelines change seemingly every couple of weeks and although the industry has devoted billions of dollars towards building effective modification programs, they just can't keep up with the changes in the reporting requirements. i think more flexibility there, more incentives to encourage servicers to come up with solutions that fit their loan portfolios vs one size fits all across the country. would be very helpful. ok, we will hope for the best. thank you very much. after the show....be sure to head to our website firstbusinessnews.com ... university...why a lot of people opportunities in selling weiners. race to beat the clock to take advantage of the 8-thousand make the deadline. updates....all at first business one viewer's suggestion to get american companies to produce more products here in the u.s...that's next. welcome back everybody. time n

it will not be too long before the stock treasury is holding in gm can be sold, helping to reimburse he american people for their investment. in addition, chrysler financial has already fully repaid with interest the loans it received to support our financing. where closing the books on the temporary program that helped part suppliers weather the storm. finally, we are bringing to an end many of the emergency programs designed to stabilize the financial sector and restart lending so folks could finance cars and trucks as well as homes and small businesses. on friday, the treasury department informed congress that this financial rescue which was absolutely necessary to prevent an even worse economic disaster, will end up costing taxpayers a fraction of what was originally feared. this is a direct result of careful management of the investments made by the american people so that we could recoup as many tax dollars as possible and as quickly as possible. these steps, as well as others we have taken, have meant that millions of people are working today who might otherwise have lost their

. >> ali's not exaggerating this by a conservative simt of the u.s. treasury, some $600 trillion worth of derivatives held by invests as we speak subpoena look how that compares with the entire growth of the global economy. the output for the world, gdp, is only $60 trillion. only $60 trillion. ten times the global economy. >> i have to say, christine, i don't know if had the same experience, on my facebook page, a lot of comments from people troubled by the idea of the secret drivties and worried we're giving up a drerivatives bad name. >> no. >> bring in smoob know as great deal. neil, deputy treasury secretary, the treasury department. very involved in this move. neil, tell us what this new legislation, that's passed the house, the senate is working on, that president and you folks at treasury want to pass? what is that going to do about the world of derivative, the bad part that nearly brought our economy to its knees? >> first, it's good to be here. derivatives are, been a very big loophole in the financial services to today, we think it's really importan

we believe a solution is contained within the treasury second lien program. the holder of the second lien is required 24 bair eight similar percentage has a first lien holder and we wouldn't indicate working at a similar process to require the second lien holder to take a principal balance reduction proportionate to the first lien holder. bank of america is a proud participant and on april 1st became the first major loan servicers to began having a trial modification offers to customers under the program. despite these considerable efforts not everyone will be able to afford to stay in their homes given the depth of the nation's recession a considerable number of people have to move to parental and other housing solutions. bank of america is committed too passionately and responsibly helping customers make this transition. we've recently launched the treasury alternative program on april 5th and have implemented our own expanded short sale program to help customers avoid the stigma of foreclosure and reduce the damage done to their credit. for those not intere

the treasury is working on that. there's a program call the 2mb program, and the basic premise of the program is to try to look at the -- inc. up the first and the -- link up the first and seconds, and when dog mortgage restructuring to do them jointly rather than separately. >> the gentleman's time is expired. the gentleman from texas, mr. ream, is recognized. >> thank you for appearing today. i would like to take a moment, if i may, and thank bank of america, if what i'm reading in the newspaper is correct -- i'd like to thank them for producing a principal reduction program, and i'm referencing this because we have not yet resolved the question of foreclosures. it's a serious question, and it's one that i think we have to get handle on before we can conclude we're out of the woods to borrow a phrase. my question, mr. bernanke, is this. how important is it for us to resolve the question of forecloses that just the usual number -- that actually have now gone into persons who are not blessed with, or cursed with, with

finance reached fruition during the clinton administration particularly with robert rubin was the treasury secretary and of course the same people who are now responsible for helping clean up the financial mess hopefully worked with mr. rubin during the 90's. that is a great opportunity for them to make amends. still waiting to see progress on not but we all did it together. the culture shifted. wall street became good. the percentage of graduates from top universities who went in to finance as far as the key figure from the data was about 10% at the peak of the sub prior boom it was 40, 45%. it's money, its power, its ideology. i spent a lot of time talking to people in washington. i live in washington and spent a lot of time with people in and around the consensus, politicians, their staff and the attitudes have begun to change. not at that level people's thinking isn't what it was before september 2000 but people think that unregulated finance is better and unfettered mega banks are the best. this idea is wrong and dangerous and must be stopped. how are we going to do it. >> of the bigg

the treasury would like to see a postfund. they'd like to see it come after the fact.i want to digress for a second and say that i hope the reason that treasury wants a post-fund is not because in lieu of having a pre-fund of $50 billion from these large institutions, they want to see a bank tax. as a matter of fact, i'm going to be surprised if, after republicans argue against a pre-fund and it's changed and the administration comes back and chairman dodd comes back and we end up with post-funding, both of which do the same thing, i might add, and both of them work, it's going to be interesting to me to see if whether that argument basically has led to treasury then having the ability to come back and -- and do a bank tax. i think at the end of the day, that's something that they've been wanting to achieve, and it's interesting how this debate is evolving. but -- but let me go back to this -- let me go back to this pre-fund. at the end of the day, i think what all of us would like to see happen is to see these funds, these institutions go out of business. and so do yo

. >> the treasury department, it's basically an arm of wall street. people in charge were from goldman sachs. >> we call it government goldman in the modern era. >> that's because there are now numerous former goldman executives inside the bush treasury department, as there were under clinton. they worked as powerful lobbyists from the inside to abolish financial regulations while we paid their salaries. >> larry: you hate wall street? >> i hate the fact that a company like goldman sachs can essentially run our government. the former ceo of goldman sachs becomes clinton's secretary of the treasury. a former ceo of goldman sachs, a different man, becomes the treasury secretary under george w. bush. bush had about 12 goldman executives. obama has three of them. timothy geithner's chief assistant is a former goldman guy, as is the undersecretary of state for economic affairs. it's -- there is a revolving door as senator levin said, the lobbyists are out in the hallway right now. they're spending tens of millions of dollars to stop this banking legislation

they also have to abandon the bailout authority that is enshrined in these bills for the treasury department and the fdic. the american people have rejected, to use your phrase, bailout america. and what the democrats and what the administration are advancing here is really, again, taking the wall street bailout of a year and a half ago, and in the authority that's being extended to this and future administrations, they're making that bailout permanent. >> just a couple of things. a recent rasmussen poll shows 34% of americans want more regulation of financials, but 47% actually oppose. that's amazing. 47% oppose financial regulation. and as you probably know, the pew poll recently, 80% of americans completely mistrust what's going on in washington. my pal dan henninger of "the wall street journal" wrote a great column about that today. i, like you, think there are some positives in this bill. senator chris dodd worked hard on this bill, and it's a much more open process than the obama health care process, that's for sure. congressman, why not just put all of these failed banks, if they occu

i came down from my interview with the treasury secretary. robin's on assignment. thanks for holding down the fort, juju. we have news out of louisiana. that stunning video, from the burning oil platform. and news that the survivors we know of, arrived on land very early this morning. >> that's right, george. good morning, to you. the survivors reunited with their families just a short time ago. and that oil rig is massive. it's the size of a football field. and more than 100 workers were on it when it went up in flames. it's still burning. the smoke can be seen for 10,000 feet in the air, as the coast guard continues to search for survivors. >> that's right. 11 crew members still missing. >>> the other big story here in washington, where congress seems on the verge of passing financial reform. it had looked like a partisan vote like on health care. but all of the anger at big banks may be foerjing a bipartisan deal. president obama heads to make a personal pitch on wall street. and i asked the treasury secretary what a deal would mean, not just for the financial co

and we believe a solution is contained within the treasury's second lien program known as 2mp. with 2mp the holder of the second lien is required to forebear a similar percentage as the first lien holder. we would advocate working on a similar industry wide process that would require the second lien holder to take a principal balance reduction proportionate to the first lien holder. bank of america's a proud participant in 2mp, and on april 1st became the first major loan servicer to begin mailing trial modification officers to home -- offers to home equity customers under the program. now, despite these considerable efforts, not everyone will be able to afford to stay in their homes. given the depth of the nation's recession, a considerable number of customers will need to move from homeownership to rental and other housing solutions. bank of america is committed to passionately and responsibly helping our customers make this transition. we recently launched the treasury's home affordable foreclosure alternatives program on april 5th and have implemented our own expanded short

he previously served as a deputy assistant secretary at the u.s. treasury department, called a consultant to, among others, the federal reserve board -- and a consultant to, among others, the federal reserve board and the fed for reserve bank of new york. -- federal reserve bank of new york. >> good morning, everyone. it is almost impossible to be opposed to the term "competitiveness." it is like mothers and apple pie. how could you not want to be competitive? the question is what does it mean? we just went through a wrenching national debate on health care reform, and part of the reason that was so complicated, at least from an economic perspective, is that it seemed to mean different things. for some people in means coverage leading to cost reductions, and for others it means no, cost reductions needed to coverage increases. getting a definition right matters. for competitive is, it is ultimately about our living standards, and it is easy to see why we care. in the very difficult economic environment we find ourselves still in, it makes clear the need to

and what tim geithner, the treasury secretary says, my gosh, haven't we learned anything in the last couple of years? when you have a panic, it may be in the interest in the public, the taxpayers and the economy to bail some people out, do not tie my hands and my successor's hands with a leverage. >> we have a situation here where we have a complicated bill people may not understand, rotating buzzwords and president unifying against the president. is this health care act two or is there a difference? >> i don't believe republicans are necessarily going to be united about this as they were with health care. the thing about health care was most americans felt they had something at stake, either they wanted to get insurance or they had a pre-existing condition or they felt their premiums were too high or they're on medicare. for them they were communicating with their congressmen and the congressmen understood and senators understood a lot of the dynamics of health care. my gosh, we have been arguing about this for about 20 years. this is very new to people. but i think that the reason

guest: remember, we look of the treasury and the programs that treasury is putting into place. e of the criticisms we have made of treasury is they have come out with a program that is too small, hard to scale up, and that may not be providing sustainable mortgages over time. i want to give treasury some props here. they have tried some new programs, brought some new ones online. but here is the problem -- it is confusing. they're doing incentive-based programs. some of these will not be fully ramped up for another year which really brings us four years into the mortgage crisis. so, we're sure trying to push them in that direction, but that is our tool -- only to push. host: scott, from georgia. caller: thank you for taking my call. i heard you before the break saying that j.p. morgan chase had 50% increase in profit in the first quarter. it kind of bothers me. that is my mortgage company will not deal with me at all over any type of modification. my point your guest is what others have made. these banks from the get go once we give them $1 trillion commit their plan was to sit

but basically you'd just be taking from the treasury to pay down the debt to the treasury. that has kind of a false ring to it, i think, in my mind. and i guess to me adding another peril while i understand the -- we kind of went back and forth in the house with mr. taylor and i when this was on the floor the other day -- or last year. i understand this but i have concerns of the long-term viability of the nfip to take on this added burden at a time when you're really falling behind daily if what i'm hearing from both of you is the correct analysis. and with that i'll yield back the time that i do not have any longer. [laughter] >> thank you very much. mr. breene? -- green. >> thank you, madam chair. mr. fugate, i trust that you took it as a compliment when i elevated you to the level of a congress person. i didn't mean to insult you. in any way. a few questions for the record. first question is, is it true that when we have flood damage, we also sometimes will have wind daniel. i know the answer's yes but -- >> absolutely. >> and is it true an insurance company will send ou

i get my ear him a lot more after the job is done as the secretary of the treasury. the name of this book is "on the brink," and that is exactly where we were in september and october of 2008. at that time, our economy, our financial world went into cardiac arrest, and we had four people in the operating room we were fortunate as a country to have in place. we had hank, we had been bernanke, we had tim geithner and sheila bair the head of the fdic. i really -- i know a lot of people in finance and a lot of people in business, i know a lot of people in government, and i can't think of for that would have done a better job of getting us through that. now it's kind of a fashionable to look back and pick at one aspect or another of what was happening then, but our country's financial system froze up during that period. some of you in this room or at a party i was at in september of 2008 when at the top was the money market safe? now you have 3.5 or more chilling than funds held by 30 million people who on sunday night or worrying about whether they can get their money, th

at last friday's hearing, the secretary of the treasury was particularly noteworthy. he said that bank regulators "hesitate to take any action whether it is because they get too close after so many years or they're just hesitant or maybe the amount of fees enter into it. i don't know. but whatever it is, this is not unique to wamu and is not unique to o.t.s." lellet me repeat. it was the conclusion of our treasury department's inspector general that the failure of regulators to harness the lawless nature of conflicted institutions was not unique to washington mutual or to the office of thrift supervision. madam president, i've said it before and i'll say it again, it is time that we return the rule of law to wall street. where it has been seriously eroded by the deregulatory mind-set that captured our regulatory agencies over the past 30 years. we became enamored that self-regulation was adequate, that enlightened self-interest would motivate them to take better forms of due diligence than any prergt could perform. and that market fundamentalism would lead to the best