treasury to be able to do that the treasury has to go off and sell securities on the open markets sowe are now the stage where for social security to pay its benefits on a monthly basis it must -- the treasury must borrow from the public to get some of the cash and that is the cash - situation that is described. >> host: borrow from the government. >> guest: bar from the public. >> guest: >> host: out of the trust fund you think. >> guest: what happens at the end of the day as the trust fund securities are redeemed. the treasury itself, not social security, not the trust fund but the treasury must sell plain vanilla every day and marketable treasury securities to the public to raise cash to get to the trust fund to pay the trust fund for those securities so at the end of the day when the exchanges done the treasury is borrowing from the public to pay social security benefits. >> host: we hear that all the time that it solvent and it will be. >> guest: the social security trust fund has a fairly significant balance. the current estimates have balance in the trust fund lasting until so

securities, give them to the treasury itself and tell the treasury, please in exchange for this givecash. for the treasury to be able to do that, the treasury has to go out and sell securities on the open market. we are now at this stage where for social security to pay its benefits, the treasury must borrow from the public to get some of the cash. that is the cash-situation described in the paper. host: borrow from the public out of the trust fund. guest: at the end of the day, some of the trust fund securities are redeemed to get the cash to redeem those securities the treasury itself, not social security or the trust fund, but the treasury must sell plain marketable treasury securities to the public to raise cash to give to the trust fund to pay the trust fund for those securities. at the end of the day, the treasury is borrowing from the public to pay benefits. host: if the social security trust fund is solvent -- and guest: the trust fund has a fairly significant balance. the current estimates have the balanced lasting until something like 2035. however, you cannot wait that lon

treasury must borrow from the public so we are as sound as the ability of the treasury to borrow from the public. the economy will get better. i certainly hope so. i have a great deal of confidence in the united states of america. i'm not going anywhere. we are in a stage where if we want to make sure that that happens we are going to have to get the budget of the united states in order. we are going to have to take control of our financial situation, and that means stopping the growth of our debt which right now is faster than the size of the economy. that can't go on forever. we have a lot of different kind of obligations. we have an obligation to provide for the national defence. we have an obligation to pay benefits for social security contributors and we have an obligation to make good on our borrowing to people all over the world including in the united states and including the government of china, which owns a lot of our paper. if we do not take care of -- if we do not meet our obligations to people who have lent to us in the past, we had better be prepared that people will not

dollar treasury bonds or bills as their reserves to date so in effect the u.s. would not be able to finance the deficits that they're running. to wage those wars in afghanistan or wage so small as in iraq or in libya unless the chinese were buying u.s. treasury bonds so ironically the chinese are financing wars directly directed against chinese national interest for energy security or would you say that the united states is going to has any chance of resurfacing from the crisis that it's finding itself in right now the only way as they see it they can they can survive and keep the dollars there instrument wall street i'm talking about is the gods of money and so i call it in my book. is to find new areas of loot so the arab spring is directed against grabbing and privatizing the vast wealth of the arab oil world in the arab world generally just as the use of the i.m.f. in the former soviet union was consciously designed by wall street and by washington in order to plunder the vast resources of russia and the former soviet union and warsaw pact countries so if th

, but the treasury must sell plain vanilla, everyday, marketable treasury securities to the public to raise cash to give to the trust fund to pay the trust fund for those securities. so at the end of the day when the exchange is done, the treasury is borrowing from the public to pay social security benefits. host: so is the social security trust fund solvent? we hear that all the time, that it's solvent and it will be. guest: the social security trust fund has a fairly significant balance. the current estimates has the balance in the trust fund lasting until i think it's something like 2035. however, you can't wait that long because, of course, when you get to the end of that process you're in the kind of a situation we were back couple months ago when we had a debt limit crisis. you know, this is not the kind of situation you want to allow to come to a, you know, to a dramatic conclusion. it would be better off for all concerned if we made adjustments so we wouldn't come to that moment at the end of that -- at the end of that process. host: what policies, recent policies have led to

treasurys. in fact, u.s. treasurys remain a safe haven and whenever you see a situation where there is increased volatility in the market because of concern about your for something else, you see people come in and buy treasurys. that is among the most safe investments in the world. in that respect, the downgrade are any potential downgrade has not made any significant damage to the united states economy or our fiscal situation. the underlying point is that we are not on a sustainable fiscal path. on our current programs, our national debt will begin to accelerate and eventually it will get completely out of control unless other actions to change that go into effect. it is important and the super committee is one step and more needs to be done beyond that. is important that we take measures to try and establish a stable path for our national debt over a. time one of the key issues which comes up again and again is the fact that our economy is aging. our average public age of our sisson -- our citizens are inc

tonight we can take a look at a few financial bombshells that are being reported by bloomberg former treasury secretary hank paulson warned hedge fund managers about the takeover of fannie and freddie and a seven point seven trillion in secret loans by the fed the largest banks in the country earned them thirteen billion dollars now that all happened in the past but if any of those practices really change the prince will join us for that one then the senate is expected to vote tomorrow on the provision that would mandate military detention for terrorist suspects american citizens included and president obama's threatened to veto this bill but is that only because it takes away some of his unchecked powers marcy wheeler is going to help us hash it out and new research shows that young voters they care big time about their civil liberties and they reject america's militaristic approach to foreign policy so why are these figures ignore and candidates who uphold those views like ron paul treated like their fringe we have all that and more feet and i couldn't get us of happy hour but first take a

it is still going down today with more money going into treasuries. so treasuries are seen as a hedge. gold had another tough day at a four-weak low. that could this drag on all week? i know we've got a short week of trading with thanksgiving. >> reporter: it's hard to see anything that's going to change anyone's mind. we've seen some good economic signals in the u.s. that's not enough to change anybody's opinion. the debt issues in europe. it's hard to see any positives over the next couple days unless the debt committee comes back. >> looks like gridlock now. jason brooks, money watch.com, thank you. >>> the president is hearing a rare moment of bipartisanship in helping veterans find jobs. the bill will create tax breaks for companies who hire veterans. it will also help vets get job training as well as counseling. >>> in about 90 minutes the man suspected of mawrgd vallejo police officer will be arraigned. henry albert smith junior of fairfield will make his first appearance in a courtroom about 1:30 this afternoon. hundreds gathered last night to

treasury market today in the face of what should have been a sharp sell n-off in treasuries and rise in interest rates. >>> x plain how this happens. fail, fail, fail and still borrowing costs in the united states dropped. if that's the case why should we worry about washington ever getting the fiscal house of the united states in order. >> right now that is fair. again, the u.s. treasury market is benefiting from the problems in europe. industries around the world want cash and equivalent. that's dollars and treasuries. the demand for the note was the greatest in 20 years. scratch your head in light of what happened and wondering why is there this demand? that is problems outside of the u.s. be sure this is coming back to us when europe is somewhat calm and our politicians are not going to be off the hook as a result. >> we'll come back and it will bite, and it will bite badly. appreciate your taking the time. let's go to david gergen. and john avalon, contributor and columnist for newsweek and the daily beast. thanks to both of you. you were here on friday. we were all angry and up

treasury secretary get away with warning hedge fund managers about a possible takeover of fannie mae and freddie mac. months in advance while telling the u.s. senate that intervention was probably not in the cards and now how did john for a sign of m.f. global get away with betting almost twice the amount of european sovereign debt that he disclosed to investors also take a look at how too big to fail has become even too much bigger to fail take a look at this football field of dollars ok that's what a trillion dollars of cash looks like imagine seven hundred of them and that is the amount of derivatives floating around the financial system now this is the most reported ever to see this as a sop skyscraper take a look at that building and multiply that by seven ok that's what seven hundred trillion dollars looks like now imagine that that skyscraper actually all seven of them come tumbling down. we'll talk about the damage that could cause let's get to today's capital account. ok if you need evidence that the era of too big to fail is not only alive and well but is actually worse thr

treasury market today in the face of what should have been a sharp sell n-off in treasuries and rise in interest rates. >> so explain how this happens. people are going to look at that and say, okay, fail, fail, fail, and still borrowing costs in the united states dropped. if that's the case why should we worry about washington ever getting the fiscal house of the united states in order. >> right now that is fair. again, the u.s. treasury market is benefiting from the problems in europe. industries around the world want cash and cash equivalents. that's dollars and treasuries. the demand for the note was the greatest in 20 years. scratch your head in light of what happened and wondering why is there this demand? that is problems outside of the u.s. be sure this is coming back to us when europe is somewhat calm and our politicians are not going to be off the hook as a result. >> we'll come back and it will bite, and it will bite badly. appreciate your taking the time. let's go to david gergen. senior political analyst here at cnn and john avlon, contributor and columnist for "newsweek

. >> susie: former treasury secretary robert rubin criticizes the handling of the debt crisis in europe. he joins us for an exclusive interview. and italy's prime minister silvio berlusconi says caio after his government loses a key confidence vote. that's amore for investors. it's "nightly business report" for tuesday, november 8. this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening, everyone. my colleague tom hudson will be along later in the program. big news from italy tonight-- the country's embattled prime minister indicated he will resign. silvio berlusconi is expected to step down after losing his parliamentary majority during a routine vote. his resignation ends a 20-year political career, but it could pave the way for italy to push through crucial financial reforms. we have a unique perspective on the situation in italy and the european crisis from former treasury s

>> under the purchase agreement for treasury support to fannie and freddie, fhfa shall consult the treasury department about executive compensation so this was done as a consultation, with every executive compensation package, it is send to the treasury department, it is a consultation with the treasury. it is most active in 2009 when we were working with kenneth feinberg who is the -- >> has the white house ever reached out to you? >> i have not had any conversation with the white house regarding executive compensation. >> mr haldeman, has the white house contacted you about executive compensation in your firm? >> they have not contacted me. >> has the treasury? >> no. >> okay. mr. williams. has the white house contacted you about executive compensation at your firm? >> they have not. >> has the treasury? >> they have not. >> okay. this is interesting because there has been a cry from the president in particular about executive compensation and it is somewhat strange to me that in an area where he could exert influence he has chosen not to. additionally, mr. williams, mr haldeman, it has b

and the treasury bond market rallies. the markets' response is to throw money at the treasury. we're basically being paid to borrow money. i think that as long as that's true, we're okay. the risk is that at some point the markets wake up and do to us what they've done to greece and what they're doing to other peripheral countries in europe. they're saying sorry we don't believe you any more. we're going on jack up the rate of interest. when they jack up the rate of interest, all of a sudden we're in that cycle where we can't afford to repay our debt. >> schieffer: catherine, as a novelist, someone who sits back and takes the long view of all of this, what is your sense of where america is right now? it seems to me we're in kind of a meantime. we seem to have lost patience. we're kind of a fast food society. we demand perfection at every turn. which is never going to be possible. how does it look to you? >> well, look, you know, what michael said, i wonder about. because nobody is throwing money at me to take out a loan. i live, you know, by my father and my grandfather's stand

treasuries but this time around we're not seeing that we're seeing the opposite reaction and to me the concern there is that people no longer view france as france as part of the core and of course opposed to bail out the periphery of through the surf and these bailouts that rely on this artificial aaa rating how how how. what sort of threat do you see for france and for the core of europe and the eurozone how quickly do you see that possibly developing as a form of contagion from italy to friends while you write as i claim to be your crisis was metastasizing the ireland italy now the only two countries that have some of the work in germany you know they're good as a percentage of these clothes. so it's not they don't have any and there's a limit to how much they can. the millions and they are not able to find or probably. the only way you can do that these through this. the monsoon season. storms through completely and you create a solution but. it's a matter of physics or. hard when you create a solution so price. revolt the crisis in german well there you have it so you think german

to the treasury department, to the office of management and budget. over 80,000 pages have been produced. they have a review of documents. these of the representatives we have had. i do not know how you can see how the a ministration has not cooperating. i think the committee has the responsibility to be straightforward. i regret that they have not done so today. that is to the detriment of figuring out the matter. >> i think he for the recognition. they say this is unprecedented activity. it is unnecessary had the white house not practiced pay the mantra of "delay, delay, delay." this would have been a one day story. the white house has fought every step of the way. this seems to be the management plan. the ranking member said it is no way to do this. they might do well to follow the counsel. the white house has refused to assert executive privilege or that they might have documents that would be covered. the white house might have been much more cooperative. that is the real shame. i yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you. i'm disappointed

treasury bills. for example, -- so a government that believes that it can stimulate the economy by stimulating consumption and completely ignores the part of the equation that requires that there be production and for the economy to function and i would point out that if no one is producing any food, clothing or shelter, if no one is producing any transportation links out there in the private sector, if no one is making available any of the recreation alpha silts that will attract those dollars, there's no not production. if there's not production there's no place for anyone to spend their money. this economy is production-driven, not consumption-driven and we must, to grow out of this economic situation that we're in, we must produce goods and services that have a marketable value, both domestically and abroad. when we do that, and we will eventually do that, this country will grow out of this problem that we are in. but we must get government off of our back, we must keep a competitive tax rate for

the british treasury will be selling it for a price tag of $1.2 billion. >> and the treasury will beery happy to get that sort of money coming in at the moment, nina. >>> record flooding in thailand is taking a serious toll on the lives of people and also of businesses there. many foreign companies, like the japanese auto and electronics makers, have been forced to stop production because of flooded factories. toyota says it hopes to have things up and running again by next week. it all depends on the cleanup efforts. we go now to a thai industrial park to see how it's coming along. >> reporter: this is what a factory looks like after a massive flood, the ugly truth that hits the balance sheets and likely consumer wallets. before the flood, there was lig light, and this equipment cranked out precision plastics, everything from car door handles to engine parts. japanese company takkei plastics wants to gear up fast, but this factory may be a write-off. at this major industrial seat, many other factories are taking stock of the damage. the floodwater may still be pumping out here, but

and the holy troika the fed the treasury and the holy troika i like it so we're going to look at one of the elements of this budget is that they're making a seven hundred fifty million euro cut from the capital investment account for the nation but at the same time this week they paid off seven hundred fifty million euro in unsecured anglo-irish bonds write the word unsecured i think needs to be highlighted there and that means that the issuer is taking a risk fully in the knowledge that there is a strong possibility they won't get paid back this is what own secured means so the fact that the irish government is deciding to pay those loan anyway shows you the what i would have to call stockholm syndrome they fall in love with their captors haven't they and they believe that they will just give you all money even though you don't in any way legally there's any real statute that would require us to give you this money we're going to give it to you anyway while simultaneously cutting the very funds you would need to grow your economy so they're not going to pay this debt going forward b

>> no, i wouldn't. >> would you be willing to donate to the department of treasury?ually? >> yes. >> would you? >> no, individually, no. >> a you are not willing to donate money to the department of treasury? i want to pay my fair share. >> that is a joke. >> right here i have the donation page, all you feed to do is put in your credit card must be and you can donate. >>guest: that is not going to help anybody. >> you don't want to donate to the government? >> i want our class to be ... you are being silly. >>neil: and now, michelle, the reporter asking the tough questions. that was very, very interesting. what did you learn? >>guest: well, i learned no one was willing to put forth any money. they went there and demanded that congress allow them to pay their fair share but when i asked them they didn't want to. >>neil: their argument is, and i have a couple of these folks on my show over the months, and their argument is, well, we are talking about making a statement where you get a larger bang for the buck but you found out you can start yourself, and they said, no,

government and run by the treasury department so all the profits from banking go directly into the treasury thus you and i paid less in taxes and the bankers on wall street can get a job at wal-mart good people in north dakota did just that back in one nine hundred nineteen establish something very much like this the bank of north dakota and it's kept that state in the black and kept its farmers manufacturers and students protected from the predations of new york banks toure's for nearly a century it's time for every state to charter their own state bank just like north dakota did and for the treasury department either by the fed from the for profit banks that own it or simply nationalize it only when we get control of our money out of the hands of sociopathic banks toure's democracy begin to function for all the people instead of just for the banks years. as the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories we covered visit our website to tom hartman dot com dot org and archie dot com it also check out our two you tube channels there are links of thom hartmann dot com also to