originally, the treasury hoped to help half a million people. it offers some help with mortgage payments for the unemployed, some principal reduction or help with second mortgages and money to catch up on missed payments. but according to a detailed report by the special inspector general for the tarp program, of the $7.6 billion set aside for the hardest hit fund, only $217 million has been spent to help families. only 30,640 people have been helped, far short of the programs goal to reach around half a million struggling homeowners. housing activists say the report by the inspector general makes it clear the treasury failed to lead. >> for whatever reasons-- lack of management skills, lack of priority, the treasury didn't put the resources on getting the money to the at-risk homeowners. >> reporter: the treasury says that is absolutely not true, that it has talked to mortgage servicers and the mortgage giants fannie mae and freddie mac, trying to get them on board. tom? this report though shows at least the treasury came up short on almost eve

they largely blamed it on the treasury department and what they said is that treasury had if it did not provide the leadership or the planning to get these programs started and get the money out the door hardest hit fund was basically a kind of a partnership with the states that were affected and qualified for the program so you know side think some people at treasury would would claim that it's the states for all. but the probably the best program of the bunch put out about sixteen percent of the money so far and that's in oregon so if your star pupil is getting a sixteen percent the problem is not the students it's a test. treasury had the ability to get the servicers and the government sponsored enterprises that fannie mae and freddie mac. to participate in the program certainly more of an ability to do that than the states which us have less bargaining power over these large banks and the huge e.s.c.'s and treasury just didn't do it i mean they had they allowed. states who are operating at a significant disadvantage to try to bargain with these banks and the g.s.t. zoo at their disc

who is buying treasuries right now? >> well, with ken and with bill, i'll agree and make it three that i don't think the yield is going to 1% on the ten-year treasury. a lot of institutions like you mentioned are the end owners, central banks around the world. a lot is in public hands, that being said, we don't think that treasuries and other developed countries, central banks for that matter, their bond yields offer a particularly good value relative to inflation and so while these institutions hold we're recommending an underweight position for our clients. >> charles, you guys have taken risk off the table recently so what does that mean? ditching the stocks in favor of bonds. >> what we think is that you have to model your portfolio so that it can weather adverse as well as favorable conditions, that means a combination of safer investments along with risk assets such as equities and investment grade corporate bonds and some other investments. >> you know, ken, i might have to jump in. we could get the fed statement

in 1938 he persuaded president roosevelt to give treasury significant authority over military purchasingicies two years ahead of the lenden program and he used this authority to help arm our allies and to help prepare the nation for war. he was instrumental in the effort to stock pile and ramp up production of war materials and crucially he enabled the united kingdom and france to purchase american aircraft often over the objections of the war department and isolationists in congress. now, later in the war news of the mass murder of european jews came to the attention of a small group of men at treasury. j joe sigh josiabubois and the chief of foreign funds control uncovered mounting evident that state department officials were systematically undermining efforts to save jews in europe. these state officials were delays licenses necessary to provide financial support to relief organizations across europe, licenses that would have enabled the rescue of hundreds of thousands of jews. they were denying visas to refugees and they were blocking the spread of information about the holocaust. th

in '63, deputy undersecretary of treasury in the nixon administration. she's undersecretary of international -- treasury for international monetary affairs. 1975 the president of the new york -- the chair of the new york fed in 1979. chairman of the u.s. fed until 1987. five presidents in a row, reagan, kennedy, l.b.j., nixon, carter, reagan. a 20-year hiatus of largely some teaching and finance work and then the return to the national spotlight in 2008 with his endorsement of barack obama and subsequently his role in the economic recovery across the last four years. there's a volcker rule but there's also for this moment in time a bradley rule, which is it is always a really good thing when you get to introduce paul volcker at a podium. here's paul volcker and steve clemons who is my colleague at atlantic media. >> thank you, david.

at a tremendous profit it remits maybe seventy billion dollars a year back to the united states treasury but like i said when short term interest rates inevitably rise that has to come to an end and they kept the fed can actually go cash flow negative which means that it has to start printing money to fill that void in order to cover the expense of interest on exports reserves that it pays to these banks that now in the old days i'm sorry i was that they got so interesting under that scenario would that be able to control inflation from getting out of control. in the old days yes but they changed their accounting methods in two thousand and nine for the year two thousand and eight to be able to print money out of nowhere just like i said to cover the difference before the banks themselves would have would have had capital calls and would have had to pony up the difference so what we have here is a banks are going to receive all this money disproportionately the too big to fail banks that should otherwise be going to the taxpayer in the treasury and this is something that nobody's talked

treasury bonds they've got over a trillion and if you add in the agency that the fannie mae and freddie mac. and you point out it could be a lot more and this is kind of their nuclear option if they go to market they don't those securities it would crash the dollar and this would cause obviously some mendis. mayhem now if china good follows through is there a connection there are they motivated to do so is it is it do we enter the fog of currency war where people start making decisions you know after the first currency shot is fired where it just goes into chaos which i think is also one of your prognostications as one of the being one of the four possible outcomes is outright chaos correct and i think it's a very good way to put it there is a fog of war whether it's a shooting war or clandestine war finance who work currency war you're always going to get our expected consequences but just on that chinese point i talk about the scenario of the chinese dumping their u.s. government. and raising interest rates and staking our economy only to set the stage only because everyone else talks

department a trend that cannot last lawrence goodman a former treasury official said and the wall street journal he said this not only creates a false appearance as a limitless demand for u.s. debt but also blunt any sense of urgency to reduce supersized budget deficit i want to coin a phrase right here right now go ahead max i want full credit for it but to some i want to be a page of phrases that place ok that's lucian this is an expansion of debt which is causing here in people who fear that the government's going to start monetizing the debt and in just a patient they're buying gold silver other tangibles what you're describing is the u.s. government is now getting into the mama station of selling debt. that's what people are fearing is coming through what they fear gold continues to go higher because of desolation inflation or deflation those terms are antiquated they're not applicable anymore it's not pleasure and i'm the author of those tour and when you use the term please send me five dollars each and every time you do the max if you read the financial news or watch any financia

the treasury. with whose money? china's.t's what is destroying the american economy. >> bret: moontime, the gao is saying that medicare advantage should be canceled. something that the white house is pushing back on. this whole issue, can it be debated during this election? can it really, can people get down in the weeds and really fight over specifics in an election environment? >> they could. do i expect it? not at all. what secretary geithner said and what democrats have adopted as the argument on medicare for instance, they just ignore social security. on medicare, to say well, it will change social security, or the medicare as we know it. well, of course it will. that is what you have to do. you have to change and we have a system now where it incentivizes overuse. by doctors, procedures and everything. it guarantees that they will spen more than they need to. that is the idea of the premium support plan proposed by paul ryan. alex rittlin has a version. senator from oregon joined in. it's out there. to have to denounce

treasury savings account for a number of years now. and that would allow small savers to accumulate roughly $5,000. but at that point then that would be rolled into the private sector. we feel that the private sector is going to be more innovative. it's going to create more jobs. and, frankly, it will do a better job of keeping costs lower. >> thank you. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for holding this hearing today. and your leadership on these issues as well as overall tax reform. as someone who has been interested in pension and retirement issues since i've been here, i look forward to working with you, mr. chairman and others on this issue. i think strongly that we need to make sure that americans have the tools and the education necessary to feel as though they can make the right choices with respect to retirement. one of our panelists did a study with the employee benefits research institute and only in that study mr. vanderheid, only 14% of americans are confident they'll be able to a

this is where the treasury was operating of the provisional government. and now we've gone from serial number 1 to number 119. these all say to joshua fletcher esqui esquire. the treasurer 69 provisional governor of texas will pay to araftis smith money out of the treasury not otherwise appropriated. this puts smith the famed texas count in san felipe de austin in january of 1836. but they needed to raise real money so they had agents fan across text from san augustin to nacogdoches to nagorda. this is a receipt for cannonballs. 46 six-pound cannonballs. it was signed at quintana january 24th, 1836 by james w. fannon jr., agent for the provisional government. james fannon signed this in his capacity as an agent for the provisional government the very day that he sailed from velasco down to copano bay and began the march to golead in which he would be dead two months later. it was his signature as an agent of the provisional government that bound the government to pay this receipt. mckinney and williams would have turned this in after the war for whatever

department of treasury. where he oversaw analyses of public policy issues involving government sponsored enterprises and other financial institutions. before that he worked at the general accountability office. perhaps you are noticing a pattern here. i think it's safe to say that director demarco has dedicated his professional life to public service. this is something he takes very seriously. which leads us back to his present position. as "the wall street journal" editorial page noted yesterday, mr. demarco is the career civil service who drew the short straw and ended up as the acting chief of the federal housing and finance agency. and so director demarco said here today at the center of a controversy, having been labeled the nation's top obstacle to economic recovery, as was being called america's most dangerous man. with some liberal member of congress even calling for him to be fired. director demarco has a tie to brookings which i think it's interesting. he was a doctoral student in economics at the

treasury of itself says the department of energy gave accountants at treasury les than 24 hours to gover solyndra's books, rushing it along so the d.o.e. could issue a press release. the treasury says it found flaws in solyndra's finances but says it can find no evidence the department of energy paid any attention. the treasury wasn't really involved in the solyndra loan. it just cut the check. it's not clear if they had any legal obligation to examine the loan in the first place. >>> markets are quiet this morning, even after good news. first time jobless claims fell to a new four-year low. as you mentioned, we get the big jobs number, the jobs gained in the past month tomorrow. the stock market won't get a chance to react, though. the markets are closed for the good friday holiday. jon? >> thank you very much. >>> president obama paying special tribute to a classic film about fighting prejudice and racism in a small southern town. the president introducing a special screening of "to kill a mocking billions bird "this evening to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this brilliant movie.

but treasury secretary henry paulson thought geithner's strategy might send a dangerous message.he started publicly reminding wall street of one of the most basic tenets of the free market: moral hazard. >> i'm as aware as anyone is of moral hazard. i am also aware of... >> moral hazard poses the question: if you bail somebody out of a problem they themselves cause, what incentive will they have the next time to avoid making the same mistake? >> paulson is out in public saying, "it's all on you now. this was a one-time only event. you're on your own now. we did it with bear. but now you're on your own." >> there's news today of a federal bailout for a wall street... >> it's a fire sale for troubled bear stearns... >> narrator: the bailout of bear stearns landed in the middle of an election year. >> are you fired up? are you ready to go? fired up? >> narrator: barack obama had already made the economy a key issue. >> because we've got eight years of disastrous economic policies. that's what we're going to change when i'm president of the united states of america. >> obama very ear

other hand, if we decide to place a greater value on protecting taxpayers on identity theft and the treasury against fraudulent refun claims, the irs will need more times to review returns and the taxpayers who receive refunds will have to way considerably longer to get them. the irs will require a considerably larger staff to enable it process returns more quickly. there is no way around the trade-offs. i appreciate the opportunity to testify today and will be happy to answer questions. >> thank you. >> general inspector george? >> thank you for the opportunity to testify on the tax gap and the efforts by the internal revenue service to enforce compliance with the tax code. my comments will also address the growing risk of identity theft and talks fraud. >> january 2012 the irs released estimates of the gap for 2006 which indicated the nation's 83% voluntary compliance was was essentially unchanged from prior estimates. the grossed tax increased from $345 billion to 450 billion as was indicated by mr. miller. my written statement include as table that shows a comparison between the prior an

the treasury department was given 24 hours to review it.sury flags something and you're in infancy of your administration, does it send up a red flag for you to halt -- >> kimberly: absolutely. that is an alert to say let me investigate the situation, properly vet it, go through it. that's what you have an obligation to do. they have it. what this administration likes to do is ignore that. they act like it's a monarchy over there. and then they say let's double down on the investment. recklessly. it's not just with respect to solyndra. but this is consistent. in terms of the way that their administration deals with it. >> juan: i don't know what is so reckless -- >> kimberly: it is reckless. they don't care because it's not their money. >> juan: the alternative energy industry in the country is doing well. especially when the price of gas is going up. that's why the bush administration wanted to invest. >> dana: no no, no. that is not what happened. >> juan: they didn't want to -- let me get this straight, they didn't want to invest in alte

geithner is a 75th secretary of the treasury of the united states serving as treasury, mr. geithner served as chief executive of the reserve bank of new york of the federal market committee. the group responsible for monetary policy. secretary geithner had a long career at the treasury but also worked at the world bank, direct -- sorry, at the imf directing policy development and reviewed department. he has very strong both international and national experience bringing it together. secretary geithner studied international economics at dartmouth, the event will take place in the form of a conversation with david ignatius from "the washington post." whom many of you i'm sure, maybe all of you know writes twice a week for an affairs column. david has also written eight spinals. the most famous of which is probably "body of lies" in 2008 was made into a hollywood film starring leonardo dicaprio and russell crow. i told him before the meeting that i was really very jealous of that. ignatius joined the "post" in 1986. in 1990 became foreign editor. 1993 assistant editor for busi

agree line shows the yield above the basket of treasuries. you can see it is about the average level it has been since the late 1990's, but look at the red line -- the default level is near the lowest levels. on a risk/reward basis, owning high-yield funds are an attractive place to be. equities is something we're very excited out. we have been excited for two or three months. january has been off to a good start, but the profits many people have made in bonds are starting to move to stocks. let me show you the charts. in terms of metrics used to determine whether stocks are cheap or expensive, this is probably the most popular one in terms of the forward p/e ratio, and you can see it is below the long-term average. many stocks are relatively cheap. this looks at the earnings yield and compares it to treasuries. it is at record highs going back 50 years. some people like to compare it against corporates -- record high for the last 30 years. this is my favorite one of all -- the yield you would receive on a stock relative to a 10-year note on

that doesn't mean you like treasuries, right? >> no, it doesn't.imple strategy is follow the cash. in this case, corporate cash. corporations have profitability, margins, cash on balance sheets and we think that's good for credit. spreads can come in further and on any kind of pull back, we want to be adding to those positions. >> because the economy is slowing down? >> broad view around economic growth is that it is stimulus and economic recovery. that will be determined later this year by congress. our reality check is that corporations fundamentals are reasonable strong. we want to be a more picky but the credit markets look more attractive. >> you agree with that? >> i agree with the treasuries and avoiding them. i think high yield credits are interesting. the area i'm most interested within the equity market is the areas that generate dividend or buy back stock or things like that. that will hinge upon what is going on in the credit world. in other words, where our credit strategists are worried about what corporations will do in terms of rewa

>> members of treasury, members of finance, members of risk, treasury operations. because that was like a scenario analysis type of document and so it required the input to the estimate did you participate in that? >> i did, yes. >> and there was some wind you put the document to get there? >> via original request for the document was made in august i believe by the war. >> and was completed when? >> it was presented to the board sometime around about the middle of october. >> did you kind of break the glass scenario and finished at 14 days before you depart bankruptcy? >> it's very prudent and common to have a document like this i call firms do it and the initiation was many months prior. >> do you disagree with any analogy i made that the only way the customers would have lost money is if people took money out of that account and didn't put it back, yes or no? this is going to be yes or no pity we aren't going to accept. the only customers lose money if they lose money on their positions but if you met their positions the only way the customer has lost over a bil

title 5 of the dodd frank act created the federal insurance office at treasury and in conjunction with state regulators and the u.s. trade representatives one of their most important missions is to strengthen the international competitiveness of the u.s. insurers and reinsurers and to represent the united states in international for ups and increase development of international insurance standards. in your opinion does fido have the adequate staffing and other resources to successfully carry out this international mission? >> i believe so. but if that were not the case we'd fix it. we've listened carefully to concerns. i'm personally committed to making sure that office has the resources it needs. >> fido was required to submit two reports in september and one in january, and they are late and when will we see those? >> you are right they are late. we've been busy but that's not really a resource question. it's just that they want to do it carefully. >> i'd like to go back to mr. miller was talking about the volcker rule. and i know that there have been associations like sipma that hav