does the treasury have capacity to do these sorts of things? there was talk that the treasury would need to undertake certain things to explain to investors how this process would work. we've got a parliamentary system where the debate was really in an environment about what level we increase the debt ceiling. it was not a debate around not increasing it. it was the level it was increased to. behind the motivation of the government of wanting to increase the debt ceiling at the time to $500 billion was to cover what people could really see was going to be the australian government are owing requirements for a number of years with a bit of a buffer on top of that. it did not want to be in a situation where in a few months time or years time, it faced a recurring situation. it was to provide some kind of certainty to markets. the australian treasury will have to borrow a certain amount and parliament has the authority to do that when it's required. >> did you ever prepare for the possibility that asked ordinary measures would run out? >> yes, i t

we have email from treasury to i.r.s. off plan. now, we're trying to get more of these emails because we want to know, what does it mean off plan? why was this discussed? and why was this discussed before the allocations came forward from these various groups? this is not right. we need to get to the bottom of it. and rather than occurring confusion, the proposed rule would silence these social welfare organizations and have a disproportionate affect on some of these right-leaning conservative groups that were subject in the first place to targeting. mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from louisiana reserves. the gentleman from new york. mr. crowley: mr. speaker, my good friend from louisiana would continue to have you believe that only right-wing and conservative groups were being investigated when in fact he knows and we know that it went well beyond that. there were progressive groups that were also subject to this investigation. but mr. speaker, let me also point out to my frie

the treasury department steps in. the u.s. house for bloomberg news. you are writing about that today. what does the treasury department have to do regarding the debt ceiling and what has been talked about by senator boehner and other republican leaders in terms of dealing with it on a long-term basis? >> the treasury started the first in a series of extraordinary measures. avoidare designed to hitting the actual debt limit. they are procedures that the treasury department says it could run until late this month. they have not set a certain date as of yet on when exact the. they are expecting sometime before the end of the month. lawmakers in congress are trying to figure out a way to raise the limit. possibility that they will come up with a bill to be voted on as early as next week. although that is still a bit in flux right now. >> the senate is coming back to take on a bill dealing with military pensions. why is this an issue for the senate? >> there was something that happened during the negotiations on the two-year budget. this was included. this

if the treasury of course chooses not to, the u.s.payer loses $75 billion and everybody else walks away with nothing in their hand. >> what exactly is the treasury trying to do? you have members of congress that want to get rid of fannie and freddie completely. the treasury holds the warrants. what do they want to do right now? this is in court right now, being challenged by investors, correct? >> correct. in other words what the treasury wants to do is take 100% of all the profits of fannie mae and freddie mac and put it into the treasury and wants freddie mac an fan fay take the capital down to zero in 2017 which would of course eliminate the companies. the basis of their making that claim are the desire to do that is something called the third amendment which is an amendment that the treasury put into place in 2012, in august of 2012, which from my point of view and obviously the point of view of the 20 or so companies suing the treasury is illegal. >> right. >> if that, if that amendment is taken out, then there's a chance that th

treasury security stand as essentially the linchpin of the global financial system. they are the an ultimate faith risk, hopefully save if they don't default, the free liquid asset which is embedded in the whole, not just in u.s. financial system of the global financial system. so the whole thing appears i think to many market for disciplines is ones that i would have a dialogue with us to move around the world is sort of an unnecessary issue which then layers potential noise and then potential costs into the system. .. i have said in the past that you know the debt ceiling has as a rhetorical opportunity you know probably serve some function for some period of time and i would just give you some of the negotiations that took place in the past that opened the debt ceiling and really open the budget. with the debt ceiling often became an opportunity for congress to use that data and have a conversation about the size of the debt. we could use it as a reminder, sort of as a rhetorical school to talk about the debt that was useful but once it became, once people started

the treasury resisted a big tax cut.anted a down payment in '62 to make sure we didn't fall into a recession and go ahead in '63. he didn't buy that. in '62, he bought the idea of an across-the-boards tax cut. every dollar released from taxation that is spent or invested will help create new jobs and new salaries. these can create other jobs and salaries and more customers and more growth for an expanding american economy. although kennedy agreed with him, heller had galbraith to contend with. every now and then, his shadow would fall across the white house when he'd come home to report from india. the president would say, "galbraith's been lobbying against your tax cut." i had access to the president and expressed myself with some vigor that if we passed tax cuts, they would become too popular with conservatives, and they would be taken up by conservatives at the cost to the expenditures that were needed on behalf of needy people. despite ambassador galbraith's arguments, the president remained committed to his tax cut.

that is how treasury secretary jack lew says what needs to be done.t guest says more needs to be done. carly fiorina helped out on some presidential campaigns. the president argued to me for raising the minimum wage. take a listen to what jack lew said. >> i don't feel it is right to work for 40 hours and take home pay below the poverty line. >> for him, it is an issue of economic justice. the congressional budget office said it would lift 1 million people out of poverty with the minimum wage raise. you have the companies like the gap, carly,ntarily raising minimum wage for 65,000 people. should the federal government force companies to do it or should companies start doing it like the gap. >> i think first of all, the many, many companies pay above the minimum wage. as demand rises and productivity rises, wages rise. we know that. i understand the appeal of the minimum wage. i understand the ethical argument. the facts are the minimum wage increase helps people who have a job. it doesn't help people who don't have a job. it particularly doesn't help

>> that's a mat they are's entirely up to the treasury. that is not the domain of the federal reserve. >> but you have -- you perform the functions for the treasury through the new york fed, don't you? >> with the fed's fiscal agent. >> if they asked you to do it, could you? >> it is not up to us for a plan concerning what bills would be paid. >> if the treasury asked you to create a program to put into place through the new york fed could you do it? >> i don't know that we could do that. >> do you think it would be a good idea to do that? >> treasury submits to us every day a set of payments to make. >> i understand. let me finish with this, plisz yellen. we have asked for the records from the fed, specifics related -- identified in the meeting from the new york fed. the new york fed told us we can have have them until they get permission to give them to us from the treasury. in light of your earlier comments regarding fed independence, are you concerned about having to ask the treasury for permission to given information to congress? >>

on the treasury, pressure on the treasury to pay its bills. there is disappointing job numbers, i am glad to have jack lew back at this table, welcome. >> good to be with you, charlie. >> rose: i should also say you were chief of staff to the president as well. >> i assume all those jobs served you well as secretary of the treasury, because of what that job entails. >> charlie, i would say that there is nothing i have done that hasn't been helpful in preparing me but there are still great challenges in this job. you know, the combination of the familiarity with the detailed federal government that you learn at omb, managing decisions across complicated organizations and understanding the political frame in which things have to be decided is all pretty good training, but treasury is a very special place and it has been a great honor t to be a secretary for the past year. >> rose: do you believe budgets reflect values? >> i do believe that budgets reflect values, when you make decisions in constrained resources, you are fundamentally deciding if

treasury secretary jack lew calling for congress to extend the ceiling. the obama administration sa sayg this country will hit the borrowing limit on friday without so-called extraordinary measures by the treasury department. just over a week ago far from d.c. we anticipated bumping up against the deadline even though people said it would not happen again. i asked the world economic forum about this worry. liz: let me push you. is he correct when he says we could see another debt ceiling battle in february? >> i point back to october what happened during the shutdown and when the secretary of the treasury announced a date by which if we went beyond that day, we would be in the territory of the unknown, somehow we would be in default and america would not pay its bills. none of us want that to happen. liz: well, we might see it happen because republicans are demanding conditions for raising the nation's debt ceiling. they usually do anyway but is there another very serious battle brewing inside the beltway? peter barnes precisely at the time when the marke

yeidl per -- yield per treasury. you're doing him a favor by buying down that yield curve, transferred $77 billion from the fed to the treasuries. obviously reduce the interest-bearing cost. view, if these deficits are negative, the fed has almost become a deficit in a blur -- en abler in that you are making it very easy to really mask what the real cost of these deficits are. they saidf the cbo, in a recent release that 74% of the budget deficit for the next 10 years will be on interest alone. qe in this huge position the fed has taken -- i think it has almost become a deficit in a blur. i would be interested -- enabler. i would be interested to hear your thoughts on that. >> we are interested in achieving the objectives that congress has assigned to the federal reserve. maximum sustainable employment and price stability. had unemployment well above normal levels, and inflation running well below our two percent objective. the federal reserve is focused on putting in place a monetary policy that is designed to achie

only on treasuries, on mortgages as well. probably we have a slightly bigger impact on mortgage rates by buying mortgage backed securities. >> if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it seems to me there is some targeting going on. here is where i am going. i have long wondered why it is the fed could not target. another sector that cries out for it is investment and infrastructure. in fact in the 1970's, the said purchase the bonds that help build metro. i know there is a precedent for that having occurred. the fact of the matter is, the evidence about the infrastructure deficit, the incidence -- evidence for short and long-term jobs would be created. it seems to me it is just a strong a case as it is for targeting mortgage backed securities and the results and the effect on the housing industry. what would you need in order for the fed to positively consider doing this again as occurred in the 1970's? >> our desire is to stimulate interest sensitive sectors of the economy. the federal reserve is to buy government an

and eventually the treasury department became convinced that the state department was going far beyond the proper and necessary in enforcing regulations, and the treasury department turned up evidence that the state department had suppressed some of the information about the holocaust, going out of switzerland. and a man whom i had the privilege of interviewing wrote up a scathing memorandum. and morgenthaler was persuaded, he talked it down a little bit but he took the memo to the president. >> what was the title of that memo? >> report on the acquiescence of the government and the mass murder of the jews. and the president decided to take jurisdiction of way from the state department and to establish the war refugee board. >> thank you. >> you talked before about the u.s. british negotiations on a joint statement. i was one if you give us a cliff notes version of a churchill and the jews book? and how you would describe his involvement. >> i don't think i'm going to do that one from memory. sir martin gilbert and i have had some disagreements on matters of interpretation, and he has

selling stocks and buying treasury bonds as a safe haven. we've seen this numerous times since the credit crisis, and i think it's another good example of it happening again. >> anastasiya, let's turn to what i should do with my money. should i do anything in this context if my portfolio is relatively diversified, and if i want to play defense, and we saw seattle win with defense yesterday, what should i do to play defense intelligently? >> i think there is definitely room for both. let me start with defense first. for the investors where they are critical is to protect principal, absolutely there is room for safety and that's why we turn to safe haven treasuries and specifically on the longer end of the spectrum they have done very, very well. longer term of the maturity spectrum. also, within equities, investors could rebound away from the stocks, such as industrial, such as materials that are heavily tied to this emerging market trade and focus more on the defensive sectors. i wouldn't say this is the only thing investors should do. inves

up accordingly the largest of the three treasury inspector generals and on to much is given much is expected so we rely on your office and your counsel to help us assess the irs's management and use of taxpayer fundss so welcome back, inspected george. please to welcome back olson, national taxpayer advocate. this is your first appearance since 2007 so i am hoping we can hear from you about your services, which you provide to taxpayers, what you are doing to help the taxpayers who may have been victims of tax law and abuse and the irs can make the use of its funding. welcome, mr. olson. i appreciate the service of both of you, the testimony, but when the yield to the ranking member for any opening statement he would like to make. >> i want to welcome you both here. an interesting conversation with the commissioner. and what the recommendations are and things are falling into place or not? and from you, miss olson and how we can better serve the public and bring down the fear everyone has of the irs and we thank you and look forward to your testimony. >> let me start by asking both o

well aaron we've got a lot of mixed signals here obviously i'm not a huge fan of using treasury yields to tell us much anymore at this point because the fed has so distorted that market one of many markets they that they have distorted so badly but as you rightly note june nineteenth and twentieth of two thousand and thirteen with fed taper talk wasn't just bonds that sold off everything sold off we saw stocks bonds and commodities all take big hits at that point time that could be a measure of front running i think it was more a measure of the extent to which people had somehow thought the fed was always going to just continue with the free money forever even the thought of the fed stopping the free money obviously is going to have huge impacts for all sorts of markets the equity market in particular is really very much hinged at this point on the idea that the fed will print and print more us now or the rise in prices bond prices in the fall and yields is this a sign of economic weakness in your opinion. well i think there's a couple of things going on one of the first of all this is

on wednesday the treasury budget is due. that tracks the deficit or surplus. and sales for the month of december will be released. finally the fun and games in pebble beach. the tournament is one of the highlights of the pga tour with a winning purse topping $6 million. 166 pros and 166 amateur golfers come together on three of the most beautiful golf courses. this dates back to the first clam bake for charity that was posted by crooner bing crosby. the pebble beach tournament has raised more than $110 million for charity. that's the show for today. i'm becky quick. next week the debate over having it all for women and men. my guest wrote a controversial piece on why work life balance is harder than ever to achieve. >>> each week keep it here. we are "on the money". i'll see you next weekend. [ wind howling ] [ female announcer ] it balances you... [ water crashing ] ...it fills you with energy... and it gives you what you are looking for to live a more natural life. in a convenient two bar pack. this is nature valley... delicious granola bars made with the be

ally is the last of the nation's big banks that's still partly owned by the treasury. it has a 37% stake. >>> on wall street, stocks ended slightly lower today drifting to the down side in the final hour of trading, closing at the lows of the session on this options expiration friday. the dow was down 30 points today, and ended just a bit lower for the week. the nasdaq lost 4 points. it still managed to touch a more than 13-year high during the session and ended higher for the third week in a row. the s & p lost 3 today. >>> transcripts from more than a dozen 2008 meetings of the federal reserve were released today, giving a rare glimpse into how the central bankers agonized over how far to go to stop the financial crisis from getting worse, including whether to authorize a bailout of lehman brothers or let it fail as it did. one passage from september of 2008 quotes former chairman ben bernanke saying "events are happening quickly, and we don't have a set criteria. we don't have fiscal backstops. and we don't have clear congressional intent." another quote, ben bernan

. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> treasury secretary jack lew spoke about the risk of the government defaulting on itsarring limit is reached this month. this is hosted by the bipartisan policy center. >> good morning everybody. i am the president of the bipartisan policy center and i want to thank you for coming out on this dreary morning for what i expect maybe a sober conversation. to save time with us and everyone just insert their own super bowl metaphor now. [laughter] so this morning it is my honor and privilege to introduce the country 76th treasury secretary mr. jack lew. secretary lew is distinguished public servant known as an honest broker and a tough negotiator, a long career in washington for work with tip o'neill and president clinton to tours at the office of management and budget most recently a relaxing ears the president's chief of staff. the secretary as many good traits but most disorienting especially in washington these days is that he is liked and respected by just about everybody. which brings us to today and the discussion of the debt ceiling. for the bipartisan policy center

the treasury department can exempt projects if it wants. it has to alert the legislature and offer written justification for doing so within 10 days. again, senate majority office confirmed to us that they have never received a single waiver form like that. think about that $60 million in sandy money that went to bellville last money. that is more than the $5 million that should have triggered the monitor law. it was supposed to mean an independent entity would theoretically be monitoring, tracking and reporting on that project. now, think about another big contract that's been in the news recently. the biggest single sandy recovery contract yet given out. you may remember this. it was in the news last week. $68 million for a firm called hammerman and gainer, hgi it is known as. that hgi contract we found out last week was quietly canceled by the christie administration in december. they haven't fully explained why. when we asked, they referred us to a statement from the department of community affairs that said that the termination of the

. >> there's a lot of state department recognition that collapsed after the treasury department. and they started advancing the operations. about how many jews were saved by that time and i would like your historical insight on that. but i feel the need to move around a little bit more for questions. and are you hearing it back okay? okay. so you asked and i have to explain the complications before giving you a number. and they had involved this in the encouraging of others to try to rescue this to occupy the countries in europe and warnings to these nazi satellite countries to engage with with not the officials in budapest and elsewhere. and that is one problem. if you are talking about the direct numbers, you are talking about a small figure of 10 to 20,000 people and most people are not familiar with the efforts of them in budapest. and he was sent the funds of the war board. and there are more warnings to the hungarian government which reinforced those warnings and that's helped with the deportations for three months. and if you start to add in the indirect things there is so

and that you currently hold 18% of the outstanding treasuries. what a lot of people don't realize is you kind of bought down the yield curve for the treasury. i'm sure mr. lou will put you on his turkey list come christmas time because you're doing him a huge favor by buying down the yield curve. transferring $77 billion from the fed to the treasuries to obviously reduce the interest borrowing cost. so in my view, if these deficits are negative, the fed has almost become a deficit enabler in that you're making it very easy to really mask, you know, what the real cost of these deficits are. speaking of the cbo, they said in a recent release that 74% of the budget deficit for the next ten years will be on interest alone. and so is this quantitative easing in the huge position that the fed has taken, i question -- i think it's almost become a deficit enabler. i would be interested to hear your response on that. >> so, we're very focused on achieving the objectives that congress has assigned the to the federal reserve. and that is maximum sustainable

why did the fed choose to split it between mortgage backed securities and treasuries? >> well, both kinds of purchases have similar effects on longer term interest rates. >> now if the housing market starts the to slow down, would the fed consider maintaining the purchases of mortgage backed securities and only tapering treasury purchases? >> i think both kinds of purchases affect interest rates broadly. some evidence suggested different impact, but it's very hard to think of these being discreet. >> translator: the time of the gentle lady expired. the chair now recognizes the gentle lady from west virginia. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i would like to add my voice to the course of congratulations to chair on her enl employment. i've been on the committee for many, many years and i've understood more of what you said than i have probably the last two folks that were in front of us. so thank you for that. >> well, thank you. >> i represent west virginia and energy state. in your report, you note the growth in the oil and gas development business, which i think has great

lois lerner is with the irs but she is dealing with treasury officials, treasury officials now are involved in this targeting of conservative organizations. this is a big deal. but understand the entire administration from the very top, white house counsel like bob bauer were hyper paranoid about citizens united, a supreme court case that let free speech flow. and they wanted to find new ways to shut people up, like true the vote and the tea party organizations. and the irs and the treasury department in that e-mail is going full board trying to figure out how to do it. >> and what wound up happening, they targeted these conservative groups. it delayed their applications. hundreds of them basically gave up or didn't ultimately get approval because the process was so onerous, they needed donor lists and all sorts of information that was not appropriate to ask for. so that is how the irs went about sort of cracking down on them. now, today, chris, they're trying to -- oh, we're very -- it was inappropriate. but what we would like to do is just push through this new rule that is going to stop

department in december last year china's holdings of u s treasury debt decreased by over forty nine billion us dollars the treasury data show that in december us that the tenant appendix two to three dollars each country global demand for gold fell by fifteen percent in two thousand thirteen. in comparison with the previous year an amount to three thousand seven hundred and fifty six times the fall in demand as explained by almost two full decreasing the demand for gold investments. central banks have also shown less interest in the precious metals in monetary terms demand fell by twenty percent. the two thousand thirteen. hackers have caused losses to russian and foreign companies in the mouth of twenty five billion us dollars. is it that the reports. the most whites for ten of the peak of the future of web services accounting for twenty four point five percent and over two tablets together accounting for sixteen point three percent. most probably that i get to practice making health care decisions sixteen percent retail companies sixteen point two percent and government agencies.

the treasury has just issued this no security. everybody here should learn about them and own a few floating rate notes. >> thank you for being here this morning. make sure you join us tomorrow. "squawk on the street" begins right now. >>> good morning and welcome to "squawk on the street." i'm david faber with jim cramer. we are live from the new york stock exchange. carl is in sochi, we'll hear from him a little later on. janet yellen set to deliver her first testimony to congress as fed chair about an hour from now in her prepared remarks yellen says she expects a great deal of continuity with her predecessor ben bernanke when it comes to monetary policy adding that the fed will likely cut bond purchases in measured steps if economic data indicates improvement. take a look, of course, where we're going to start the day. looks like we will have slightly up open at this point. as you look at futures. and, of course, with yellen about to speak, an hour from now, the ten-year yield certainly becomes important, at two seven. >> inte

we have great materials because of the morganthau diaries as well as treasury department records. so the world jewish congress was trying one option after another to save lives in eastern europe, and the state department was throwing up one obstacle after another, and some of it was assistant secretary of state breckenridge, but some of it was other state the president officials. state department officials. and eventually, the treasury department became convinced that the state department was going far beyond the proper and necessary in enforcing regulations, and the treasury department turned up evidence that the state department had suppressed some of the information about the holocaust going out of switzerland. a man named josiah duboise jr. which i had the product of interviewing wrote up a scathing memorandum. and morganthau was persuaded to -- he toned it town a little bit, but he took the memo to the president. >> what was the title of that memo? >> report on the acquiesce sense of this government in the mass murder of the jews. and the president decided to take jurisdictio

you don't need this to buy treasury bonds. what he is basical saying to employers is help us run massive deficits. >> what is it? what is it? >> he's not saying why don't you invest in competent america. he's saying, buy our debt. >> it won't amount to enough money to matter to our debt, number one. >> that's not the reason to do it. >> the reason he is doing it is to go to the state of the union address and say, hey, i am reaching out to people. the thing doesn't make sense to me the way we save in this country is already so complicated. iras. >> you can buy apple. >> it's just wrong. we don't need another complicated retirement vehicle that's impossible to figure out. there is a $15,000 limit on these things for the life of it. that's why it won't amount to anything. >> why is the government getting involved in this? >> first of all, i don't disagree, this is mostly pr. it won't amount much to the government. to savers. having said that, we know for a fact that many, many people in this country are poor savers. they aren't g

secretary of the us treasury department peekaboo. the stated that officials of the crean should seek assistance from the flesh will likely find in order to fight the economic crisis. at the end of two thousand thirteen. russia announced that it is willing to provide ukraine was alone in a nod to fifteen billion us dollars. the first part of the creek sovereign funds and another three billion dollars was bought up by russia in december two thousand thirteen. aside from the assistance of the cradles to receive a thirty percent discount on russian gas according to the deed to the us treasury department in december last year china's holdings of u s treasury debt decreased by over forty nine billion us dollars the treasury data show that in december us that the tenant appendix two to three dollars each from you global demand for gold fell by fifteen percent in two thousand thirteen. in comparison with the previous year an amount to three thousand seven hundred and fifty six times the fall in demand as explained by almost two fold decrease

treasurys had a $15 billion outflow or in flow.twork giving you the power to prosper. cheryl: breaking news on apple. want to show you what the stock is doing, reuters is reporting, recommending apple shareholders vote against carl icahn's proposal to expand the buyback program at apple. i featured the stock 30 minutes ago this news crossing 13 minutes ago. the stock jumping on this news. this could be a blow to carl icahn in his plans because he has been all over tim cook to expand the buyback program and bring in profits to shareholders. i want to say i spoke about this 30 minutes ago, they had been buying $14 billion back in stock over the last couple weeks but carl icahn who we should also say and own $3 billion worth of apple stock wants that to be a lot more. he would like to see $50 billion but at this $.14 billion is what we are getting. against carl icahn if you own apple's stock. retailers off to a rough start this year. layoffs plaguing the industry. winter weather including this week's mid-atlantic and northeast ice sto

dollar, treasuries, what grabs your eye right now on the floor of the cme?ll, we're trading futures here, so we're looking at the market discounts, everything. you're talking about record highs in the s&p. march s&p are already trading at record highs. three weeks ago we were 124 handles lower. the dow futures were a thousand points lower back in the first week of february when people were panicking, everybody was looking for a 10% correction. that never came through. we got about a 6-7% correction. all those people that bet on the market continuing going lower have been chased out past three weeks, and what are they looking forward to now? well, really a week from tomorrow we're going to get the unemployment numbers the first friday of the month. that is going to set the tone, i think. for right now you've got people that sold the market in the hole, they've been chased out, and right now if you look at, all the markets are up. gold's up, the bond market's rallied, and the stock market's rallied. so anybody that's been betting on the short side has been cha

there is a lot of energy spent at treasury and institutions like it around the world. talked to my counterparts in emerging economies and developed countries and the imf. people are watching it carefully. what i am expressing reflects a broadly held view. >> has the economic recovery from the 2008 recession has it as much as you expected it to by this time around the world? >> i actually thought about this a lot in 2008-2009. and i thought at the time there would be a long, slow recovery because of the nature of the recession, the history of financial recessions is that they are long, slow recoveries. i think what we didn't know then is exactly how deep it was. we only found out when the statistics got revised a couple of years later that the whole -- hole was even deeper. >> and how fragile the economy was. >> given how bad things were in 2008-2009, it was worse than we knew at the time. so it is probably disappointing it has taken as long. to compare where we were then to now, we have made enormous progress. if somebody sat down in 2009 and told you that are on imple

look at the treasury bonds.he fed stops tapering, yet bonds are going up which means interest rates are coming down naturally instead of being artificially pushed on by the fed. >> part rick, your thoughts, as well? >> inventories have been run down sharply because of the weather. and i think they'll be in a completely different place in six weeks' time when we start to see inventory rebuilding. and i know it might be a knee jerk reaction, depending on the number today. and i think it really has been, you know, weather related. what to me is far more important is yellen's testimony in terms of congress next week. i think she'll obviously basically calm markets and, you know, that is when we think, you know, markets will begin to recover. >> you get this number out of the way and position for a rally next week, then, yellen induced? >> maybe a knee jerk reaction today. earnings continue to be strong. yellen will calm the market next week, i feel. >> todd. >> i don't agree. i think that the market continues to wor

treasury secretary william mcadoo shrugged off the recession as "a propaganda of pessimism."ublicans had no doubt why the economy faltered. it was that dangerous democrat woodrow wilson. while many were quick to blame wilson, few thought the government should intervene to correct the situation. the prevailing point of view seemed to be that the business cycle was correcting an imbalance, and that by intervening, you might only make things worse. by the government coming in and purchasing more goods and services to take up for the lack of business investment, they might adversely affect the little business investment that there was. it's doubtful that this attitude provided much comfort to the unemployed workers who lined new york streets demanding assistance, workers who had barely recovered from the panic of 1907. but when relief came, it changed the world. when europe hurled itself into battle in august 1914, neutral americans began supplying food and weapons for the belligerents on both sides. the recession soon vanished as america cranked up to meet the new demand. lookin

i have breaking news from the treasury department. eamon javers has that. >> we're seeing a variety of reports that the treasury secretary has sent some communication to capitol hill saying the debt ceiling -- the deadline for that was today but now they're extending into these emergency measures and the question is how long can that last? reports are now that the treasury secretary is saying those measures can last to february 27th. not a whole lot of time here. that's largely because the treasury department doesn't have access to the kind of revenue because they're paying out tax refunds at this time of year. so when the debt ceiling falls at this time of year, they've got a little less running room than they traditionally have had in the past with the so-called extraordinary measures. >> thank you. warren myers, that's the kind of news -- that debt ceiling issue again has spooked the market in the past. it's not this time. what's going on there? >> i think after the way the republicans finally handled things last time, i think peop

a modest reduction in the pace of purchases from $45 billion to $40 billion per month offer term treasury securities and agency backed mortgage securities. at its january meeting, the committee decided to make additional reductions of the same magnitude if incoming information broadly supports the committee's expectation of on going improvement in labor market conditions and inflation moving back towards its longer run objective, the committee will likely reduce the pace of asset purchases in further measured steps at future meetings. that said, purchases are not on a preset course and the committee's decision about their -- decisions about their pace will remain contingent on its outlook for the labor market and inflation as well as its assessment of the likely efficacy and costs of these purchases. the committee has emphasized a highly accommodative policy will remain appropriate for a considerable time after asset purchases end. in addition, the committee has said since december 2012 that it expects the current low target range for the federal funds rate to be appropriate at least as l

treasury another $7 billion after posting its eight trade quarterly profit.this latest devon a, it is now sent the treasury more money than the billing up -- bailout it received during the crisis. at a white house meeting, the president said that the increase is good policy, and good politics. he said hiking the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, is supported by independent democrats, and republicans. capitaland political talk to maggie about the current -- the head of the governor meeting. my next guest is an expert in both political and it's cool international affairs. a former u.s. ambassador does it european union in may he was the deputy treasury secretary under resident clinton. he now runs international affairs at covington and burly, and he joins me from washington. mr. ambassador, welcome to bottom line, thank you for your time today. president's refusal to sign an agreement with the european union was what precipitated this crisis. will the parliament look to reverse that? >> in context, this really was post cold wart impasse between the u.s. and russi