ubs offered a 2% discount if and only if all the other counterparties would accept one. that was not the case. we did our best to get a reduction there. given aig was not bankrupt and given we were not going to abuse our supervisory but the fact of the matter is a aig, aig was 80% owned at that time. by the federal government. but i just want to say -- let me say that i disagree -- >> i just want to say, let me just say that i disagree. mr. chairman, going through that period of that time, when they were talking about the bonuses, virtually no reporting on the county party issue, and the fact of the matter is that we allowed 100 cents on the dollar, with little or no negotiation, it just is -- i have raised the issue with others before. i do not understand that, and most americans do not. it is billions of dollars b and it is hard to imagine that we could not negotiate with any of the counterparties. >> we did not have any leverage. they would say, "you are bankrupt." >> aig, if they would not have done that, they would have been in trouble. >> that is all true, but most

i will ask you, bob, whether you sometimes feel ub -- you are singing to the deaf while you are writing in >> singing, sometimes what? >> singing to the deaf. >> my hearing is already fading. there say vote in my house whether i should get a hearing aid and it's 4-1 and i'm the 1. so far i've held out. no, i don't. i think there is a real hunger for information, for journalism but i think people feel overwhelmed by the amount of information they're getting and that they have a hard time sifting through all the kind of raw data and sort of the onrush of events, figuring it out what it means. i think many readers or viewers think there is someone somewhere who knows what it means, but there isn't, of course. and this sensation of feeling -- of not -- of feeling not understanding what's going on is in fact i think one of the events that we are portraying. part of this economic crisis, i would say a large part of this economic crisis was that the events on the ground moved faster in a way that was not anticipated by the people who were supposed to be in charge and supposed to understand wha

ubs offered a 2% discount if and only if all the other counterparties would accept one.that was not the case. we did our best to get a reduction there. given aig was not bankrupt and given we were not going to abuse our supervisory power, we really had no way to create a substantial discount. >> mr. chairman, i don't want to take anymore time. but the fact of the matter is aig, aig was 80% owned at that time by the federal government. >> i want to just say, let me say, and i disagree with my friend and colleague from kentucky about the conclusion of what happened under your nomination. going through that period at that time with all the headlines about the $168 million in bonuses that went out to aig and virtually no reporting whatsoever on the counterparty issue. the fact of the matter that we allowed 100 cents on the dollar to go to the counterparts with little or no negotiation, i've raised the issue with others before, i don't understand that at all and most americans don't. that was billions dollars. one company alone was $12.5 billion. it's hard to accept the negot

thought the housing market would bounce back from what was viewed as a slow down and problems in the ub prime market could be contained. chairman ben bernanke said and i quote. fundamental factors including solid growth and incomes and relatively low mortgage rate should support housing attend troubles in the subprime sector seem unlikely to seriously spill over to the broader economy of the financial system. he followed a speech in october of 2007 by saying banking system is healthy. goodness. in october of 20027 banking system was decidedly as we all know not by many accounts the system was much into the time the post fall out that typically follows price depreciation like that that just occured the housing market. in making fundamental miss diagnosis he missed the clear signal. a housing bubble. weakened economy. instability in the credit market and he missed a clear chance to take action when he would not have required a massive commitment of taxpayer resources in considering chairman ben bernanke real appointment we need to be mindful that the christ sis of 2008 was not day or week

president believes the decision he made was the right one and will continue to try to make sure they ubs it. cheryl. >> thanks, robert. the president was deeply involved, obviously, in creating this policy. and i'm wondering how does he envision this role going forward in the implementation. people that worked with push after the iraq surge was announced in january, 2007, president bush had weekly meetings with petraeus, crawford, secretary gates and others for the remainder of his term, that the implementation of the afghanistan strategy would require a similar sustained involvement by the president. and i'm wondering, what does president obama see his involvement going forward? >> i don't -- let me ask some of the folks at n.s.c. obviously there's a structure that will be set up to measure a series of benchmarks. the president receives and is in regular contact with -- obviously he sees secretary gates and admiral mullen each week at the white house. he has seen general petraeus somewhat regularly and receives both military and political updates each week from ambassador hill, general