hank paulson tells them essentially there is no help coming. he should have sold to jpmorgan chase and then it is obvious they have no friends. and is a dire circumstance september 2008. >> host: also whisper campaign against washington. >> jpmorgan & company i get the bank in the spring. jpmorgan does not like to lose. said they were biding their time until they could return with another opportunity. so they met with at to meet and talk with the regulators often about wamu. >> host: we were on the story for different publications this is made up of some much more. tell us about the difficulty of getting to the bottom of these reports they did not just to respond to your freedom of information request. >> no. [laughter] allot of work we did we did well i was a reporter at the business journal. we tried to piece together what had happened in the three weeks before it wamu failed. extremely secret. nobody was talking about it. nobody would talk to us. everything came back completely blacked out. we were so is an odd the only art in the book is th

he gets hank paulson on the phone and hank paulson calls tells them essentially there's no money coming because he should've sold to jpmorgan chase and that is when it becomes obvious that wamu has no friends in washington and that is a dire circumstance to be msu after september 2008. >> there's a campaign in new york against washington. >> jpmorgan did not get the bank in the spring 2008. he's not a bank that likes to lose. he would've not won while mayo in this dream. so there are from the sidelines friday in maritime essentially. they could return and have another opportunity. and so you can take that opportunity to meet with regulators, often about wamu. >> we were both on the story with different publications. i'm a columnist, you're a reporter. but this book is made up of so much more than that. tell us a little bit about the difficulty of really getting to the bottom of some of these reporters, what was really going on with the fdic and sheila bair. they didn't just respond to your freedom of information request. >> now, they didn't. well, a lot of the work that we did in public

he gets and posts them on the phone and hank paulson tells them essentially that there is no help coming because he should've sold to jpmorgan chase and that is when it becomes obvious that wamu has no friends in washington and that is a dire circumstance as you enter september 2008. >> and there's a whispering campaign in new york against washington. >> exactly because jpmorgan did not get the bank in the spring of 2008. jpmorgan is not a bank that likes to lose. they were not happy to have not one wamu in the spring. and said they were off on the sidelines biding their time essentially until they could return and have another opportunity. and so you could bet they are taken that opportunity to meet with regulators, talk with regulators and often about wamu. >> now we were both on the story for different publications, covering at the same time. i am a columnist can make you a reporter. but this book is made up of so much more than that. tell us a little bit about the difficulty of really getting to the bottom of some of these reports, what was really going on with the fdic. they didn't

well the original decision was made by by then secretary hank paulson who made the announcement and you know from his his view was that it would was not a particularly well crafted plan to buy these and he was running out of time and the banks were about as explained to us as later the banks were all about to fail they thought that morgan stanley was going to go that morgan that goldman sachs was going to drop soon after that and they explain that they didn't think that they had time to do that original program so they moved to this this capital injection you know buy up the stock of the banks. ultimately the decision not to move forward on the housing program that gets a little murkier nothing was introduced in the waning days of the bush administration. they explained to me at the time and i think it's later confirmed by barney frank that that essentially they were asked by the obama administration to hold off on doing something so the obama people could put together an advance their own plan that eventually that happened in two thousand and nine the ministration announce a plan to he

well the original decision was made by by then secretary hank paulson who made the announcement and you know from his his view was that it would was not a particularly well crafted plan to buy these and he was running out of time and the banks were bad he explained to us us later the banks were all about to fail they thought that morgan stanley was going to go that morgan that goldman sachs was going to drop soon after that and they explained that they didn't think that they had time to do that original program so they moved to this this capital injection you know buy up the stock of the banks. ultimately the decision not to move forward on the housing program that gets a little murkier nothing was introduced in the waning days of the bush administration. they explained to me at the time and i think it's later confirmed by barney frank that that essentially they were asked by the obama administration to hold off on doing something so the obama people could put together an advance their own plan that eventually that happened in two thousand and nine the ministration announce a plan to he

he gets hank paulson on the found and hank paulson tells him essentially the there is no help coming because he should've sold to jpmorgan chase. and that is when it becomes obvious that wamu has no friends in washington and that is a dire circumstance to be and as you enter september 2008. >> and there's a campaign in new york against washington. >> yeah, exactly because jpmorgan did not get the bank in the spring. they are not a bank that likes to lose. they were not happy to have not one wamu in the spring. they were off on the sidelines fighting the time essentially and so they could return and have another opportunity. and so, you can bet they were taken that opportunity to meet with regulators, talks to regulators and often about wamu. >> now we were both on the story for different publications. covered at the same time. i am a columnist, you're a reporter. but this book is made up of so much more than not. tell us a little bit about the difficulty of really getting to the bottom of some of these reports, what was really going on with the fdic issue. they didn't just respond to

well the original decision was made by by then secretary hank paulson who made the announcement and you know from his his view was that it would was not a particularly well crafted plan to buy these and he was running out of time and the banks were about as he explained to us us later the banks were all about to fail they thought that morgan stanley was going to go that morgan that goldman sachs was going to drop soon after that and they explain that they didn't think that they had time to do that original program so they moved to this this capital injection you know buy up the stock of the banks. ultimately the decision not to move forward on the housing program that gets a little murkier nothing was introduced in the waning days of the bush administration. they explained to me at the time and i think it's later confirmed by barney frank that that essentially they were asked by the obama administration to hold off on doing something so the obama people could put together an advance their own plan that eventually that happened in two thousand and nine the ministration announce a plan to

hank paulson. timothy gheitner in. you know, you go through the list it is really remarkable. one of the problems is they're used when they speak as former ceos, people actually listen. in the case of timothy geithner, people are suddenly referring to him as little timmy. when they are talking about hank paulson, you know, they're dismissing him on one level or the other. even his former colleagues and pierce because he is representing an administration in had case, george w. bush they were at odds with. ashley: right. >> now they found a new administration to be at odds with and even greater fever and intensity. lori: interesting stuff as always. >> good to be with you. ashley: little timmy. good to see you, lou. of course you can catch lou dobbs at 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. eastern every night on fox business network. catch the former governor of new hampshire and senior romney advisor john sununu. i love saying that name, john sununu. >> one of the the smartest guys. ashley: yeah, he is. >> i hope you will both either be with us or perhaps watching intently. lori: you got it

so kerry killinger, very panicked about this run called hank paulson, ben press secretary knew there was going to be negative media report and was scared it would cause people to pull their money out. he gets hank paulson on the phone and tells him essentially there is no help coming because he said it sold to jpmorgan chase and that is when it becomes obvious that wamu has no friends in washington and that is a dire circumstance to be and as you enter september 2008. >> and there's a whispering campaign in new york against washington. >> exactly because jpmorgan did not get the bank in the spring. jpmorgan is not a bank. they were not happy to have not one wamu in the spring, so they were off on the sidelines writing the time until they could return and have another opportunity. so you can bet they were taken that opportunity to meet with regulators, top with regulators and often about wamu. >> now we were both on the story for different publications, covering at the same time. i'm a columnist come to you are a reporter. but this book is made up of so much more than that. tell us a

secretary meaning hank paulson doesn't do anything without talking to michelle. she was paulson's right hand during the 2008 financial crisis. michelle davis served at fannie mae as their vice president for regulatory policy during a time in which fannie mae was found to have doctored its earnings statements to juice executive bonuses. so the crisis team he has brought in to manage the crisis might actually need a crisis team. >> you would have to wonder whether or not they have enough sort of ability to sort of own themselves or step outside of their own personal histories that they could look at this with the objectivity you would need out of a crisis team. >> peter: it seems like this highlights -- people talk about mitt romney being out of touch. this highlights it. someone probably told him hey you have a problem with bain so he says okay, i'll bring this person in. not realizing this person has a problem of their own. >> these are the people you know. so you turn to the people you know. they were part of the original original -- i guess you give her points

paulson. she was pleased barack obama picked timothy geithner. mitt romney of course attacks tim geithner all the time. this new person he hired was into him in a on the record way. and there is this problem. >> well, i think you know that fannie mae and freddie mac were a big part of the housing crisis we have in the nation. speaker gingrich was hired by freddie mac to promote them to influence other people throughout washington, encouraging them not to dismantle these entities. i think that was an enormous mistake. instead we should have had a whistle blower, not a horn tooter. >> a horn tooter. step off. during the republican primary, when newt gingrich was just destroying mitt romney on the issue of bain capital on his business sector career, mitt romney joiner to that was newt gingrich was a lobbyist for freddie mac. mitt romney would like to blame freddie mac and fannie mae for the financial collapse. this person he has just hired to help him out with messaging on his business career was

paulson. she was pleased barack obama picked timothy geithner. mitt romney of course attacks tim geithner all the time. this new person he hired was into him in a totally "on the record" kind of way. and there is this problem. >> well, i think you know that fannie mae and freddie mac were a big part of the housing crisis we have in the nation, and we've had this discussion before. speaker gingrich was hired by freddie mac to promote them to influence other people throughout washington, encouraging them not to dismantle these two entities. inthink -- i think that was an enormous mistake. instead we should have had a whistle blower, not a horn tooter. >> a horn tooter. step off. during the republican primary, when newt gingrich was just destroying mitt romney on the issue of bain capital on his business sector career, mitt romney joiner to that was newt gingrich was a lobbyist for freddie mac. mitt romney would like to blame freddie mac and fannie mae for the financial collapse. well, this perso

you know, i get hank paulson the treasury secretary for george bush, the guy ran goldman sachs. he made $500 million off goldman sachs. of course he's going to help goldman sachs. i get that part. but tim geithner, the so-called progressives in the obama administration, why is it in their gut to help the bankers above everything else? >> that's the world view in washington. and whether it is because of the power of money the power of influence, the fact that they surround themselves with individuals who all came from wall street, it was a rogue's gallery of goldman sachs and merrill lynch and bear stearns these were the closest advisers who were shaping the policy. and you know, when that housing program was rolled out and it was obvious that it was failing it was actually harming homeowners, tim geithner told us in a meeting when he was being pressed on why how is this program going to help homeowners, he explained it. he said this program is going to help -- these are the words he used, foam the runway for the banks. in other words extend out the foreclosure crisis so that the

so again without hank paulson, without the government stepping in here, the industry itself picking itself up that's a very bossive thing and could engender some investor confidence. they did have a leg up over those other two situations though. bear stearns and lehman because we're not talng toxic assets here. knight trades in and out of billions of shares every day. and it's plain vanilla. it's not the toxic stuff you have to worry about what the fact and say oh, my gosh could this stuff blow up. no, if they have addressed this technical issue, which i'm sure if t.j. says they have, then this is a positive going forward. >> steve grasso the system may have worked in this case but that doesn't mean it's any easier to take or accept as an investor these days. >> i think the rest of the panel has touched on the 50,000 feet up issues. i think bringing it back home to a trading event. i think when you say that's the crux of all this, you have to protect yourself. a lot of us have that buy and hold approach. i think we're going to be okay here but a lot of these events are tradeable events. i'

when the crisis first broke out, a friend of mine said to me this is like trying to get 30 hank paulson to agree with nancy pelosi. it's a very complicated situation on the ground without a fiscal union. my impression is that angela merkel is starting to move a little bit. i think that arnall is pushing her and is doing a great job. but with a situation can be solved and the world of the united states has to play is a much more difficult issue and i think the president has a good team on the case but i have no idea what they are going to be able to solve the problem and i'm with you, if they don't i don't think that the uncertainty has been discounted in the market. i think that a pyrotechnical blow up in europe would set back our recovery plans any major way. >> i'm not so sure that there is much that the united states can do about it. it is a european problem, and what it does is makes the u.s. with its problems look relatively attractive to people around the world. so, i have a sort of fundamental view of life and that is if there is a loan out there somewhere in other words somebody

. >> i was going to ask you to grade hank paulson. but if you were in that job at the time, what do you think you would have done? >> i wouldn't have done t.a.r.p. >> you would not have done t.a.r.p.? >> no. >> because? >> because you go back and look at the history of t.a.r.p., the first idea of t.a.r.p. is they were going to figure out a way to buy the outstanding stuff and that was going to make everything -- they actually didn't end up doing that at all. they ended up stuffing the banks with money. so i believe this -- actually had a conversation with the people at the treasury in those frantic days and said to them, if you can really value this stuff, all you have to do is guarantee it and you don't have to appropriate $700 billion. and the truth was, we couldn't have put a value on it. that was the awful stuff. >> would you have saved lehman brothers? >> i think i would have let them go down, but i hope i would have been smart enough to understand that the collateral effect through all of the other connections was going to have

when the crisis first broke out, a friend of mine said to me this is like trying to get 30 hank paulson to agree with nancy pelosi. it's a very complicated situation on the ground without a fiscal union. my impression is that angela merkel is starting to move a little bit. i think that arnall is pushing her and is doing a great job. but with a situation can be solved and the world of the united states has to play is a much more difficult issue and i think the president has a good team on the case but i have no idea what they are going to be able to solve the problem and i'm with you, if they don't i don't think that the uncertainty has been discounted in the market. i think that a pyrotechnical blow up in europe would set back our recovery plans any major way. >> i'm not so sure that there is much that the united states can do about it. it is a european problem, and what it does is makes the u.s. with its problems look relatively attractive to people around the world. so, i have a sort of fundamental view of life and that is if there is a loan out there somewhere in other words somebody

he did, for belter or worse, conservatives disagree on that, bush and the treasury man, hank paulson, who put together the rescue package for the banks. that was done in 2008 while bush was still president. president obama subsequently built on that for better or worse, but bush is very much a mixed bag. before the financial collapse, the deficit was 1.5% gdp. unfortunately, the financial collapse blew it out of the water. there's a mixed record on bush. i'll be the first to admit that. >> host: back to the 20 # 12 race from twitter. do you feel mitt romney should provide additional tax returns? why or why not? >> guest: well, you know, i have no trouble if governor romney provided additional tax returns. let it all hang out. i think the remarks by by reid saying romney didn't pay taxes in ten years. that's without fact. it's another slur, smear, and it's stupid, and he has no facts, and it's the lowest form of politics. i error on the side of transparency. there's no trouble with that. >> host: dallas, texas this morning, bob, you're on with larry. >> caller: i'm a liberal. i'm calli