Elizabeth Warren

I also believe it is important for the Panel to ensure that officials involved in the TARP learn from what happened so that we are not doomed to repeat this process in the future.

So then let me understand because actually our staff pulled out the OTS, your, Holding Company Handbook and it directs your examiners to conduct, and I'm quoting here, 'comprehensive assessment from the perspective of the consolidated…

The government had nothing to do with what happened in Long Term Capital Management?

AIG shareholders----

Following the bailout of a 100 cents on the dollar--because the Fed has described and they describe in their written testimony, it was totally binary.

I view this panel as an important vehicle through which the American people can gain assurances that this program was necessary and is being conducted in a manner that enhances the welfare of all citizens and not just a chosen few.

Do you believe banks will want to participate in this? It's going to be a different kind of program.

So we know for a fact credit is shrinking.

But this is presumably for banks that wouldn't take the funds through another program.

SBA loans are what portion of total small business lending?

When the Government says it's going to put programs in to do more SBA lending, do we have any sense of how much leverage that's going to create?

I would like to begin this morning by extending our sincere thanks to the City of Phoenix, the University of Arizona, Senator John McCain, Senator John Kyl, and Congressman Ed Pastor for hosting us and for helping to plan today's hearing.

Would the SBA be more effective if it became a direct lender again instead of working only through financial institutions?

It's a step in the right direction.

It's a very small fraction, isn't it?

Used in the manner that protects home values, college funds, retirement accounts and life savings, and preserves home ownership and promotes jobs and economic growth.

Please don't tell me about advocating change for the future. What I'd like to know is what are you doing to manage the risks that are in front of Citi and facing the American people, right now?

It's essential that no institution is viewed----

Do you know how much debt from the government of Greece that Citi holds?

I will take that as a no, that we are not being paid for the guarantee that we are----

But it's your view that Citi isn't getting that from its higher rating, it's not getting that benefit of being A rated?

But Standard & Poor's, the rating agency, is giving you a bump. The bump is valuable.

But of the original nine that needed money within weeks of the original TARP infusion--you got $25 billion, someone said you--the Secretary of the Treasury said you were financially healthy, and within weeks you needed another $20 billion…

We don't want to be a shareholder in that company and we think that companies are far stronger if they're public--if they're financed out of the public, rather than the government.

We are strongly advocating financial reforms to prevent this situation from happening again, by assuring that no single institution can threaten the financial system.