When those are taken together, consumer and government debt, is there any parallel to the Great Depression?

the President has certainly said he wants to get this down, is committed to bringing it down

You know, so much of our effort now involves generating dollars through the Fed as well as appropriated response in terms of creating a stimulus, do we have a very good way of judging the tipping point at which the international community…

the President has identified that as sort of the alternative energies and the manufacturing that goes with wind turbines and solar panels as a win-win

Does the preservation and expansion of the middle class in our country depend upon the expansion of manufacturing, or are there alternative strategies to have a large percentage of Americans in the middle class?

I have often said that the success of our economy a generation from now depends on our investment in education today.

At the end of the day, the public's greatest safeguard in this area lies in the process of the appointment of Commissioners.

Does kind of this story give us any sense of insight into the role of the Commissioners, the pressure they are under to keep plants operating?

We have to protect the integrity of the staff judgments and try to insulate the Commission from political or economic pressures.

I believe talked in your testimony about increasing financial obligations as the size of organizations creates greater risk.

the foundation of so many families financially is their homes, and that we need to provide superb protections designed to strengthen our families, not deregulation or loose regulations designed for short-term profits.

I really want to applaud the Fed for the actions they took over subprime lending, their action regarding escrow for taxes and insurance, their addressing of abusive prepayment penalties, the ending of liar loans in subprime.

Certainly it is my view that the current crisis is an example of how failure to provide for adequate consumer protection compromises the safe and sound operation of financial institutions.

We have a duty and obligation to fix our insurance regulatory system.

The task of modernizing the insurance regulatory system is absolutely essential.

The situation is offensive to me; it is offensive to the American people.

transit in Oregon has been incredibly important, certainly from the viewpoint of economic development, from the viewpoint of reducing our carbon footprint.

Your approach is refreshing and energizing and thank you very much.

So several people have spoken to the role of the AAA rating as being borrowed or used, if you will.

I will say it is kind of a sad commentary on our regulatory system if all it takes is changing the name from insurance to swap in order to bypass regulation.

I am not sure this point has really been addressed.

I had an interesting conversation the other day with a senior member of the New York Stock Exchange.

I just wanted to make sure I captured your comment correctly, that the credit default swaps were the great enabler of the major financial meltdown we are experiencing.

There has been discussion about whether you could have categorized credit default swaps as insurance.

Would it be appropriate to back up what the market has done with a specific ban on teaser rates and prepayment penalties?