00:00relates to your intervention in the markets and I'm not gonna ask you to
00:04agree with me here but I can think of no administration in the last 50 years
00:09that is quite as communist as the Trump administration constant interventions in
00:14the operations of the free market mr. chairman and thank you very much mr.
00:17secretary for being here and purportedly we're here to talk about international
00:20monetary stuff the chairman and I were just in Bolivia Bolivia's hanging on by
00:24a thread waiting for them to approve an IMF deal I just hold that up as an
00:30example of how important it is that you provide the leadership that of course
00:32keeps our neighbors stable and safe that's not what I want to talk about
00:36though what I want to talk about is let me start did you attend the midterm
00:41convention in Texas last weekend I did you did okay I'll tell you I saw two
00:46things at that convention number one it's a little bit like you quoting the
00:50Atlanta Federal Reserve as a GDP projection for the third quarter
00:54Atlantic Federal Federal Reserve has a GDP protection projection that is double
00:59what the survey of professional forecasters is saying it will be at 2.5
01:04percent so I saw a lot of happy talk about the economy which by the way is
01:07political malpractice when the American people and this is in the Michigan
01:10consumer sentiment survey see consumer sentiment lose 20 points since the
01:15beginning of the Trump administration you have a political problem I don't
01:19expect you to comment on that but you have a political problem which is why my
01:22friends on the other side of the aisle are not talking much about the economy
01:25today congressman there's a survey problem because Democrats are now
01:29poisoning the survey mr. secretary you're better than that
01:33reclaiming my time I'm data-driven reclaiming my time it disappoints me to see
01:39somebody of your stature use the word conspiracy in the Congress of the United
01:42States as long as we're going there the other thing that I heard in Texas was
01:47that we're all communists now I was interesting to me I would be the first
01:51communist in history to have spent a dozen years in the banking business mr.
01:55Foster my friend here built a business employed lots of people we're not
01:58communists over here but I do worry about the other party there's been 10,000
02:04Ivy League PhDs written on what precisely communism is but can we agree just yes or
02:10no here can we agree that communism substitutes the control of the government
02:16and the ownership of the government over the hand of the free market is that a
02:20reasonable working definition of communism yes okay good good so can you
02:26think of any other administration since Franklin Delano Roosevelt that has taken
02:31equity stakes government ownership in 39 companies that's a figure by the
02:36council on formerly can you think of another administration that has the
02:39United States government owning 39 American companies
02:43Congresswoman as you said since Franklin Roosevelt that we we are the in a the
02:50fight of our life it's a simple question I don't know it's for strategic
02:53industries we've had market failures the Biden administration completely okay okay
02:58okay mr. chairman I have five minutes here I'm not gonna argue with you on
03:03whether that's a good idea I happen I'm a free market guy so I think it's a
03:06terrible idea tariffs well that's why that's why we have no critical minerals
03:11that's why the mr. secretary I do have a question at the end of this the
03:16government now owns 39 companies the government has imposed tariffs I don't
03:20like tariffs whether you think they're a good idea or a bad idea they are an
03:23intervention in the free market you yourself did a massive intervention in
03:29probably the most important market to the capital markets which is the Treasury
03:32market the president recently five thousand dollars for a vote now you could
03:37in the legal world that would be called a bribe but you could think of it as an
03:40intervention in political markets and by the way I have no doubt that if I walk
03:44down there right now and said I will pay you five thousand dollars if you focus
03:47your buying on the three-year Treasury that conversation would end with me in
03:51handcuffs but the question I have for you mr. secretary relates to your
03:57intervention in the markets and I'm not gonna ask you to agree with me here but I can
04:01think of no administration in the last 50 years that is quite as communist as the
04:06Trump administration constant interventions in the operations of the
04:10free market but let's spend one minute on your intervention about a week and a
04:15half ago you spent some ten billion dollars plus or minus to try to lower the
04:20yield on the ten-year bond this prices American mortgages when you started the
04:25ten-year bond was at four point eight percent today it's at a 20-year high of
04:295.04 percent 20 basis point rise was your intervention successful and will
04:35there be more yes it was sir and wait wait wait ten year went up by 20 basis
04:41points how can you say it was successful the well there is the counterfactual of
04:46what would it have done and we then proceeded to have the two most
04:50successful Treasury auctions that we've had in 20 years and the US bond market
04:55it continues during past month during since President Trump has come in it has
05:01been the best performing bond market in the developed world I have one last
05:04question you didn't use our cash for that you let short-term bonds pay
05:09essentially for the purchase of long-term bonds but you've talked about maybe
05:12using a Treasury General Fund that's the American people's money do you have the
05:16intention of using the Trent Treasury General Fund to continue this
05:19operation I don't think you understand what the Treasury General Fund is to the
05:25TGA there is the checking account for the federal government there and if we can
05:31buy bonds cheaply which is what we do that we approximately ten billion of I just
05:38asked a yes or no question about whether you can answer it
05:44Mr. Himes your time is expired I wanted you to get that clarification and I'd
05:50invite the secretary to put that in writing the committee's of interest there
05:54thank you
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