Fixing Wall Street; GM Repays $8.1 Billion Government Loan; Going Green, Going BIG
PHILLIPS: Fixing Wall Street. Democrats say that it's a must to avoid another financial meltdown. Republicans pretty much hate the idea. But they may be on the wrong side of public opinion. Let the debate begin this hour on Capitol Hill. And our own financial expert Ali Velshi here to help us break it all down. You know, what can you hate about full disclosure? That's what got us into trouble in the first place.</s>ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's going to be the --</s>PHILLIPS: Secrets, secrets, secrets.</s>VELSHI: That's going to be the biggest part of this. Now here's the thing. You can't hate full disclosure when it comes to credit cards and banks and loans and mortgages. And the government wants that to be as a touchstone of this. That you and I should be able to understand any contract that we sign for a loan or for a credit card. There's a second part to this, and this is where the Republicans are having some trouble. It's in the part that requires the regulation of derivative.</s>PHILLIPS: Derivatives.</s>VELSHI: Right. So we're talking about CDOs and CDS's, and RMBS's. All these things that are basically not something. So let's say this is an asset --</s>PHILLIPS: In layman's terms -- yes, OK.</s>VELSHI: Right. This is a computer.</s>PHILLIPS: OK.</s>VELSHI: It's your computer.</s>PHILLIPS: Right.</s>VELSHI: Now you want to then charge out for other people to use it, so you charge 10 bucks an hour for people to use it. But I want to use it whenever I want to use it so I'll pay you extra money, so I'll pay you 12 bucks an hour to use it whenever I want. But then we start getting into derivatives. Things around things, the right to buy something, to bet against something like Paulson and Goldman Sachs are accused of doing by the SEC. There all sorts of derivatives. Everything you can sell has a derivative around it. And what some Republicans and some Republicans are saying is that if you regulate that too much you're going to hamper the ability of financial institutions to do business and make money and that's going to hurt the economy. That's going to hurt people's investments. That's where the issues come in.</s>PHILLIPS: OK. But, you know, it's like good planning versus incentive for risk. Right?</s>VELSHI: Right. Right. And that's -- again, this is a tricky area because keep in mind everything we do in the world of business is about risk, right?</s>PHILLIPS: Right.</s>VELSHI: You want to take risks on your show and you want your producers to take certain risks and stores. But how do you measure the risk versus the reward? And should there be somebody overseeing that? Should someone say, Kyra, I know you'd like to do your show with, you know, hip-hop music the whole way through, but here's the risk of doing that? Well, let's look at that in the financial industry.</s>PHILLIPS: OK.</s>VELSHI: I know that you think this is a great way to make money but let me tell you there's a risk you may not be thinking about. Is that a role for the government? Because business -- Wall Street didn't seem to do it for itself. And that's the question.</s>PHILLIPS: Well, there has to -- somebody's got to take responsibility because there was -- there was no oversight.</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>PHILLIPS: People that were making decisions, even the people that were supposed to be safeguarding us and our money --</s>VELSHI: Right.</s>PHILLIPS: -- and being the watchdogs over Wall Street didn't work. So --</s>VELSHI: Right. And part of that is because, were they regulating properly? Was there a culture of regulation? And the other thing is, you know, when you think of the financial regulation system, all the agencies involved in it, think back to before 9/11 and national security. It was the same thing. There were all these different agencies.</s>PHILLIPS: They're not communicating.</s>VELSHI: They all meant well and they all had some pieces of information which if you put together may have prevented 9/11.</s>PHILLIPS: Yes. Right.</s>VELSHI: But they weren't talking to each other. That's sort of the same idea. It is complicated and there are some people who think it will make us uncompetitive against the rest of the world. As Brazil and China and India and Russia continue to surge forward, we're going to stymie. We're going to -- we're going to -- you know, we're going to hobble American business if we're not careful about how we do this. It is a worthwhile argument to listen to but in the end 2-1 Americans believe Wall Street needs to be regulated more than it is today.</s>PHILLIPS: There you go. We'll talk about it and we'll follow the debate.</s>VELSHI: We will.</s>PHILLIPS: Thanks so much.</s>VELSHI: OK.</s>PHILLIPS: Appreciate it, Ali. Well, not exactly Gordon Lightfoot's version of "Sundown," but check out this vista from the high plains of west Texas last night. Folks in Randall County -- right here -- had a little something extra than just a sunset. Yes, it is what it looks like. But no damage reports. What do you think, Rob? No. We've got Jacqui. It's Jacqui today.</s>JERAS: Hello. Yes, I'm doing the day shift.</s>PHILLIPS: Hello, Jacqui.</s>JERAS: Hello. I'm good. Great pictures.</s>PHILLIPS: Yes, isn't that -- when you -- and you don't always capture something like that.</s>JERAS: Not always. What are the chance you're at the right place at the right time when a tornado is going to touch down for, like, what, two minutes?</s>PHILLIPS: Right. And boom.</s>JERAS: Yes. So crazy pictures. We also have a couple of stills, too, to show you. So it's good when you see pictures like this and you know that there was no significant damage and that there were no injuries associated with this. You know, Kyra, it's been a really crazy, quiet severe weather season. You know things are usually kicking in April. In fact, we talked to the Storm Prediction Center yesterday and this is the latest in a season that they've ever not issued a moderate or a high risk for severe weather. We've only had flights so far this year. And last time that they had anywhere close to this long of a stretch without it was in 2005, which we remember as a very busy hurricane season. Looks like this one's going to be a busy hurricane season, as well. So just a little bit of -- a little nugget for you there this morning.</s>PHILLIPS: All right. Jacqui, thanks. Missing at sea. An oil rig explodes, several people critically hurt, even more are nowhere to be found right now.