they ve got, because your fund-raising totals are public? well, in the past, campaign contributions have always been subjected to sunlight. so if you wanted to find out who was supporting me or membership opponent, with you could go to the fec website and find out where every dollar came from. after citizens united, that money did not have to be reported. it was secret. in fact, with all these groups you ve been talking about used that as a recruiting tool to get people to give money. the assurance of secrecy allows them to make these donations without worrying about any negative consequences to their businesses, which would happen in people knew that they were funding attack ads against candidates like me. so you think there s a connection between what the ultimate message of the ads are that this money funds, the accuracy, even, of these ads. there s a connection between that and the fact that the money comes from an untraceable source? absolutely. because you can t hold somebo
fund-raising totals are public? well, in the past, campaign contributions have always been subjected to sunlight. so if you wanted to find out who was supporting me or membership opponent, with you could go to the fec website and find out where every dollar came from. after citizens united, that money did not have to be reported. it was secret. in fact, with all these groups you ve been talking about used that as a recruiting tool to get people to give money. the assurance of secrecy allows them to make these donations without worrying about any negative consequences to their businesses, which would happen in people knew that they were funding attack ads against candidates like me. so you think there s a connection between what the ultimate message of the ads are that this money funds, the accuracy, even, of these ads. there s a connection between that and the fact that the money comes from an untraceable source? absolutely. because you can t hold somebody accountable for lies an
and you know how much money they ve got, because your fund-raising totals are public? well, in the past, campaign contributions have always been subjected to sunlight. so if you wanted to find out who was supporting me or membership opponent, with you could go to the fec website and find out where every dollar came from. after citizens united, that money did not have to be reported. it was secret. in fact, with all these groups you ve been talking about used that as a recruiting tool to get people to give money. the assurance of secrecy allows them to make these donations without worrying about any negative consequences to their businesses, which would happen in people knew that they were funding attack ads against candidates like me. so you think there s a connection between what the ultimate message of the ads are that this money funds, the accuracy, even, of these ads.
thanks for being with us. good to be with you. what is happening with frees and what germany is voting on and how that eventually impacts us? well, it impacts us because if their banking system gets in trouble, it means we are in trouble. for example, money funds in this country still have about four or five billion dollars in assets in european banks. we are all tied together in this thing. the germans have bought time by with a their parliament has done. they still hasn t faced up to the fact that greece is going to default and they better be prepared. and they better take quicker action was countries like spain andity will i that can easily be saved and top it before it affects us. there s been a little bit of criticism, some remarks this week out of germany. the finance minister there said i don t think europe s problems are america s only problems, and he talked about how it s so easy to give other people advice, insinuating we have a lot to do to clean up here before we a
he finally spoke, and the market kept dropping. i think there s not anything automatic that happens in the financial system when this rating goes down, but, so people shouldn t freak out. it s a psychological issue mainly. megyn: but there are potential consequences to folks sitting at home in the downgrade, liz. what are they? what will they feel? reporter: when you see this, you feel like you ve fallen through the looking glad when you hear all these headlines crossing. how will it effect my 401(k)? james is right, right now it s a confidence issue in the markets, and the markets need confidence. megyn, there s $8 trillion sitting on the sidelines in savings accounts and money funds. people are waiting to buy stocks, but they don t feel confident enough to do that. so that s number one. megyn: this is not going to be incentive for them to get in. no, not just yet. we ve got to wonder, you don t want to try to catch a falling knife or buzz saw megyn: but you d like to get it.