Though I knew it was coming but was not aware that it has already been set up. John Taylor in his blog points that first public hearing of the commission is slated to be held on 13 January 2010.
That public hearings are about to start is excellent news. Without such an investigation, followed by a clear explanation to the American people of what went wrong, the Congress is unlikely to enact financial reforms that actually fix the problem. To repeat a phrase from the Chairman of the Brady Commission on the 1987 crash (their report took only 4 months to complete), “You cannot fix what you cannot explain.”
Though not part of its Congressional mandate, I recommend that the FCIC follow the approach of the Brady Commission and the 911 Commission and make some recommendations. It could then even issue a report card on how the recommendations are implemented. Such a Report Card was issued by the 911 Commission and it proved quite useful.
The Commission was created by section 5 of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-21), signed into law by President Barack Obama on May 20, 2009
It also has the objectives of the Commission and has 26 of them. The 10 members names are:
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada each made three appointments, while House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky each made two appointments:
- Phil Angelides (chairman) – Pelosi (jointly chosen as chair by Pelosi and Reid)
- Bill Thomas (vice chairman) – Boehner (jointly chosen as vice chair by Boehner and McConnell)
- Brooksley Born (Pelosi)
- Byron Georgiou (Reid)
- Bob Graham (Reid)
- Keith Hennessey (McConnell)
- Douglas Holtz-Eakin (McConnell)
- Heather Murren (Reid)
- John W. Thompson (Pelosi)
- Peter Wallison (Boehner)
The resumes of 10 members of the commission are here.
Let’s see if the commission throws some more exciting insights of the crisis.
December 26, 2009 at 5:11 pm |
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Matthew Lloyd, David. David said: Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission « Mostly Economics http://bit.ly/4LWyZm [...]
December 27, 2009 at 10:01 am |
Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission
nice post
December 27, 2009 at 11:06 pm |
Former Republican Congressman Bill Thomas, who now is vice chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, was interviewed by his “hometown” newspaper, The Bakersfield Californian. The interview was published in the Dec. 27, 2009 edition. You may find it and a companion article on real estate interesting. Among other things, Thomas contended that Wall Street and Main Street teamed up to create the mess the U.S. is in by paying for inflated property appraisals and Triple-A securities ratings to create packages of subprime mortgages and pawn them off to investors. This mess isn’t done unraveling. Read more of what Thomas had to say at http://tiny.cc/uFAKm
January 14, 2010 at 2:44 pm |
[...] Crisis Inquiry Commission begins By Amol Agrawal I had pointed about Financial Crisis Inquiry [...]