A New Pecora Commission
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today she'd like to form a Pecora-style commission to investigate what happened on Wall Street that perpetrated the financial crisis. Ferdinand Pecora was appointed chief counsel to the Senate Banking and Currency Committee by Herbert Hoover in 1929 but it was his work under FDR ferreting out bankers whose insider trading helped caused the Depression and those who profited from the collapse through short selling that earned him fame. His investigations led to the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Answering a question about oversight lessons Pelosi has drawn from the crisis, the Speaker told an audience of about 350 Commonwealth Club members gathered at the san Francisco Intercontinental Hotel for an event on the Speaker's new book, "Know Your Power:"
Before I came here I was on the phone with the Secretary of the Treasury who was informing me of some issues and I said to him that as I've traveled during this two-week district period… People are very, very unhappy about these bailouts, I mean it is something just so tangible across America… Seventy-five percent of America, at least, want an investigation into what happened on Wall Street... They just want to know. So what I told the secretary this morning was what will happen on Monday, what I want to initiate is the equivalent of what happened in the 30's. They had something that was called the Pecora Commission. This was the commission that was formed when Franklin Roosevelt took office and they investigated what happened with the markets... We need to know. Some people can tell you one piece of it. Others can tell you another piece of it. But really it's very hard – do you understand it? -- for the American people and the rest of us as we try to make policy as we go forward to see the ramifications of any of the changes we're being asked to make. So we're going to have a commission of sorts, even if it's a commission just in the House of Representatives in order for us to make the right decisions for us to go forward, we need to have a clearer understanding as to how we got here and what the exposure is to the tax payer in all of this.
Pelosi's office clarified after the event that she didn't mean to specify Monday, just that she will work with the relevant members such as House Banking Committee Chairman Barney Frank, next week to launch such an effort.
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Right-wing claims of "witch hunt" in three… two… one…
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Anybody with common sense should put some distance between themselves and the wingnuts. It's one thing for comedians and entertainers to talk about FEMA concentration camps and non-existent gun bans, but when the msm covers RNC Chairman Steele saying that it is unpatriotic to pay your income taxes and NC Senator Burr advocates a run on the banks by telling supporters to go get their money because the ATM's are not going to give you cash. Is it any wonder that conservatives answer when you call out right wing extremists?
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Pelosi can investigate the economic collapse, but the GOP has its on set of facts so they might say this is just a means to find and punish the folks who refuse to pay the $3 ATM fees by using only their own branch. -
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Not to diminish the idea of a commission, but we do know much about the financial collapse in any event. Lack of reasonable financial control of giant financial institutions, and massive greed. So let's have a commission and get the detail down on paper. Then, let's do something about it and those who caused it. Institute controls and devest the scumbags of every penny they own.
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This is good news. Thanks for the post, JNS.
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To use a metaphor that certain segments of our population can deal with: it is time for the US economy to use restrictor plates. Yes, track speeds will go down and lap times will go up, but there will be fewer killer pile-ups on the oval.
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It would be great if Pecora-2009 could help bring sanity to the markets for the next 80 years...until GHWB VIII comes along. -
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Maybe we could have a commission to investigate whether the Bush administration violated the Geneva Convention.
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No, wait, that would be CRAZY. -
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If Pelosi can get this going then I will take back at least 50% of the mean things I've said about her.
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If Pelosi can get this going then I will take back at least 50% of the mean things I've said about her.
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[Insert reference to blind squirrels and stopped clocks]
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I'll take whatever I can get in terms of investigations. That being said, even when Pelosi is doing the right thing she sounds like a complete, clueless idiot. -
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"That being said, even when Pelosi is doing the right thing she sounds like a complete, clueless idiot."
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Have to correct you again: she looks like a deranged idiot, she sounds quite reasoned and serious. Do what I do: just don't watch.
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Good post, JNS. -
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[...] A New Pecora Commission :: Swampland - TIME.com House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today she'd like to form a Pecora-style commission to investigate what happened on Wall Street that perpetrated the financial crisis. Ferdinand Pecora was appointed chief counsel to the Senate Banking and Currency Committee by Herbert Hoover in 1929 but it was his work under FDR ferreting out bankers whose insider trading helped caused the Depression and those who profited from the collapse through short selling that earned him fame. His investigations led to the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. [...]
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This is long overdue. The Pecora investigations -- especially the revelations about mismanagement and insider trading at JP Morgan -- served as an important first step to the financial reforms of the New Deal.
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I know the current Beltway wisdom is to let bygones be bygones (IOKIYAR!) but this is one area in which a full accounting is absolutely necessary.
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Let them scream "class warfare" all they want. They've been fighting a class war for three decades now, and it's finally time we see how it worked. -
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[...] With the commission stacked with so many of its friends, the financial industry is likely breathing a little easier than it was when the panel was proposed in April. [...]
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[...] many of its friends, the financial industry is likely breathing a little easier than it was when the panel was proposed in April. Filed under: Government Spending Leave a comment Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) ( subscribe to [...]
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