Pelosi calls for panel to probe Wall Street

[garbon]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/15/MNAB1733BH.DTL&tsp=1

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying the American people are demanding "discipline and accountability" following the multibillion-dollar federal bailouts, vowed today to initiate a legislative commission with broad oversight to investigate the causes of Wall Street irregularities and their full costs to taxpayers.

Pelosi, speaking to the Commonwealth Club of California, said she wants the panel to be modeled after the Pecora Commission, a bipartisan investigative body established by the U.S. Senate in 1932 to examine the causes and abuses of the Wall Street crash of 1929 and to prevent a repeat.

"They investigated what happened in the markets," including conflicts of interests and irregularities that set off such devastating effects on the U.S. economy, she said. When the commission issued its findings during the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, "they had tangible recommendations," she said, which helped generate widespread public support for major banking system reforms and new securities laws.

Pelosi said she discussed the matter with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner today and will raise the matter with her colleagues in the House of Representatives next week. She said her actions have been sparked by the observation that, no matter where she travels in the United States, she hears one common concern about financial irregularities.

"People are very unhappy with these bailouts," particularly multimillion-dollar bonuses paid out to executives of failing firms like American Insurance Group, or AIG, that have received federal bailout funds, she said.

"Seventy five percent of the American people, at least, want an investigation of what happened on Wall Street," the Speaker said to applause from the audience.

"We're going to have a commission... even if it is only in the House of Representatives," Pelosi vowed, saying it would allow Americans "to have a clearer understanding of how we got here - and the risk that's been taken by the taxpayers in all this."

"That's what we would do with this commission, is to make sure it does not happen again." she said.

She said the move coincides with legislation she will soon send to President Obama on financial institution regulation and reform, "so we have transparency...discipline and accountability to the American taxpayer."

Pelosi made the unexpected announcement in response to a question from Commonwealth Club CEO Gloria Duffy just one day after Obama's speech on the economy at Georgetown University. In his speech, Obama said oversight and regulation of Wall Street would be one of five pillars in his "new foundation" for the American economy.

Veteran political consultant Don Solem of San Francisco said that with economic concerns continuing to be high on the lists of American concerns, Pelosi's announcement about the is a savvy move.

He said the Depression-era commission's findings "laid the groundwork for rapid movement that included the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission" and critical oversight regulations that followed.

"When the public doesn't know something, it becomes suspicious of everything," Solem said, adding that in the current financial crisis and resulting bailouts "the American public is hearing a lot of perspectives, many of them ideological in nature."

"They want the facts, why certain things didn't happen at certain points, and what can be done to prevent it," he said. But "what's been missing to date ... is that it hasn't been stitched together by anyone in a comprehensive manner with oversight," such as the 9/11 Baker-Hamilton Commission did when it presented its findings on domestic terrorism in a bipartisan and comprehensive manner with enormous credibility.

Still Solem warned, to succeed "this commission must be broad and comprehensive - and viewed as preventive. If there's fault-finding ... then it ought to move to the proper channels."

The Pecora Commission was named after Ferdinand Pecora, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Banking's chief counsel who led his investigation beginning in January 1933 during the administration of Herbert Hoover.

Pecora was the high-profile figure who personally questioned many of Wall Street's most influential figures of the day. He was credited with uncovering a variety of abuses of banks and their affiliates. Roosevelt later appointed him to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Rich, Nancy, rich.  People are upset about the bailouts that you helped usher in, so you think that there should be a panel to investigate why Wall Street tanked.  Good use of taxpayer money!

[derspiess]

Congress wouldn't be Congress without some good old fashioned witch hunts. 

[Caliga]

Well according to Facebook I'm apparently a huge Nancy Pelosi fan, so: go Nancy!

[garbon]

Well according to Facebook I'm apparently a huge Nancy Pelosi fan, so: go Nancy!

[Admiral Yi]

They issued too many subprime mortgages and sold too many credit default swaps.  She should hire me.

[Berkut]

They issued too many subprime mortgages and sold too many credit default swaps.  She should hire me.

Actually, she should go talk to her buddy Barney. He can tell her what happened.

[Valmy]

She is going to be the leader of the Democrats in the House until she retires or is assassinated isn't she? 

[KRonn]

Yep, this investigation is needed; maybe find some worthy business people as candidates for Gitmo.   
When this first broke I wrote my Congressman letting him know that, among other things, I expect Congress to be investigating itself and their mistakes, and any culpability for failure, negligence, or even possible criminal/ethical wrong doings by Congress members in the financial meltdowns. Same as needs to be done for business.

[garbon]

Yep, this investigation is needed; maybe find some worthy business people as candidates for Gitmo.  
When this first broke I wrote my Congressman letting him know that, among other things, I expect Congress to be investigating itself and their mistakes, and any culpability for failure, negligence, or even possible criminal/ethical wrong doings by Congress members in the financial meltdowns. Same as needs to be done for business.

No it isn't. If the commission gets up and running all it will do is point more fingers at various businesses. Nothing good will come out of that.

[PDH]

My solution - I think we should kill everyone with more money than me, then make a throne of skulls for me to sit on.

[Valmy]

My solution - I think we should kill everyone with more money than me, then make a throne of skulls for me to sit on.

Have you considered running for Congress?

[Berkut]

Yep, this investigation is needed; maybe find some worthy business people as candidates for Gitmo.  
When this first broke I wrote my Congressman letting him know that, among other things, I expect Congress to be investigating itself and their mistakes, and any culpability for failure, negligence, or even possible criminal/ethical wrong doings by Congress members in the financial meltdowns. Same as needs to be done for business.

This "investigation" will not take one single look at any members of Congress. And if they do, it will be completely politically motivated.

So it will simply amount to yet another populist witch hunt of the Evil Business People. Which, of course, is what Pelosi/Reed/et al wants. Get the rabble all fired up and it isn't that hard to convince them that the solution is to take more power away from the Evil Business People and concentrate it into the hands of those who only want what is best for the poor, oppressed masses.

[Valmy]

No it isn't. If the commission gets up and running all it will do is point more fingers at various businesses. Nothing good will come out of that.

Are you kidding?  The proper solution to a system wide failure is to locate scapegoats.

[PDH]

I don't want to run for congress, they will be part of my throne.

[Valmy]

So it will simply amount to yet another populist witch hunt of the Evil Business People. Which, of course, is what Pelosi/Reed/et al wants. Get the rabble all fired up and it isn't that hard to convince them that the solution is to take more power away from the Evil Business People and concentrate it into the hands of those who only want what is best for the poor, oppressed masses.

Yep.