Financial commission starts recession inquiry

[SpartanDem]

Source: The Hill

The special commission charged by Congress to investigate the financial crisis got fully under way on Thursday as lawmakers vow to pass major new financial regulations this fall.

The commission will hold public hearings, seek documents and look into the actions of public officials and private companies in an effort to uncover the roots of a meltdown that pushed the economy to the brink of another depression.

“If we do not learn from history, we are unlikely to fully recover from it,” said Phil Angelides, the commission’s chairman and former candidate for governor of California. “We must write a history that is factual, substantive and understandable. If we do this right, our work can serve as an antidote.”

Congress modeled the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission after the famed Pecora panel from the 1930s that looked into the causes of the Great Depression, and also after the 9/11 Commission. The panel includes six members appointed by Democratic leaders in Congress and four by their Republican counterparts.



Read more: http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/59207-financial-commission-starts-recession-inquiry

[DJ13]

1. Here comes the whitewash

[Iowa]

2. As if everyone doesn't already know "the roots of the meltdown"...

[tclambert]

3. And what did we learn from the Pecora Commission they are modeling it after?

The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 resulted from some of the Pecora Commission's findings, part of which was repealed by the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

I guess we didn't really learn from it after all.