Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

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Inquiry Concludes: Financial Crisis Was Avoidable

Report blames mismanagement, poor regulation, excess risk

(Newser) - Corporate mismanagement, excessive risk-taking by Wall Street, and inadequate government regulation caused the 2008 financial crisis, according to a 576-page report by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, due to be released today. The report blames policies by both the Clinton and Bush administrations, Fed chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke,...

Feds Ready to Prosecute in Financial Meltdown

Inquiry panel will name names on Thursday

(Newser) - It might finally be time to pay for a handful of Wall Streeters, as the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission prepares to name names for possible prosecution, insiders tell the Huffington Post . The panel, which will release three separate reports on Thursday, is turning several cases over to state and federal...

Issa Reveals His Hit List
Issa Reveals
His Hit List

Issa Reveals His Hit List

WikiLeaks, Fannie Mae among planned investigations

(Newser) - Rep. Darrell Issa is coming out swinging: Congress’s new government oversight chief has placed WikiLeaks, FDA recalls, and much, much more on his long list of planned investigations, according to an outline of committee hearing topics obtained by Politico . Other matters on Issa's slate include corruption in Afghanistan; the...

Financial Crisis Panel Breaks Along Party Lines

Republicans dissent, place more blame on government

(Newser) - Republicans on the bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission have broken from their Democratic colleagues to release a document placing more blame on the government for the 2008 catastrophe. The commission has split clearly along partisan lines, the New York Times reports, with Democrats placing the preponderance of the blame on...

Bernanke: We Must Fix the 'Too Big to Fail' Problem

Fed chair defends financial crisis actions

(Newser) - The government must be ready to close even the biggest banks if they threaten to bring down the financial system, Ben Bernanke said today, in testimony before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. "If the crisis has a single lesson, it is that the too-big-to-fail problem must be solved,"...

Feds Slap Foot-Dragging Goldman With Subpoena
Feds Slap Foot-Dragging Goldman With Subpoena
EFFORT TO RUN OUT THE CLOCK

Feds Slap Foot-Dragging Goldman With Subpoena

Sachs stalls commission, then dumps millions of documents

(Newser) - Goldman Sachs is giving investigators the run-around in their probe into the roots of the financial crisis, a federal commission says. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission says the firm, asked for information on its dealings, first dragged its feet and then dumped hundreds of millions of pages of documents on...

Villains of Financial Crisis Hide by Boring Us
Villains of Financial Crisis Hide by Boring Us
Peggy Noonan

Villains of Financial Crisis Hide by Boring Us

Tepid hearings reveal pretty much nothing

(Newser) - If you’re like Peggy Noonan, you devoured CSPAN’s coverage of this week's Financial Industry Inquiry Commission hearings, and you got to see, live, the dramatic testimony of ex-Citigroup CEO Charles Prince. “Let’s be real,” Prince said. “You, for political reasons, both Republicans and Democrats,...

Citi Execs 'Sorry' for Financial Crisis, But...
 Citi Execs 'Sorry' for 
 Financial Crisis, But... 
... ER, NEVER SAW IT COMING

Citi Execs 'Sorry' for Financial Crisis, But...

Prince, Rubin take no responsibility at inquiry hearing in DC

(Newser) - Citigroup's former CEO Chuck Prince and former chairman Robert Rubin sure are sorry that their bank’s toxic assets struck a near-fatal blow to the economy and necessitated a $45 billion federal bailout, but they really didn’t see it coming. That’s the gist of their testimony today in...

Greenspan: We Did 'the Best We Could'

Former Fed chief takes heat on Capitol Hill

(Newser) - Alan Greenspan is taking more heat on Capitol Hill today as a three-day series of hearings begins on the economic meltdown. “What we tried to do was the best we could with the data that we had,” the former Fed chief told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. “...

Crisis Probe Bares Fools' Guilt-Free Fantasy
Crisis Probe Bares Fools' Guilt-Free Fantasy
PAUL KRUGMAN

Crisis Probe Bares Fools' Guilt-Free Fantasy

Deregulation, greed made crash inevitable

(Newser) - The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hasn't extracted admissions of wrongdoing from top bankers, but it has exposed stunning cluelessness among the captains of American finance, writes Paul Krugman. The honchos testified that a financial crisis is something that just happens from time to time, Krugman writes in the New York ...

Blankfein: Goldman Not Guilty, Didn't Need Feds' Help

Blankfein says firm wasn't 'reliant on government assistance'

(Newser) - Lloyd Blankfein was on the hot seat this morning as chairman Phil Angelides opened the financial crisis commission hearing with a relentless grilling of the Goldman CEO. After asking why Goldman created CDOs, sold them, and then immediately shorted them, he said, “It sounds to me a little bit...

Wall Street's Finest Head to DC Showdown

Commission styled after 9/11 inquiry probes meltdown

(Newser) - Four of Wall Street's fattest fatcats are headed to Washington this morning to do some explaining about how exactly it was that the United States of America came to teeter on the brink of financial Armageddon. A 9/11 Commission-style panel appointed by Congress has the job of writing the narrative...

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