Pecora

Potential Conflicts Of Interest For New Pecora Commissioners

Brian Beutler | July 15, 2009, 5:26PM

At a glance, none of the newly named members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commissioners come as a terrible surprise. Several of their names had been floated in news reports and rumors in the weeks leading up to today's announcements. But there are a couple potential conflicts of interest worth pointing out.

On the Republican side, commission vice chairman Bill Thomas--a former Republican Congressman from California--raised $1.8 million for his campaigns from financial, insurance, and real estate interests, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. These are many of the same interests he'll soon investigating. if selected for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars during his political career from commercial banks, insurance firms, mortgage lenders, and professional associations like the American Bankers Association.

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Pecora

Boehner, McConnell Announce Pecora Appointees

Brian Beutler | July 15, 2009, 12:32PM

House Minority Leader John Boehner, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have announced the four Republican appointees to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, rounding out the entire commission, which, by law, can convene and begin work immediately

In a statement, the Republican leaders write:

Boehner and McConnell jointly selected former House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas to serve as Vice Chairman of the Commission. In addition, Boehner appointed Peter Wallison, Co-Director for Financial Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and McConnell appointed former Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Doug Holtz-Eakin, and former National Economic Council Director Keith Hennessey to serve on the Commission as well.

More to come on these four appointees, as well as the six Democratic appointees, later today.

Pecora

Pelosi, Reid Announce Appointments To New Pecora Commission

Brian Beutler | July 15, 2009, 12:11PM

It took a few weeks longer than expected, but Democratic leaders have settled upon their six appointees to the 10-member Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which will investigate the causes of the meltdown on Wall Street and its ripple effects throughout the economy.

California State Treasurer Phil Angelides will chair the Commission. He will join Brooksley Born, Chair of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission from 1996-1999; John W. Thompson, retired-CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Symantec Corporation; Former senator and governor Bob Graham (D-FL); Heather Murren, a retired Managing Director for Global Securities Research and Economics at Merrill Lynch; and Byron Georgiou, who is a Las Vegas-based businessman and attorney.

Pelosi named Angelides, Born, and Thompson. Reid tapped Graham, Murren, and Georgiou. Republican House and Senate leaders will name four more members, including a vice chairman, and we'll bring you those names--and more background on the panelists--when we get them.

Pecora

Speaker Pelosi: Financial Markets Commission Members To Be Named 'Imminently'

Brian Beutler | July 9, 2009, 11:19AM

The headline sort of says it all. At her weekly press conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said we'd soon know the names of the men and women appointed to serve on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. In fact, she said we'd know "imminently." Leaders of both parties have spent weeks evaluating a range of experts, seeking a delicate balance between expertise and purity--many of the people who truly understand financial markets are also simply too close to the players that caused the meltdown, and that inconvenient reality has caused the selection process to move more slowly than expected. Additionally, some on the left are concerned that none of the names under consideration reflect a sufficiently skeptical view of the financial industry.

Pecora

New Pecora Commission Members To Be Named Shortly

Brian Beutler | June 26, 2009, 12:54PM

Leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties are nearing their decisions on the roster of people who will sit on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. According to Reuters there are some familiar names floating around. "A short list of names has emerged that includes former Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson; former Democratic head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission Brooksley Born; and Alex Pollock, a fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, according to a source familiar with the matter."

[O]ther possible appointees include Bill Thomas, former Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; Jake Garn, former Republican senator; and Bob Graham, the former Democratic senator and Florida governor.

There are some serious names on the list, but also some baggage. Fred Thompson, for instance, is now viewed as an extremely political figure. Additionally, there aren't any famous, trusted brands (Elizabeth Warren, for instance) or people associated with consumer protection, an issue House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hopes the commission will bring to light.

Pecora

Pelosi May Appoint A Republican To The Financial Markets Commission

Brian Beutler | May 22, 2009, 1:57PM

At her weekly press briefing today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cited the bipartisan creation of a Pecora-like Financial Markets Commission as a signal achievement of the 111th Congress. The Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act--signed into law by the President this week--creates a 10-member panel to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. Crucially, two of those 10 members will be appointed by the Speaker and, this morning, Pelosi suggested she has her eyes on at least one Republican.

No word yet on who that Republican might be.

The restrictions on who can be appointed are actually fairly limited. The bill requires that members must be U.S. citizens with experience in fields like banking, market regulation, taxation, finance, economics, and housing; and further specifies that current members of Congress and and other government employees are automatically disqualified.

That leaves a great number of experts, frauds, and thieves eligible for service. So whether or not Pelosi picks a Republican, now might be a good time to place bets on whether GOP leaders will appoint this guy to be the commission's vice chair.

Pecora

Financial Crisis Investigative Commission To Become Law

Brian Beutler | May 19, 2009, 9:09AM

Last night, the House passed the final version of a bill intended to enhance enforcement of financial crimes, one of the provisions of which will create a 10-member commission to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. The vote was 338 to 52.

"While the Commission undertakes its investigation," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi upon passage of the legislation, "Chairman Barney Frank and the House Financial Services Committee will continue their ongoing work to reform federal oversight of our financial markets, and to reform lending practices to protect consumers."

The Senate passed the same version of the bill last week, and the President is expected to sign it short order. During deliberations between House and Senate leaders to resolve differences between the bills, negotiators made one potentially important change to the commission's guidelines, which now require that at least one member appointed by the Senate or House Minority Leader assent to the issuance of subpoenas, should they be necessary to compel testimony or other evidence. Whether that impacts the functioning of the commission will depend, I suppose, on how many subpoenas turn out to be necessary, and how much the Republican appointees resemble their appointers in Congress.

Pecora

Rumors Fly That Septau-, Octogenarians Might Head Financial Crisis Commission

Brian Beutler | May 11, 2009, 11:26AM

The House and Senate have each passed versions of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, both of which call for the creation of an independent, external, 10-member commission to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. And now all the fun is in musing about who Democratic and Republican leaders will select to sit on the panel.

Bloomberg says "[r]etired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and former Securities and Exchange Commission chief Arthur Levitt are among those being considered by congressional leaders to head a probe of the financial crisis, according to people with knowledge of the matter."

The one thing that truly unifies O'Connor (79), Volcker (81), and Levitt (78) is that they're all very, very old. Levitt has been criticized for taking a hands-off approach to regulation while serving as chair of the SEC from 1993-2001.

But as important as it is to highlight anonymous chit chat about who might get the nod (and it's very, very important), it's also worth asking whether and how industry will try to influence the selection process, and how serious officials are about launching the project in a timely manner.

Pecora

House Votes To Create Independent Outside Commission To Investigate Financial Crisis

Brian Beutler | May 6, 2009, 4:31PM

The House has just voted to create an independent outside commission to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. The House version of the Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act just passed by an overwhelming margin of 367-59-1, with Democrat Alan Grayson (D-FL) voting present and 59 Republicans voting, seemingly, for fraud.

The Senate passed their version of the bill last week. Now the bill goes to conference, where House and Senate negotiators will iron out the differences between the two. Those differences, though, are fairly minor.

The idea of creating a Pecora-like commission has been in the works for some time now, but it had gained significant momentum in recent weeks. Now it's all but a done deal. Party leaders will select the 10 commission members, with six picks going to the Democrats and four going to the Republicans. Deliberations might begin in as little as a few weeks, and a final report is expected at the end of 2010.

Pecora

House To Support Independent Outside Commission To Investigate Causes Of Financial Crisis

Brian Beutler | May 5, 2009, 1:48PM

The House plans to vote tomorrow on an anti-mortgage fraud bill, which now contains a provision that will create an independent outside commission to investigate the causes of the financial crisis.

"The American people need to understand how we got here - and lawmakers need to know how to prevent this type of economic crisis in the future," said Rep. John Larson (D-CT), who supports the move, "This commission can answer those questions."

Last week, the Senate passed their version of the same bill, which contained a similar provision, and in the coming days, the differences between the two will be resolved.

On the matter of the commission, the differences are fairly minor.

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Pecora

Investigation Of Financial Crisis Idea Gaining Steam

Brian Beutler | May 1, 2009, 1:20PM

Earlier this year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested the creation of an internal "Pecora-like" congressional committee to investigate the causes of the financial crisis, and, since then, we've been following the idea as it moves closer to fruition.

In the last couple weeks, there have been some significant developments on that front. On the House side, influential Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) introduced a stand-alone resolution that mirrors Pelosi's preference. "This [House] select committee," Dingell said, would "be comprised of members appointed from the Committees on Financial Services, Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, and Oversight and Government Reform...modeled on the Pecora Commission that held hearings in 1932 and 1933 to investigate the roots of the Great Depression."

The Pecora investigations were conducted in the Senate Banking Committee, but you get the idea. Dingell hasn't been in close conversation with leadership about his particular plan, but he did send Pelosi a letter asking for her support. I asked Dingell spokesman Adam Benson why Dingell prefers this configuration as oppose to, for instance, an independent outside commission. He said, "The committees of jurisdiction should be involved because they'll be the ones to write any legislation that results from the investigation."

Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and John McCain (R-AZ) feel much the same way. They introduced a measure that would create a select committee in the Senate with the same charge. "While I also support an outside commission, and have previously introduced legislation to establish such a commission," Dorgan said, "I believe the Senate has an important oversight responsibility that cannot be delegated. That's why we need a select Senate committee to investigate this financial crisis and make sure it never happens again."

That measure--an amendment to the Fraud Enforcement Recovery Act (FERA)--got the go ahead earlier this week when the bill overwhelmingly passed the Senate.

But another, similar FERA amendment would create an external commission, containing members appointed by both House and Senate leaders, and Hill sources suggest that's where the action is.

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