Newsweek: Why The Financial Inquiry Commission Might Surprise Us

newsweek.com:

So the public may have just one chance left for satisfaction: Congress's Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which started work Thursday. The early signs are, however, not terribly promising. The commission's chairman, Phil Angelides, is no Ferdinand Pecora, though he claims to keep Pecora's book next to his bed. Angelides is a crony of Nancy Pelosi and a California politician who, as state treasurer, was known as a mild reformer.

Read the whole story: newsweek.com

Comments

[Dailypolitics55]

Obama's reform is a joke. There will be no prosecutions, no jail time. Nothing. No change.
Like the investigations into the CIA, this will go NO WHERE, end in NO PROSECUTIONS and serve only as a way for them to WASTE TIME and RUN OUT THE CLOCK until the next round of elections before digging deeper holes.

hat tip to http://www.iamned.com

I am very frustrated by the lack of progress with regards to heath care, education, energy, and financial reform. Obama is acting like an empty suit.

[bluecollarblogger]

"A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." JFK

What have these banks, or goverment to fear from the truth. Unless the truth of our present situation be so damning that it would completely destroy our trust in the very institutions which are to favor our cause? The truth shall set you free......­.........i think not........i am free so therefore I deserve the truth!

Its time for regulation which protects investors..........especially those without the power to facilitate change withing these international power brokers.

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

no doubt the channeling of 'public outrage' is still among the most important open projects to be completed and the commission will have to play an essential role in it.

But I will not get tired of repeating my cautioning:

Public outrage can be turned against its own purpose and this is what happens when the lessons aren't properly analysed. To avoid this outcome, it is essential that the media and science as well as citizenry (all worldwide) engage in public insistence on calling the bluff of flawed and self-serving views of the financial sector.

Ostrich-like policies WILL NOT DO.

But if outrage is itself not well-grounded in argument, ostrich-like policies are the likeliest outcome. I recommend to everybody a study of the use of the word 'populism' in reference and application to possible policy responses to the crisis.

Bankers are eager to claim that criticizing them is populism. If they get away with that, the crisis WILL be lost.

[FreedomCorpse]

justice system is still AWOL, like our military on the entire eastern seaboard was on 911.

[blood1]

Back on topic: A commission may be fine and dandy...but I remember the 9/11 Commission, it took 2 years and offered recommendations, which GWB said "thanks, but no thanks" and then put the report "in the trash".

I seriously doubt anyone will go to jail...but the Administration and Congress waiting for 2 years to move forward is beyond irresponsible.

Actually, what will be seen in the next few months (or year) is if there are any (or a sufficient number) of Dem Legislators who have not been bought by Big Business and will actually write and pass legislation to "reform" Wall Street, or at least protect the average consumer from their gambling addiction and risk taking...sorry but the Party of NO will continue its NO vote on any major legislation.

The only legislation that would work for "we the people" is to separate the banks from the Wall Street gamblers and let the gamblers find their own cure. It is when they got access to our money that they really became creative...so just give me back my bank and separate it my investment portfolio.

For all the whining about 401K and market loss...did any of you invest in CASH...as I did not lose a dime (although the interest rate is currently underwhelming)...what were you thinking, or did greed influence your own investment strategy?

[weatherwaxx]

"A crony of Nancy Pelosi?"

Well, considering it was cronies of Bush, Cheney, et al who got us into this mess, I think things could be a lot worse.

[OneLiberalLady]

Well said....... why he's dissing Nancy Pelosi is anyone's guess. Maybe Tom DeLay would be preferable to him....

[LeeCalif]

Angelides holds to the party line. He won't rock the boat. Heck, he ran for gov.

[blueskybigstar]

This article starts off great, but then tries to rewrite history by saying that the Glass-Steagle act went too far. Enough. This is a shill piece that does not want the people involved in mass corruption, like William K. Black said, to go to jail.

Yes, we need to take the non-violent offenders out of jail and put these real criminals in jail. We need to send a message.

[kassandrasduplex]

I stopped reading it after they referred to Angelides as Pelosi's "crony". They rarely refer to Bush figures that way and Angelides is a good man. Pelosi is anti-war and she tried to get Murtha in but was trumped by Hoyer . Newsweek and Time are shills for the status quo, have been for years. A simple return of Glass Steagle would solve a lot but that is from the FDR New Deal era and the rich considered him a class traitor so none of his progressive policies will remain, and that goes for public health and Social Security too.
If there is money to be made, nothing progressive will come of the American government anymore.

[kassandrasduplex]

I stopped reading it after they referred to Angelides as Pelosi's crony. They never refer to Bush figures that way, do they?.

[FreedomCorpse]

I cancelled a subscription to Newsweek that my parents had kept running for over 30 years because of the persistent trash that passes for journalism in that magazine. Samuelson, Will, Zakaria, et al all the same with only a 'perceived' and promoted as left or right leaning political viewpoint....they are wall street and political propagandists only with only a little truth thrown in for plausible deniability purposes.

[OneLiberalLady]

I've been tempted to cancel Newsweek at times, but they have also published good things, such as the cover story on Ted Kennedy ("Cause of a Lifetime"). I felt like cancelling The New Yorker over their cover showing Michelle and Barack Obama armed (supposed to be ironic), but honestly, there'll be nothing left to read if we cancel every time we are offended.

[elfish]

So flossophy study proves the smartest three categories are liberal:

New Yorter - Liberal - 48%
NPR - Liberal - 44%
Hardball - Liberal - 43%

But it is really a pretty silly study. Most people would fall in at least two and probably three or four of the categories. So for example what happens if you read both the New Yorker and the National Enquier, which are top and bottom rated items? You can't simultaneously be the smartest and the dumpest.

[flossophy]

It is a silly study.

I'd say look at who's thriving and who's not.

[elfish]

The fact is that New Media is surving and old media is not. HP, (this very web site,) is at the top of that heap. Only Fox News on the conservative side is slightly ahead of HP, but fox is dead flat in page impressions, while HP is surging upward. And to top that, the New York Times online has twice as many page impressions as fox news.

[OneLiberalLady]

Popularity = wisdom, eh?

[kassandrasduplex]

None of those sources is liberal. None is calling for redistributive progressive policies such as higher taxation on the rich.
Watch Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! for a taste of true liberal progressive media.

[Chernynkaya]

TiffanyHusseinBanned I'm a Fan of TiffanyHusseinBanned I'm a fan of this user 294 fans permalink
photo

The TARP is being paid back and at a high interest rate. Many banks have already paid back their TARP. To add, the guvment made money from those loans.

I still don't get the anger.
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Basically, regardless of all but $100 billion of TARP repayment, the system and the products and the people who ruined this economy are all still in place. And the banks too big to fail still hold us hostage. From the article:

"Afloat in taxpayer bailouts and the giant bonuses they're awarding themselves once again, Wall Streeters are back to being their feisty selves. No executive has gone to jail."

"What we do need is...a prominent outlet for public outrage. In the last nine months, the Obama administration and the grandees in Congress have been designing solutions without much input from the outside, often using experts from Wall Street (especially "Government Sachs")...Even Paul Volcker [has been] ignored by the president he is advising. Volcker is calling for sensible changes to the structure of Wall Street that the administration and Congress are not yet considering."

People are outraged by the unfairness of this. I looks like we might have this hearing to set things right.

[ibsteve2u]

I do believe that it would be much simpler to equip Wall Street with a gigantic flush handle.

If that would be OK with the EPA - or I could get a variance, just this one time.

[shivasquest]

They are using ENRON accounting and the FED has created vehicles for the banks to hide their loses..so they are off the books.

[CarpenterGal]

How come the last thing I typed didn't show up?

[dwright]

scubbed

[CarpenterGal]

But it wasn't even dirty.

[ibsteve2u]

Did you hit the invisible ink key?

[PepeLepew]

You typed a bad word!
You can't even say "o.r.a.l" on HuffPost.

[ibsteve2u]

Maybe it is the context? Like if I say "After listening to oral arguments, Scalia emitted this dissent:

[bq]
This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is “actually” innocent.
[eq]

(Which he really said, by the way. http://supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08pdf/08-1443Scalia.pdf

The Right is...whacked.)

[CarpenterGal]

I'm new here and I have to say, this Flossophy has every person in this room in stitches. His hysteria is hysterical.

[PepeLepew]

:)
You notice though he never attacks people personally even though he takes tons of ab.use? That's why I tolerate him.

[CarpenterGal]

I don't know who he is. I just find his topic of conversation, considering the headline, and his obvious tweeked out hammering at it to be very funny. He's just going to convince everyone that Fox news is the only way to go even if he blow's a gasket doing it.

[CarpenterGal]

He's going to blow a fuse in an effort to prove a completely non relevant point. It's fun to watch.

[flossophy]

They can't get enough of me :)

[theMightyT]

Thanks for playing, everyone!

It's sure been fun.

L8r

[daxster4]

First of all, Hume, I'm not skipping classes. My class was over at 1pm. Secondly, Mogamboguru, I'm not clueless.

The way I read it, this is the first step to the return of the spheres of interests in Eastern Europe. After Russian aggressioFirst of all, Hume, I'm not skipping classes. My class was over at 1pm. Secondly, Mogamboguru, I'm not clueless.

The way I read it, this is the first step to the return of the spheres of interests in Eastern Europe. After Russian aggression on Georgia in 2008, the U.S. is basically acknowledging that Russia has right to contest and eventually to cancel all decisions of sovereign states in Eastern Europe. BIG MISTAKE.

Also, I understand why Polish newspapers are saying they were stabbed in the back by Obama, especially given the timing of the announcement on September 17, the date of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939.

[DontJustFollow]

good point - you would think that even if Obama was going to switch partners at the dance, someone in his cabinet would think to maybe put it off a couple of days ???

that kind of stupid really shouldn't be anywhere near the leader of the free world . . .

[dwright]

and you a Palin supporter - how dare you

[dwright]

Sorry my friend it was Georgia that actually flexed against Russia - go and read the final chapters in Blackwater. Blackwater has a mercenary training facility there in Northern Georgia and there are plans being laid to put in oil pipes through the sea and by-pass Russia.

Study that whole event and you will see that it is not as cut and dry as you think

[DontJustFollow]

daily Kos explain everything to you in a secret members only email ?

[ibsteve2u]

Pretend you are a general. Where, after all of the Republican wars-for-lies, are we going to get the forces to contest anything with Russia?

Say, even, that the right - the Republicans - had a change of heart and got all patriotic enough to voluntarily raise the taxes of their owners sufficiently to enlarge and rebuild our military.

What are we going to build all of the new armaments with? The Republicans got rid of all of our industrial infrastructure, too.

The fact is the Republicans keep wanting to start a gun fight, when they exchanged our gun for a knife and pocketed the difference!

[theMightyT]

flossophy I'm a Fan of flossophy I'm a fan of this user 226 fans permalink
America is the healthiest, most responsive democracy (republic) on the planet.

======

I think you've really outdone yourself with this comment, Floss.

You really have lost your remaining few marbles.

[flossophy]

In Europe, they simply have different flavors of social democrats to choose from... and their political class is unresponsive to the needs of the people.

Russia certainly isn't a democracy by any stretch of the imagination.
South America gets to choose between degrees of Leftism.

Only in America do we have a vibrant philosophical Left / Right split.

[dwright]

philosophical?

you call beck and rush philosophical?

[DontJustFollow]

you are wasting your time trying to explain world politics to most of these folks. all they want to be is French or Canadian . . .