FCIC Hearings

Joe Nocera has an interesting piece today about Hearings That Aren’t Just Theater, namely, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission goings on in DC:

“There were no big “gotcha” moments during the hearings. As a result, perhaps, the hearings didn’t get the big treatment on CNBC. (I watched them on the F.C.I.C. Web site.) Nor was the country riveted the way it had been a few months ago, when Senator Carl Levin waved around a Goldman e-mail message that used vulgar language to describe one of its own deals.

What these hearings offered instead were intelligent questions, a refusal to be snookered by witnesses, and a kind of understated pointedness that was more effective than a dozen angry diatribes. The commissioners may not have gotten all the answers they sought, but they were genuinely trying to get answers, instead of preening for the cameras. There was a seriousness of purpose about their effort that has been lacking in most of the hearings in Washington that have tackled the financial crisis.

Will wonders ever cease?

Good stuff

Videos of recent hearings below:

  1. The Role of Derivatives in the Financial Crisis
    June 30-July 1, 2010
    Day 1 | Day 2
  2. Credibility of Credit Ratings, the Investment Decisions Made Based on those Ratings, and the Financial Crisis
    June 2, 2010
    Day 1
  3. The Shadow Banking System
    May 5-6, 2010
    Day 1 | Day 2
  4. Subprime Lending and Securitization and Government-Sponsored Enterprises
    April 7-9, 2010
    Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
  5. Forum to Explore the Causes of the Financial Crisis
    February 26-27, 2010
    Day 1 | Day 2
  6. First Public Hearing of the FCIC
    January 13-14, 2010
    Day 1 | Day 2
  7. First Public Meeting of the FCIC
    September 17, 2009

>

Source:
Hearings That Aren’t Just Theater
JOE NOCERA
NYT, July 2, 2010  
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/03/business/03nocera.html

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