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House Speaker Pelosi wants 1933 style investigation of Wall Street

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House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi wants a 1933 style investigation of Wall Street. She said that the American people are demanding to know the what and how of the Lehman, Bear Stearns and Merrill collapses. She wants to pattern her investigation after the Ferdinand Pecora hearings in 1933. The Pecora review "was probably the single most important congressional investigation in the history of our country, excepting the Watergate hearings. Congress is under public pressure to find out exactly what generated $1.3 trillion in financial industry losses, the details of the $700 billion dollar bailout and the $37 trillion destroyed in world markets. In response, John Larson, of Connecticut said: "We truly want to find out what happened to this country and level with the American people." Pelosi, in a speech on April 15 said: people need "to have a clear understanding as to how we got here and what the exposure is to the taxpayer to all this."

Meanwhile, Barney Frank on the House side and Christopher Dodd on the Senate side want to rush into writing new laws. To understand what is going on we must understand that both Frank and Dodd are closely connected to the powerful banking lobbies who donate monies to political campaigns. One could guess that they want to rush in and pass laws and tell everyone that all is well to circumvent any investigation by Pelosi. How can you pass laws without first knowing what the problem is? There is much to be gained by the Pelosi investigation that the American people have the right to know.

Just to show you how deep the bank donors are entrenched in the Congress, the banking industry has given $463.5 million to every election cycle for the past 20 years. Individual and PAC donations from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE GS) totaled $30.9 million and Citigroup Inc (NYSE C ) $25.8 million.

Should Frank and Dodd wait until the investigation is completed before passing any new laws?

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Last updated: November 25, 2009: 10:42 AM

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