Last week we witnessed a parade of bank CEOs appear before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. The commission was formed by Congress last year to probe the financial meltdown of 2008 and determine its causes.

The commission is headed by Phil Angelides who said that part of the commission's aim is to "make this a story that's not just academic but a real story" that describes "the actions of individuals and institutions," the Wall Street Journal reported.

The commission intends to use subpoena powers to obtain information from both the private and public sectors about the details of the meltdown to add to its bite.

Top Wall Street bankers testified before The Crisis Commission whose job it is to find out what went wrong during the financial meltdown. The Chairman of the ten member commission is Phil Angelides,

Mr Angelides grilled Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs GS about its practice of first selling sub prime mortgage securities to investors and then selling them short, betting that the securities would go down. Blankfein answered that Goldman did not have a legal obligation to disclose when it was betting against the securities it was selling. In reply, Angelides said: "Sounds a little bit to like selling a used car with faulty brakes and then buying insurance on the driver."

Today was a day which could have gone either way. The data was light and the market is on hold for earnings. But Congressional inquiries today with top bank executives did not have an angry nor threatening tone as you have seen in other unrelated hearings of the past. This helped the financial sector and the market. The Fed's Beige Book also gave no end in sight for near-zero rates.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,680.77 +53.51 (0.50%)
S&P 500 1,145.68 +9.46 (0.83%)
Nasdaq 2,307.90 +25.59 (1.12%)

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Is this the first time you've heard about the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission? Probably. It seems that Treasury Secretary Geithner organized the commission to investigate what went wrong during the financial crisis of 2008! That's right 2008! Can you imagine -- the public has been clamoring for answers as to what happened during the meltdown, and now a year later they decided to open an investigation.

The Commission was created by Congress to examine the causes of the collapse that roiled global markets and led to a $700 billion U.S. bailout of the nation's banks.