Waxman, House Oversight to Hold Hearings on Wall Street Debacles (TPM)

[chill_wind]

House Oversight Committee Will Hold Additional Hearings on Wall Street's Breakdown
By Kate Klonick - October 2, 2008, 1:46PM

Henry Waxman, House Oversight Committee Chairman, added three more hearings on the financial crisis to the Committee's schedule in October.

Oversight had already planned to hold hearings on AIG's bailout and Lehman Brother's bankruptcy.

The new hearings will cover hedge fund regulation, the breakdown of credit rating agencies and the role of federal regulators.

"This financial crisis has shaken the global economy," Waxman said. "Congress cannot wait until a new administration arrives in January to examine what went wrong and who should be held accountable."

Waxman wrote letters requesting testimony from Treasury Secretary John Paulson, philanthropist George Soros, former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, SEC chairman Christopher Cox and the heads of a number of hedge funds.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/house_oversight_committee_will.php

[Duer 157099]

1. LOL, I misread that headline as "...Wall Street Douchebags"

which fits, of course, but was funny.

[chill_wind]

3. LOL! :-)

Wish I would have thought of that. Somehow "breakdown" seems a little too banal for what happened. in my book.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Misread?

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. K&R

[spag68]

4. Waxman

Sorry folks, don't get your hopes up. Refer back to all the other hearings that he has had and check the results. Unless the Dems get a really big margin all we can do is hope.

[lostnotforgotten]

5. Me Thinks This Is A Wee Bit Late - The 700B Has Been Spent

eom

[gopbuster]

7. The first tranche is not 700b but I do admire your persistance nt

[lostnotforgotten]

8. Just Labeling It Tranche Implies That The Money Is For Corrupt Purposes

eom

[gopbuster]

9. I see....to complex for the average "joe six pack?" n/t

[lostnotforgotten]

10. Associative Language Memes - Tranche = CDS,CDO, Bogus Mortgage

eom

[Hannah Bell]

12. the crooks gotta look like they're not crooks

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

6. I sense a Sternly Worded Letter in the offing.

Mah hero. We're saved. :sarcasm:

[Hannah Bell]

13. Yes, possibly more than one. Glad our reps are looking out for our interests.

[leftofthedial]

14. BFD

all they have to do is ignore his subpoenas, saying they are under Paulson's protection. Paulson is a member of the Executive Branch and can not be investigated, per the bailout bill.

[kenny blankenship]

15. Don't just find out "what went wrong". Find out what was wrong the WHOLE TIME

This system didn't suddenly "go wrong", become sick, and then die; it has been unhealthy since practically forever. It's normal state is a sickness. The financial system is not "sick" - it is a disease in itself that caused a massive sickness in the host society that it infected.

[dailykoff]

16. Um, it's a little late for that.

But on with the cya show for the folks back home.

[OnyxCollie]

17. Off topic, but does anyone else have trouble printing TPM webpages?

Do I need to register at TPM? Every time I try to print or save a PDF I get a blank page.

I'm using Safari and FireFox on a Mac w/Leopard 10.5.5, BTW.

[Golden Raisin]

18. Oh goody. More hearings.

That'll show 'em. Make sure there's a lot of indignant finger-wagging, stern letters written and tsk-tsk-tsk-ing. On our country's continuing descent into fascism the Treasury has now been brutally raped one more time. When the bank runs and bread lines start I'm sure we'll have even more hearings.

[Individualist]

25. Hear, hear. Hearings without follow-up (and how many of those have we seen)

are nothing but dog and pony shows.

[chill_wind]

19. Monday's and Tuesday's hearings- Lehman & AIG

Disgraced CEO Richard Fuld, who oversaw the demise of venerable Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc that helped tip the credit crunch into a full-blown crisis, will testify at a congressional hearing next week.

Fuld is scheduled to appear before the committed on Monday in what would be his first public appearance since Lehman filed for bankruptcy.

A spokeswoman for Lehman Brothers declined to comment.

(...

Last month, Waxman asked the CEOs to provide internal documents and communications transmitted to and from the executive suites during a 180-day period leading up to Sept 16, the day after Lehman, the 158-year-old investment bank and Wall Street fixture, filed for bankruptcy.

Excessive executive pay will be a theme at the hearing. Multimillion-dollar salaries and golden parachutes for exiting executive has been a hot topic of debate as the House and Senate worked to craft bills to bail out foundering financial institutions.

Fuld received $22 million in bonus alone for 2007, although he is not receiving a golden parachute.



On Tuesday, the committee will take on former AIG CEOs Robert Willumstad, Martin Sullivan and Maurice "Hank" Greenberg.

more: http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre4928ri-us-financial-fuld-testimony/


Meanwhile--

NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2008 (Reuters) — Unsecured creditors of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc asked a court overseeing Lehman's bankruptcy proceedings for permission to investigate how the firm ran out of money, The Wall Street Journal reported on its website on Friday.


The group said that JPMorgan Chase & Co , which acted as a middleman between Lehman and other lenders, helped spark a liquidity crisis at Lehman before it filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings earlier this month, the Journal reported.

The group made the allegation in a filing with the federal bankruptcy court in New York, the Journal reported.

"These assertions raised by the creditors' panel are unfounded conjecture," JPMorgan said in a statement released to the Journal. "We will address them at the appropriate time in bankruptcy court."

According to the court filing, about $17 billion in Lehman cash and securities were being held at J.P. Morgan as collateral, the Journal reported. In its claim, the creditors group alleges that J.P. Morgan "withheld $17 billion in excess assets" from Lehman Brothers "in the days just prior to the bankruptcy filing," the paper said.

more: http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre493040-us-lehman-creditors/

[goforit]

20. HEY WAXMAN....What are ya doing? Rewarding Paulson before investigating?

People...you just have to take your own lives into your own hands.
Its over.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. After the horse is out of the barn... what good has Waxman done with any of his hearings?

I had such high hopes when he became Chairman of the Committee and although things have been recorded into the Congressional record, he has accomplished absolutely nothing to stop the abuse and to hold anyone accountable in a meaningful way.

[chill_wind]

23. For the very longest time

I was always among the first to line up in his praises and hopeful expectations.
He must have enough boxes of paper documentation of the Bush admin corruption to fill up a 28 foot moving van, at least.
I was sure one day he was going to finally use some of it to finally help get someone impeached/indicted/imprisoned.
At one time, I really thought that. Seems so long ago, now.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

24. I agree and can also say the same thing about John Conyers.

It is so utterly sad, and yes, it seems such a long time ago.

[Neshanic]

22. Show trials. "Round up the usual suspects." Act pissed off.