Pelosi vows new “Pecora-style” commission to investigate economic collapse
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Speaking Wednesday at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she will act next week to begin setting up an investigatory committee to examine and document what went wrong with economic policy and practices.
Pelosi stated that her decision was the result of persistent complaints from citizens about the collapse and bailout.
"People are very unhappy with these bailouts. Seventy five percent of the American people, at least, want an investigation of what happened on Wall Street."
She described the Pecora Commission as both an investigatory body and a policy generator, and said that’s what she expects the new commission to achieve:
"They investigated what happened in the markets," including conflicts of interests and irregularities that set off such devastating effects on the U.S. economy, she said. When the commission issued its findings during the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, "they had tangible recommendations,"…which helped generate widespread public support for major banking system reforms and new securities laws.
"That's what we would do with this commission, is to make sure it does not happen again."
Pelosi gave the Obama administration a heads-up earlier on Wednesday, but isn’t going to wait for anyone in either the Executive or in the Senate to get moving:
"We're going to have a commission ... even if it is only in the House of Representatives."
According to Pelosi, the new committee’s investigation will move forward in parallel with legislation to establish expanded regulatory oversight of the financial industry, identified by President Obama in his economic policy address at Georgetown on Tuesday as the most immediate objective of his top five economic priorities:
The first step we will take to build this foundation is to reform the outdated rules and regulations that allowed this crisis to happen in the first place. It is time to lay down tough new rules of the road for Wall Street to ensure that we never find ourselves here again. Rules that punish short-cuts and abuse. Rules that tie someone's pay to their actual job performance. Rules that protect typical American families when they buy a home, get a credit card or invest in a 401(k). We have already begun to work with Congress to shape this new regulatory framework — and I expect a bill to arrive on my desk for signature before the year is out.
Good.
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i saw a video of her talking about this recently
[don't remember where]. warmed the cockles of my heart. yay, nancy!
thanks for posting this, the video i saw didn't have much detail.
She's been talking about this for a while, hipparchia
At least since December so you may have seen one of her trial balloons from earlier in the year. As far as I know this is the first definitive statement of intent and it is welcome indeed.
The process issues in Congress seem obscure and senselessly obstructive to many people, but they are never the less real and must be dealt with to move any agenda forward. This event is welcome on its own, but I believe I have caught in it a scent in the air of panic on the Right. The formation of this commission may signal their full-on retreat into CYA mode, with everyone looking to point the finger of blame on BushCo for every wrong that's been done over the last 30 years and wash their own hands in the process. If so, that will create a huge opportunity for Progressives if we can collectively get more focused and organized - so keep up the good work on health care, please!
There are real Tipping Points, and this may be one.
when hipparchia speaks, nancy listens!
/snark
srsly though, i have been sending her emails since shortly after she became speaker, and one of them was a fairly lengthy disquisition on bringing back glass-steagall and related regulations. i didn't mention the pecora commission by name, but i did draw heavily on my reading about it in my argument for why i wanted a shiny new glass-steagall.
yep, it was probably a trial balloon i heard before. hmmmm... and i think it was shortly after i sent her that email.... :)
health care. i am sick of reading and writing about health care. when i first started blogging about health care back in late 2006, it was with the expectation of working it in around my blogging about farming and the farm bill. ha! ah well, best laid plans and all.
courage, amie
another ten years and we'll have them on the run for sure.
The French pronounciation is a little shaky, but bonus points to Eric Adams for the attempt; it is a difficult language even for the French.
If you don't know this group, they hold the Guiness Book record for loudest concert. Rock on, dudes.
Excellent!
And about time!
if you knew Nancy
like I know Nancy, you'd be a bit more gentle. She is a good person in a difficult position, who wants very much to do the proper thing on every Progressive issue.
Pelosi has been talking about this seriously for months, since at least early December IIRC, but it has taken this long to get support in the House lined up and the right people positioned for the commission. She wants it to be as bi-partisan as possible for the sake of credibility and be effective; that combination is a geat difficulty in this political environment, with the entire Republican caucus composed of outright nutjobs and a third of the Democratics nearly as bad.
The key development, the factor that pushed this past the tipping point, is the consistent expression of outrage from citizens to their representatives. Everybody in the House has been catching hell for months and the result is that the political will to do something, anything, has crystalized to the point that Pelosi can force the issue.
We the people do have the power to shape the political agenda, if we are vocal enough for long enough. Excellent indeed, and a model for "making" them do it on other Progressive agenda items.
NOTE: I see that Teddy Partridge at FDL also covered this, and gave you a shout-out.
It's not my job to get to know Nancy
It is my job to raise hell.
It's not my job to assign you a job
so I didn't.
Just an observation, not a command.
Here we go
Nor did I claim that you did.
I do, however, have the job of keeping this place running -- and raising "hell" while doing it. That has nothing to do with getting to know Nancy personally. Nor should it. I'm sure she's a lovely individual, loves kittens, etc.
Jane at FDL has response from Bill Black on Pelosi's call for
Pecora-type investigagion.
Big time!
There's so much to post -- it's like the run-up to Iraq and Watergate are all going on at the same time (not in nature, but in scope).
thanks, jawbone, for the link
I agree with Black on this:
but not on his first structural recommendation for a single commission counsel rather than having the traditional dual majority and minority legal staffs.
Let the Republicans have whomever they please, so long as the Democratic choice is young, honest, smart, full of vigor and with a fire in the belly for making a name for themselves. A compromise choice will inevitably be someone middling in all respects and forcing that would be a huge tactical mistake.
Gentlemen, is it possible Ms. Pelosi had some reason to
delay this call until, perhaps, she thought it might be answered affirmatively?
I do sense that DC seems since this Jan. 20th somewhat less ... poised ... for a pounce upon anything the Dem leaders do. Would that reinvigorate /could that make feel safe to speak up those same Dem leaders?