–Panel To Release Report In January; Republicans Issue Own Findings
–Republican Paper Focuses Criticism on Fannie, Freddie
–Some Blast Republican Paper As More Ideological Than Factual

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Even before the first public meeting of the
Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in September of 2009, there were
many skeptics about the need to create such a panel.

The panel was charged to release its report on the origins
of the financial crisis in December of 2010, well after many expected
Congress to pass sweeping financial services reform legislation. Some
questioned the utility of releasing report after Congress was
likely to have passed landmark financial regulation.

Others noted that bookshelves across the world were already
beginning to be filled with comprehensive and even impressive books on
the origins of the financial crisis. It was not immediately clear what
information or perspectives this panel could develop that could not be
found elsewhere.

Even Congress’s own research arm, the Congressional Research
Service, a unit of the Library of Congress, has released more than a
dozen detailed reports that discuss aspects of the financial crisis.

It now seems apparent that many of these initial misgivings were
well founded.

The Commission did conduct 19 days of often interesting public
hearings from significant witnesses such as Federal Reserve Board
Chairman Ben Bernanke, former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury
Secretary Tim Geithner, Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon of
JP Morgan Chase, John Mack of Morgan Stanley, and Brian Moynihan of Bank
of America.

The panel interviewed more than 700 witnesses and collected
hundreds of thousands of pages of documents.

And the commission is comprised of people with broad experience in
government.

The 10-member panel includes six members chosen by Democratic
leaders and four chosen by Republicans.

The Democratic appointments are Phil Angelides, the former
Treasurer of California, Brooksley Born, former chairman of the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission, former Sen. Bob Graham, John
Thompson, chairman of Symantec Corp., Byron Georgiou, a lawyer and
businessman, and Heather Murren, the head of the Nevada Cancer
Institute.

Republican leaders named former Congressman Bill Thomas, former
Bush administration economic advisor Keith Hennessey, former
Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, and Peter
Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute.

But the effort to write a credible final report is under serious
stress.

When Angelides pushed for delaying the release of the report which
was due Dec. 15 for about a month to refine it, Republican members of
the panel objected to the delay.

And then last week, the Republican commissioners released a report
on the financial crisis called “Financial Crisis Primer” in an apparent
attempt to preempt the official report which will come out next month.

The Republican paper levels much of the blame on the financial
crisis on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — an assertion many independent
analysts find overly simplistic and perhaps ideologically motivated.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was created in legislation
passed in May of 2009.

It was charged to examine a wide range of areas including state
and federal regulation of the financial industry, the growth of new
financial products, the role of rating agencies, executive compensation,
tax treatment of financial products, the role of derivatives, and
corporate governance.

Angelides, the chairman of the panel, has said his inquiry will
focus on the genesis of the crisis in 2007 through 2009 rather than
trying to make policy recommendations for the future.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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