Financial Crisis Commission Hearing on Capitol Hill

10-member Financial Crisis Commission headed by the ex-State Treasurer of California (well that gives a lot of credibility to the Commission, doesn't it?) is holding a hearing on Capitol Hill today and tomorrow.

Comments from people watching the proceedings are those of disappointment and sarcasm. The 9-11 Commission seems to come to most people's mind - i.e. grand-standing with no substance.

It's quite telling, to me, that the ex-banker (Merrill Lynch) sits right next to the commission chair and asks totally inane questions like why Goldman Sachs didn't offer to take less than 100 percent in payments from AIG.

Where does Brooksley Born sit? She sits at the end. She's about the only one in the commission that has credibility. I would have believed more in the seriousness of this commission if she were the chair.

Wall Street CEOs were "grilled" in the morning, and now it's financial analysts' turn. But did the Commission invite those analysts and economists who had long predicted the financial crisis that finally hit in September 2008? People like Peter Schiff and Meredith Whitney?

For those of you like me who don't have TV anymore, you can watch the hearing live on C-SPAN on the Internet.

If you want to let the Commission know how you feel about the hearing, you can write to them. (I was thinking of filling the comment section with "LOL LOL LOL LOL.....")

In one of the episodes of BBC's excellent comedy Yes Prime Minister, Sir Humphrey Appleby the Cabinet Secretary advises the novice Minister Jim Hacker thus: When we don't want to find out about anything, we form a committee.

Exactly.

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