The wagons circling around TARP Congressional Oversight Panel Chair Elizabeth Warren should come to no surprise. She has the guts to try to do her job after all.
Naked Capitalism points out our biggest promoter of political economic Calvinball, House Chair Nancy Pelosi is now doing the dirty on one of the few voices of reason in D.C. (and of course this is true for Professor Warren is an outsider).
So why are we pointing a finger at Pelosi in particular? The next chapter is her appointment of one Richard Nieman to the Congressional Oversight Panel. Under the TARP rules, the House Majority leader selects one of the oversight panel members, so this choice was completely under her control.
Nieman is the New York Superintendant of Banks. He helped Goldman set up its bank holding company.
Nieman fell out with the other Democrats and wrote a joint opinion with John Sununu (see page 88 of the document). If you were somehow ignorant of the fact that the Summers/Geithner programs embody massive hidden and inefficient subsidies to banks (the Public Private Investment Partnership), questionable uses of the FDIC, and the employment of the Fed as quasi-fiscal agent, the critique might sound reasaonable. But to anyone with a passing acquaintance with the facts, the dissenting views are absurd. To give you an idea of how far they have to stretch to make their arguments sound plausible, they grasp at the straw of "oh yeah, that over 50 point spread between market price and bank valuation for toxic assets is due to a liquidity discount."
I've got news fer ya, NC, Pelosi has endorsed many a corporate agenda, from guest worker Visas to the TARP and even bad trade treaties. She's big corporate money with a social liberal special interest (who also have big money) twist.
Yves Smith (Naked Capitalism) is also mentioning Pelosi's sudden endorsement of House bill H.R. 768 Commission on Financial Crisis Accountability Act of 2009 as being inconsistent.
Here again, nothing is inconsistent. Yves Smith is right, the house bill is a sham and it gives Pelosi even more power because she would appoint the panel members. In addition the panel would be front loaded with her favorite Democrats in Congress.
One thing is we cannot let Elizabeth Warren be sandbagged. She is a little light of truth in a sea of Washington bullshit.
What a waste of money!
We don't need another commission. This is bullshit - trying to appear like they are doing something. The congressional committees and TARP COP can handle any necessary investigation.
It is a matter of control. Prof. Warren is not likely to be controlled by big money banking industry. She will provide an honest assessment.
Many in Washington, including many in WH, want to preserve the status quo as much as possible. A new commission will help those in the pocket of big money banking industry to control the message.
It is all about protecting the financial oligarchy!
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
commissions
I think there does need to be an outside body writing up a thorough analysis.
But putting Politicians on the panel, chosen by Congressional leadership? joke, joke, joke!
The problem is, for example, the 9/11 commission found very serious problems with immigration Visas, IDs, national security generally.
So, bam, our open borders, special interests and big cheap labor money people don't want that fixed, so you cannot get a system in place in the US to track on who is here and create a secured ID that cannot be tampered or stolen.
The banking system has had secure systems for financial transactions for years but lord help you on creating of a secure identity or tracking on Visa entries, exits, stays and know who is in the country...
Why? Because the illegal alien lobby simply doesn't want it for one, and so we get all sorts of spin to stop the entire process....ignoring the fact our system is a joke and anyone can come into the U.S. and do serious harm.
Show Me The Money
and that's where you will find Pelosi's vote. Prof. Warren is the only that was honest enough for that job and now they want to get rid of her. She is the last one with common sense.
Pecora hearings.
Coincidentally, I was watching the latest Bill Moyers Journal while this was posted. My local PBS broadcasts on Sunday, rather than Friday night. The Pecora commission hearings were the topic of the entire show with Michael Perino and Simon Johnson.
In Part II, they delve into what needs to happen investigating our current situation. They gave many good reasons for NOT using a congressional commission. Also, Simon acknowledged his admiration for Elizabeth Warren and thought she could do a great job as the new Pecora. Personally, I think we need a more prosecutorial type (think Elliot Spitzer) but I won't hold my breath.
You can sense that both guests are trying to remain optimistic, but understand the enormous entrenched power that must be overcome. Certainly, the level of populist anger right now is not anywhere near the level that existed when Pecora's hearings took place.