A proposal to investigate the roots of last year’s economic collapse is expected to win approval by the U.S. House Wednesday as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act.
U.S. Rep. John Larson, an East Hartford Democrat whose 1st District includes Bristol, has pushed for months for a bipartisan commission to probe the cause of the crisis.
The American people need to understand how we got here – and lawmakers need to know how to prevent this type of economic crisis in the future,” Larson said in a prepared statement Tuesday.
“This commission can answer those questions. It will help as we move forward with common sense reforms to prevent this from happening again,” the congressman said.
The 10-member panel proposed by lawmakers would be modeled on the Depression-era Pecora Commission that investigated the Wall Street crash of 1929.
The Pecora Commission’s high-profile investigation uncovered a range of fraud and manipulation of the markets, leading to public pressure that eventually caused Congress to enact the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that created the regulatory oversight of Wall Street that’s been in place for the past 75 years.
“Unfortunately, 75 years later, bankers, traders and corporate executives have managed to outsmart that regulation, or the regulators were asleep at the switch. The structure is now outdated, full of holes and blind spots,” Larson wrote recently in a piece in Roll Call, a Capitol Hill weekly.
“ So we must begin again where Pecora did, shedding ‘fierce light’ on today’s schemes so we can build a modern regulatory framework that first and foremost protects working Americans,” Larson said.
The congressman said that if the federal government is going to pour money into salvaging financial firms “we must determine the exact causes of this economic meltdown. We owe at least that much to the 3.6 million Americans who have lost their jobs in the past year.
“We need a commission that looks back, not just at the last eight years, but to the last 28 years of regulation and legislation that led to this crisis,” Larson wrote.
Larson, who heads the House Democratic Caucus, said a commission “would help build a framework under which America’s new financial leaders could excel. In the end, the goal is to deliver not just a report but an ‘investor’s bill of rights’ to protect Americans’ savings, 401(k)s and pension plans.”
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
13 comments:
More wasted spending here. We already know why everything collapsed: Banks stretched too far, insurance companies took the hit and too many people were approved for ARM loans. Most importantly, DODD DROPPED THE BALL. Mr. Larson, you don't have to go too far to find the culprit. he's right here in state.
Save your anti-Republican spin for your Democrat fund-raisers Congressman Blow-hard.
If he doesn't know by now - get rid of him.
Maybe its the Democratic Tax and spend philosohy that got us into this mess.
DODD DID THE DEED>>>DODD DID IT DODD DID IT....DODD DID IT.
Larson ...keep your month shut and nobody will ever know how dumb you really are! You sound more like DODD every day.
Here I will save the government millions of dollars on an investigation.
GREED! and old politicians that think being in government is suppose to be a life long job. It always makes me laugh when you can elect a President for only 8 years - but the Senate really has the most power and you can be there for Dodd years! Opps I meant for a ton of years!
The End!
Talk about BIG ONES!!!!
8 years of bush and you can still blame others? what a joke.
He's a Mini-Dodd! I collapsed in laughter when I read this headline!
Please !!!!! Someone hand this 'gentleman' a mirror .
10:12
Great Idea!
Lets all send him mirrors.
Earth to Congressman Blow-hard Liar(Larson):
Wall Street tanked because investors knew a socialist (Obama-Biden) was about to get elected.
What's he going to do when he finds out his buddies Chris Dodd, Barney Frank & Bill Clinton didn't do their jobs which contributed heavily to the collapse? That info will not be made public but he'll find a way to blame it all on Bush (who is also heavily to blame).
Now we will continue to have problems because the Dems want the banks to start lending again to people & businesses that don't qualify for financing. This, of course, will look good initially because it will get the home sales and construction segments booming again but we will have another collapse down the road when these people/businesses can't make their payments.
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