The Myth of Ferdinand Pecora

In the coming days, we will be hearing more and more from the anti-capitalist left and its embedded brethren in the mainstream media, about the need for a new congressional investigation of the present financial crisis; how it occurred, whom to blame and prosecute. The name of Ferdinand Pecora will be invoked as a hallowed role model for an aggressive prosecutorial interrogator. The myth of Pecora's lauded activities during the early days of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal will provide cover and justification for this new inquisition of the left's revenge against the free market and deregulation, said to be at the root of the crisis.

Here are examples of recent articles:

"Where Have You Gone, Ferdinand Pecora," by Michael Winslip

"Time for a Grand Inquest on the Financial Crisis," by Robert L. Borosage

Pecora, Part II? Bill Moyer's Journal

"Where is Our Ferdinand Pecora," by Ron Chernow, The New York Times.

(Establishment "court historian" Chernow is the laudatory biographer of J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Alexander Hamilton.)

"A New Pecora Commission," Time Magazine

"US Senate Approves Panel To Investigate Financial Crisis," The Wall Street Journal

Now for the actual reality and historical truth about what was going on during the early New Deal with Ferdinand Pecora, see these online articles:

"Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal: An Annotated Bibliographic Guide," by Charles A. Burris

The Separation of Commercial and Investment Banking: The Morgans versus the Rockefellers," by Alexander Tabarrok

And especially the excellent book, A History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II, by economist/historian Murray N. Rothbard. In particular see, Part 3: From Hoover to Roosevelt: The Federal Reserve and the Financial Elites, beginning on page 259, where Rothbard provides a detailed background analysis of key persons and events leading up to the Great Depression and the Pecora investigation.

The single most important factor to consider about this crucial historical period is the fierce internecine rivalry between the two dominant financial politico-economic blocs, the House of Morgan versus that of the Rockefeller-Harriman-Kuhn, Loeb group.

Franklin Roosevelt's' New Deal was a savage declared war against the J P Morgan bloc.

Ferdinand Pecora was a shill for FDR and the latter group against their Wall Street rivals, the Morgans.

Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, their key administration functionaries, and the leading congressional figures who call for and would direct a new investigation of Wall Street's complicity in bringing on the present crisis, are all captives of the very Wall Street banksters at Goldman Sachs they would be investigating. Such a farcical investigation, if it comes off, will make the bogus 911 Commission, Warren Commission or Senator Joe McCarthy's controversial hearings on Communist spies in government, exercises in veracity and moral clarity.

And all the time, the real culprits of the crisis at the Federal Reserve will remain ensconced and undisturbed. Greenspan and Bernanke will continue to enjoy uninterrupted nights of slumber and blissful hubris.

Those seeking the truth about what really happened to cause the financial crisis should read Thomas Woods' New York Times best-seller, Meltdown, and the wonderful series of articles on Goldman Sachs by journalist Matt Taibbi.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future