Pecora Commission

Today the new Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, modeled after the New Deal-era Pecora Commission, begins its investigation into possible misconduct by the financial sector causing last year's market meltdown. Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage released the following statement on what the commission needs to do to fulfill its mission. Below that is a set of recommendations proposed by 40 organizations to the Commission in a letter today.

Statement from Robert L. Borosage

We are pleased that the Financial Crisis Commission is coming together, under the leadership of chair Phil Angelides. It has enormous challenge before it.

As Phil suggests in his opening statement, the Commission should aspire to be the modern day version of the Senate Banking Hearings in the 1930s that came to be named after the chief counsel, Ferdinand Pecora.

In the 1930s, Wall Street excesses, fraud, and speculation helped feed a bubble that burst and contributed to the Great Depression. FDR stepped into save the banks, reorganize them, and stave off financial panic.

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In their first meeting Wednesday, members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission—often characterized as the second coming of the Pecora Commission that investigated the causes of the Great Depression—clarified how they see their mission and what we can expect. more »

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Now that congressional leaders have named the members of the Financial Services Inquiry Commission—what is often referred to as the "Pecora Commission"—we are going to see once again who is prepared to lay the groundwork for real financial reform and who is goin more »

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I scoffed when Bernie Madoff,through his  lawyers, asked for a twelve year sentence in his fraud case. What some people think they can get away with pales only in comparison to what some people are actually allowed to get away with — especially when the opportunity to hold them accountable and prevent further damage from being done is consistently passed up.

With a name almost Dickensian in its suitability, Madoff is symbolic of so much and so many that bear responsibility for our economic crisis. It's easy and tempting to accept him as a substitute for the rest, not only because of his dishonesty and his willingness to lay waste s many lives for his own personal gain, because he apparently thought he could — and should — essentially get away with it. But, as with Madoff, we have an opportunity to hold the rest of them accountable, too.

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Congress will be appointing a special commission to investigate the causes of the economic crisis and to determine who is to blame. This proposal originated among progressives who wanted to see a replay of the depression era Pecora Commission, which exposed the Wall Street corruption that laid the basis for the 1929 stock market crash and the depression that followed. more »

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Word is circulating in Washington that members for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission will be named this week. more »

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