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The hearings of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission last weekend got little attention in the press. Perhaps this was because no one famous was testifying– it was "just" a bunch of academics! After the hearings, HuffPo published what may be one of the best press articles, Lively Debate, Hard Truths Emerge During Debate On Financial Crisis:
Some of the country’s top financial scholars met over the weekend with the panel charged with investigating the causes of the financial crisis. What followed was the kind of open, honest debate that is so rare in Washington….
But rather than the kind of staid or theatrical hearing often seen in Congress, in which talking points are repeated and participants talk past each other, the academics and the commissioners engaged each other in a running debate in which theories about the origin of the financial crisis were questioned and defended.
The academics pointedly confronted one another, scoffing openly at various points. The commissioners, who include among their ranks powerful former House and Senate committee chairmen, were politely corrected on some points, and not-so-politely interrupted on others.
The article provides a useful abstract of the two-day hearing. Keep an eye on the FCIC website for the transcripts of the discussion. The presentations themselves have already been posted on that website.
The Roosevelt Institute did not provide any coverage or commentary on last week’s FCIC hearings, but they are providing a star-studded conference on the Financial crisis, starting early tomorrow (Wednesday):
Soros, Stiglitz, Warren, Johnson, Chanos, Turner, Greenberger, and other top financiers, economists and former regulators gather for conference on financial reform.
Read the report and watch the conference here.
This Wednesday, March 3rd from 8:00 am – 11:00 am ET, the Roosevelt Institute will host a meeting of some of the nation’s leading financiers, economists, and former regulators to release a report outlining critical actions needed to reform the nation’s financial system.
Report authors include: Elizabeth Warren, Simon Johnson, Rob Johnson, Frank Partnoy, Lynn Turner, Michael Greenberger, Mike Konczal, Josh Rosner, Richard Carnell, Raj Date, and Lawrence White.
Responding to the report are George Soros, Joseph Stiglitz, Jim Chanos, Bowman Cutter, Peter Solomon, Lynn Turner and Judge Stanley Sporkin.
Portions of the conference will be broadcast by Bloomberg TV and CNN.
Click here to learn more about the authors and view the report
Questions? Email mehrlich@rooseveltinstitute.org
This should be a very interesting report.
Bob in AZ
19 Comments
recommended — thank you for writing this bob
You bet that Roosevelt Report and the session tomorrow should be interesting. Thank you ever so much, Bob, for highlighting this. And please keep at it.
Thanks, Suzanne & fatster! I’m tuning in Live, now (see link in the diary). They haven’t started yet, but there’s a live feed.
Update: They have started– the video shows someone speaking from a podium, but the audio feed is just general room noise– partly speaker, partly sound crew. Strange.
Bob in AZ
Audio now better, just in time for Elizabeth Warren!
Bob in AZ
Elizabeth Warren is pushing again for a Consumer Protection Agency.
She boils it down to this: Its Banks vs. Families.
Bob in AZ
Current Speaker making the point that balance sheets these days are worthless. Or, at least, they hide more than they reveal. Remember Enron? It was the off-balance sheet stuff that told the real story.
Bob in AZ
The Roosevelt Institute forum is now shifting from presentation of papers to dynamic discussion.
Bob in AZ
Bob
Thanks for the link. Since this was in response to the FCIC, will the FCIC even view this panel? I will answer my own question here, probably not.
I know that the sound was terrible on my computer, when they even had sound. I will check the web later to see if they have a better presentation of this panel.
Also noted that they never seemed to have more than 90 or so viewers at any one time. I know a lot of people are working and not able to view at this time; but I still find it amazing that so many aren’t more outraged by the president, congress and the banks, just amazed!!!
Thanks again.
The forum is over. Audio quality started off poor, and then improved to barely adequate.
The forum started with Introductory remarks, followed by 10 short papers (see links in the diary). Elizabeth Warren’s presentation was The Broken Consumer Credit Market. The full report is about 8 MB (146 pages); here’s the Table of Contents:
Some of these presentations were lavishly illustrated with powerpoint slides.
These reports were followed by 45 minutes or so of discussion by the presenters. I suspect that a transcript of their comments will eventually be produced.
The live broadcast was streamed by UStream, which provided a live count of the number of viewers. For most of the broadcast, there were less than 80 viewers. The audience peaked during Stiglitz’s comments, rising and staying above 80 for much of his commentary, and falling back into the 70s as soon as he finished.
Bob in AZ
Wouldn’t you know it? I get here and the thing is over.
Bob, you did a great job of live-blogging. I’ll go check out the links you provided to get to the report. Surely at least some of Elizabeth Warren’s remarks will be on youtube before too long. I do hope so.
Again, many many thanks for doing this.
PS: I just read BC1946′s comment that at most 90 people watched the forum. Maybe it was the audio problem, or maybe many have my whiney excuse (the thing was over by the time I got my oatmeal coked), but it is astounding that no more tuned in.
If you have the time, please report back on whether you find a better presentation available on the web later today. Thnx.
Also, here’s an interesting synopsis by Graydon Carter (Vanity Fair editor) on the crisis.
Is it called EPU land? Well, I seem to be out here in it all by myself. But never mind; I’ll soldier on. Here’s a nice write-up about Elizabeth Warren and the main components that have to be in the CFPA.
No, I have not been able to find a better broadcast of this report. Just went back to review some of the tape from Bob’s link and the sound quality is a little bit better, but still leaves a lot of room for improvement.
The first session actually covers the panel wrapup where Elizabeth makes some good points as do the rest of the panel.
Just a quick review of the other three tapes seems to have missed a lot of the beginning of the panel. I would really like to see the whole session from beginning to end; but that looks like it is lost. At least the written report seems to have the material covered; however, I like to hear what the presenters have to say while they are going over it.
Sorry to get back to you so late, but had to watch the Yanks take on the Pirates to begin spring training. I hope you find this helpful.
You’ve been very helpful, bc1946, so please accept my thanks.
Here is a summary of Stiglitz’s remarks, and I do admire Stiglitz!
Oh, and I hope your team won.
Thanks for finding the Stiglitz comments. The writer, Shahien Nasiripour, has written several good summaries of these financial crisis events.
Bob in AZ
Shahien Nisiripour wrote another article on the commentaries at the end of today’s Roosevelt forum: Fight For The CFPA Is ‘A Dispute Between Families And Banks,’ Says Elizabeth Warren. It really is a very nice summary! Thanks to the HuffPo for providing this coverage!
Bob in AZ
There’s a lot going on regarding the CFPA. Besides Warren’s advocacy, we have these reports:
GOP Tensions Simmer Over CFPA
Frank: ‘If They Want To Kill Consumer Protection, Let There Be 41 Jim Bunnings Over There’
White House Sends Volcker Rule To Congress
These reports give me some hope that Warren may get a lot of what she wants, and that we need.
Bob in AZ
The Roosevelt Institute has a somewhat hyped-up summary of the conference. They also apologize for the sound quality, but they say that Bloomberg taped the conference, “and we will have highlights up on New Deal 2.0 very soon.”
Bob in AZ