Eight CEO's of companies that received federal bailout funds under TARP are set to appear before Barney Frank and the House Financial Services Committee at 10:00 this morning. Their prepared opening statements are available at the committee's website.
There has been a great deal of anticipation for this hearing, as a lot of citizens and members of the media are looking for the committee to put the executive's feet to the fire (the LA Times's Patt Morrison, wants to see "groveling"). Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times tried to do the committee's work, with a list of 10 questions for the defendants CEO's. Here's question number 6:
6. The termination of the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era laws that separated commercial banking and investment banking, enabled you to run a casino inside your bank because it allowed the combination of traditional banking and the riskier side of Wall Street, investment banking. While the house usually wins, you lost big time. Do you think Glass-Steagall should have been repealed? Do you think there should be a limit on the amount of leverage, or borrowed money, that your banks can employ? (Not just capital ratios.) What’s appropriate?
You can watch a live feed of the hearing here.
UPDATE: NYT's DealBook is live blogging the hearing here.
Posted
02-11-2009 9:50 AM
by
Graham Griffith