In light of the dramatic events that have occurred in global financial markets, the Oversight Committee will hold five hearings in October to examine the regulatory mistakes and financial excesses that led to the market breakdowns on Wall Street.
From the topics of the hearings and the witnesses called, I gather that his view of the causes of the crisis are a bit different from mine.
Oct 2 2008
The Daily Telegraph reports, We now know that it was French finance minister Christine Lagarde who begged Mr Paulson to save the US insurer AIG last week. AIG had written $300 billion in credit protection for European banks, admitting that it was for "regulatory capital relief rather than risk mitigation". In other wo...
Oct 2 2008
I'll try liveblogging. Here is a transcript. For what Rogoff was thinking the other day, see this op-ed. (We exchanged emails briefly on Saturday. He mentioned he was writing something, and it sounds like he's shifted a bit between then and tonight on PBS) Thanks to reader John Alcorn for ...
Oct 2 2008
He says, In light of the dramatic events that have occurred in global financial markets, the Oversight Committee will hold five hearings in October to examine the regulatory mistakes and financial excesses that led to the market breakdowns on Wall Street. From the topics of the hearings and the witnesses called, I ga...
READER COMMENTS
Steve Roth
Oct 2 2008 at 7:51pm
I only hope that–unlike the econoblogosphere–they pay some passing attention to the Commodities Futures “Modernization” Act that Gramm snuck through in ’99 with no debate.
A regulation that made regulation illegal. It specifically banned regulation of CDSes. As in, capital/leveraging limitations, which would have gone far to dampen the secondary mortgage market.
For Gramm, it seems, modernized regulation is no regulation.
For those who cares, my screed here:
The Problem Was Not Deregulating. The Problem Was Not Regulating.
http://trueconservative.typepad.com/trueconservative/2008/10/the-problem-was-not-deregulating-the-problem-was-not-regulating.html
Corey S.
Oct 2 2008 at 9:31pm
The answer is clear: too many steroids in baseball. Wall Street securities exchangers got a little too exuberant about Bonds breaking the home run record, and well, here we are today.
Seems about as relevant as the other explanations Congress will come up with.
Sam
Oct 3 2008 at 6:13pm
Waxman’s my congressman. For what it’s worth, I just called his constituency office and recommended they invite you to testify as well.
Comments are closed.