Report available http://www.fcic.gov/report
"We conclude this financial crisis was avoidable," the report said.
Our "Pecora" commission (the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission) will release their report today, concluding that the Finalcial Crisis could have been averted.
The report - 576 pages, complied after 19 days of hearings, with over 700 witnesses, shows widespread greed, failings. Not just with financial institutions, but with government. banksters, regulators, Bush Administration, Clinton Administration, Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner, Alan Greenspan et al, all at fault for the crisis.
It also criticizes bankers who got rich by creating trillions of dollars in risky investments. The deals grew so complex that bank executives and regulators did not understand them, the report found, and banks discouraged aggressive oversight of their activities, saying the government's interference would stifle financial innovation.
According to the New York Times:
The report could reignite debate over the influence of Wall Street; it says regulators "lacked the political will" to scrutinize and hold accountable the institutions they were supposed to oversee.
The financial industry spent $2.7 billion on lobbying from 1999 to 2008, while individuals and committees affiliated with it made more than $1 billion in campaign contributions
The conclusions contradict a parade of witnesses in the panel's hearings who said the crisis couldn't have been avoided or prevented. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein were among those asserting that defense.
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/...
Among regulators the report singles out former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and his successor Ben Bernanke. The report faults Greenspan and his allies for pushing the idea that financial institutions could "police themselves." Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were criticized for not seeing the problems in the subprime mortgage markets earlier. Clinton administration officials were rebuked for pushing to shield over-the-counter derivatives from regulation.
As for the corporate chieftains at the large financial firms that were either toppled or brought to their knees by the crisis, the panel says its examination found "stunning instances of governance breakdowns and irresponsibility."
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/world-news/us-panel-says-financial-crisis-avoidable_516162.html
It seems it is such a "wide net" of blame throughout 2 administrations, The Federal Reserve, plus shoddy regulating, shoddy mortgage lending, and an industry wide greed, that left to their own devices, brought the country down.
"The greatest tragedy would be to accept the refrain that no one could have seen this coming and thus nothing could have been done," the panel wrote in the report’s conclusions, which were read by The New York Times. "If we accept this notion, it will happen again."
http://www.nytimes.com/...
"We conclude this financial crisis was avoidable," the report said.
It said regulators failed to adequately police financial markets, that financial firms had poor risk management and corporate governance practices, and that government was ill-prepared to handle the fallout from excessive borrowing when loans soured.
"The crisis was the result of human action and inaction, not Mother Nature or computer models gone haywire," the draft report reads.
"The captains of finance and the public stewards of our financial system ignored warnings and failed to question, understand, and manage evolving risks within a system essential to the well-being of the American public."
http://www.moneycontrol.com/...
So when will we finally see criminal charges? Or will those recommended for prosection, face only civil action that will be "let off" with a huge fine, but no admission of guilt, again?