Panel Rips Wall Street Titans
By JOHN D. MCKINNON And MICHAEL R. CRITTENDEN
WSJ
WASHINGTON—Comparing Wall Street titans to shady car salesmen, a committee investigating the financial crisis grilled the nation's top bankers Wednesday in the latest example of Washington's smoldering anger at an industry many there feel hasn't atoned for its role in the slump.
"It sounds to me a little bit like selling a car with faulty brakes, and then buying an insurance policy on the buyer of those cars," said former California state Treasurer Phil Angelides, chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, while questioning the chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Bank CEOs did acknowledge their role in the crisis. "It has been clear how poor business judgments we have made have affected Main Street," said Brian Moynihan, Bank of America Corp.'s CEO. But the executives as a group also hedged that position considerably by spreading the blame to policy makers and the economy as a whole.
WSJ's Jerry Seib gives an update on today's Financial Crisis Inquiry Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in which he says the heads of J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America opened with the right mix of humility and gratitude, but remained defensive on bonuses.
Beyond the theatrics—reminiscent of the Pecora hearings that investigated the 1929 crash that led to the Great Depression—the hearings could bolster legislation being considered by Congress to rewrite financial regulations. The House already has passed its version establishing stronger consumer protections, and Senate leaders hope to take up their bill soon.
(Continued here.)
WSJ
WASHINGTON—Comparing Wall Street titans to shady car salesmen, a committee investigating the financial crisis grilled the nation's top bankers Wednesday in the latest example of Washington's smoldering anger at an industry many there feel hasn't atoned for its role in the slump.
"It sounds to me a little bit like selling a car with faulty brakes, and then buying an insurance policy on the buyer of those cars," said former California state Treasurer Phil Angelides, chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, while questioning the chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Bank CEOs did acknowledge their role in the crisis. "It has been clear how poor business judgments we have made have affected Main Street," said Brian Moynihan, Bank of America Corp.'s CEO. But the executives as a group also hedged that position considerably by spreading the blame to policy makers and the economy as a whole.
WSJ's Jerry Seib gives an update on today's Financial Crisis Inquiry Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in which he says the heads of J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America opened with the right mix of humility and gratitude, but remained defensive on bonuses.
Beyond the theatrics—reminiscent of the Pecora hearings that investigated the 1929 crash that led to the Great Depression—the hearings could bolster legislation being considered by Congress to rewrite financial regulations. The House already has passed its version establishing stronger consumer protections, and Senate leaders hope to take up their bill soon.
(Continued here.)
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