| A few weeks ago we started calling and faxing and writing our Senators and Representatives demanding a PECORA COMMISSION after watching William Black's interview on Bill Moyers.
William K. Black was the former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, and wrote the book, "The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One." It was based upon his experience as a tough regulator during one of the darkest chapters in our financial history: the savings and loan scandal in the late 1980s.
The former Director of the Institute for Fraud Prevention now teaches Economics and Law at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. During the savings and loan crisis, it was Black who accused then-house speaker Jim Wright and five US Senators, including John Glenn and John McCain, of doing favors for the S&L's in exchange for contributions and other perks.
Watch his interview on Bill Moyers here: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/jour...
We even wrote about it here on Alegre's Corner. Hundreds of Democrats went to Tea Party's, not to protest taxing or necessarily spending, but to demand a "Pecora" Commission. What is a Pecora Commision?
In 1932, after the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, defeated Pres. Hoover, speaking on behalf of Wall Street bankers and investment firms, tried to enlist FDR's support for a bank bailout. Banks were failing, and there were runs on the banks in more than 26 states.
FDR refused to support a bailout, saying he needed more time "to study the matter." (Though he was elected in Nov. 1932, he was not inaugurated until March 1933).
After the election, and continuing into 1933, a Congressional Commission was established, to look into the causes of the crash of 1929, and the continuing crisis. This Commission took on the name of its chief investigator, Pecora, and was given subpoena power, and full investigative powers, to look into the causes of the deepening depression. |
| Ferdinand Pecora had been a prosecutor in the New York City District Attorney's office, and was known for his preparation, and his toughness. He and his staff did extensive investigation into the wheeling and dealing of the most powerful Wall St. firms, and then brought the leading officials of those firms before the Committee. Those officials included J.P. Morgan, Jr., and Thomas Lamont, of JP Morgan Bank, as well as officials from National City Bank (today's Citigroup), Chase National, and the leading utility companies, which were in a monopolitic alliance with the banks.
In interrogating those officials, Pecora brought out how their firms prospered, and they had personally prospered, following the crash of October 1929, and how they had engaged in systematic tax evasion, hiding profits, and corrupt practices, while shutting down American factories and farms, foreclosing homes and commercial properties, and denying power and water to private homes, businesses, and municipal governments.
These hearings were very public and a lot of it was covered live on radio. Thanks to the work of Pecora and his staff, the American people were able to see the systemic fraud committed by these Wall Street titans, while millions of Americans were homeless, unemployed and hungry.
This put enormous pressure on the Congress to act, which FDR used, for three kinds of actions:
1. He declared a bank holiday and an audit of the banks. Those which were broke, i.e., had far less assets than debt, were put into bankruptcy reorganization, i.e., protection, so that the banks would remain open, but the bad debts wer frozen, i.e., held, to be written down over time (excpet in cases of egregious bankruptcy, in which case the banks were closed).
2. The Securities Exchange Commission was established, to regulate Wall Street brokerage firms, to insure that brokers who invested other people's money were under strict rules.
3. The Glass-Steagle Act was passed, which regulated banks, putting up a wall of separation between banks which loaned money for mortgages (savings and loan banks), commercial banks, investment banks, and insurance companies. This act stayed in place up through the early 1970s, during which time the U.S. economy had consistent growth, as measured in physical, rather than monetary terms (i.e., constant increase in production of physical goods, through productivity gains, and reinvestment into successful industries and commercial businesses).
Well, the evening all our taxes were due, guess who emerged to "champion" a new Pecora Commission? Nancy Pelosi!
Pelosi, speaking to the Commonwealth Club of California, said she wants the panel to be modeled after the Pecora Commission, a bipartisan investigative body established by the U.S. Senate in 1932 to examine the causes and abuses of the Wall Street crash of 1929 and to prevent a repeat.
"They investigated what happened in the markets," including conflicts of interests and irregularities that set off such devastating effects on the U.S. economy, she said. When the commission issued its findings during the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, "they had tangible recommendations," she said, which helped generate widespread public support for major banking system reforms and new securities laws.
We'll see Nancy, we'll see. This should have been the first thing enacted if you were all so serious about getting to the bottom of this. Of course, Ferdinand Pecora was the fourth and final Chief Counsel, not the first. The previous three were appointed by a then Republican led Congress and President as a reaction to intense public outrage, and was meant to only appease. Originally these hearings were for appearances only. Let's hope Nancy et al aren't pulling a Hoover on us. I'm not holding my breath, however.
Keep the pressure up folks!
Our mantra should be:NOT A PENNY MORE OF OUR TAXPAYER MONEY UNTIL WE HAVE PECORA HEARINGS!
1. Demand Pecora Hearings.
2. Remove the failed bankers/CEOs from their positions in power.
3. Replace them with honest bankers.
4. Find the facts about the real value of the assets.
5. Find out who participated in the fraud.
6. Indict them.
7. Look for the achilles heal that allowed for the fraud to occur.
8. Write laws and regulation that prevent this from happening again like Glass Steagall.
If these hearing don't lead to results and indictments, then we know who they really work for....the banksters...aka the gnomes of Zurich as JFK once called them! |
