What We're Hearing

The federal 'Crisis Commission' turned its attention to Attorney General Eric Holder today. Headed by Phil Angelides, the commission's job is to explore our nation's financial meltdown and write a "definitive" report on it. (Of course, they could read and republish 'Chain of Blame, How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis' -- and save the taxpayers a lot of money, but don't get me started.) Anyway, Commissioner Angelides today raised the issue that the FBI's focus on national security concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks sucked resources away from financial fraud investigations. (I'm paraphrasing.) The only thing I can say is this: Duh! And: Duh! Of course, terrorism siphoned off resources from other areas of criminal inquiries. Both DOJ and FBI have already said as much -- many times. You want to fund more investigations? That means more tax dollars will be needed. And to get more tax dollars our elected leaders will need to, gulp, raise taxes. (Or cut entitlements.) I will admit that I haven't listened to the hearings too much but from what I've heard (and read) so far we're not learning anything new. Goldman Sachs betting against CDOs that another part of the company was selling? Do tell. Deutsche Bank was doing the same by shorting the ABX Index while its trading desk was buying and issuing subprime ABS. (That's in 'Chain of Blame' too.) There's gambling going on on Wall Street? Shocking. Round up the usual suspects...