The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (henceforth, FCIC) staff has released the details and full witness list for our first substantive hearings.

When:

It’s a two day hearing.

  • Wednesday, January 13, 2010: 9:00 a.m. EST
  • Thursday, January 14, 2010: 9:00 a.m. EST

Where:

The Ways & Means Committee Room, 1100 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC.

How to watch / listen:

The staff tell us they expect the FCIC website to go live Tuesday of this week, and the hearings to be streamed through the website. That’s their statement, not mine, so please don’t hold me to it. I have nothing to do with the mechanics of the meetings or (potential) broadcast. I don’t know if C-SPAN or any of the business networks will cover it.

The substance

There are five panels over two days. If you read last Wednesday’s post you know about panel 1 on Wednesday. The composition of the other four panels is newly public.

Day 1: Wednesday, January 13

Panel 1: Financial Institution Representatives
  • Mr. Lloyd C. Blankfein, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
  • Mr. James Dimon, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, JPMorgan Chase & Company
  • Mr. John J. Mack, Chairman of the Board, Morgan Stanley
  • Mr. Brian T. Moynihan, Chief Executive Officer and President, Bank of America Corporation
Panel 2: Financial Market Participants
  • Mr. Michael Mayo, Managing Director and Financial Services Analyst, Calyon Securities (USA) Inc.
  • Mr. J. Kyle Bass, Managing Partner, Hayman Advisors, L.P.
  • Mr. Peter J. Solomon, Founder and Chairman, Peter J. Solomon Company
Panel 3: Financial Crisis Impacts on the Economy
  • Dr. Mark Zandi, Chief Economist and Co-founder, Moody’s Economy.com
  • Dr. Kenneth T. Rosen, Chair, Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, University of California, Berkeley
  • Ms. Julia Gordon, Senior Policy Counsel, Center for Responsible Lending
  • C.R. “Rusty” Cloutier, President and Chief Executive Officer, MidSouth Bank, N.A. and Past Chairman of the Independent Community Bankers Association

Day 2: Thursday, January 14

Panel 1: Current Investigations into the Financial Crisis – Federal Officials
  • Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
  • Honorable Lanny A. Breuer, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice
  • Honorable Sheila C. Bair, Chairman, U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
  • Honorable Mary L. Schapiro, Chairman, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Panel 2: Current Investigations into the Financial Crisis – State and Local Officials
  • Honorable Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, State of Illinois
  • Honorable John W. Suthers, Attorney General, State of Colorado
  • Ms. Denise Voigt Crawford, Commissioner, Texas Securities Board and President, North American Securities Administrators Association, Inc.
  • Mr. Glenn Theobald, Chief Counsel, Miami-Dade County Police Department, Chairman, Mayor Carlos Alvarez Mortgage Fraud Task Force

Written testimony

I expect each witness will submit written testimony, give oral testimony, and respond to questions. I will do my best to make their written testimony available on this site.

Questions?

While I am providing you with the above information, I did not put these hearings together, nor am I responsible for the mechanics of them. I just show up and participate as one of ten commissioners. So if you have questions or concerns about the structure, participants, or mechanics, please direct them to the Chairman and commission staff. For press inquiries, Tucker Warren is the media contact: twarren@fcic.gov. For everyone else, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until their website is live.

Expanding my request for assistance

Last Thursday I asked for suggestions about questions to ask the bank executives. The feedback has been incredible, both in the comments and in email sent directly to me. Thanks to all who have contributed. The hard part is going to be picking the best 1-3 questions to ask.

I would therefore like to expand that request to cover the other four panels listed above. What do you recommend I ask any of the above-listed panelists about the causes of the financial crisis?

Please post your question in the comments or email it to me: kbh.fcic@gmailcom. Warning: I will impose a stricter comments policy on this post, and I intend to delete comments which stray from the parameters described below. Please take your rants elsewhere, and post or send me only serious questions that meet these criteria.

Please do:

  • Tell me at which witness the question is directed.
  • Suggest questions that are appropriate for a particular witness.
  • Suggest questions that can elicit information that is not otherwise available but should be.
  • Suggest hard questions.

Please don’t:

  • Suggest questions designed only to attack or embarrass the witnesses. I won’t ask them. My goal is to elicit information and analysis and, if possible, to encourage debate and discussion of what happened and why. I have no problem asking questions that embarrass witnesses or that they want to avoid, but only if it’s the most effective path to serious policy debate. I will leave the demagoguery to others.
  • Send me speeches. I am interested in asking questions that solicit useful answers, not in hearing myself talk. If your question begins “Don’t you think …” then you’re on the wrong track.

The Commission’s mission is to “submit on December 15, 2010 to the President and to the Congress a report containing the findings and conclusions of the Commission on the causes of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States.”

To repeat: Were supposed to understand and explain the causes of the current financial and economic crisis. That should guide your questions.

Last Thursday I steered questions for the first panel toward the issue of Too Big To Fail with respect to the large financial institutions. While this is one of my major interests, it is not a particular focus of these two-day hearings which are very broadly (too broadly?) framed. This means you should feel free to suggest questions about any element of the financial crisis, as long as you’re focused on the question “what caused X,” where X is some element or effect of the financial crisis.

Hint: The panels that most interest me are the first panels on each day, so I will be examining most closely new questions aimed at the Federal officials who are scheduled to testify Thursday morning.

(photo credit: Global Financial Crisis by sputnik-)