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What, No Subpoena? Frank Invites Bailed Out CEOs To Testify
Barney Frank, the chair of the House Financial Services committee, has invited the heads of the first eight banks that received bailout funds to testify at a hearing next Wednesday on the bailout, reports CNNMoney.com.
Those CEOs are:
Ken Lewis of Bank of America; Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase; Vikram Pandit of Citi; Ronald Logue of State Street; Robert Kelly of Bank of New York; John Stumpf of Wells Fargo; John Mack of Morgan Stanley; and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs.
But notice that word "invite." It appears that the corporate titans are free to choose not to attend -- even though Frank is seeking crucial information about what their firms did with the hundreds of billions in taxpayer money we gave them.
Indeed, CNNMoney.com adds:
A press secretary declined to comment on whether any of the CEOs have accepted the invitation.
So it sounds like a real possibility that at least some of those CEOs might just go ahead and decline Frank's polite invitation.
We've contacted the committee's press office to ask whether subpoenaing the CEOs was considered, or might still be in the future. We'll let you know what we hear.
Josh
Zachary
You invite first, to keep things cordial. Once they turn it down, then you subpoena.
February 4, 2009 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just another way to delay, delay, delay until it is no longer newsworthy and can be swept under the rug.
February 5, 2009 7:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Screw that. We've been playing flag football with these clowns for years and years. It's time for some rugby. You subpoena them, you put them under oath, and you keep them there until they answer every question.
Being gentle and polite with sociopaths and sleazebags just makes you an easier victim.
February 5, 2009 9:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Keep it coming
I have a Republican friend who's a loyal 30 year employee in the Wells Fargo executive office
I hear that the gang is really upset over being denied their Las Vegas junket on our dime
February 4, 2009 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
There was a time that Barney was a crusader. Now he's just a stool.
February 4, 2009 7:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jonze is right. They alway invite first, if that doesn't work they may send a nasty letter, and then a subpoena. SOP. The way the process crawls at time makes it damn near impossible to find out anything before half of the witnesses die of old age. Unless it's about a blowjob of course.
February 4, 2009 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
And when they ignore the subpoena, you make another request and start the whole process again.
February 6, 2009 7:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
F that. Create a new Pecora Commission and supoena these locusts. Throw some of them in jail. Put them thru banckruptcy proceedings and outlaw most of the exotic investment vehicles invented in the last twenty years. Then, subsume the Fed under a new Hamiltonian National Bank and issue credit to rebuild our physical economy.
But you are right, asdf, Barney is in the pocket of Wall St. He's just a blustering bufoon and there is no way any meaningful reform will happen on his and Pelosi's watch.
February 4, 2009 8:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Create a new Pecora Commission and supoena these locusts."
Mass trials?
I say we question them all, find out where the orders really came from, then have that commission you speak of.
Not to let the toadies off for their mischief, but that is exactly where they want us to go, so the real string-pullers get off without a threat.
Once we know who the ringleaders are, we should start from the top down. And I would bet that non-existent million bucks that I don't have we would find most those we expect, the ones we've been mercilessly called "tin-foilers" over.
Funny, how many times I read that "tin-foil" derision relative to something we all suspected Cheney of, and how accurate that "paranoia" has proven to be.
February 4, 2009 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Ken Lewis of Bank of America; Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase; Vikram Pandit of Citi; Ronald Logue of State Street; Robert Kelly of Bank of New York; John Stumpf of Wells Fargo; John Mack of Morgan Stanley; and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs."
So these are the facecards in our trillion dollar poker game?
This deck gets shuffled every time there's a shake-up any more, it would be interesting to see a "tree" of Presidents starting say, about the same time as Pioneer Savings went belly-up, with all the subsequent branches forming in the financial community and which branch sprouted where right up until now.
There would be some names repeating through that tree, enough that we might see a pattern of culpability.
Especially during those big shake-ups and downturns like the bursting of the tech bubble.
The names that keep reappearing in prominent financial positions AFTER they are tagged to a disaster or failure might well be considered suspects worth some investigation.
That kind of evidence suggests they are not victims, but players in this roller-coaster economy, and they always come out with a profit, because they kindle the very economic conflagrations that they then capitalize on.
February 4, 2009 8:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
"the facecards in our trillion dollar poker game"
These are only the front guys for the real powers behind this catastrophy. Their hugh bonuses are for them to take the heat and prevent even the knowledge of who is pulling their strings from ever getting out.
The down cards are those people who are on the Boards of Directors of these companies and the people who are pulling their strings. Why is it that those people are never even identified?
February 5, 2009 7:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
After what has transpired over the last six months, it’s time for a reality check. We are the punch-drunk fighter who Don King talks into getting into the ring one more time for the big payday yet our eyes are so swollen we can’t read the fine print that appears after the real ink has dried. We’re the alcoholic who can handle it this time around. See I’ve gone a month…. I’ll celebrate with just one drink……..
We’re the overweight person who drops 10 pounds and celebrates with a case of Jennie Craig brownies—low fat of course.
We are the guy who just got out of prison and, having learned more tricks of the trade while there, tries to rob a bank and gets caught. So much for the expert advice from the guys who have also gotten caught. Oh well, more time to plan the perfect heist.
The experts are all saying that now is the time to invest in the market with values so low—their income depends on you listening to them so that they can make a buck so, what’s not to trust?
I’m looking forward to seeing how all of these civilian and military “volunteer” plans are to be inserted into the rectum of mass unemployment. If you can bend over and even come close to touching your toes you’re hired–well, kinda’ hired–you OWE it to the fatherland..Oops, I mean your country to serve in indentured servitude.
The world is playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded Uzi and it’s just a matter of time before there is a round with your name on it. That’s where the smart money is placing their bets, how can they lose?
They can lose because there is no such thing as smart money. No sure thing when you screw with people that much and they wake up or subliminally hear the floorboards creaking in the middle of the night.
Those who lurk in the shadows and pull the strings will wake up one morning and find they are Gulliver, and the Lilliputians are pissed off….
Really pissed off……..lot’s of them………
February 4, 2009 11:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. That's a lot of sound and fury.
You don't happen to be building bombs or stuffing envelopes with strange white powders in some undescript suburban house with an unmowed lawn, trash piled to the ceiling, and 17 semi-feral cats coming and going as they please, do you?
February 5, 2009 7:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Typical response - attack and ridicule the messenger instead of critically evaluating the message.
There is much cause for a lot of sound and fury.
Here is a challenge for you, DaddyD. Just to prove you know anything which would cause you to diss Middle Finger Mary, name anyone on the Board of Directors for any of these companies and tell us who was responsible for them getting on that Board.
February 5, 2009 7:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sound and fury? Get a grip. All one need do is walk the streets of any city or town. Take a ride through the rust belt of our country that once was the manufacturing capital of the world. Yes, people are pissed with the daily assaults to our intelligence and I get the sense that as the economy continues its death spiral and spring arrives along with higher gas prices, a very pissed off electorate will take to the streets. The party has already begun in China, Spain, eastern and western Europe as well. Perhaps Americans just can't stand the cold, but as the warmer weather approaches, those pissed off masses will take to the streets.
February 5, 2009 8:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Let's get real here. . .Wall Street CEO compensation is low hanging fruit in the grand scheme of things. You limit the pay of a handful of individuals and life goes on (hopefully).
Why isn't anyone talking about another 800 pound gorilla in the room in the form of the federal anti-trust law exemption for Major League Baseball. Tons of federal, state and local money goes to subsidizing this sport and it doesn't even have to compete in the marketplace like all other businesses. I call "bullsh*t".
February 5, 2009 9:16 AM | Reply | Permalink