The Congressional commission’s scathing account of the financial crisis casts regulators in a rather unflattering light, as the sheriff who didn’t stop Wall Street from becoming the Wild West.
In its exhaustive report released on Thursday, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission lambastes an alphabet soup of federal regulatory agencies – including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve. The report blames the agencies for missing the mortgage bubble and for turning a blind eye to Wall Street’s excessive risk taking that threatened to topple the economy.
“The sentries were not at their posts,” the report said.
The report called out several top regulators by name, including former the Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, who “championed” deregulation, the commission said.
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http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/harsh-words-for-regulators-in-crisis-commission-report/