The House and Senate have each passed versions of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, both of which call for the creation of an independent, external, 10-member commission to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. And now all the fun is in musing about who Democratic and Republican leaders will select to sit on the panel.
Bloomberg says “[r]etired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and former Securities and Exchange Commission chief Arthur Levitt are among those being considered by congressional leaders to head a probe of the financial crisis, according to people with knowledge of the matter.”
The one thing that truly unifies O’Connor (79), Volcker (81), and Levitt (78) is that they’re all very, very old. Levitt has been criticized for taking a hands-off approach to regulation while serving as chair of the SEC from 1993-2001.
But as important as it is to highlight anonymous chit chat about who might get the nod (and it’s very, very important), it’s also worth asking whether and how industry will try to influence the selection process, and how serious officials are about launching the project in a timely manner.
