Sen. Isakson right on move to investigate financial mess

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) has the right idea about investigating what he terms “the near collapse of the banking system and the loss of tens of trillions of dollars.”

By Don McKee, Marietta Daily Journal — Jan 23, 2009

Isakson and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) on Thursday introduced a bill that would create a Financial Markets Commission modeled after the 9/11 Commission, which made an independent investigation of what went wrong before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and recommended steps needed to prevent future attacks.

Clearly, Isakson and his Democrat colleague are trying to head off a stampede by the new administration and Democrat-run Congress to pass all manner of regulations aimed at fixing things.

That happened early in this decade when Enron and WorldCom failed, Isakson pointed out in a news release.

“Congress rushed to legislate and regulate without all the facts,” he said. “We need to make sure we don’t repeat that reaction as we seek to recover from today’s financial crisis.”

He went on to say, “If our nation is going to learn from history, we must know exactly what happened and why.” That’s a big “if,” considering how our nation keeps forgetting such history lessons as the savings and loan crash, the high-tech bubble bursting and even the aforementioned nasty accounting-stock manipulation fraud of Enron, WorldCom, HealthSouth and other miscreants.

Of course, Isakson is right in calling for “a long hard look at how our financial system spiraled downward so far so fast. And if there was any criminal wrongdoing, people need to be held accountable.” That’s an unnecessary “if,” Senator, as a no-holds-barred investigation will no doubt show.

The Isakson-Conrad proposal would create a seven-member, bipartisan commission that would be given one year “to investigate all the circumstances that led to this financial crisis,” the senator said.

Two members of the commission would be appointed by the president and one member each by the Speaker of the House, House Republican leader, Senate Democratic leader, Senate Republican leader and chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The commission would have teeth in the form of subpoena powers to compel witnesses to appear. It would have authority to refer evidence of criminal acts to federal and state prosecutors.

After completing its investigation, the panel would make recommendations “for statutory or regulatory changes necessary to protect our country from a repeat of this financial collapse,” Isakson said.

The move by Isakson and Conrad came as the Government Accountability Office reported that the financial regulatory system failed to keep up with the changes in the system and needs fixing to prevent another crisis.

The GAO also said there should be more oversight of the bailout billions.

That’s for certain and no doubt Sen. Isakson will be working to (1) find out just how the billions have been spent so far and (2) make sure there is oversight and accountability for the next batch of billions handed out to banks, brokerages, insurance companies, auto manufacturers, credit card companies, and who knows who else?