by Frank James
A lot of people who checked out the House hearing yesterday on Bernard Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme probably got a little confused by something Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York said.
Ackerman, a Democrat, was castigating the Security Investors Protection Corp. chief executive and other government officials for not doing enough to protect investors when he said:
I'm trying to figure out what we got here. We got the president of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, who's been that for the last six years. Security investor protection, it seems to me, hasn't protected any of the security investors.
And we have the inspector general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is the inspector of the watchdog agency that didn't watch out for anything, which makes you the Jacques Cousteau of the Keystone Kops.
That was a real head scratcher.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau was, of course, the world-renowned French ocean expert and co-developer of the aqualung who took us below the surface of the world's seas to reveal their wonders. Try as I might, I couldn't puzzle through what Ackerman was driving (or diving?) at with the Captain Cousteau reference.
Hours later, Ackerman explained that he meant "Inspector Cousteau." Although he hadn't quite hit the target with that attempt either, it was now clear what he was aiming at. it was Clouseau, the laughably inept police inspector of the Pink Panther movies. Mystery solved.
Even though he flubbed one of his attack lines, Ackerman was like a boxer whose punches might not always land but who throws plenty of them to make up for the misses.
Since a congressional hearing is in part entertainment, one of the best moments came when Ackerman, whose Long Island congressional district has many Madoff victims, began mocking the government officials before him, strongly indicating that he thought they were, in a word, doofuses.
An excerpt:
REP. ACKERMAN: Good. Will you make them -- would you turn that -- will you turn that over to this Committee?
MR. KOTZ: I don't have that information, but certainly everything that will be in my report I will seek to --
REP. ACKERMAN: Mr. Harbeck, do you have it?
MR. HARBECK: I know that the Securities and Exchange Commission has it. SIPIC itself does not have the --
REP. ACKERMAN: Duuhhhhhh.
MR. HARBECK: What I can tell you, sir, is that the trustee will work with the SEC, get those assets, and we are very aggressive about liquidating assets.
That's right. In the middle of a witness's response, the congressman uttered a long, loud "duuhhhhhh."
Stephen Harbeck, SIPC's head, seemed unfazed like a man who had prepared for being raked over the coals and didn't leave disappointed.
(Photos: Ackerman from McClatchy Tribune. Cousteau from Tribune files.)
Comments
check out "The End of the Financial World as We Know It" in the NYT.
People knew Madoff was either "front running" or actually a Ponzi at least THREE YEARS AGO.
Posted by: ornery | January 6, 2009 3:44 PM
Too bad these "investment guru's" got nailed...I would like a exhaustive "special prosecutor" type investigation into the Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae mortgage securities swindle (aka Ponzi) that costs us taxpayers 100's of billions...if Bush and the Repub.'s were behind it let us find out. I fear this whole "affordable housing" scam was Carter, to Clinton (expansion), Frank (their sound), Waters (ditto Frank), CBC (oh,the poor), Dodd (Countrywide) and others who turned a blind eye on the whole mess until it blew up in their faces. WS fat cats and banks jumped on these "quasi-govt. backed" securities infecting US and global finance. MSM and liberals blamed Bush as usual or WS greed. We seen some limited WS/bankers types on the hot-seat but nobody is grilling the Dems... to quiet, especially MSM lack of interest...thus you bet your a*s, the Dems. share the greater responsibility. Shhh...maybe it'll go away.
Posted by: Bubba Porter | January 6, 2009 6:07 PM
Madoff scancal is just one more example of how Washington turned completely reactive.
Whole structures , financial or political, have to collapse before they wake up and take notice.
Then, when they do, they throw up their hands and delegate unprecedented authority and 700 billion to a couple of glorified stockbrokers, Paulson and Kash & Karry.
No one since FDR has had a clearer road to seize executive authority than Obama.
Good thing for the right wingers that he's sending signals of reconciliation rather than retribution.
(Tho....some retribution would be in order.)
Posted by: ornery | January 6, 2009 7:43 PM
Bubba,
I'm glad you believe your own theories, as I laughed at them. The PUGS have had most of the control in WA for the last 12 years....the PUGS are the ones that passed deregulation of the banking industry....the PUGS are the ones that are on record saying that the industry police's itself and makes its own corrections, so lock your bedroom door in your parents basement and finish your research on space aliens or the other nutty theories you want to believe in.
Posted by: Xcellentform | January 7, 2009 10:39 AM
Xcellentform, it goes back much farther than the last 12 years. The Community Reinvestment Act, anti-redlining laws, low interest rates that we all like as consumers but that encourage people to overextend themselves, all contribute to the problem. It's not a Republican or Democrat problem, it's a national problem.
Posted by: DaveB | January 7, 2009 2:31 PM