Economic Snapshot: The Banking Hearing's Best Lines

Minyanville Staff  Feb 12, 2009 3:55 pm

Economic Snapshot: The Banking Hearing's Best Lines
 
Our unscientific poll.
 

Yesterday's banking hearing in front of the House Financial Services Committee was that rare combination of outrage, hubris and awesome one-liners! 

The congressmen (the outraged ones) displayed an impressive command of trash talk, dealing a number of scathing verbal blows to the CEOs (the hubristic ones) of Bank of America (BAC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), Morgan Stanley (MS), Goldman Sachs (GS), Citigroup (C) and others.

Here are the day's best beat-downs, as voted on by our own constituents:  


The Banking Hearing's Best Lines

 
"I have some people in my constituency that actually robbed some of your banks and they say the same things [as you] - they're sorry, they didn't mean it, they won't do it again."
- Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA)

 

"I think we can call this a shareholders meeting."
- Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
"For anyone who contends that you do not need the money and that you did not ask for it, please find a way to return [it] to the Treasury Department before you leave town."
- Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA)

 

"You once lived in a one-way mirror, unaccountable to the public at large… But when you took taxpayer money you moved into a fishbowl."
- Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA)

 

"If in good times you were told you weren't going to be getting a bonus, what part of your job would you not do? Would you, like, leave early on Wednesdays?"
- Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
"America doesn't trust you any more... I don't have one single penny in any of your banks."
- Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA)

 

           
           
"What you do with your money is your business. What you do with the taxpayer money is our business."
- Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)
11 of 15 (73%) found this helpful
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Comments (7) See All Comments »
02-12-2009, 9:58 pm
They all seemed pretty clueless about their companies policies and Maxine Waters tried for 2 or 3 days to get in touch with one of the loss mitigation departments and just got the run around, which is what you get when you try to modify your mortgage
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02-12-2009, 10:36 pm
I was yelling at the TV to the CEOs - "someone get out a white board and explain that the Treasury bought preferred stock in the banks to reinforce their capital base - that's all". But I don't think the congressmen were actu
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02-13-2009, 8:23 am
Gee, I'll bet those CEO's sure are scared NOW! And - BOY! - I'll bet they won't mess around w/ CONGRESS, anymore! Golly! My MOMMY never talked that tough to ME, even. And my mommy was REALLY tough! Ain't it great to
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02-13-2009, 9:03 am
It's more like the blind leading the clueless. While I'm sure everyone in that hearing room is very good at what they do, clearly no one was interested in doing the people's business.

Once again, all it amounted to was
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02-13-2009, 11:26 am
exactly. And they all went out for drinks afterward. Kabuki.
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