Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission - The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, Authorized Edition: Final Report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States

THE

FINANCIAL
CRISIS

INQUIRY REPORT

This printing includes all corrections contained in the errata sheet issued
by the Commission as found on the FCIC website as of February 25, 2011.

THE

FINANCIAL

CRISIS

REPORT

FINAL REPORT OF THE NATIONAL COMMISSION
ON THE CAUSES OF THE FINANCIAL AND
ECONOMIC CRISIS IN THE UNITED STATES

Submitted by
THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION
Pursuant to Public Law 111-21
January 2011

OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT EDITION

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ISBN 978-0-16-087983-8

MEMBERS OF
THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION

Phil Angelides

Chairman

Hon. Bill Thomas

Vice Chairman

COMMISSIONERS VOTING TO ADOPT THE REPORT:

Phil Angelides, Brooksley Born, Byron Georgiou,
Bob Graham, Heather H. Murren, John W. Thompson

COMMISSIONERS DISSENTING FROM THE REPORT:

Keith Hennessey, Douglas Holtz-Eakin,
Bill Thomas, Peter J. Wallison

Wendy Edelberg, Executive Director
Gary J. Cohen, General Counsel
Chris Seefer, Director of Investigations
Greg Feldberg, Director of Research

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was created to examine the causes of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States. In this report, the Commission presents to the President, the Congress, and the American people the results of its examination and its conclusions as to the causes of the crisis.

More than two years after the worst of the financial crisis, our economy, as well as communities and families across the country, continues to experience the aftershocks. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs and their homes, and the economy is still struggling to rebound. This report is intended to provide a historical accounting of what brought our financial system and economy to a precipice and to help policy makers and the public better understand how this calamity came to be.

The Commission was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act (Public Law 111-21) passed by Congress and signed by the President in May 2009. This independent, 10-member panel was composed of private citizens with experience in areas such as housing, economics, finance, market regulation, banking, and consumer protection. Six members of the Commission were appointed by the Democratic leadership of Congress and four members by the Republican leadership.

The Commissions statutory instructions set out 22 specific topics for inquiry and called for the examination of the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government. This report fulfills these mandates. In addition, the Commission was instructed to refer to the attorney general of the United States and any appropriate state attorney general any person that the Commission found may have violated the laws of the United States in relation to the crisis. Where the Commission found such potential violations, it referred those matters to the appropriate authorities. The Commission used the authority it was given to issue subpoenas to compel testimony and the production of documents, but in the vast majority of instances, companies and individuals voluntarily cooperated with this inquiry.

In the course of its research and investigation, the Commission reviewed millions of pages of documents, interviewed more than 700 witnesses, and held 19 days of public hearings in New York, Washington, D.C., and communities across the country that were hard hit by the crisis. The Commission also drew from a large body of existing work about the crisis developed by congressional committees, government agencies, academics, journalists, legal investigators, and many others.