FAST CHAT

The Senator Who Saw This Coming

By Eric Adelson | NEWSWEEK
Published Apr 4, 2009
From the magazine issue dated Apr 13, 2009

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  • Posted By: Berserker @ 04/12/2009 12:07:02 PM

    It is disappointing that the President has chosen to ignore Sen. Dorgan's suggestions.

  • Posted By: JohnMoore @ 04/11/2009 10:11:04 PM

    The people on this list (http://www.democraticunderground.org/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=114x62584) also "saw this coming":
    (1) William K. Black is Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. He was a senior regulator during the savings and loan scandal and blew the whistle on prominent politicians, including House Speaker Wright and the five US Senators who became famous as the "Keating Five."

    (2) Robert Johnson was formerly a managing director at Soros Funds Management and chief economist of the Senate Banking Committee

    (3) Walker Todd worked for many years in the Federal Reserve System.

    (4) Brooksley Born bio from Wikipedia states from 1996-1999 she served as chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal agency which oversees the futures and commodity options markets as well as the individuals who participate in those markets. In 2008, she appeared on the Legal Times list of "The 90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years" and was described as a "Champion".

    (5) Iris Mack, MBA/PhD is a former quantitative analyst at Harvard Management Company, the university's once-vaunted endowment manager, tells the Harvard Crimson she was fired for voicing concern to then-university president Larry Summers' chief of staff about the money manager's risky use of derivatives the traders didn't understand. Dr. Mack was the second African-American to received a Harvard doctorate in Applied Math.

    (6) Joseph Eugene Stiglitz from Wikipedia bio is an American economist and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal (1979) and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001).

    (7) Paul Volcker - former Fed Chairman

    (8) Elizabeth Warren, chief watchdog of America's $700bn bank bailout plan, will this week call for the removal of top executives from Citigroup, AIG and other institutions that have received government funds in a damning report that will question the administration's approach to saving the financial system from collapse. She's a Harvard law Professor.



  • Posted By: jddnyc @ 04/10/2009 1:04:58 PM

    Clearly we need a new Pecora Cammission.

  • Posted By: jddnyc @ 04/10/2009 1:02:56 PM

    II's pretty clear that Summers has got to go, and that the banks need to be reorganized by Glass-Steagall standards. Frank and Pelosi should get out of the way or step down.

  • Posted By: John_Gault @ 04/05/2009 5:22:35 PM

    Senator Dorgan also voted NOT to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act. I am very proud of him. That repeal allowed risky investments by commercial banks. The lack of over site of at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, then gas hit $4/gal. accelerated the crisis/debacle. That he was able to see it coming shows tremendous insight. I wish him well. And hope he is able to kick some tail in washington. He should seek to head committees. Possibly finance committee. Barney Frank should be thrown out of office. Possibly impeached. Along with the other 89 who voted for the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act.

    • Posted By: deldia @ 04/10/2009 12:43:07 PM

      Barney Frank voted AGAINST the same legislation that Senator Dorgan did, but Frank is a HOUSE member and Dorgan a SENATOR, so different legislative bodies and different votes and different bill numbers.

      If you want to see which House members voted against the 1999 legislation:
      The voting report can be found here:

      http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/106/house/1/votes/570/

      Here's the Democrats (51) that voted NO:

      Tammy Baldwin, Thomas Barrett, Robert Brady, Michael Capuano, William Clay, Gary Condit, John Conyers, Jerry Costello, William Coyne, Danny Davis, Peter DeFazio, Rosa DeLauro, John Dingell, Julian Dixon, Chet Edwards, Lane Evans, Chaka Fattah, Bob Filner, Barney Frank, Samuel Gejdenson, Luis Gutierrez, Alcee Hastings, Maurice Hinchey, Jay Inslee, Jesse Jackson, Marcy Kaptur, Dale Kildee, Dennis Kucinich, Barbara Lee, John Lewis, William Lipinski, Bill Luther, Edward Markey, Jim McDermott, Cynthia McKinney, Carrie Meek, George Miller, David Obey, David Phelps, Lynn Rivers, Ciro Rodriguez, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Bobby Rush, Jan Schakowsky, Jose Serrano, Gene Taylor, Karen Thurman, John Tierney, Maxine Waters, Henry Waxman, Lynn Woolsey

      also voting NO was Independent:

      Bernard Sanders

      and 5 Republicans:

      Joe Barton, Tom Campbell, Joel Hefley, John Mica, Mark Sanford

  • Posted By: paulballen @ 04/07/2009 11:00:21 PM

    The citizen journalists who have been digging into root causes of the global financial meltdown and documenting them at http://www.crashopedia.com found Senator Dorgan's October 1994 Washington Monthly Article, "Very Risky Business - Derivates" important enough to make it the top link on the entire web site.

    Read his 1994 article here: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n10_v26/ai_15818783/

    Dorgan was one of only a handful of elected representatives that saw danger ahead and tried to prevent the train wreck. It is high time that we not only learn about his previous efforts but that we support him and the few others who really saw this coming in creating and passing legislation so that this will never happen again.

    Dorgan's original legislation and anything like it that will destroy the synthetic and OTC derivatives business that has made so many bankers so many billions in bogus profits in the past 15 years is NOT currently on either party's legislative priority list. This has to change, and I believe it will if enough of us rally behind Senator Dorgan and insist that our own Senators start paying attention to what he has to say, and what he thinks we should do now.

    • Posted By: deldia @ 04/10/2009 12:38:43 PM

      Thanks for the link! I've just read the 1999 New York Times article that cited Dorgan's warning on the bank regulation changes. Have you read Dorgan's book, published in 2006, 'Take This Job and Ship It?' Nancy

  • Posted By: John Chase in PH @ 04/08/2009 5:24:34 PM

    Dorgan is one of a very few high profile individuals who saw this coming. These are the people to listen to now, and ignore -- or prosecute if possible -- the individuals who pushed through the changes that allowed it to happen.

  • Posted By: Jim1348 @ 04/08/2009 6:36:05 PM

    I knew that derivatives are pure gambling too, except with worse odds than Vegas. What I didn't know was that Congress had allowed the banks to get anywhere near them. That is why I recommended dumping all incumbents at the last election. Those people are not to be trusted. But when we get a new crew in, we should pay them better so that they are not susceptible to corporate influence with vacations, low-interest loans, etc. Every time I mention that, people complain that they should not be paid more. That is why we don't get enough competent people who have the public's interest at heart, and their mistakes cost us a fortune. We pay them, or the lobbyists will.

  • Posted By: mhull1 @ 04/08/2009 3:45:25 PM

    Why should Washington or Wall Street change? They've got the American Taxpayer to SOAK!

  • Posted By: Dredd @ 04/08/2009 11:26:04 AM

    Good for that senator.

    Our poverty is guaranteed if you consider at military spending:

    http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/04/economy-of-destruction-reaps-poverty.html

    Some of the current financial pitch fork discourse is a diversion from the underlying problem. The proverbial 800 pound gorilla in the room.

  • Posted By: John_Gault @ 04/05/2009 5:21:47 PM

    Senator Dorgan also voted NOT to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act. I am very proud of him. That repeal allowed risky investments by commercial banks. The lack of over site of at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, then gas hit $4/gal. accelerated the crisis/debacle. That he was able to see it coming shows tremendous insight. I wish him well. And hope he is able to kick some tail in washington. He should seek to head committees. Possibly finance committee. Barney Frank should be thrown out of office. Possibly impeached.

  • Posted By: DK-Michigan @ 04/05/2009 10:23:59 AM

    First, I thank you for digging up this interview. Second, would you please continue to follow up on this issue. I am not a republican, nor a democrat, but a concerned individual who wants to see CORRECT THINGS DONE. Wall Street has killed us the Miggle Class folks. We need help. Can some one get to our PRESIDENT? And see hat change does take place

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