Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission [FCIC] Chairman Phil Angelides and Vice-Chairman Bill Thomas spoke to FOX Business Network’s Liz Claman regarding the hearing today and their findings on what was behind the economic collapse, with Angelides saying “I also think JP Morgan (JPM) collateral calls of 8.6 billion dollars over the last few days did critically deplete liquidity of Lehman (LEHMQ)”
Excerpts from the interview, courtesy of FOX Business Network:
On Lehman accusing JP Morgan for the collapse due to their collateral calls
Bill Thomas: “Our job was to listen to these people. And it got to sound an awful lot like he said, she said. Frankly I got a little disgusted toward the end of the hearing. As the chairman indicated, we’re going to go out into the field and listen to people on Main Street. The discussion here was whether or not the Federal Reserve should have committed an untold hundreds of billions of dollars to allow Lehman to try to find someone that would believe that they were sound and they should join up. I think these people don’t have a full understanding of the attitude of the American people and saving someone whether you’re too big or too little.”
Phil Angelides: “I also do think JP Morgan collateral calls of 8.6 billion dollars over the last few days did critically deplete liquidity of Lehman. What we’re here to do is find out the facts. What’s become clear is this too big to fail bailout mentality has become deeply baked in our financial system, and that’s a problem.”
