House Speaker Pelosi to Call for a Full-Scale Investigation of Wall Street Practices

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants Wall Street to go through a full-scale probe of its practices which would be centered around an intense examination of bankers and brokers and how their maneuvering helped contribute to the stock market’s meltdown. It could be Wall Street’s deepest investigation since the 1929 stock market crash.

From Bloomberg: …Pelosi plans to push for a comprehensive inquiry, saying that three-quarters of Americans want to know what led to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the collapse of Bear Stearns Cos. and Merrill Lynch & Co.
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Members of Congress may be reluctant to tackle the recommendations of such an inquiry because of financial industry donations to political campaigns..
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Individual and PAC donations from Goldman Sachs… which totaled $30.9 million, and Citigroup Inc., at $25.8 million, were higher than those from any other company except AT&T Inc.’s $40.9 million over the last 20 years..

Financial services has been the biggest contributor in every U.S. election cycle in the last [two decades], according to the Center for Responsive Politics..
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“How can you seriously propose a law when you’ve been taking money from ‘The American Poodles for Wall Street’ or whatever fund for the past 10 years,” said Geisst, a professor of finance and economics at Manhattan College in New York and author of “Wall Street: A History.”