Norton Calls for Remedies at Greenspan Hearing

Press Release

Hear Norton on the answers she got from Greenspan, SEC Commission Chair Christopher Cox, and former Treasury Secretary Job Snow on why they took no action to prevent the economic crisis. She will discuss those answers and other concerns at her Town Hall Meeting, "The Bailout and the Economy: What Happened, What's Next, What it Means to You, D.C., and the USA." It will be held Oct. 28, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. in the Gold Room, rm. 2168, Rayburn House Office Building.

"These were major actors: former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and John Snow, the former Treasury Secretary, who saw the hurricane coming, just as there were some who saw Katrina coming," Norton said. "They literally took no action. We have found out why because essentially, the only remedy we've been left with is a taxpayer-funded bailout."

Norton was particularly concerned with the timeframe during which a remedy or some remedies could have been found. "We got some interesting answers, one of the best, considering the mortgage crisis, was that everyone who does a mortgage should be left with some ‘skin in the game'," she said. "To quote former Secretary of the Treasury Snow, if you can simply securitize the mortgage and pass it off into the global economy to nobody knows where, of course, you might then give a mortgage to almost anyone, which has occurred with sub-prime and other mortgages. That's a whole lot different from the types of mortgages we were accustomed to where you knew the banker who had the mortgage and it didn't want ever to get the house back and you behaved accordingly."

The town meeting Tuesday will feature Alice Rivlin, first director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a former director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), former chair of the D.C. Control Board, and current director of the Greater Washington Research project at Brookings; Emma Coleman Jordan, Georgetown Law professor specializing in financial institutions and commercial law, past chair of the Financial Institutions Committee of the California State Bar; Ed DeSeve, former chief financial officer of the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), former controller and deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, and current Senior Lecturer in government finance, management, and leadership at University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government; and developer W. Chris Smith Jr., Chairman & CEO of William C. Smith & Co. Norton said that, among them, the four guests have an understanding of the macro economy and finances, as well as the effects on the states and localities and on individuals.

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