How Wall Street And Its Backers on Capitol Hill Silenced A Critic Calling For Greater Regulation of Derivatives

by via Democracy Now

Mon, Nov 2, 2009 7:34AM

Monday, November 2, 2009 :Last month when the a subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the derivatives market, Robert Johnson was the only non-industry expert was invited to speak. The former economist at the Senate Banking Committee and the Senate Budget Committee was invited just 16 hours before the hearing, his testimony was cut short after 5 minutes by Congresswoman Melissa Bean and the committee has since refused to post online his full testimony along with the statements of the other panelists. Robert Johnson comes on Democracy Now to explain what he tried to tell Congress.

Robert Johnson, former economist at the Senate Banking Committee and the Senate Budget Committee. He’s now the director of the Economic Policy Initiative at the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and serves on the United Nations Commission of Experts on Finance and International Monetary Reform.