Congress vs. Bank CEOs: Death by Indignation!

D.C. residents, perhaps you noticed a meaty, exasperated smell in the air yesterday evening: that was the stench of eight bank CEOs being grilled for eight hours. Here's what we learned from the House Financial Services Committee's hard-hitting investigation…

* Members of the House Financial Services Committee cannot identify the CEOs of the nation's largest banks, even with the help of nameplates. They do not know Ken Lewis from a hole in the foreclosed-upon wall.

* Members of the House Financial Services Committee aren't aware that until three months ago Goldman Sachs was an investment bank, not a commercial bank.

* Members of the House Financial Services Committee believe credit default swaps were invented by a lone analyst, perhaps because he couldn't get his hands on any plutonium.

* The Academy Award for grandstanding goes to Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) for his one-man performance of "I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS, BUT 'STRUCTURED INVESTMENT VEHICLE' SOUNDS PRETTY ILLEGAL IN MY OPINION." Jim Newell reminds us that Capuano voted to deregulate the derivatives market in 2000. Pretty illegal in my opinion: Clueless grandstanding! Also, Boston drivers.

Heartfelt thanks to Messrs. Blankfein, Dimon, Kelly, Lewis, Logue, Mack, Pandit and Stumpf for holding this hearing to expose the reckless ineptitude of the House Financial Services Committee. I look forward to the regulatory changes that will cut their salaries, change the way they work and hold them accountable to the innocent taxpayers they've been screwing.