ABSTRACT
Little attention was being paid to the root causes of the subprime crisis in its aftermath. Congress had created a Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) when it enacted the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act in May 2009. That commission was tasked with determining the cause of the subprime crisis. Although FCIC was supposed to be bipartisan, its chairman was an extremist corporate governance activist, Phil Angelides, a former treasurer of California. Angelides was known for his support of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) corporate governance campaigns. He was in all events unhurried and disorganized. FCIC did not begin its investigation until January 2010 and did not plan to file a report until the end of the year, and its hearings were desultory and few and far between.
