SEC’s Cox, Treasury’s Paulson, Fed’s Bernanke to Testify to Senate Banking; AIG Announces $4 Billion Loss as PwC Finds Material

By Edith Orenstein, FEI Financial Reporting Blog - SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke are scheduled to testify at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee this Thursday on, “The State of the U.S. Economy and Financial Markets.” Concurrent with the Senate hearing, the House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on, “The State of the Bond Insurance Industry.” Panelists for the House hearing are not yet listed.

This Valentine’s Day treat follows on the heels of a plethora of negative economic news splashed throughout today’s papers, including a $4 billion mortgage-related asset writedown at AIG related to the value of credit default swaps.

A new initiative announced today (Project Lifeline) by the U.S. Treasury-encouraged “Hope Now” alliance was panned by Senate Banking Chair Chris Dodd, and former class action king William Lerach was sentenced to two years in prison. As I write this, on Feb. 12, the birthday of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, I was wondering what he would have said about today's challenges, like the housing crisis and perhaps Lerach’s situation. Read more at http://www2.financialexecutives.org/blog/permanent.cfm?post_id=449 .