There's no easy solution to this because elected Representatives and Senators are, you know, elected. But at any rate, all-day Congressional hearings like today's serve little point other than to remind us that Congressional hearings are pointless. I'm not saying that Bernanke and Geithner should just operate behind closed doors at all times, without ever revealing what they're doing or having to come clean on the record. But let's face it: Members of Congress are not qualified to discuss shit like this with the Treasury Secretary and the Fed Chair. That's not an Oooh, "real" Americans can't understand the high-and-mighty wisdom of the Dear Leaders. It's essentially the facts. And that could very well be a product of a wider problem that needs solving -- either a) not allowing super-sophisticated financial instruments and relationships to exist under government regulation or b) not letting borderline mouthbreathers like Michelle Bachmann have a vote on financial issues.
But I just watched Geithner (who assuredly, as a pure cost-benefit calculation, has better things to do than be lectured by Congress) get grilled on CNN by Maxine Waters. As I can best recall, it went like this:
