Broadly publicized and televised commission hearings like the one taking place today and tomorrow have absolutely nothing on your run of the mill Punch and Judy show, and they are perceived as important only because people are told over and over that they are. There is a feeling somewhere up there that “critical” questions for bankers are a good idea at this point in time, but not because something needs to be done about the problem. Just because, politically, something needs to be done. Like holding a hearing. It’s about poll numbers. This way everybody can claim afterwards that something was done. And if the anger doesn’t subside, or if, God forbid, Obama’s numbers keep slipping (another low announced today), a few heads will fall. Geithner, Summers and Bernanke are the big prizes available to satisfy the people’s hunger for justice, or at least for something to be done, in Pontius Pilate style showtrials. It will make no difference whatsoever to what has already happened and what is still in the pipeline, because sacrificing one or two individuals does nothing to break the grip of the elites on the government and the laws of the country.
