Post No. 17/10 had some nice authentic footage of Nout Wellink, giving his personal perspective on the credit crunch to the Committee De Wit.
Yesterday former ABN Amro CEO Rijkman Groenink came by, with a somewhat different appreciation of the course of events, including the hotly debated ABN Amro takeover (c.q. debacle). He, in turn, was followed today by Nout Wellink (who wasn't very impressed by Groenink's story) and Minister of Finance Wouter Bos (ditto). For a reaction by Groenink, go here.
The red thread of the sessions? You guessed it, bickering, bickering, bickering, with one bottom line: nobody is going to say sorry here, despite the attempts by the Committee De Wit in that direction. We're in "blame the other guy" land here. Instructive and entertaining nonetheless. Can't we do this for another week or so?
For live reports of the committee sessions - unfortunately no footage, only written stuff, but on a realtime basis - go here (and check the right side bar, it's self-explanatory).
UPDATE I
Although - well, just maybe - not wholly appropriate to mention in this post, I'm doing it anyway: here's a recent publication by Lucian Bebchuk and Holger Spamann about Regulating Banker's Pay.
UPDATE II
And now even the Committee De Wit itself is target of criticism, labeled by some as incompetent
Kamerleden zonder enige expertise bevragen betrokkenen die hun hele leven al in de financiële sector rondlopen. Die komen dan ook vreselijk makkelijk weg. Terwijl ze net zolang op hun huid gezeten moeten worden, totdat ze zeggen: ‘Hier kan ik niet op antwoorden.’ Alleen Jolande Sap van GroenLinks is in staat vervolgvragen te stellen. Dat zij het kundig doet, komt doordat ze econome is. Maar zo’n Dion Graus van de PVV: beschamend. In het gesprek met oud-Rabo-topman Bert Heemskerk zei Graus letterlijk: ‘Niets is onmogelijk, dat blijkt wel uit de crisis.’ Dat is kennelijk zijn niveau van expertise.’
and by others as way too focused on finishing the prepared Q&A, not on key issues that came up during the sessions but weren't part of the rehearsed Q&A.
De commissie is intens tevreden. Hoofdrolspelers nog eens horen, maar dan onder ede, vinden de commissieleden niet nodig. Alles wat ze wilden horen, hebben ze gehoord, zeggen ze. De vragenlijst is geheel afgewerkt.
We'll see what comes out of the committee's findings, but it won't be a shocker to anyone if its finger points in the direction of De Nederlandsche Bank and its president.
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