After a year’s work reviewing millions of documents, interviewing over 700 witnesses, and conducting 19 days of hearings throughout America, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission issued its report on January 27, 2011. The Commission concluded that the 2008 Financial Crisis was an avoidable disaster caused by both private and public sector failings, including corporate mismanagement and excessive risk-taking on Wall Street and widespread failures in government regulation designed to preserve the safety and soundness of our financial system.

The mission of the Commission was to ask and answer this central question: how did it come to pass that in 2008 our nation was forced to choose between two stark alternatives–either risk the total collapse of our financial system and economy – or inject trillions of taxpayer dollars into the system and into private companies – even as millions of Americans still lost their jobs, their savings, and their homes.
To see how the Commission answered this question, review the report at http://www.fcic.gov/ or pick up a copy at your favorite bookstore.