Chapter 2937 Full of Gunpowder

Tuesday, February 17.

In the morning, watching the large group of reporters gathered and the broadcasting vehicles arriving one after another, the congressmen behind the windows were full of energy without even drinking coffee.

They were eager for these two things like Hollywood stars, and these two things have not appeared so intensively on Capitol Hill for some time.

But a few months ago, similar scenes were not uncommon here.

Since the third quarter of 2008, with the outbreak of the subprime mortgage crisis, this place has also been caught in chaos and noise.

In fact, during the subprime mortgage crisis, the number of people leaving here was extremely high.

In the early days when the subprime mortgage crisis was not clear, the congressmen held hearings to discuss the financial system and whether there was a systemic crisis; in the mid-term when the subprime mortgage crisis was already clear, they held hearings again to discuss whether the crisis would continue or become a thing of the past?

The busiest period was the late stage marked by the subprime mortgage explosion. While distancing themselves from their previous actions that fueled the subprime mortgage crisis, congressmen from all walks of life quickly transformed themselves into messengers of justice and representatives of the people's interests, pulling government officials and corporate executives one after another to the stand.

At the beginning, such hearings attracted much attention. At that time, the scene outside was often like today, and the live broadcast on C-SPAN also had a high ratings.

Unfortunately, not long after, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. Although they themselves still enjoyed it, fewer and fewer reporters came, and it was even harder to find a broadcast vehicle.

Why is this the case? The congressmen actually know the reason, because the public has long lost interest in such hearings.

Why is this the case? They also know it.

Because after hearing after hearing, the public cannot understand how the subprime mortgage crisis happened.

At the hearing, the Federal Reserve said that our monetary policy is correct and that our supervision of banks is also strong; Wall Street said that our financial innovation is successful, including the securitization of real estate mortgage loans, which has achieved huge economic and social benefits worldwide...

Not only that, the representatives who came to the hearing also cried out one after another. Whether it was the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, or other government regulatory agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, they all felt that it was a great injustice to attribute the cause of the subprime mortgage crisis to them.

Including Lehman Brothers, which was regarded as the one that completely triggered the subprime mortgage crisis. Its head Fuld cried out in tears at the hearing last year, "We didn't have to go bankrupt. Our situation was actually very good. I can be sure that I will never understand until I die why they rescued Bear Stearns but not us."

So in the end, those who suffered property damage in the crisis, or those who went bankrupt because they lost their jobs, lost their houses, and owed a large loan to the bank, looked at each other, so, blame us?

Then who would have the patience to watch this?

After that, except for the hearings of Paulson and his team when they were promoting the bailout plan, which received some attention, the other hearings were mostly just for the congressmen who wanted to attract more attention. Not many people cared about it at all.

At this time, looking at the many reporters and broadcasting vehicles gathered on the mountain, the members of the House Finance Committee were all in high spirits, and many other congressmen couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Barney Frank, that old guy, is really good at clearing himself and attracting attention!

But at the same time, he is not without evil intentions. Feng Yiping's influence is really not to be underestimated. So Frank, if you play this trick wrong, it will be a lot of fun.

He also chose to schedule the hearing after President's Day (yesterday, the third Monday in February). It seems to have a different meaning, some meaning of winning?

Frank, the real boss who is envied and jealous, is very relaxed at this time. In the subsidiary office, he is still busy as soon as he gets to work, but he has his feet on the table, listening to music and drinking coffee.

His leather shoes are raised high, and they are tapping to the rhythm of the music. When he sees a little dust on his shoes, the chairman wipes them carefully with paper.

It looks more like he will go off work and enjoy a relaxing time in a few minutes, not like he is about to lead a very challenging hearing.

Or according to our old tradition, he is undoubtedly very general-like.

At 9:10 in the morning, several cars drove in one after another. Looking at the reporters who were running all the way like they heard the starting gun in a track and field competition, Feng Yiping smiled and said, "It's our turn to go on stage, everyone."

He stood by the car and waved to the reporters in a chic manner, but soon he had to squint his eyes, this flash light!

The next moment, he even had a hard time keeping a smile, because he was already drowned by the surging crowd.

When he broke through under the cover of security personnel, he only roughly remembered the various names that reporters from all over the world called him, "Feng", "Fen", "Weng"... and even "Hong".

I am very Hong.

There was also a very standard "Feng". He vaguely heard someone shouting "Mr. Feng."

He looked in that direction and found that it should be the reporter assigned by CCTV to Huashengtun. He couldn't hear their other words clearly, but judging from their appearance, they should be expressing their concern and condolences.

Feng Yiping nodded towards them.

In fact, CCTV was not the only Chinese media to come. Because of Feng Yiping's identity and because he was the first well-known domestic entrepreneur to testify before the U.S. Congress, the country also attached great importance to this hearing. The big portals have also sent people, and text live broadcasts have been started at this time.

It is already past ten o'clock in the evening in China, and many people are paying attention to the hearing on the other side of the ocean through their live broadcast.

At this time, in the White House, little O'Hei, who had spent a short vacation and played some golf, told his secretary Katie, "Call me when you have fun."

Today's hearing was planned to last for three hours, and he was unable to pay attention to the whole process.

…………

At 9:20, Feng Yiping arrived at the hearing venue.

The venue, which can accommodate about a hundred people, was already full at this time. When one of the protagonists came in, there was a sensation. Someone shouted, "Feng, we support you!"

Feng Yiping walked in with a smile all the way. Cummins asked him again in his ear, "You really don't want lawyers to accompany you?"

Feng Yiping shook his head and walked to his seat.

It was a lonely table in front of the auditorium. Directly across from it was a high platform with three rows of curved tables as long as the venue. Those were the seats of the congressmen. At this time, there were already some assistants. People are busy up there.

At this time, Feng Yiping hoped that the guys above would arrive quickly, because there were many guns and cannons shooting at him at close range, and some were right in front of his nose - were they trying to take a close-up of my nose hairs?

At 25 minutes, members of Congress came in one after another. Feng Yiping immediately saw Barney Frank. This hair was almost completely white. He was probably too busy to take care of it, so now the old man with a beard was holding a thick He walked to the middle of the front row and sat down with his folder. When he looked at Feng Yiping, he did not forget to smile and greet him.

He seems to be a very kind old gentleman.

It should be said that after the subprime mortgage crisis broke out, Barney Frank's work was really effective.

For example, no one now remembers his nickname, "The Senator from Fannie Mae."

The reason why he has such a nickname is because he has blocked the reform of the "two houses" for a long time. In 2003, he said, "I don't want the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of the Comptroller of Thrift (two major financial institutions that are affiliated with the U.S. Department of the Treasury but operate independently). regulators) emphasize safety and soundness, I want to roll the dice a little further on subsidized housing,"

Therefore, many people, including Feng Yiping, know that this congressman who is now actively preparing to liquidate subprime mortgage responsibilities is actually the same as those on Wall Street and has unshirkable responsibility for subprime mortgages.

In the past, he has been a spokesperson for Fannie and Freddie and obstructed relevant regulations and reforms, which greatly increased the real estate bubble, which also increased the power of subprime mortgages.

But now, most ordinary people would never think of this.

This is a very skillful politician.

By 9:30, all the members who attended the hearing were seated. This is a very impressive lineup. There are 60 members of the House of Representatives Finance Committee, and a total of 47 are present today.

O'Hei, who was in a meeting with Chief of Staff Emanuel, knew this number when he was signing the document handed over by his secretary. He muttered, "This is extra important!"

Of course, special attention is paid to such a lineup. Generally, there are only about ten or twenty people. The reason why so many people are present today is naturally because the other party is Feng Yiping.

The host of the hearing stood up and said, "Now I would like to introduce the witness, Mr. Yiping Feng, chairman of Jiasheng Group and founder of NEXTDOOR,"

Feng Yiping smiled and greeted the audience.

"Sir, our committee has a practice that all witnesses must take an oath," the host said to Feng Yiping, "please raise your right hand and take the oath with me,"

Feng Yiping stood up and raised his right hand, "I swear that everything I said is the truth, the complete truth, without any concealment,"

As soon as Feng Yiping sat down, Barney Frank, as the chairman, began to speak, "First of all, welcome our witness Mr. Feng. We know that you participated in this hearing voluntarily, which also demonstrates the importance you attach to this hearing and your financial Safety is taken seriously and thank you very much for volunteering to attend our hearing,"

Feng Yiping smiled and looked at Barney Frank, who was acting very gentle at this time. Come on, don't make these nonsense.

Barney Frank was very cooperative and asked in the next sentence, "Mr. Feng, you said you accepted Madoff's $5 billion investment to preserve the property of those who were deceived. Is that really the case? You have no other ideas, such as, Revenge against Madoff who tried to deceive you?”