Accountable America Chairman Tom Matzzie submitted the following must read piece to the Huffington Post today. It outlines Accountable America's call for a stronger, more effective and more active Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC):

Have you heard of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission? If not, that's because this Commission with responsibility for investigating the financial crisis has so far failed to get to work. Last May Congress passed legislation creating the Commission with a broad mandate and specific powers including subpoena, public hearings, cross examination of witnesses under oath and even criminal referrals.

Where are the hearings? Where are the subpoenas? Where are the criminal referrals? Millions of people are out of work because of the casino economy setup by some in the financial sector.

So far, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission isn't living up to expectations. It has been eighteen months since the market crashes, fifteen month since the Madoff frauds were exposed, nearly ten months since Congress created the Commission and eight months since commissioners were appointed.

To date the Commission has held one public hearing with witnesses and then a forum recently with professors and academicians. No victims have had a chance to talk. No subpoenas have been issued. There is no real way for the public to give input.

With one in six Americans looking for work, the Commission can't be allowed to whitewash the failure and complicity of the SEC and other government regulators. The Commission needs to assign blame where blame is due, and bring the wrongdoers to justice.

It didn't have to be this way. The hopes for the Commission harkened back to the Pecora Commission of the 1930s whose findings led to passage of Glass-Steagall, the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Others were thinking of the role the 9/11 Commission played in pulling together a scrupulous accounting of the terrorist attack.

The victims of the hit and run economic crimes of this period expect and deserve much more. Years from now, there will be ample time for a leisurely stroll through the history of this crisis. Now is the time for action--investigations, prosecutions and more.

That's why a group I lead as Chairman, Accountable America, is working with victims of the Bernard Madoff frauds and others to push for investigation with teeth. Accountable America is sponsoring TV, radio and print ads, and organizing phone banks and public events.

Many Madoff victims see the lackluster government response so far as yet another form of financial abuse. One indirect Madoff investor, Suzanne Webel, who lost her life savings, said:

"We were robbed first by Madoff...and now by the government for failing to respond to our plight. We want the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to get to the bottom of this mess - we want a hearing on our issues and a commitment to compensate ALL victims fairly."

Accountable America sent a letter to Commission Chairman Phil Angelides and Vice-Chairman Bill Thomas, urging them to get serious about achieving their mandate. The letter aired several concerns:

* The Commission has made no commitment to hearing from the victims of Madoff frauds, other failed institutions or the broader financial crisis - despite a specific Congressional mandate to investigate these frauds. Victims deserve a full airing of their concerns.

* The Commission has not issued a single subpoena for current or former regulators who were either asleep at the switch or complicit in the financial crisis. Among many others, former S.E.C. Chairman Christopher Cox, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Chairman Alan Greenspan should all be subpoenaed and cross-examined.

* Testimony from academic experts is not enough. Too much time has been spent preparing for academic study instead of conducting investigations - which are the true intent of the Commission's Congressional mandate.

* The schedule and pace of work is too slow. Since July 2009, the Commission has only met in public three times. The first hearing with witnesses occurred just a month ago. If specific members of the Commission are dragging their feet or unwilling to work at an appropriate pace, they should be called to account publicly.

* The American people deserve clearer notice of the date, time and place of the Commission's meetings. The time of day for the most recent forum was announced only two days before it was held, and its location had inadequate space for the public. The Commission should announce a draft schedule of hearings with dates and locations for the rest of the year and ask for public input.

* Not a single subpoena has been issued. This is one of the Commission's most powerful tools, and it should not be left unused.

* If the reason for inaction is lack of resources, the Commission should publicly ask for what they need. Their work is too important to fall victim to indolence or red tape.

With the Commission's report due in December, there is still time to get on track -- but the clock is ticking.

Reflecting on his work in 1939, Ferdinand Pecora wrote:

Had there been full disclosure of what was being done in furtherance of these schemes, they could not long have survived the fierce light of publicity and criticism. Legal chicanery and pitch darkness were the banker's stoutest allies.

Pecora's singular focus on truth-finding did justice to victims and safeguarded America's economy for decades to come.

Chairman Angelides and the other nine members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission have a choice to make.

They can continue to conduct a toothless, academic exercise that holds no one accountable.

Or they can learn the lessons of the past and bring the disinfecting power of sunlight to the shadowy corners of our financial system where greed lies in wait to strike again.

The clock is ticking. It's time for action.

Today, Accountable America sent a letter to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission calling on the commission to get work and use the broad mandate given to them by Congress. The letter encourages the FCIC to start moving more swiftly and to host public hearings with, amongst others, victim of the Madoff's fraud. The letter reads:

Two weeks ago, we noted that the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) is planning to accept and discuss working papers from noted economists on the subject of the causes of the global financial crisis. The presentations will be given this Friday and Saturday, February 26-27th.

The forum, which is open to the public, will be held at the American University Washington College of Law, 4801 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, room 603. The forum will also be webcast live at FCIC.gov. Join us.

In today's must-read in the Wall Street Journal, Elizabeth Warren makes the case for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA).

The consumer agency is a watchdog that would root out gimmicks and traps and slim down paperwork, giving families a fighting chance to hang on to some of their money. So far, Wall Street CEOs seem determined to stop any kind of watchdog. They seem to think that they can run their businesses forever without our trust. This is a bad calculation.

It's a bad calculation because shareholders suffer enormously from the long-term cost of the boom-and- bust cycles that accompany a poorly regulated market. J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently explained this brave new world, saying that crises should be expected "every five to seven years."

He is wrong. New laws that came out of the Great Depression ended 150 years of boom-and-bust cycles and gave us 50 years with virtually no financial meltdowns. The stability ended as we dismantled those laws and failed to replace them with new laws that reflected modern business practices.

Even though boom and bust causes suffering on Main Street and is of questionable value for Wall Street - the banksters are fighting hard for it.

Now, a year later, President Obama's proposals for reform are bottled up in the Senate. The same Wall Street CEOs who brought the economy to its knees have spent more than a year and hundreds of millions of dollars furiously lobbying Washington to kill the president's proposal for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA).

The latest bankster-funded lie is that the CFPA is more "big government." Warren lays waste to that argument:

The latest lie is that the CFPA is "big government." The CEOs all know that the current regulatory structure, which they support, is big government at its worst: bureaucratic, unaccountable and ineffective. The CFPA will consolidate seven separate bureaucracies, cut down on paperwork, and promote understandable consumer products. In the process, it will stabilize the industry, rebuild confidence in the securitization market, and leave more money in the pockets of families. Complaining about short, readable contracts and efforts to slim down bureaucracy only further diminishes the banks' credibility.

This generation of Wall Street CEOs could be the ones to forfeit America's trust. When the history of the Great Recession is written, they can be singled out as the bonus babies who were so short-sighted that they put the economy at risk and contributed to the destruction of their own companies. Or they can acknowledge how Americans' trust has been lost and take the first steps to earn it back.

Wall Street is using their money and influence to take advantage of a broken Senate to obstruct reform that's good for Main Street. Our economy needs the CFPA and we must fight for this common sense solution that will make government smaller, more efficient and better able to protect consumers.

When the farmer throws out the corn, the pigs run to the trough. That's what's happening in American politics today. Wall Street is throwing out the coin and the politicians are scurrying to grab it up.

John Boehner and Mitch McConnell have sensed an opportunity. By staking out pro-Wall Street and anti-Main Street positions against financial regulatory reform, they know they have positioned themselves in the right place to maximize their ability to grab up that Wall Street coin. The WSJ observes:

Republicans are stepping up their campaign to win donations from Wall Street, trying to capitalize on an increasing sense of regret among executives at big financial institutions for backing Democrats in 2008.

In discussions with Wall Street executives, Republicans are striving to make the case that they are banks' best hope of preventing President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats from cracking down on Wall Street.

GOP strategists hope to benefit from the reaction to the White House's populist rhetoric and proposals, which range from sharp critiques of bonuses to a tax on big Wall Street banks, caps on executive pay and curbs on business practices deemed too risky.

Wall Street knows where their bread is buttered. Many of them are against real reform because they know their profits are at stake. So, they're investing in the Republican Party to stop real reform. Read the story and find out where Wall Street is investing to scuttle reform.