Need A Job? Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Is Hiring

They have $8 million in funding and need to make at least 50 hires.  Details inside.

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The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) has taken a while to get up on its feet.

The panel was appointed last July and held its first meeting in September. It has only started getting staffed up over the past few months.

It has new offices in downtown Washington, a few blocks northwest of the White House. Funded to the tune of $8 million, it aims to employ between 40 and 50 investigators and other staffers.

The crisis panel's one big goal is to complete a final report, sort of like the final 9/11 Commission report that found federal agencies missed signs of the impending terrorist attacks in 2001. The financial crisis report is due Dec. 15.

Critics have noted the panel's impact may be blunted by timing, as the House has already passed a bill to overhaul regulations and the Senate is deep in negotiations on similar proposals.

But panel members have consistently pledged their work will serve as more than window dressing for politicians worried about the appearance that they allowed the financial crisis to happen.

The panel, which has subpoena power, plans to issue interim reports as it collects data, Angelides has said.

The panel's second-in-command is Bill Thomas, a retired California Republican congressman described as strong-willed during his tenure running the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

Other key panel members include: Keith Hennessey, an economic adviser under President George W. Bush; former Sen. Bob Graham, a Florida Democrat; and Brooksley Born, a past chairwoman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, who called for stronger regulation of complex financial products such as derivatives in the 1990s.

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