Having watched some of the hearings online, I can attest that witnesses were tossed one whiffle ball after another. Yves Smith reported the disgust of one of the FCIC staff, who complained, "I am still getting the stink out of my clothes." He understood that both the majority line that it was all the fault of wicked deregulation, and the Wallison line of "Fannie/Freddie did it," were equally unavailing. Both versions conspired to help perpetuate a myth that Wall Street financial firms were as much the victim of the crisis as everyone else, and existed to keep the proceedings from tripping up the sausage machine that eventually became the Dodd-Frank act.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 896