Foreclosure is not an abstract concept. It is a very real pain for American families.

Most people in foreclosures work hard and play by the rules.

It would make sense.

But what are they doing differently? That is my question.

I happen to be one that believes that the idea of principal reduction makes a lot more sense than interest rate reduction.

Foreclosure is not an abstract concept. It's very real pain for American families.

I can't believe that two full years after the first signs of this crisis were becoming plain for all to see, we are still sitting here talking about how to prevent foreclosures.

Do you think many of the other banks would be willing to accept that kind of methodology?

People like Donna Pierce didn't deserve to lose their homes.

one of the things I am thinking about is giving homeowners facing foreclosure the option as a last resort of renting their home for a period of time at a fair market rate.

It is sort of befuddling as to why it is not working, but it clearly isn't working the way it should be and so you need to change things.

The standards by which these loans were allowed to go forward were lax and unrealistic.

It doesn't seem to me to be too hard to figure out a fair rent.

Are the other banks sort of ignoring reality here?

We applaud Senator Charles Schumer and Congressman Rush Holt for their leadership in introducing these bills.

Thank you for your leadership.

I have called this hearing to explore another key aspect of such reforms, the regulation of hedge funds and other private investment pools.

Shouldn't private investment funds be required to disclose information to the SEC for the purpose of investigating and enforcing antifraud rules?

we need to empower the SEC to do more.

The current financial crisis has reinvigorated my long-held concern that the regulation of hedge funds and other pooled investment vehicles should be improved.

I recently introduced the Private Fund Transparency Act of 2009, which would require investment advisers to private funds...

To address this regulatory gap, I recently introduced the Private Fund Transparency Act of 2009.

These private pools of capital are responsible for huge transfers of capital and risk, and so examining these industries and potential regulation are extremely important to this Subcommittee.

it seems obvious to me that closer attention needs to be paid to these funds to avoid future Ponzi schemes

Isn't another reason to have this financial product regulator... a way when the next new innovation comes up that there won't be a hole in the regulatory structure?