How to Grill the Banks

With the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission holding its first hearing on Wednesday, the government has an opportunity to "direct the national conversation and steer current reform efforts," writes Andrew Ross Sorkin in his Dealbook column. With some of Wall Street's biggest names—including Goldman Sachs' Lloyd C. Blankfein, J.P. Morgan Chase's Jamie Dimon and Morgan Stanley's John J. Mack—in attendance, Sorkin suggests some questions he hopes might "start some lively discussions," including asking Blankfein why Goldman shorted its collateralized debt obligations while at the same time lobbying ratings agencies to rate them highly, and inquiring of Dimon why J.P. Morgan Chase put in a collateral call to Lehman Brothers—and what effect he thinks it had on the investment bank's collapse.