The Final Report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is a fascinating history of the Great Crash of 2008. Join us as FDL’s Ed Walker hosts a special FDL Book Salon chat with Commissioner Byron Georgiou about the FCIC’s findings.

Join us for a special FDL Book Salon tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. ET when FDL’s Ed Walker will host a live chat with Financial Crisis Inquiry Commissioner Byron Georgiou. They’ll be discussing the FCIC’s financial crisis report and take your questions on the same.

In a sometimes contentious call, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission representatives Phil Angelides and Brooksley Born acknowledged that we might still be in a financial crisis, and that their report should not be seen as the last word on an event that still has the capacity to significantly damage the global economy.

Angelides: there’s much anger in this country about what’s transpired. Many looked to this commission for answers. We kept these people in mind as we completed our work. There has been no shortage of debate over the bailout and too big to fail. But our mission was to figure out the origins. How did it come to pass that we were forced to choose between two stark and painful alternatives? Rescue the banks or let them crash? None of what happened was an act of God.

The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission report is sure to provide a powerful reinforcement to the growing lack of faith in elites and especially the financial industry. Because they will outline, in painstaking detail, how the financial meltdown of 2008 was completely avoidable – the result of policy failure at the highest levels of government and Wall Street, failures that bordered on criminal and that have never been fully adjudicated.

Shahien Nasiripour reports that the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission will forward multiple individuals responsible for the financial meltdown to state and local authorities for potential criminal prosecution, in accord with the imminent release of their report. If we wanted to understand why Republicans on the commission suddenly begged off the report a month or so ago, this could be the reason.

The paper seriously starts with the declarative sentence “Bubbles happen.” That’s the level of intelligence the GOP will bring to bear on this debate.

Apparently, the Republicans on the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission have abandoned the commission because the other six members would not agree to ban the phrases “Wall Street” and “deregulation” from the final report.

I don’t disagree with Adam Levitin at all about the foreclosure crisis and the deliberate backing away from any accountability for the banks. Clearly this accountability crisis is at the forefront of not only our financial meltdown and our economic malaise, but a host of other matters including civil liberties in particular.

However, without concluding that a corner has been turned or that a new era has come to Washington, let me relate a few disparate items here for you.

Paul Volcker has gravitas. And in his advanced age, he’s using it to rip the banksters a new one. Now you will never hear from these whiners that Paul Volcker is anti-business; they would rather deflect that over to Obama. But it’s Volcker, and certainly not Obama, making the most direct critiques of the crime spree they call their business practices.