Bringing the bankers to book.(From the Editor)

In the past couple of months, I have been absorbed in watching the taped sessions of the [UK Parliament] House of Commons Treasury Committee. Equivalent to U.S. Congressional hearings, these sessions are an investigation into the banking crisis and the credit crunch. It is but one such inquiry going on, as the formal investigations into the global economic crisis that has affected most countries ill the world have begun. Every few weeks I hear very interesting disclosures from shadowy figures on the boards of financial institutions. I had hardly even seen photographs of these people, let alone heard their stories about how we reached this state of affairs.

The Internet age brings us live television and readily searchable archives of recordings from the deliberations and day-to-day activities of our lawmakers. This contributes to transparency, and hence, understanding democracy. Watching these sessions really brought this home to me. Of course, the main reason I am so interested is that these hearings are fantastic sources of business information. Where else do chief executive officers (of companies), various experts from academia and other institutions, as well as civil servants, disclose (in the public arena) so much good information about business.

Government information about companies and markets has always been a primary source of data for business information researchers, but it has limitations. Disclosure is by statute, thus only the data required by each relevant law is generally available. There are no discussions or additional facts in corporate registry filings or statistics on industries. There are occasional insights in published government information in what might be categorized as one-off special reports. For example, I have long advocated the use of reports and filings concerning monopoly investigations in any country that has them. These are excellent (albeit, rare) studies on both companies and the market sectors involved. Privatization activities of nationalized industry, going on just about everywhere over the last 30 years, have also meant that many reports are required and have led to discussions and parliamentary activity about business in the country from their respective governments. These have often contained unprecedented disclosures of reliable facts and figures. Perusing the daily output of Parliament Live (1) to find the relevant hearings of the Treasury Committee, I noticed other Committee hearings for all kinds of activities and these could well provide interesting business information. I am actively exploring the source routes these provide.

The credit crisis is what led me to these thoughts about sources of business information and to watch the recordings I have found so riveting. I am convinced that these are a great resource. This has been my motivation for following in detail the investigation into the banking crisis undertaken by the House of Commons (HOC in the broadcasts) Treasury Committee. These investigations in the UK have been going on since November 2008, and I am slowly working my way through the archives tapes of all of the hearings as a real-world experiment. I am trying to work out what ...