Meanwhile, the CEOS of Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and other major banks appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday to testify before the House Financial Services Committee. The bank executives were repeatedly grilled over how they were spending the billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded bailouts and their role in the economic crisis.

Rep. Barney Frank: “I’ve said this the opposite of that terrible problem in warfare of collateral damage, when innocent people are injured in the course of trying to attain a military objective. One of the problems we have, gentlemen, is that you are the recipients of collateral benefit. That is, in an effort to get the credit system functioning, things will be done that will be to the benefit of the institutions over which you preside because there is no alternative. But you need to understand, as I think many of you do, how angry that makes people.”

James Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, admitted some mistakes were made.

James Dimon: “Finally, it must be said that today’s economic crisis is the result of a lot of mistakes by a lot of people, and all of us who are here today, and many who are not here, bear some measure of responsibility for the current state of financial markets.”

Barney Frank also questioned the bank CEOs over why banking executives needed to receive enormous bonuses.

Barney Frank: “If in good times you were told you weren’t going to get a bonus, what part of your job would you not do? I mean, if you weren’t getting a bonus, would you, like, leave early on Wednesday, or would you take longer lunches? Would you bypass a certain class of investments?”