The Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy at Wayne State University Law School is releasing a new online Portrait in Oversight examining Congress’s investigation into the 2008 financial crisis. First published in its book “Congress Investigates: George Washington to January 6” (March 2025), this portrait is now available as a stand-alone online resource and as a downloadable PDF, making it easier to read, share, teach, and reference.
The portrait tells the story of the bipartisan, two-year inquiry by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations into the causes of the financial crisis, from risky mortgage lending and regulatory failures to inflated credit ratings and conflicts of interest on Wall Street, and the consequential hearings, evidence, and findings that helped inform the Dodd-Frank financial reforms.
Readers may access this portrait individually online at https://levin-center.org/what-is-oversight/portraits/financial-crisis or download it as a PDF at https://levin-center.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Portrait-in-Oversight-Financial-Crisis-Levin-Center.pdf. Those interested in the broader history of congressional investigations can find this and other portraits together in Congress Investigates, which traces oversight from the founding era through January 6.
This portrait is the latest in a series of profiles developed by the Levin Center of notable congressional investigations and key figures in the history of congressional oversight from 1792 to the modern era.
The portrait tells the story of the bipartisan, two-year inquiry by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations into the causes of the financial crisis, from risky mortgage lending and regulatory failures to inflated credit ratings and conflicts of interest on Wall Street, and the consequential hearings, evidence, and findings that helped inform the Dodd-Frank financial reforms.
Readers may access this portrait individually online at https://levin-center.org/what-is-oversight/portraits/financial-crisis or download it as a PDF at https://levin-center.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Portrait-in-Oversight-Financial-Crisis-Levin-Center.pdf. Those interested in the broader history of congressional investigations can find this and other portraits together in Congress Investigates, which traces oversight from the founding era through January 6.
This portrait is the latest in a series of profiles developed by the Levin Center of notable congressional investigations and key figures in the history of congressional oversight from 1792 to the modern era.
