Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was the lead witness at the first of three days of hearings by the bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC). Mr. Greenspan talked about what led up to the financial crisis in the housing markets and reminded the commission of his warning in 2004 to the Senate Banking Committee about sub prime mortgage loans. He called for increased regulations on banks and said that putting too much stock into "a human regulator" was flawed. He noted that the sub prime mortgage-lending crisis began with the end of the Cold War.

Congress formed the ten-member FCIC in May 2009 to examine the causes of the 2008 financial markets meltdown.

Due to a power outage approximately ten minutes before the end of Mr. Greenspan's testimony, the hearing was briefly interrupted, and the subsequent lack of lighting caused the remainder of the video to be darker than during the rest of the program.