Assemblyman Pedro Nava, chairman of the Assembly Banking & Finance Committee, and Ed Hernandez, O.D., chairman of the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement & Social Security Committee, held a hearing in Los Angeles on Thursday to investigate the world financial crisis, what steps are being taken and how it is going to affect California families.

The committee heard testimony from the California State Treasurer’s Office, the senior investment officer for the California Public Employees Retirement System, the chief investment officer for the California Teachers Retirement System, Dr. Lee Ohanian, professor at the UCLA Department of Economic and Director of the Ettinger Family Program in Macroeconomics Research, UCLA, and John Marshall, director of the SEIU Capital Stewardship Program.

“Today’s hearing provided a clearer picture of where we are in the current crisis, and what needs to be done moving forward,” Nava said. “California families impacted by the crisis in the world financial markets need to know what action has been taken and how it is going to impact them in the future.”

“The problems that led to this bailout did not occur overnight, and their impact, unfortunately, is not just limited to speculators in the financial markets,” Hernandez said. “In fact, the worst thing about this crisis is that its impact has extended well beyond Wall Street and now threatens everyday Californians who have never traded a stock in their life. California now accounts for one-third of all foreclosures in the nation, and has the third highest unemployment rate at 7.7 percent.”

The California Assembly Banking and Finance Committee and the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement & Social Security Committee heard from a variety of experts regarding the status of the financial crisis and steps taken by the federal government. The State Treasurer’s Office provided testimony regarding California’s ability to get financing on financial markets in order to keep vital government services running for all its citizens.

Additional testimony was presented on the hundreds of millions of dollars in executive compensation, bonuses and golden parachutes paid to the former CEOs of failed Wall Street banks and financial service companies that were at the center of the financial meltdown.

As a result of Thursday’s hearing, the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee will study the information provided and work with the stakeholders to decide how California can best move forward to help address the crisis to lessen the detrimental impact on hundreds of thousands of California families.

John Mann is a spokesman for Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara.