It didn’t take long for Sherrod Brown, the Democratic senior senator from Ohio, to open yesterday’s Senate Banking Committee Hearing by blaming venture capitalists for a bank failure that brought flashbacks to 2008.
“I spent that weekend on the phone with Ohio small businesses and banks and credit unions,” he said, giving introductory comments as the first speaker of yesterday’s more than two-hour hearing. “Ohio small business owners simply wanted to make payroll. They didn't want to see years of hard work go down the drain because of venture capitalists panicking on Twitter, 2,000 miles away.”
