Ben Bernanke and Christopher Cox are both sitting on the panel currently testifying about the Bear Stearns bailout. I’ve been listening to these hearings all morning, and I’m completely convinced that no one with even a basic layman’s understanding of finance has ever been elected to the United States Senate.

I get the impression that only Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and maybe Jon Tester (D-Mont.) bothered to read the CRS report. But this is almost as embarrassing as watching lawmakers attempt to discuss Net Neutrality. If I were working on the staff of any of these senators, I’d prevent them to asking any questions for fear of looking even more foolish.

Just as I’m thinking this to myself, I get an email from a Wall Street guy who thought my horror at the bailout to be excessive:

Do you think congressmen interrogating Bernanke about economic questions is similar to me questioning an astrophysicist based on my knowledge of Back to the Future? Some of the comments today are laughable. Or at least they would be if it wasn’t so scary…My favorite was a few months ago when [Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio] asked Bernanke about the conflict of interest from his days as CEO of Goldman. “Uh, actually, I was the CEO of the Princeton economics department.”