Back in January, John McCain admitted to the Wall Street Journal editorial board he “doesn’t really understand economics.” He told the editors, though, that he was nevertheless reliable because his former Senate colleague, Texas’ Phil Gramm, was his chief economic advisor — McCain had even brought Gramm along for the meeting — and the man he turns to as an economic expert.
It’s tempting to think that who presidential candidate pick as advisors is irrelevant — it’s he or she who’s in power who’ll make the decisions, not his or her top aides. But I think this approach is mistaken, especially when the candidate concedes ignorance in an important policy area. The advisor’s beliefs become the candidate’s beliefs. Confronted with challenges once in office, the advisor’s recommendations are likely to become the president’s official policy.
With that in mind, let’s take a good look at former Sen. Phil Gramm, someone McCain has hinted might be his Treasury Secretary if elected.
Paul Krugman noted last week that most reasonable people seem to realize that we’re in serious need of financial reform and expanded regulation. That is, except, Gramm, who’s championed financial deregulation for years. “I’d argue that aside from Alan Greenspan, nobody did as much as Mr. Gramm to make this crisis possible,” Krugman said.
Lisa Lerer explains in a terrific Politico piece that Krugman’s take isn’t the least bit hyperbolic.
The general co-chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign, former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), led the charge in 1999 to repeal a Depression-era banking regulation law that Democrat Barack Obama claimed on Thursday contributed significantly to today’s economic turmoil.
“A regulatory structure set up for banks in the 1930s needed to change because the nature of business had changed,” the Illinois senator running for president said in a New York economic speech. “But by the time [it] was repealed in 1999, the $300 million lobbying effort that drove deregulation was more about facilitating mergers than creating an efficient regulatory framework.”
Wait, it gets worse.
A year after the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act repealed the old regulations, Swiss Bank UBS gobbled up brokerage house Paine Weber. Two years later, Gramm settled in as a vice chairman of UBS’s new investment banking arm.
Later, he became a major player in its government affairs operation. According to federal lobbying disclosure records, Gramm lobbied Congress, the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department about banking and mortgage issues in 2005 and 2006.
During those years, the mortgage industry pressed Congress to roll back strong state rules that sought to stem the rise of predatory tactics used by lenders and brokers to place homeowners in high-cost mortgages.
For his work, Gramm and two other lobbyists collected $750,000 in fees from UBS’s American subsidiary. In the past year, UBS has written down more then $18 billion in exposure to subprime loans and other risky securities and is considering cutting as many as 8,000 jobs.
Confronted with a fire, John McCain is taking advice from an arsonist. If elected, he intends to put the arsonist in charge of fire safety.
No Trackbacks To “McCain’s ‘economic guru’ and the market meltdown“
There’s also news that UBS is slated to acknowledge another writedown of $15-$18 billion dollars, in addition to the $18 billion above. As Krugman said, a Trillion here, a Trillion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money.
Economic Guru and the Market Meltdown sounds like a 60’s Psychedelia band
republican style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHAE_MpmTXk
When an Empire is in decline, the carrion feeder’s numbers increase. The Empires leaders begin doing the opposite of everything needed to maintain the Empire’s health.
Once the Empire is weakened, it can no longer fend off the scavengers and the carrion feeders, and more and more politicians turn to feast on the dying beast. After all,
Is there any doubt that we’re in that state now?
In other words….if you really, really, really want to know what it was like for your parents, grand parents, great grandparents….by all means vote for John “economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should” Express McBush…..
Then you’ll have a first hand appreciation for an economy circa 1929….
Let us also recall that when Flim-Flam Gramm ran for President, it was none other than John McCain who became his election chairman.
Loyalty over competence is a Repug tradition, just look what loyalty has brought over the last seven years.
John McStupid would be PERFECT for America….
John McStupid openly admits he “doesn’t really understand economics” ; what is with the horseshit GOP that they always manage to find the candidate who least deserves the nomination , let alone the presidency itself ?
MCMetal @ 7:
Because they nominate their interpretation of an ‘Ideal Republican’?
I’ve enjoyed at times, explaining in the presence of Republicans, that Bush was elected because he is the greatest Republican alive. That he embodies the ideals that every Republican admires and strives to. No Republican is smarter, or wiser or better qualified to be President.
They never seem to have a good response to that….
Unlike McCain, Obama does seem to know something about economics.
The idea of President McCain scares the hell out of me. Meanwhile the media is all a whirl about Obama’s bowling score. As far as the media is concerned the economy of our country was yesterday’s news. I guess they think the big speech yesterday cleared everything up.
The pirates of old would get a kick out of the term “deregulated trade”. It’s the 50 cent word reslugs used to replace ‘pillage and plunder’.
If McInsane is elected, we can kiss the middle class good-bye. The average American has suffered under Georgie’s policies. The baby-boomers are retiring and social security and medicare will long be gone before I or my peers can benefit from them. We need sanity now.
In case you missed it… (its a little more than five min., worth the view)
Paul Volker last night on Charlie Rose
UBS is going to write-down another $19.5 BILLION (for 1st quarter ‘08) after $18 BILLION last year!
Sorry Jay, I hadn’t read any posts before putting in my 2 cents.
Wow, watching Morning Joe, the breaking news is about the inquest of Princess Di. Oh, and Reverend Wright. No news about Iraq or Afghanistan. You would think there isn’t a war or wars going on would you?
Patty D. @ 15:
I can barely watch that show any longer. If you see the first fifteen minutes you have pretty much seen the whole show. Joe has become intolerable. Rendell was on talking about Florida and he did not have all the facts or else he failed to include them. After that, I couldn’t take any more.
Al Queda denies conspiring with U.S. Government to bring down WTC.
They are pissed that the theorist are trying to steal away the credit.
(figured you could all use a break from reality for a couple of minutes)
pissed of patricia, your right. I barely watch MSM anymore. I listen to c-span and tune in every hour or so. I can only handle so much of Hillary and Obama. MSM is becoming a farce.
Patty D. @ 18:
Becoming?
♣Bangkok Bob♠ @ 17:
That was fun and brilliant. Thank you for taking me there. I’m kinda blue this morning so I needed some fun.
pissed off patricia @ 16:
POP, I just finished reading “A Thousand Splendid Suns” (same Author as Kite Runner).
This book really gives a great perspective on how the whole thing started with the downfall of the USSR and then step by step to where we are now, by following the lives of a few people in Afghanistan. great book.
Gramm sold the out the country and sold his integrity for 750,000.00. What a cheap whore he is. F**K Um, they won’t get elected anyway. But it would be nice to see some criminal charges brought against him.
Touche! Bangkok Bob.
♣Bangkok Bob♠ @ 17:
I’m always on break.
ysbaddaden @ 24:
Well, I never drink on Wednesday, so I get a chance to roam the Internet with a clear mind for a change. LOL
Patty D. @ 18:
I’m sure Oscar Wilde would have something to declare about that.
Bush and Cheney = “the new Pinochet’s”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Pinochet
crooked regime
government coup
Suppression of opposition
Economic policy
Secret bank accounts, tax evasion and arms deal
–> Arrest and trial
here we go…
http://words-of-power.blogspot.....three.html
♣Bangkok Bob♠ @ 21:
I finally got my husband to begin reading the Kite Runner and just as I suspected he loves it as much as I did. Thanks for the heads up on the new book. I’ll pick it up this weekend.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04.....ref=slogin
it’s only going to get worse.
Gramm’s wife was on the Board of Directors of Enron, and Gramm must have played a role there.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....EVTF7M.DTL
mudshark @ 31:
and the hits just keep on coming.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....lit01.html
mudshark @ 31:
Just seeing that article makes me homesick for the Bay Area. (sigh)
http://www.reuters.com/
Phil Gramm, the wonderful idiot who wrote the legislation that allow a company like Enron to exist. Phil Gramm, whose wife was a lobbyist for Enron, and on their Board. This couldn’t be the same Phil Gramm who didn’t run for re-election for his Senator job, taking his huge war chest home. He got out before Enron’s shit hit the fan. Phil fudges like Hillary, but only worse. He tells whoppers. He was the type of Senator who fought a bill tooth and nail, and then took credit for getting it passed later on. He didn’t take credit for his Enron dealings though. Oh, not Phil Gramm.
This couldn’t be who McCain is trusting, could it. Phil shouldn’t be allowed to stand close to any public funds. It would be like a paedo living next door to a Primary school.
Jay @ 1:
Here’s the link from CNN:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/0.....tm?cnn=yes
Tug @ 30:
I used to have a link to a story about how Gramm got his wife on the BoD of Enron and the strings he pulled to do, followed by her lobbying efforts in Washington on their behalf.
I’ll do some digging and see if I can find it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe2hjXSP0YU
27 The Smiths
Yes we should abandon all our institutions because they were affected by coup as well as we were. Clearly youngbloods have the only value in our society now. Anything that still has any remaining taint of the current administration should burnt to the ground and considered unsalvagable.
Confronted with a fire, John McCain is taking advice from an arsonist. If elected, he intends to put the arsonist in charge of fire safety.
That’s par for the course. Republicans are very enamored of putting foxes in charge of henhouses. Any reasonable reading of Bush’s Cabinet and Executive Branch agency appointments reveals that.
This may be a bit off topic, but if McCain doesn’t understand economics his potential running mates probably don’t either. Part of this list of possible running mates was posted on C&L a few days ago, and I would give the poster credit here, but I don’t recall the name. Sorry. I embellished the list with my caustic comments.
Hope this gives you a few chuckles even though it is a scary thought to imagine any of these nutcases on the Republican ticket.
Here are some possible running mates Senator John McCain (aka: McInsane) could pick:
To attract the family values crowd:
ex Congressman Mark Foley (Florida) - an outed gay Republican who ran the Congressional page program and sent explicit emails to some of the pages
Senator David Vitter - family values guy from Louisiana who got his kicks by having his favorite “ladies of the evening” (the DC Madam) dress him in Depends
Senator Larry Craig (Idaho) - homophobic gay-basher who got caught in a sting in a Minneapolis airport men’s room with his pants down, literally
ex Congressman Tom DeLay - the former “Hot tub Tom,” now a born-again Christian, practices his Christian love by advocating annihilation of all Muslims, liberals and Democrats on the face of the Earth; he is still under indictment for accepting campaign funds illegal under Texas law
To cement the Republican White House’s good grounding in scientific reality:
former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee - believes the U.S. Constitution should be amended to make it conform to the Bible; believes Noah herded dinosaurs onto the Ark
Senator Sam Brownback (Kansas) - same as Huckabee (above)
Senator James Inhofe - this Oklahoma senator claims he has traced his family tree back to Creation and found not one gay family member; also believes that global warming is a complete hoax; probably doesn’t believe in the theory of Atlantis either
To demonstrate their intimate knowledge of technology
Senator Ted Stevens - could run with McCain if he is not indicted first; would open up the entire state of Alaska to oil drilling as well as parts of neighboring Canada and Russia
Or their vast experience in correctly predicting the outcome of our military interventions
Bill Kristol - editor of the wingnut Weekly Standard and famous Chickenhawk who wants the U.S. to kill virtually everyone else in the world; touts Iraq as a tremendous success
Or just their all-around good-guy reputation
Karl Rove - former top adviser to W Bush and possibly the most sinister dirty tricks artist in U.S. history; made the Nixon crowd look like rank amateurs; his accomplishments include stealing elections, destroying the professionalism of the Justice Department, outing a CIA agent, playing the 9/11 fear card, and dividing the American people
Honorable Mention
Secretary of State Condolizzard Rice - still confused about whether W Bush is her husband; having achieved zero foreign policy objectives she now yearns for greater opportunities as VP
ex Congresswoman Katherine Harris (Florida) - helped W and Jeb Bush steal the 2000 Florida vote by removing convicted felons and thousands of others who were not convicted felons from the voter rolls; was rewarded with her own seat in Congress; ran such a bizarre Christo-fascist campaign for the Senate in 2006 that even Republican leaning Florida rejected her
ex Speaker of the House Denny Hastert - would definitely add some bulk to the ticket; his most important accomplishment was the fact he was the longest serving Republican Speaker in history
ex Senator Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania) - “Slick Rick” was the Number 3 Republican in the Senate; this self proclaimed Christian advocates hating everyone who does not share his religious beliefs; rumored to be living in the Creation Museum in Kentucky
PLEASE CONTINUE TO REFER TO JOHN “THE REPUBLICAN” MCCAIN WITH HIS PROPER MIDDLE NAME…
it is well understood that his handlers are trying to make him appear as “without party” because the GOP sucks at this time….
….i believe he should wear it PROUDLY…. like a lapel pin
“Confronted with a fire, John McCain is taking advice from an arsonist. If elected, he intends to put the arsonist in charge of fire safety.”
Well it is the way Bush has been doing it, so why not?
Here is an article about Gramm with some interesting information about him and his wife Wendy, written before the Enron collapse:
http://www.buyingofthepresiden.....s/1996/41/
John McCain admitted to the Wall Street Journal editorial board he “doesn’t really understand economics.”
REAL STRAIGHT TALK instead of the usual DOUBLESPEAK.