Phil Gramm Owes America $2 Trillion

By GottaLaff

Imagine if you will, it's 1999 again. Are you imagining? Okay, good, because it would be pointless to continue if you weren't:

Lawmakers were falling all over themselves praising the passage of the landmark Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which effectively repealed much of the Glass-Steagall regulations on financial institutions coming out of The Great Depression.

Former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX), the main architect of the legislation, expressed fatherly pride in the bill in his floor speech at the time (recently brought to our attention by a BuzzFlash reader):

"The question is, 'How will it look 50 years from now when it has gone from infancy to maturity?' Obviously, after setting out a dramatic change in public policy, it is fair to set out a test for determining its success," Gramm said. "Ultimately, the final judge of the bill is history. Ultimately, as you look at the bill, you have to ask yourself, 'Will people in the future be trying to repeal it, as we are here today trying to repeal -- and hopefully repealing -- Glass-Steagall?' I think the answer will be no. I think it will be no because we are doing something very different from Glass-Steagall. Glass-Steagall, in the midst of the Great Depression, thought government was the answer. In this period of economic growth and prosperity, we believe freedom is the answer."

Oy. That's all I can utter right now. Oy. Moving on:

It only took a decade for our financial industry to show the weakness of his extremist deregulation argument.

[A] New York Times article published when the act passed, [gave you] the idea that the people who were opposed to this legislation were just downers that didn't want banks to make money:

The opponents of the measure gloomily predicted that by unshackling banks and enabling them to move more freely into new kinds of financial activities, the new law could lead to an economic crisis down the road when the marketplace is no longer growing briskly.

''I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010,'' said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. ''I wasn't around during the 1930's or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980's when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness.''
^{*Emphasis mine}

Dorgan's comment here is remarkably prescient. What would have happened if we had better heeded his warning?

To be fair, another Democratic senator expressed worry over the act in that Times article: the late Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. But, come on. That guy was always doom-and-gloom. He also predicted that the war in Iraq would lead to untold loss of life and resources, a rise in oil prices, al Qaeda's use of American aggression as a recruitment tool, and the weakening of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. Shows what he knew. [...]

Gramm also tries to change history in his Wall Street Journal defense:

"Moreover, GLB didn't deregulate anything," Gramm wrote, arguing that Gramm-Leach-Bliley created more regulation. But that's not what he was saying at the time. Again, from that same floor speech at the time of the bill's passage:

This is a deregulatory bill. I believe that is going to be the wave of the future. Although this bill will be changed many times, and changed dramatically as we expand freedom and opportunity, I do not believe it will be repealed. It sets the foundation for the future, and that will be the test.

Gramm was right. Gramm-Leach-Bliley did set the foundation for the future: the future financial crisis. [...] The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allowed all kinds of institutions -- even insurance companies such as AIG -- to get into the risky investment game. How he can continue to keep his eyes squeezed shut during this financial meltdown, I'll never understand.

Even right-wing pundits are starting to open their eyes. [...]

Maybe if we had forced AIG to just insure stuff instead of heading off to the casino, things would be more stable right now. But perhaps instead of fantasy and nostalgia, I should be counting my blessings. Congress seems poised to pass legislation to better regulate the runaway financial industry.

And things could have been much worse. After all, had McCain won the presidency in November, it was widely speculated that he would have named Gramm as his treasury secretary. Now that's a scary thought.

Didn't I just say that? Great minds...

Now do yourself a favor and go read the whole BuzzFlash piece here. I chopped it up and did it no justice at all.

Overwhelming

By GottaLaff

Sometimes there is so much wankery out there that I become overwhelmed and can't decide which wankitudage to post. Then it comes to me. I link, you decide:

• Jindal Rejects $90 Million In Recovery Funding That Would Have Benefited 25,000 Louisiana Residents

• Fred Kagan: ‘The Iraqis Were Not Bitching’ About Civilian Deaths Because They ‘Sort Of Accept’ Them

• Fleischer: On Iraq, ‘Saddam was the big liar.’

• Phil ‘mental recession’ Gramm attempts to resuscitate his reputation.

• Greta Van Susteren Falsely Claims Obama Has Only Visited States He Won: ‘It Looks Like A Reward’

(All links via Think Progress)

There. Now we can have one big group rant.

McCain: Not many regrets about campaign

By GottaLaff

Gramm-pa may not have regrets about his campaign or his choice of running mates, but many of us disagree. And yes, that was an understatement:

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, said Sunday he had few regrets about his White House campaign and no second thoughts about picking Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

“I don’t have a lot of regrets about it. I think we ran an honorable campaign,” McCain said on “Fox News Sunday.”

He's right, if you define "honorable" as smearing, lying, innuendo, confusion, contradiction, impulsiveness, bad judgment, and incompetence.

Asked specifically about Palin, McCain stressed that there were no regrets.

“I think the world of Sarah Palin. She energized our party. She has a bright future in our party. I’m pleased to have known her and her wonderful family,” he stated.

Her wonderful family. Uh-huh. Moving on...

He said he would not vote for the $825 billion stimulus package in its current form, urging a greater emphasis on tax cuts.

Because, you know, all those Bush tax cuts have resulted in overwhelming prosperity. Or am I just one of those bothersome whiners?

(No) Dancing with Cindy McCain

By GottaLaff

, there was a very confused, very desperate, very hypocritical candidate for president. His name was John McCain, but all the villagers knew him as Gramm-pa, due to his association with a man of very little brain named Phil Gramm.

Grammps, whose mental stability and judgment were often in question, flaunted his wife in front of a throng of bikers in August of 2008, offering her up as a contestant for "the next Miss Buffalo Chip"... and all the, er, titillating perks that the title toplessly encompassed.

As time went on, Grammpa John grumbled and mumbled and mumbled and grumbled to himself, "That was one embarrassing mistake I'll never make again." Grammpa John was a very wise (as well as wizened) old man for having seen the error of his ways. He learned his lesson, and he learned it well:

SEN. John McCain might regret choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, but an even worse decision will deprive his fellow Americans of what would have been the best season of "Dancing With the Stars" ever. Our impeccably placed source says, "Just before Thanksgiving, Cindy McCain started talks with producers to appear as a dancer on the show. She wanted to do it very badly." But this week, Sen. McCain "put the kibosh on it." Reps for the show and McCain didn't return calls.

The moral of this tale: One must only pimp one's wife out when one is running for the highest office in the land.

Frank Rich: Two Cheers for Rod Blagojevich

By GottaLaff

Barry Blitt

Frank Rich:

What went down in the Land of Lincoln is just the reductio ad absurdum of an American era where both entitlement and corruption have been the calling cards of power. Blagojevich’s alleged crimes pale next to the larger scandals of Washington and Wall Street. Yet those who promoted and condoned the twin national catastrophes of reckless war in Iraq and reckless gambling in our markets have largely escaped the accountability that now seems to await the Chicago punk nabbed by the United States attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald. [...]

Bush had arrived in Washington vowing to inaugurate a new, post-Clinton era of “personal responsibility” in which “people are accountable for their actions.” Eight years later he holds himself accountable for nothing. [...]

[W]hile some perpetrators of fraud at Enron would ultimately pay a price, any lessons from its demise, including a need for safeguards, were promptly forgotten by one and all in the power centers of both federal and corporate governance. [...]

Despite Bush’s post-Enron call for “a new ethic of personal responsibility in the business community,” the exact opposite has happened in the six years since. [...]

It’s a sad snapshot of our century’s establishment that Rubin has been an economic adviser to Barack Obama and Gramm to John McCain. And that both captains of finance remain unapologetic, unaccountable and still at their banks, which have each lost more than 70 percent of their shareholders’ value this year and have collectively announced more than 90,000 layoffs so far.

The Times calls its chilling investigative series on the financial failures “The Reckoning,” but the reckoning is largely for the rest of us — taxpayers, shareholders, the countless laid-off employees — not the corporate and political leaders who led us into the quagmire. It’s a replay of the Iraq equation: the troops, the Iraqi people and American taxpayers have borne the harshest costs while Bush and company retire to their McMansions. [...]

After a while they all start to sound like O. J. Simpson, who when at last held accountable for some of his behavior told a Las Vegas judge this month, “In no way did I mean to hurt anybody.” Or perhaps they are channeling Donald Rumsfeld, whose famous excuse for his failure to secure post-invasion Iraq, “Stuff happens,” could be the epitaph of our age.

Our next president, like his predecessor, is promising “a new era of responsibility and accountability.” We must hope he means it. Meanwhile, we have the governor he leaves behind in Illinois to serve as our national whipping boy, the one betrayer of the public trust who could actually end up paying for his behavior. The surveillance tapes of Blagojevich are so fabulous it seems a tragedy we don’t have similar audio records of the bigger fish who have wrecked the country. But in these hard times we’ll take what we can get.

VIDEO: McCain might still appoint Gramm as Treasury Secretary

By GottaLaff

Tucker Bounds will not say that Phil "Nation-of-Whiners" Gramm is out of Bounds (pun intended) for a Gramm-pa McCain Secretary of Treasury. Yes, let's elect Grammps and continue this hellhole of economic policies:

And good on David Shuster for pressing the point.

H/t: AMERICABlog

New Obama Ad- "Who Advises"

BO V/O: I’m Barack Obama and I approve this message.

V/O: John McCain admits he doesn’t understand the economy

So who advises him?

Carly Fiorina, the fired CEO who got a $42 million golden parachute.

Phil Gramm, the ex-Senator who pushed through deregulation, and called Americans hurt by this economy "whiners."

Then there’s George Bush, whose disastrous policies McCain wants to continue.

They think the economy is fundamentally strong.

We know they’re fundamentally wrong.

Transcript via. Make this your open thread. Oh, don't forget about Obama's book being on sale at Amazon, and every purchase you make thru any of our Amazon links gets us a couple pennies. Time to start Christmas shopping yet?

VIDEO: McCain would rely on "Phil Gramm, Phil Gramm"

By GottaLaff

Commenter Noodles asks, Commenter Noodles gets, because Commenter Noodles rocks:

Ron Paul asks John McCain a question that reveals Mccain may not know much about the economy.

McCain would rely on Phil Gramm for his economic policy. That's all anyone needs to know.

McCain economic advisor: Turn that frown upside down! The economy is hunky-dory!

By GottaLaff

Double-U... Tee... Ef?

That diagnosis has been applied twice to the housing "slump" and once to the housing "crisis," to the "severe" decline in home prices, to the "spike" in mortgage foreclosures, to the "change" in the mortgage market and the "turmoil" in debt markets, and to the "crisis" or "meltdown" in financial markets.

It's a virus -- and it's spreading. Do a Google News search for "since the Great Depression," and you come up with more than 4,500 examples of the phrase's use in just the past month.

But that doesn't make any of it true. Things today just aren't that bad. Sure, there are trouble spots in the economy, as the government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and jitters about Wall Street firm Lehman Brothers, amply demonstrate. And unemployment figures are up a bit, too. None of this, however, is cause for depression -- or exaggerated Depression comparisons.

I'm sure J Sid and his 9 houses are feeling so chipper that they're out there right in public doing the Macarena. In fact, I hope they keep on dancing, because that will open the door wide open for Obama to walk right through. That is, if he doesn't get blamed for the meltdown first:

As it would be for any challenger, it's in his interest to portray the incumbent party's economic performance in the grimmest possible terms. Barack Obama has frequently used the Depression exaggeration, including during a campaign speech in June, when he said that the "percentage of homes in foreclosure and late mortgage payments is the highest since the Great Depression." At best, this statement is a good guess.

I guess Mr. Luskin didn't see this. And if blaming Obama doesn't work, guess who else the Republicans, this one in particular, will stick it to? Yep:

So much for Obama's hyperbole about our terrible economy. But what about the media's?

A housing "slump," a housing "crisis"? A "severe" price decline?

Oh, and in case you missed it, Phil Gramm was right:

McCain campaign adviser and former U.S. senator Phil Gramm was right in July when he said that our current state "is a mental recession." Maybe he was out of line when he added that the United States has become "a nation of whiners." But when it comes to the economy, we have surely become a nation of exaggerators.

The best part, the gift that will keep on giving... 9 beautiful words:

Full disclosure: I'm an adviser to John McCain's campaign...

Thank you.

The company John Sidney McCain keeps...

By GottaLaff

Re "An ousted pioneer explores a new trail," Aug. 6

The Times' article highlights yet another reason for Americans to vote against John McCain. If he gets his economic advice from people like Phil "Americans are whiners" Gramm, and Carly "there is no job that is America's God-given right anymore" Fiorina, then corporate elitism will be alive and well in a McCain administration.

If she's a part of that administration, do you think she'll outsource overseas CIA jobs? Maybe she'll put Blackwater in charge of privatizing the military, and then outsource the war too. Clearly, McCain has no idea what Americans need in terms of domestic policy. I've heard that you can judge a man by the company he keeps.

That last part draws the obvious parallel to Bush/Cheney/Rove/Wolfowitz/Rumsfeld/Yoo/Gonzales/Mukasey/Addington/ad nauseam.

Phil Gramm McFired

By GottaLaff

Ohh, I love it when they use words like "ignominious":

Add former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm's name to an ignominious list -- Susan Rice, Billy Shaheen, Geraldine Ferraro to name just a few -- of campaign surrogates forced to step aside after making an impolitic comment.

I'm sure he took it like a man. Wrong. Self pity alert!

John McCain's campaign just released the following statement from Gramm:

"It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Senator McCain on important economic issues facing the country.

"Sniffle, sniffle. Nobody likes me. I'm gonna go eat worms. Waah!" Well, buck up, Phil. Maybe Grandma McMealTicket will take you in. There must be a spare bedroom somewhere in one of her many grand-staircased homes.

That kind of distraction hurts not only Senator McCain's ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country's problems, it hurts the country. To end this distraction and get on with the real debate, I hereby step down as Co-Chair of the McCain Campaign and join the growing number of rank-and-file McCain supporters."

Mmmyeah, but it doesn't hurt the country at all when you call its citizens a bunch of whiners and suggest their money woes are all in their heads. "Mental recession", my Fannie Mae. It only hurts when you have less influence, right McFired?

A few quick thoughts:

* Gramm's resignation is the inevitable byproduct of the modern political game best described by John Harris and Mark Halperin in "The Way to Win" as the "freak show." Once Gramm's comments made the cable television rounds for a few days, it was something close to inevitable that he would resign.

* It's a near-certainty that Democrats won't give up on the issue. The reality is that Gramm was one of McCain's closest confidantes when it came to the economy and simply because the former Texas Senator is no longer affiliated with the campaign does not mean Democrats won't remind voters of his comments in the fall.

* The position of Treasury Secretary in a McCain Administration is now WIDE open.

One more Enron loophole closed.

"Gramm will continue as an adviser and surrogate.” Or not.

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: Rachel Maddow and CNN just reported Gramm is officially kicked out.

I am resorting to quoting Bob Novak. Forgive me, for I have sinned:

Says Bob Novak in his column tomorrow, as noted in Playbook.

“After Sen. John McCain publicly repudiated his close friend and adviser Phil Gramm's comments about a ‘nation of whiners’ and a ‘mental recession,’ the two old political comrades patched up their relationship. Gramm apologized to McCain for his remarks. ... McCain told Gramm not to worry about the expected pitfalls of a campaign surrogate. Gramm will continue as an adviser and surrogate.”

Aww, isn't that just fragrant with McBenevolence? I'm getting kinda misty. Oh, never mind. That's perspiration. It's 90 here today.

Asked about Gramm's status, McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, responded: "Our campaign has not announced any substantive status change to his volunteer post on the campaign."

That volunteer post amounts to Gramm serving as a national co-chairman to McCain, offering him economic advice via cell phone and traveling with the candidate to such events as when he delivered a major tax-and-spending speech in Pittsburgh this past April.

But in addition to this behind-the-scenes role, Gramm has also done some appearances on behalf of McCain.

For example, last week, on the same day McCain said his old colleague didn't speak for him, Gramm was representing the GOP nominee before the Wall Street Journal editorial board.

Hmm, sounds like an adviser and surrogate to me. But stop the presses! Is this yet another McSenior Moment? Hop on board the Flip Flop Express:

Bounds said this part of Gramm's portfolio was coming to an end and that the former Texas senator would no longer be talking to the media or acting as a public surrogate on McCain's behalf.

Such a statement is the first official word from the campaign, but jibes with what two of McCain's other economic advisers, Doug Holtz-Eakin and Carly Fiorina, said about Gramm last weekend.

UPDATE: Obama's camp notes — and I should have pointed out — that Holtz-Eakin went further than saying that Gramm would no longer represent McCain. After much prodding in this PBS interview, Holtz-Eakin said Gramm won't even be advising McCain anymore.

Maybe it's Novakula who's having a senior moment. That reporting is decidedly contradictory. Or did I miss something?

Phil Gramm OUT

By GottaLaff

Buh-bye now:

Time reports that Sen. John McCain has cut ties with former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) and that he is no longer getting economic advice from him.

Can't imagine why.

John McCain Hearts Phil Gramm

You can run.....

Via TPM.

John Sidney McEconomic's trusted friend

By GottaLaff

With friends like Phil "Doesn't Speak for Me" Gramm, J Sid needs no enemies. I've been meaning to ask: Since when does your economic advisor not speak for you? Oh yeah. Since they publicly reveal how inept and asinine they are. As Political Radar says, Trusted Friend Gramm is fading to black:

From NBC's Kelly O'Donnell: Republican sources say they do not expect the McCain campaign to "strip" Phil Gramm of his "volunteer designation" as a co chair with the McCain campaign. At least not now.

Oh, so he's still around. He just won't be visible. Or audible. He'll be our very own little "mental recession".

However, other surrogates on economic policy will be "driving the policy" for McCain, sources said. Already prominent business executives Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina along with former Congressional Budget Office head Doug Holz-Eakin will speak on these issues and deal with reporters.

Gnarly Carly is another perfect choice to advise McNoExpert on these things.

Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina, one of the most powerful women in corporate America, is leaving the troubled computer maker after being forced out by the company's board. [...] "The stock is up a bit on the fact that nobody liked Carly's leadership all that much," said Robert Cihra, an analyst with Fulcrum Global Partners. "The Street had lost all faith in her and the market's hope is that anyone will be better."

Yep, she should do nicely.

Gramm will not have a public role, but remains a "trusted friend of the campaign."

I often keep my trusted friends under wraps. It demonstrates the confidence and pride I have in them. This helps to explain why McCain treated his first wife the way he did. Out of sight, out of mind.

America Is "A Bunch Of Whiners" The Video

By Paddy



Take a little stroll thru Mr Gramm's wiki and see why maybe he doesn't empathize with us "little people". No different than his bud, Mr "6 or 7 Homes, Who Can Remember?"

Quote of the Day

By Paddy



Yeah Phil, you know the economy is just freaking peachy when you're reduced to getting gas for your car one gallon at a time.

"Well, you know, America already has one Dr. Phil. When it comes to the economy, we don't need another."

-- Sen. Barack Obama, quoted by Politico, on comments made by McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm that the economy was in a "mental recession" and we are "a nation of whiners."

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Washington Post, Gramm said he stands by his remarks: "I'm not going to retract any of it. Every word I said was true."

Don't fret, it's just a "mental recession"

By GottaLaff

Speaking of "mental"... John McCain's top economic adviser Phil Gramm:

"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession"

Thank god, I was worried that all that money I don't have, the stock market diving, the high unemployment numbers, the businesses shutting down, and the human suffering were all real!

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline" despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.

That sucking sound you hear is that one big collective gasp by all of us at how crass he is. Oh, and it's all the media's fault. Let's recap: Our whining, our mental recession, and the media are to blame, the rest is a figment of our imaginations. This from the man who is advising John Sidney McWTF on the economy:

Mr. Gramm said the constant drubbing of the media on the economy's problems is one reason people have lost confidence.

Oh, are you back? I'm sorry. I was sidetracked by my head splitting open from my brain exploding.

Records sought at McCain advisor's bank

By Paddy


Oooooooh. Wonder if any of the reporters in the "nice journalist" section of the Straight Talk Express will ask him about this? Probably not.

This can't be good for the campaign of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

The IRS is trying to serve a summons on Swiss bank UBS AG seeking information on U.S. taxpayers who may have used the bank to gin up records to avoid billions in taxes on offshore investments.

Top McCain economic advisor Phil Gramm is vice chairman of UBS' U.S. division which already has drawn unflattering scrutiny for writing off big losses in subprime mortgage-backed securities.

(snip)

There's no indication that Gramm has any involvement in the tax-avoidance scheme, but his presence in the pilothouse of a global finance company under fire from U.S. regulators is precisely the sort of special interest coziness that McCain insists he represents a break from.

At least five top McCain aides have left the Arizona senator's camp because their lobbying or business involvements were judged to be more than a maverick, tell-it-like-it-is campaign could bear.

The RNC was quick to point out today that Barack Obama has his own ties to UBS in the person of Robert Wolf, CEO of UBS Americas, who is a major fundraiser for the Illinois Democrat.

But Gramm's involvement in problematic economic policy issues benefiting UBS run to more than lobbying in the midst subprime mess. (Gramm successfully advocated defeat of a bill that would have given bankruptcy judges the clout to rewrite mortgage terms to prevent homeowners from losing their houses.)

Obama: Close the Enron loophole

By GottaLaff

According to Randi Rhodes, all Congress has to do is put back the words "and energy" into the Commodities Futures Modernization Act. That's all it would take to fix it. So, who can we call on to help us do that?

Obama campaign's said today that he plans to ease the impact of rising gas prices by cracking down on excessive energy speculation through closing the so-called “Enron Loophole.”

And who can't we call on? One guess.

Hmmm. What would happen if we dumped all that Enron Loopholiness?

On the other hand, in a single step tomorrow, Congress and George Bush could create an overnight drop in oil prices of between 25 and 50 percent. This is according to testimony before a Senate Committee two weeks ago by Michael Greenberger, the former director of Trading & Markets for the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC), the government board that oversees commodities markets.

GREENBERGER: Yes, overnight that will bring down the price of crude oil to get at least a 25 percent drop in the cost of oil and a corresponding drop in the cost of gasoline. Some people estimate 50 percent.

On the conference call were New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, economic policy director Jason Furman, and energy adviser Elgie Holstein, who was chief of staff at the Department of Energy during the Clinton Administration:

Corzine said the "Enron loophole” Gramm had added to the bill took exchanges and derivative oil contracts out of supervisory oversight and had been a problem in electricity markets in California a few years ago. He said it was unlikely Gramm would push back against his own amendment.