John McCain (August 2008 on Phil Gramm): "Thank you Phil, for all your friendship and support."
Phil Gramm (Summer 2008): Called Americans a nation of "whiners"; said we're in a "Mental Recession"; more than any other politician, he caused the Enron implosion and the credit crunch.
The billionaire Warren Buffet: Phil Gramm has twice tossed "financial weapons of mass destruction" into the US economy.
McCain (On 'Economics'): "I rely on the circle I have developed over many years -- people like Phil Gramm."
Who is Phil Gramm? On healthcare for 80-year-olds facing poverty, he said: "Most of us don't have the luxury of living to be 80 years-old, so it's hard for me to feel sorry for them."
Gramm championed the law freeing Enron from both regulation and disclosure, on the grounds these were "unacceptable fetters on the free market." Enron was his biggest campaign contributor, and paid his wife one million dollars. Cozy.
Enron took over the electricity market in California; engineered power blackouts to drive up the price for power. They ended up in bankruptcy themselves (creditors lost over $50 Billion), and bankrupt California's public budgets. In a surreal move, Gramm blamed "environmental extremists" even after it was proven Enron execs had paid the power plants to "get creative" in turning out the lights.
Gramm's next dozy Legislative effort in the US Senate was to spearhead a Congressional Act bearing his own name (described in a recent Legal Text): "a stunning departure from normal legislative practice" - regulated banks went to unregulated financial institutions called the "shadow banking system" offering wildly unsustainable mortgages to the poor, then bundled into exotic packages of derivative commodities.
Gramm moved on to a megabucks job at banker UBS, one bank raking in billions from his changes. UBS subsequently lost an estimated $37 Billion in the credit meltdown caused by Gramm's legislation which scuttled Banking System regulation. (This figure is estimated because, how do you get an exact figure when you're losing that much money? And, how can you get this SO WRONG?)
Within a few years, the entire system began to collapse without the support beams of state regulation, bringing down the entire US Stock Market. Sub-prime mortgages predictably fell apart, with 2 million Americans facing repossession. The state has had to step in with a much heavier hand than before - and even that will not prevent a recession now. So much for the Free Market - let's bail ourselves out with our Kids' future taxes.
Next, McCain made Gramm the co-chair of his presidential campaign, and hinted he might make him Treasury Secretary.
John McCain (August 2008 on Phil Gramm): "Thank you Phil, for all your friendship and support."
Want more?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/would-you-really-buy-a-mo_b_119440.html
(Thanks to Johann Hari for assembling these facts in his recent post - see link above.)
JT
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