"Lehman Brothers, burdened by $60 billion in soured real-estate holdings, filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court after attempts to rescue the 158-year-old firm failed. Bank of America Corp. said it is snapping up Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in a $50 billion all-stock transaction "
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"He added: "The McCain-Palin administration will replace the outdated and ineffective patchwork quilt of regulatory oversight in Washington and bring transparency and accountability to Wall Street. We will rebuild confidence in our markets and restore our leadership in the financial world."
That's all well and good, John. But since it was your former economic advisor, Phil Gramm, that pushed for deregulation with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999, the very act that most economists point to as opening the door to the whole mortgage crisis right now, what sort of "change" do you intend to bring to the patchwork that you and your party created? A bill, we should remind everyone, you voted for?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080915/ap_on_el_pr/mccain_14;_ylt=AnomItzSVKD.fxt3WF_1zExh24cA
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s1999-105
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080915/ap_on_bi_ge/financial_meltdown;_ylt=AuCB.kK2LMEXpls514_zTH6s0NUE
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Comments: 48
McCain: 'Not the duty of government to bail out'
The Scandal That Nearly Destroyed John McCain
Keating had been generous in sharing his new-found wealth with the five senators, particularly his two Arizona senators, John McCain and Dennis DeConcini. They became known as "The Keating Five."
"I can eliminate $100 billion of wasteful and earmark spending immediately--35 billion in big spending bills in the last two years, and another 65 billion that has already been made a permanent part of the budget."
--John McCain, NPR All Things Considered, April 23, 2008
Pouff! $100 billion in taxpayer money! Saved! Just like that! With a flick of the presidential veto pen!
There are a number of problems with this magical budgetary balancing act. First of all, the suspiciously round $100 billion figure is largely a figment of the McCain campaign's imagination. I have not been able to find a single independent budget expert to vouch for it. McCain's economics adviser, Doug Holtz-Eakin, will not say how the campaign arrived at the figure
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, director, Congressional Budget Office 2003-2005
McCain/Palin Economic policy advisors
~@~
This Nation can ill afford a President who pulls solutions out of his Ass or leaves economic policies to those who are part of the problem.
This is just the tip of the iceburg......poor John McCain......and poor us should he hoodwink the nice folks in the midwest who need change the most.
Yet former senator Phil Gramm, a top policy adviser of Sen. John McCain's, said the nation is in a "mental recession," not an actual one, and suggested the United States has "become a nation of whiners."
Just yesterday, McCain adviser Donald Luskin said in the Washington Post that Americans are exaggerating. "Things today just aren't that bad."
Obama is best equipped to fix the economy.
At least we have talk radio on our side to spread the truth.
WOW! That much money! What a great financial watchdog!!
Where is the mainstream media on this one?
Way to dig deeper. Hey, see those electoral maps on Real Clear Politics lately? McCain is way up, the country is going RED.
Thanks for the chatter :)
Enough Republican MESSES!!!
ENOUGH IT ENOUGH!!!
Who's cronies (Including Gramm of Texas) were involved in the Enron Mess???
Republicans must stop destroying this Nation...
A fact check run on McCain and the 'Maverick' nickname shows that he NEVER used it before the 2000 election (someone may have used it once for him)...
He is Part of the Republican Problem...
He IS part and parcel of the Mess we are in...
Enough is Enough!!!
He is indeed a hot head with a fuse... promising destruction and obliteration when he gets to the end of it...
Not something WE need in the Presidency...
He is a loose canon willing to do anything for HIS own benefit, regardless of what the effects will be on those involved or around him...
Look over his history...
You have to know what you are looking at...
Down with Republican-Facism!!!
The Democratic aide disclosed the decision following a closed-door meeting between Rangel, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders. Rangel also meet with members of his committee.
"In this very sensitive and political issue ... I don't intend to tell you my name," Rangel told reporters.
Pelosi, of California, insisted that she and the chairman did not discuss his resignation, Politico.com, a political news service, reported.
"We're talking about 500 points going down on the stock market today," Pelosi said.
CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN!
Don't worry Americans, McCain turns to former campaign co-chairman Phil Gramm to help him with tough economic questions. Phil Gramm is the guy who helped write the laws for mortgage deregulation that set the stage for the current mortgage crisis. A true believer in deregulation, Gramm also co-wrote the Enron Loophole (with the help of lobbyists) and slipped it into the The Commodity Exchange Act -- again making it possible for speculators to drive up electrical prices in California. If you enjoyed the rolling blackouts on California thank Phil Gramm. Not one to be deterred by the evidence, when confronted or with the souring economy, Gramm claimed the recession was "mental" (McCain agreed) and then proceeded to call the American people a "nation of whiners"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/10/mccain-adviser-americans_n_111857.html
McCain himself admits: "I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/21/short-on-economic-underst_n_82529.html
With the financial crisis dragging banks like Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy, is this who we want in charge?
Hmmmmm..... seems Clinton has some ties to Obama... not sure, but maybe?
Ok... you moonbats have made enough noise today. All you folk do is politicize and toss blame around trying to score political points anytime something goes wrong. If you REALLY knew what you were talking about, you would have been talking about this issue three years ago.... but it's just the news du jour and you moonbats are all over it like white on rice. Give it a rest already.
Get a brain, Vote McCain!
I like honesty. Pretty sure he'll have economists in his cabinet. Worry not my friends!
Does Obama have any credentials in the finance industry? NO.... so please, another argument with no substance.
Can Obama be the new FDR? I'm finding it hard to believe that with everything going on in the econony, people want to vote Republican.
It was a bi-partisan bill and signed into law by Clinton. All it said was that banks could also run insurance compaines, etc... merging big finance institutions. I think we can all see the danger in that when things go wrong. But to politicize it now, today, is just silly, esp considering that it was dems and repubs who enacted the law.
They are desperate and are saying anything, lying without shame ...
They continue to insult the intelligence every American...
Some Republicans just don't have the guts to accept the responsibilities of their failures...
And those of us who actually like an open market are not happy that a huge bank just got bigger. Bank mergers consolodate too much of the nation's resources into the hands of a small group. When there are a thousand strong banks, if one goes under it's a minor blip. When there are only ten strong banks and one goes under...
Go google the bill.... sorry, it was bi-partisan and it was signed into law by Bill Clinton. Next.
"The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Texas Republican Phil Gramm, himself collected more than $1.5 million in cash from the three industries during the last five years: $496,610 from the insurance industry, $760,404 from the securities industry and $407,956 from banks."
"The banking, insurance and brokerage industry lobbyists have combined their forces over the last five years [1994-1999] to mount the best-financed campaign of influence-buying ever seen in Washington."
McCain's Campaign is peppered with Lobbyists (including Gramm until his Idiotic "Whinning" remarks forced McCain to drop him).
McCain has hinted, however, that Gramm would get the Sec. of Treasury spot...
What a lovely DISASTER that would be for this nation...
Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute told the Washington Post, “McCain is counting on people having very short memories and not connecting some pretty obvious dots here.”
What was Clinton busy with in 1999??? OH YES the Republicans were Calmoring over Blow Jobs ...
Republican Political TACTICS and Policies have created a Mess of this Nation...
Enough is Enough!!!
Don, if McCain is elected, Texas Sen. Phil Gramm who would almost certainly be Treasury secretary.
This guy is a lackey of the oil industry and slid the Enron Loophole rider into legislation while his wife sat on the board of Enron. Gramm writes legislation deregulating the financial industry and then goes to work for the giant Swiss bank UBS. While he was a campaign co-chair for McCain, Gramm was lobbying for UBS -- as recently as Dec. 31, 2007.
Essentially, McCain's economic policies have been shaped by the guy who lead the charge to deregulate both the energy and financial industries and have cost many Americans their life savings. These economic policies are not in the public interest -- there needs to be some oversight and transparency in the energy futures and financial markets.
If McCain is going to start labeling himself as a reformer, he best start with his own campaign.
Hmmm... why did you fail to mention the bi-partisan support in congress? And you excused President Clinton for signing into law.
I'm not here making excuses for anyone. This was Washington at work.... why do you insist on blaming the 'other' side? And besides, was it the cause of the problem? NO.
Anyways, you people need to stop trying to politicize every bit of bad news that comes out. There is a pattern where a news story comes out and the liberal blogosphere all come out with the same talking points and spread half truths. It's a tired play.
99% of Repubicans in the 1999 senate voted for it...
84% of the Democrats in the senate voted for it...
It was HIGHLY Political at the time...
The Republicans had the Democrats on the ropes at that time...
They were distracting the Nation with the Ridiculous Blow Job thing...
It was the Republican 'Culture' that allowed it to go through, Pushed by Gramm...
It would have never Gone through in a Democratic Congress...
The 'De-regulated' system collapsed under the Republcan's watch...
Not only was the system Deregulated... but The Republican Years Closed their eyes to the newly degregulated system...
They FAILED to see if the New Deregulated system was working, despite the known reservations of it at the time...
WHAT SORT OF IDIOTS PULL A SUPPORT COLUMN THAT HAS BEEN IN PLACE FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS WITH OUT KEEPING AN EYE ON THE RESULTS...
The Republicans Allowed the Teetering to Happen until it was too late...
Not only was the system deregulated...
The Republican Years Failed to be Aware of it (in fact they fed it and egged it on!!!)
Enough Messes from the Republican Wrecking Crew that Brought the Fiasco of the past eight years culminating in the Disaster we are in now!!!
If we have learned ANYTHING about the Republicans in the past eight years, it is that they are full of Hokum, they are willing to Self Decieve and Lie for the sake of their own IMAGE and Failed Policies,...
The Republicans are in Control of Sydney McCain's Campaign... He is their Beast...
The past eight years have been full of Republican Deceit and Lies...
Wake up!!! Enough Republican Lies!!!
Enough is Enough...
It was NOT a Victory for the Democrats...
Celebrate the Victory... Reap the Responsibility...
But, when the Responsibility comes home to Roost??? ... Squirm out of it like a weasle...
We know what the Republicans do...
Swallow your medicine... It may feel bad now... In the end... it'll be good for you...(if you allow yourself to learn...)
We know all the Republicans have to offer NOW is squirm and weasle... We expect no less or more from them...
It's more of the same Blabber of the past eight years...
Lies and Deceit and Hokum...
Enough is Enough!!!
'On the campaign trail on Monday, Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, struck a populist tone. Speaking in Florida, he said that the economy’s underlying fundamentals remained strong but were being threatened “because of the greed by some based in Wall Street and we have got to fix it.”
But his record on the issue, and the views of those he has always cited as his most influential advisers, suggest that he has never departed in any major way from his party’s embrace of deregulation and relying more on market forces than on the government to exert discipline.
While Mr. McCain has cited the need for additional oversight when it comes to specific situations, like the mortgage problems behind the current shocks on Wall Street, he has consistently characterized himself as fundamentally a deregulator and he has no history prior to the presidential campaign of advocating steps to tighten standards on investment firms.'
Calmes notes that McCain leans heavily on arch-deregulator Phil Gramm, whose legislation bears some specific responsibility for this mess, for economic policy guidance. And Pat Garofalo’s profile of the overall economic team shows that it’s more of the same after Gramm."
[http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/09/the_difference_on_finance.php]
Enough is Enough!!!