Phil Gramm, McCain Co-Chair, Lobbied US On Mortgage Crisis While Advising Candidate On Economic Policy

An MSNBC exclusive aired on Countdown with Keith Olbermann Tuesday evening revealed potentially explosive news about McCain co-chair Phil Gramm's lobbying activities:

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's national campaign general co-chair was being paid by a Swiss bank to lobby Congress about the U.S. mortgage crisis at the same time he was advising McCain about his economic policy, federal records show.

"Countdown with Keith Olbermann" reported Tuesday night that lobbying disclosure forms, filed by the giant Swiss bank UBS, list McCain's campaign co-chair, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, as a lobbyist dealing specifically with legislation regarding the mortgage crisis as recently as Dec. 31, 2007.

Gramm joined the bank in 2002 and had registered as a lobbyist by 2004. UBS filed paperwork deregistering Gramm on April 18 of this year. Gramm continues to serve as a UBS vice chairman.

Watch the segment:

Comments

[JoeBlough]

Phil Gramm has always been known as a self-serving low life. When McCain chose him, I figured it was just business as usual.

I'm suprised some many people are upset so late in the game.

[haleywins]

This is no surprise, McCain is poised to deliver Bush's 3rd term as the corporate president.

[jian1312]

Funny how they always "break" some breathless news! NPR (National Public Radio) did a report about this ages ago (as in early April): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89338743. Granted, their story is not about Phil Gramm per se, but the good professor interviewed gave a pretty good history about Gramm and the economic policy he's been peddling on behalf of his banking clients. To have such a person as an economic adviser is alarming indeed, since we are living the nightmare he almost single-handedly seeded a decade ago!

[MzTerri]

Why isn't the media talking about Bill Clinton's role in this????

Not only was it Bill Clinton who signed into law the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act, but it was ALSO BILL CLINTON who repealed the Glass-Steagall Act and had the gaul to give the pen he used to billionaire Weill to hang in his office.

Bill threw hard-working Americans, white AND black Americans under a speeding train with no regard for them whatsoever, yet now Hillary is their champion!

Give me a break!!!

Americans deserve to know!!!!

http://www.progressivehistorians.com/2007/11/bill-clintons-role-in-mortgage-crisis.html

[BethStuart]

Here is a part of the interview Warren Buffet gave to Spiegel, the German news magazine, a few days ago. Buffet was in Germany at the time looking to invest in German companies:

SPIEGEL: The German economy is in a highly robust state at the moment, while a few other Western countries are having economic problems. How do you account for this?

Buffett: It shows that the Germans know something about business. In fact, the strong euro works against Germany. But if an exporting nation like Germany is still strong, it proves that the supply and quality are right. And that many correct decisions were made in the past and that reform efforts were worthwhile.

The entire article can be seen at:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,556114,00.html


I think it's clear that the American economy is widely seen by Buffet and pretty much everyone else as being in the tank.

McCain's embrace of Gramm as an economic policy adviser and as a potential cabinet member will likely lower people's opinion (both here and abroad) of the American economy even further.

[ceesaw]

Wow! and there are still people out there saying they rather vote for MCCAIN if Hillary doesn't get the nomination? It makes one wonder.

[JoeBlough]

American voters are still "learnin' as they go".

[midtown]

BUT . . . Bill Clinton made it happen in a 3 AM phone call on October 22, 1999. (Well, actually it was 2:45 AM.)

There had been 12 serious tries to break Congress' and the US President's will's will over repealing the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 in 25 years, and it was Bill Clinton who took the bait. The Glass-Steagall Act was what protected US citizens from a repeat of the 1920s and mortgages sold to Wall Street FOR OVER 65 YEARS !

Read all about it here on PBS' Frontline:
"The Long Demise of Glass-Steagall"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/weill/demise.html
(Scroll to the bottom. Pass it around to your friends. This was one of things that happened while we were cajoled with 24/7 OJ, Lewinsky, Ruby RIdge, etcetera, cable coverage of news we couldn't use after one news cycle.)

[littlepuffycloud]

It's shocking when the veil of secrecy is lifted and we actually see how corrupt and dispicable these people really are. The depths of their greed sends me reeling and I wonder how their brains work and ask myself 'do they just not care or have any guilt or at least embarrassment at who they've become'? How did they become that way? It boggles the mind. How do they sleep at night?

[mitwosense]

Perhaps he should have been conferring with Rep. Laura Richardson D-Cal about financial matters.
BTW, did Olbermann use his sock puppets to break this story?

[BethStuart]

Phil Gramm helped pass legislation deregulating the uitlities industry. This led to sharply higher energy costs on the west coast that were caused by Enron who deliberately induced shortages in order to drive up prices and profits.

Phil Gramm's wife, Wendy, sat on Enron's board while all this was going on.

The movie about Enron "Smartest Guys in the Room" has a recording of two Enron traders obscenely gloating on how much more little old ladies will be paying for their electricity.

Enough said.

[wm1066]

Thank you for saying that, his legislation also unregulated the futures market on oil and gas.
And this is why gas is so high today. Phil Gramms! a real traitor to America.

[lovethesinner]

McSame just became McWorse.

Isn't this a lot like the Keating Five Scandal? I read something at TPM that put a little more light on this politically:

"... But as a political matter, for McCain, having your top economics advisor be the vice chairman and (until recently) lobbyist for a company telling a class of its employees to get out of the country for fear of being indicted is simply not a good thing. As I said, we're digging in on this story. But for the moment, I would caution readers to keep this distinction in mind."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/197274.php

I don't want to jump the gun, but... did somebody leave something in the TOASTER?

Obama-Webb '08

[castlerider]

Guys, this was so much fun, I had to do it again...


Well Well Well !!!

Our ol' buddy Phil Gramm, who rode in on Reagan's coattails and made sure that he let EVERYONE know it...
The man who gave the name to "Gramstanding" letting everyone know that someone else's idea had to surely have come through his mind first.
The man who quietly slipped away right after 911 which he HATED not being able to exploit, but had to, because just after that September day happened, is when Enron imploded, taking hundreds of faithfull employees retirement, benefits, 401K's and savings with them.... And guess who one of the high-High,- HIGHER-UPS on the Enron Board was ? ... Mrs Gramm!!
Ol' Phil had to not show his face too much those days, for it surely would have been completely despised. By all...

Yeah, we see ya' comin', Phil...

[freshnotbitter]

Gramm is an old style sixties academic economist with schemes similar to health savings accounts and other complicated bureaucratic stuff that works for a small percentage of the public. He then goes on to "prove" how wonderfully they work when, in fact, they only work for his wealthy republican constituency.

Phil Gramm would love to replace social security and medicare with "voluntary" investment/insurance accounts. The republican party needs an intellectual transfusion if Phil Gramm is the best they can do.

Government programs work. No-smoking ordinances work. The space program worked, once the communists scared us into trying it. Medicare and social security work.

Now, how about a gigantic, wasteful government boondoggle to convert the Sunbelt to solar power and wind over the next decade. I'll bet that would work too if somebody would show the courage to stand up to the reactionary right.

How about an enormously inflated ballooning public health program to combat obesity? I'll bet that works too.

Would somebody please convince the republicans to vote for Obama this year so we can avoid turning into the 3rd world country Phil Gramm and his cronies have in mind for us?

I find it hard to believe that doctors, lawyers and stock brokers would vote for the guy who graduated last in his class at Annapolis and takes economic advice from a dinosaur like Phil Gramm.

[tschlak]

Drip... drip... drip...

It continues. Wake up, America.

[MissingAmerica]

It's really sad when we have to turn to the cable news networks to explain the truth behind our politicians. This needs to be in the mainstream media, as it affects millions of us.

Personally, I never thought I would see the housing market in such a mess. My children are trying to sell their home, having been forced to invest in a new travel trailer. Why? There are no nearby jobs, and the cost of commuting has become prohibitive. He is a tradesman. He had a choice of separating the family during the week or making it possible to make home where the work is. They chose the latter.

The house, however, is not selling. This administration is rewarding those who buy either new homes or foreclosures, and this has placed them in an even weaker position. They are going to have to sell at least $80,000 under the appraised value, and have decided to accept the next offer that comes along rather than to risk losing everything.

We are leaving an unacceptable mess for future generations. The quickest fix to the crisis? Get out of Iraq and put that $10 billion monthly expense back into our own country!