McCain
May 28th, 2008 |Below I noted MSNBC’s story tonight about how fmr. Sen. Phil Gramm (McCain’s economics advisor) was advising him on his subprime mortgage bailout policy while Gramm was also a registered lobbyist for the Swiss bank UBS.
Many of the lobbying connections the press has dug up on McCain have been embarrassing. But I’m not sure any have really had teeth until this one. After all, how much does the average voter care that Charlie Black represented a lot of foreign dictators? A stench, yes? But finding out that McCain had a major subprime lender bank lobbyist whispering in his ear when McCain told the public that it was basically tough luck if they lost their houses?
John McCain, "political maverick", bought and paid for.
7 Responses to “McCain”
Never mind his membership in the Keating Five and his support for that thing over in Iraq — not that bank regulation and the war have anything to do with less than one in five Americans believing our country is on the right track.
It might be noted that the reason for the banking troubles that led to the “Keating Five” scandal (in which McCain was never implicated as a major player, ahem) were caused by increases in real estate capital gains taxes, which made previously profitable real estate investments bankrupt. The boom in real estate, moreover, had been precipitated by “easy money” policies by the Fed.
While it’s unseemly for a Rezko, a Whitewater coordinator, or a subprime lender to seem to have a presidential candidate in his pocket, McCain is entirely correct to remind people that sometimes taking action can be far worse than doing nothing in this sort of thing.
Mr Bub’s daddy
Nice, counter. Whitewater. I forget. Was Whitewater the trigger that started the whole sub prime deal?
Phil Gramm is an econimic policy train wreck from the git go. Could you go ahead and defend him? Don’t forget his role, with McCain’s senate vote for banking deregulation that set the stage for this whole sub prime mess. You remember, the regulation that was set in place after another tiny economic downtrun called the DEPRESSION.
…and it actually turns out that many of those Depression era regulations worked to extend the Depression into the 1940s, instead of being a 2-3 year recession as previous ones were.
The point here is that thoughtless government meddling–whether it’s the low reserve ratios and loose money of the 1920s (and several times since), the bank closures and relentless inflationary policy of the 1930s, tax code to “punish” those earning money (innumerable times), or 1970s era laws intended to bring credit into poor areas–has side effects, and McCain is right here to speak against it.
And no, it wasn’t bank deregulation that led alone to the subprime issues. You had the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act, which led to the creation of subprime loans (banks haven’t always offered them until the government told them to), years of artificially low rates from the Fed, and perhaps to a degree the so-called “deregulation” of banks.
Yes, “so-called.” If you doubt this, apply for a new bank account and read the fine print. Banks are “deregulated” in the same way as eggs are “cholesterol free” and vodka is “nonalcoholic.”
(oh, and it was passed by a Democratic Congress, if I remember correctly)
not a defense of McCain, but he was the bubling idiot of the Keating 5. More implicated cause of poor bookkeeping then any actual crime.
That being said… he has not learned from his mistakes of the past. Do we really want somebody with an inability to learn from their f’ups?
Ped -
subprime was really triggered by too much money at the global level looking for investments. All the safe investments were already in play, so it trickled to investments with higher and higher risk. NPR’s This American Life had a really good summery of it. (http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched= 1242)
If McCain is holding the line against more intrusion into the financial sector, he has learned something from the mistakes of the 1980s, in my opinion. Now if only he can see the problems caused by the Fed and the necessity of sound money….
Bubba said….”And no, it wasn’t bank deregulation that led alone to the subprime issues.”…….
Maybe not entirely, but Mr Gramm worked very hard to set the table. Combined with his work, and once the originator of the loan did not need to worry about the actual payment of the loan, we were set on the path to the place where we find our selves now. Phil helped this process along, with his drive to deregulate.