McCain's Econ Advisor (Gramm) Has His Company (UBS)-Next In Line To Rip Off American Taxpayers (NYT)

[kpete]

The Times further reports that two of the biggest foreign banks in need of such relief are Barclays and UBS. In fact, my understanding is that UBS is more on the line here than any other foreign bank.

Let's add this up.

John McCain's top economics advisor, who is widely believed to be his choice for Treasury Secretary, should he win in November, is former Sen. Phil Gramm. (Indeed, just last night his spokesman refused to say Gramm wouldn't be McCain's choice for Treasury Secretary.)

Gramm is both vice chairman of UBS's US division and a lobbyist for UBS.

If UBS successfully lobbied over the weekend to get in on the bailout, what was Gramm's role in the lobbying?

--Josh Marshall

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/22global.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/218587.php

[Hardrada]

1. Phil Gramm used to be Texas Democrat!

[funflower]

2. Then they started letting women and dark folk join.... n/t

[PDittie]

5. And that's when they crossed over to the GOP as well.

I'm so old I have actually heard people say they quit the Democrats "when they started lettin' the niggers in". Quote, unquote.

[PDittie]

4. A Blue Dog.

They called them Boll Weevils back then.

Remember Gramm when you are asked to support a Blue Dog this time around. I'm not joking (*cough* Nick Lampson and Ciro Rodriguez *cough*). That BS about an 80% Republican being better than a 100% Republican is exactly that. BS.

I'm serious. Let the Blue Dog get their Republican friends and Republican-leaning independents phonebank and blockwalk for them. If Nancy Effin' Pelosi can't impose any caucus discipline, then the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is just going to have to do it for her.

[dkf]

3. I suspect this is the same reason we bailed out AIG.

A.I.G. had written $441 billion in credit insurance on mortgage-related securities whose values have declined; if A.I.G. were to fail, all the institutions that bought the insurance would have been subject to enormous losses. The ripple effect could have turned into a tsunami.

So, the $85 billion loan to A.I.G. was really a bailout of the company’s counterparties or trading partners.

Now, inquiring minds want to know, whom did we rescue? Which large, wealthy financial institutions — counterparties to A.I.G.’s derivatives contracts — benefited from the taxpayers’ $85 billion loan? Were their representatives involved in the talks that resulted in the last-minute loan?

And did Lehman Brothers not get bailed out because those favored institutions were not on the hook if it failed?

We’ll probably never know the answers to these troubling questions. But by keeping taxpayers in the dark, regulators continue to earn our mistrust. As long as we are not told whom we have bailed out, we will be justified in suspecting that a favored few are making gains on our dimes.

A.I.G.’s financial statements provided a clue to the identities of some of its credit default swap counterparties. The company said that almost three-quarters of the $441 billion it had written on soured mortgage securities was bought by European banks. The banks bought the insurance to reduce the amounts of capital they were required by regulators to set aside to cover future losses.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4046737

[dysfunctional press]

6. john mchoover is more like it.

he can't be allowed to win.

[KharmaTrain]

7. Gramm Needs To Be Exposed...Like The Rat He Is...

Gramm is the poster boy for all that's gone wrong in the past 20 years. And Gramps wants this slimebag to be his Secretary of the Treasury? I heard somone say he'd finish the fleecing that boooosh hadn't. There is NO WAY that foreign banks should be bailed out...and Gramm's connections and conflict of interest here need to be brought out. We can't let this shitstain get anywhere near the Treasury.