Phil Gramm: Thanks for the Subprime Meltdown, Dude!

It took me lots of digging and puzzling it out to connect the dots: Glass-Steagall 1933's repeal leads to Gramm-Leach-Bliley 1999, which leads to former Senator Phil Gramm as economic advisor to Senator John McCain's presidential campaign.

Basically, a law that kept commercial banks separate from investment firms (Glass-Steagall) was repealed and replaced with a law that enabled both banks and investment firms to offer "financial services" (Gramm-Leach-Bliley)--and this gave us an economic climate ripe for sketchy mortgage backed securities and other iffy investments that recently necessitated a $30 billion credit line from the Federal Reserve to Bear Stearns. A credit line of taxpayer money. You. Me. Wallet opening, dollar bills fluttering out and flying away, never to be seen again.

Phil Gramm stood by John McCain in his worst days last summer when his campaign went broke and his candidacy was all but written off by political observers.

Photo: AP--caption and photo courtesy of Politico

Now the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 isn't the *only* reason we have the mess we have. But it's a large reason. And it was signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton.

Politico has more on the Gramm/McCain relationship: "McCain Guru Linked to Subprime Crisis".

So if you vote for John "I'm Kinda Fuzzy on the Economy Thingamajingy" McCain, you'll probably be getting more Phil Gramm economic policies. Can we put this vampire Gramm to rest, for once and for all, before our economy is totally sucked dry? I mean, the subprime meltdown with its misery-inducing, credit-wrecking foreclosures and bankruptcies (and abandoned pets) was enough, thanks. No more of your genius wealth-redistribution policies from bottom to top, please.

Otherwise, it's tent cities and soup lines, everyone.

Comments

[Julie Pippert]

There was an excellent report on NPR--really more an interview---where the person explained this clearly enough for me to completely grasp it. I can't recall if I wrote about it or merely meant to, and don't know the details off the top of my head, but I think you'd be intersted in it, so hopefully I'll find it. Otherwise, great boildown of this issue. Thanks!