AMERICAblog: UBS, employer of McCain's economic guru Phil Gramm, takes another subprime hit. Gramm said he didn't know about UBS had subprime holdings.
Andrew
· 1 year ago
Gramm is F.O.S. No other explanation is required other than McCrap is way over his head as well as any other repub when it comes to economics. Yeah.....we'll recover after they drive all of us into poverty with continued tax payer bailouts of their banking buddies.
Reason0Politics1
· 1 year ago
andrew... I empathize with your outrage, or I surely feel it as well...
but
its not over their heads. dont be fooled. mcsame isnt ignorant either. he knows. he was one of the keating 5. these people.. in charge now, and will continue to be in charge..regardless of admins... KNOW exactly what they are doing. talk about conspiracy theory... to suggest we are in the beginning of the next depression because of a series of bad coincidences and just bad choices... now thats the whopper conspiracy theory of all time. Random events couldnt put us in the situation we are in now. Statistically impossible.
no.
this is by design.
AdrianBrowne
· 1 year ago
And don't forget, Phil Gramm got his start by attacking The Gays!!! back around 1980-ish in Texas.
lynchie
· 1 year ago
If he truly did not know how the hell did he get the job of Vice Chairman. If he did know he is a liar. The distinction may not mean much but either way he is absolutely unqualified to advise this old fart McCain on how to withdraw money at an ATM let alone run the finance of a country. He is a fraud, a charlatan and a complete idiot.
An_American_Karol
· 1 year ago
Is it November yet?
Andrew
· 1 year ago
The US financial crisis is not one of liquidity or a credit crunch. That is only be a symptom of some other problem in a fiat monetary system with low interest rates and wide acceptability on Treasury debt. Liquidity is just a symptom and one cannot cure the disease by trying to relieve the symptoms. You have to treat the illness, or hope that the patient can cure themselves through the natural processes of the body while you relieve the symptoms. What has happend, what no one in the financial business seems willing to say, is that a number of corporations have been caught in a massive and pervasive financial fraud (or as their lawyers would prefer, a sustained lapse in judgement). This includes a number of the Wall street banks, big accounting firms, and in particular ratings agencies. Who will lend or buy when the judgement of those who create, sell, and rate the product has been shown to be corrupted, false, and not valid? If you were on eBay, and the seller had a rating that showed repeated deceptively false product descriptions, would you buy from them even if Paypal offered you a favorable discount on interest rates? Of course not. The problem is accountability and credibilty. Integrity and honesty. Any of us would not do significant business with anyone who has shown a lack integrity and honesty in their recent business, especially knowing that they will not be held to account for any frauds they may commit against us. At least most of us would not, and at some point the supply of greater fools is exhausted. The banks are no different. They are reluctant to deal with each other without a third party guarantee from the Fed or the government. They know that THEY have been imprudent at best, and intentionally deceptive at worst. Have we become so used to corruption and deceit that we cannot even notice it anymore, like a family that lives near a train or a busy highway? Until serious steps are taken to restore integrity all we are doing is perpetuating a financial system that is broken, and stumbling into a real and serious collapse that may be catastrophic when the rest of the world walks away in disgust. The public in the US is running out of credit and cash, after many years of wage growth supression and degradation of the productive economy, and can no longer sustain this almost parasitic arrangement which Wall Street has created. The banks' solution is to find new and healthier subjects to feed upon in Asia and Europe which is what they were doing when the subprime scandal surfaced. That is the heart of the problem. And we won't hear the truth because the boys with the cookies in their hands are afraid of getting punished by having their cookies and bonuses and maybe even their freedom taken away. And besides, they have gotten away with it before, and are trying to bluff their way out of another tight spot. Let's see what happens, but start thinking what we can do if the system is not capable of repairing itself through the actions of our representatives in Congress. Dropping them a quick note or call to let them know what we expect would be an excellent first step. If you wish to do more, walk away. Stop buying non-essential purchases for the rest of this month. Buy only what you absolutely need to live. Pull your money out of any of the big money center banks and broker/dealers. Stop using credit cards from the big money center banks. Pull your money out of the US stock market. Bring your money closer to home and put it into a sound local bank. At the worst, you'll have some extra money saved. And at the best, maybe we'll feel better and see some change and help to break this cycle of fraud, bubble and bust.
An_American_Karol
· 1 year ago
Busboy, I am going back to sleep. lol
Sarah B.
· 1 year ago
Phil Gramm said he didn't know about UBS had subprime holdings.
Are we supposed to find Gramm's explanation credible? Please!
Gramm's background certainly suggests otherwise:
In 1967, Gramm received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Georgia.
After earning his Ph.D., Gramm taught Economics for 12 years at Texas A&M University (1967–1978).
In addition to teaching, Gramm served as a partner in Gramm & Associates, an economic consulting firm (1971–1978).
Publication(s):
Gramm, William P. "Laissez-Faire and the Optimum Quantity of Money." Economic Inquiry 12 (March 1974): 125-133.
I rest my case.
The only thing Phil Gramm should "recover" from his UBS dealings is an indictment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
aquarius2
· 1 year ago
Sarah B
Thank you for the run down on Gramm. I just read the post and thought no way Gramm didn't know about the sub primes. I mean what was he VP of a the bank, janitorial services?
constantcomment
· 1 year ago
see no evil, hear no evil, speak noevil.
Hangtown Danile
· 1 year ago
Yes, Karol; it's over. Can't believe you slept thru the election! Hillary is president and Bill is president of the world bank. Obama was stripped of citizenship and is living in Kenya. McCain is freeze dried at the museum of natural history.... ;)
Yea Busboy and you and I are sharing a cell in a Reeducation camp on one side with most everybody elst on the other! I laugh but it is still so close that it may come true...
Hangtown Danile
· 1 year ago
everybody elst who posts hear on the other side. I mean... We are on the conservitive side. Most everybody elst is on the libral. They get fed and re-educations. We get worked to death and gassed with organic poison gas and put in an the ovens to help keep the carbon footprint down. Wake me up its a nightmare!!!!!!
DCinDC
· 1 year ago
Liar!
Corruption!
McCain = Bush!
Reason0Politics1
· 1 year ago
I agree Andrew, completely. Thank you for that post.
That was my point as well. This is just another continuation of the greed out of control. Outright Fraud. And given Moody's credibility... well. Most folks don't seem to understand that for every $1 of risky sub prime loan, Wall Street through it's almost endless new versions of shell games, and snake oils, turned those $1's into $20's, and more. Built huge towers of babylon piles of debt. And last year, it began to surface that these huge towers of debt, rested on paper mache' foundations of nothing ness; bad loans, made recklessly, turned into billion dollar CDO's fraudulently rated by S&P and Moody's which turned piles of dung into AAA rated instruments so that Pension funds, etc, mandated to only invest in AAA rated instruments, wasted their capital in them too.
Frankly, they can't cure debt problems with more debt, without having something else to grow a bubble out of, and I just dont think there is anything left to turn to to do that. Add to it all, the destruction of the domestic manufacturing, there is nothing left to bring money into our Nation. We are the bankrupt, irresponsible guy, so broke, and impoverished, and our promises are meaningless.
jr
· 1 year ago
Gramm supports corporate tax cuts so the media pretends he's a financial expert
tlsintx
· 1 year ago
mcCain's decision to associate with Gramm is clear indication of what his presidency would be: a continuation of cronyism, corruption, and crooked conservative pocket lining.
Gramm had his fingers in the Enron pie, if I remember correctly.
mr.ed
· 1 year ago
Evidently, Jim Cramer didn't know, either. Just a few weeks ago, he was advising purchase of UBS shares when the rest of the industry was puking losses, because they have so much offshore business, and so few mortgage dealings. The next week UBS had to write of $4b, then more and now this.
Busboy
· 1 year ago
Phil is a moron no matter which way you cut it. However, he is surely lying about not knowing about the subprime exposure. I guess he chose the "Ken Lay" defense because it worked so well for Kenny boy. Look for an empty coffin a few months down the road and a new Paraguayan citizen on the mojito circuit...
Busboy
· 1 year ago
Yes, Karol; it's over. Can't believe you slept thru the election! Hillary is president and Bill is president of the world bank. Obama was stripped of citizenship and is living in Kenya. McCain is freeze dried at the museum of natural history.... ;)
Busboy
· 1 year ago
It's beginning to sound like the European banks and investment houses had more exposure to the subprime wallpaper than did the Americans. So much for the vaunted western Europe investment acumen. Once again the slick wall street hypesters have stolen their European brethren's lunch.
All Comments
but
its not over their heads. dont be fooled. mcsame isnt ignorant either. he knows. he was one of the keating 5. these people.. in charge now, and will continue to be in charge..regardless of admins... KNOW exactly what they are doing. talk about conspiracy theory... to suggest we are in the beginning of the next depression because of a series of bad coincidences and just bad choices... now thats the whopper conspiracy theory of all time. Random events couldnt put us in the situation we are in now. Statistically impossible.
no.
this is by design.
That is only be a symptom of some other problem in a fiat monetary system with low interest rates and wide acceptability on Treasury debt. Liquidity is just a symptom and one cannot cure the disease by trying to relieve the symptoms. You have to treat the illness, or hope that the patient can cure themselves through the natural processes of the body while you relieve the symptoms.
What has happend, what no one in the financial business seems willing to say, is that a number of corporations have been caught in a massive and pervasive financial fraud (or as their lawyers would prefer, a sustained lapse in judgement). This includes a number of the Wall street banks, big accounting firms, and in particular ratings agencies.
Who will lend or buy when the judgement of those who create, sell, and rate the product has been shown to be corrupted, false, and not valid? If you were on eBay, and the seller had a rating that showed repeated deceptively false product descriptions, would you buy from them even if Paypal offered you a favorable discount on interest rates? Of course not.
The problem is accountability and credibilty. Integrity and honesty.
Any of us would not do significant business with anyone who has shown a lack integrity and honesty in their recent business, especially knowing that they will not be held to account for any frauds they may commit against us. At least most of us would not, and at some point the supply of greater fools is exhausted.
The banks are no different. They are reluctant to deal with each other without a third party guarantee from the Fed or the government. They know that THEY have been imprudent at best, and intentionally deceptive at worst.
Have we become so used to corruption and deceit that we cannot even notice it anymore, like a family that lives near a train or a busy highway?
Until serious steps are taken to restore integrity all we are doing is perpetuating a financial system that is broken, and stumbling into a real and serious collapse that may be catastrophic when the rest of the world walks away in disgust.
The public in the US is running out of credit and cash, after many years of wage growth supression and degradation of the productive economy, and can no longer sustain this almost parasitic arrangement which Wall Street has created. The banks' solution is to find new and healthier subjects to feed upon in Asia and Europe which is what they were doing when the subprime scandal surfaced.
That is the heart of the problem. And we won't hear the truth because the boys with the cookies in their hands are afraid of getting punished by having their cookies and bonuses and maybe even their freedom taken away. And besides, they have gotten away with it before, and are trying to bluff their way out of another tight spot.
Let's see what happens, but start thinking what we can do if the system is not capable of repairing itself through the actions of our representatives in Congress. Dropping them a quick note or call to let them know what we expect would be an excellent first step.
If you wish to do more, walk away. Stop buying non-essential purchases for the rest of this month. Buy only what you absolutely need to live. Pull your money out of any of the big money center banks and broker/dealers. Stop using credit cards from the big money center banks. Pull your money out of the US stock market. Bring your money closer to home and put it into a sound local bank.
At the worst, you'll have some extra money saved. And at the best, maybe we'll feel better and see some change and help to break this cycle of fraud, bubble and bust.
Are we supposed to find Gramm's explanation credible? Please!
Gramm's background certainly suggests otherwise:
In 1967, Gramm received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Georgia.
After earning his Ph.D., Gramm taught Economics for 12 years at Texas A&M University (1967–1978).
In addition to teaching, Gramm served as a partner in Gramm & Associates, an economic consulting firm (1971–1978).
Publication(s):
Gramm, William P. "Laissez-Faire and the Optimum Quantity of Money." Economic Inquiry 12 (March 1974): 125-133.
I rest my case.
The only thing Phil Gramm should "recover" from his UBS dealings is an indictment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for the run down on Gramm. I just read the post and thought no way Gramm didn't know about the sub primes. I mean what was he VP of a the bank, janitorial services?
Yea Busboy and you and I are sharing a cell in a Reeducation camp on one side with most everybody elst on the other!
I laugh but it is still so close that it may come true...
We are on the conservitive side.
Most everybody elst is on the libral.
They get fed and re-educations.
We get worked to death and gassed with organic poison gas and put in an the ovens to help keep the carbon footprint down.
Wake me up its a nightmare!!!!!!
Corruption!
McCain = Bush!
That was my point as well. This is just another continuation of the greed out of control. Outright Fraud. And given Moody's credibility... well. Most folks don't seem to understand that for every $1 of risky sub prime loan, Wall Street through it's almost endless new versions of shell games, and snake oils, turned those $1's into $20's, and more. Built huge towers of babylon piles of debt. And last year, it began to surface that these huge towers of debt, rested on paper mache' foundations of nothing ness; bad loans, made recklessly, turned into billion dollar CDO's fraudulently rated by S&P and Moody's which turned piles of dung into AAA rated instruments so that Pension funds, etc, mandated to only invest in AAA rated instruments, wasted their capital in them too.
Frankly, they can't cure debt problems with more debt, without having something else to grow a bubble out of, and I just dont think there is anything left to turn to to do that. Add to it all, the destruction of the domestic manufacturing, there is nothing left to bring money into our Nation. We are the bankrupt, irresponsible guy, so broke, and impoverished, and our promises are meaningless.
Gramm had his fingers in the Enron pie, if I remember correctly.