McCain and Wall Street

"The government was forced to commit $85 billion," McCain said in a statement. "These actions stem from failed regulation, reckless management and a casino culture on Wall Street that has crippled one of the most important companies in America."

It's funny, McCain and the other Republicans (former McCain Financial Policy adviser Phil Gramm) passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999. On the surface it was in my eyes truly a modernization act. It allowed Banks, Investment Banks, and Insurance firms to become one. Not the end of the world and not necessarily a bad thing at all.

This paved the way for Gramm's new bill, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. Here we saw a bill that ensured unregulated creation and trading of Credit Default Swaps, Collateral Debt Obligations, Mortgage Backed Securities. And that's where we are today, a day after AIG was spared by the Treasury, Lehman brothers was allowed to collapse and the financial sector is in misery. With this bill, the Republicans allowed the financial sector to regulate themselves. When has self-regulation ever worked? When? Casino Culture indeed Senator McCain, your friend Mr. Gramm created this mess and you signed onto it in the 2001 Fiscal Year budget. Let's not forget all this time, McCain was the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Where was John McCain the last 8 years when all of this de-regulation was going on? I don't remember him speaking up or against any of the deregulatory bills. The fact that he has done an about face today, just shows you who we have running for President.