Phil Gramm's Mortgage Meltdown Denial, McCain Disappointed
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Former Senator Phil Gramm told the Washington Times that he does not think the economy is doing as poorly as the general media reports. In fact, Gramm suggests that the country is not in a recession, rather, the country is in a "mental recession" and that America is a "nation of whiners."
These non-sensical statements come from a man who not only helped propel the current mortgage meltdown back in 2000 with his Commodity Futures Modernization Act (helping deregulate the lending industry), but from an individual who claims the nation's economic struggles are imaginary. Because gas prices aren't 50% higher than they were seven months ago, right? Foreclosure rates? A weakened dollar?
And to his assertion that we're a "nation of whiners," maybe Phil Gramm should go on John McCain's "Straight Talk Express" tour and elucidate to all the hard working Americans that have come to hear John McCain speak about how he's going to FIX the economy and explain to them that they're just a bunch of whiners with wild imaginations. He should also inform them of his role at UBS, a big player in the game of Collateralized Debt Obligations (which through the purchasing of CDO's as packaged subprime mortgage securities helped accelerate an eventual subprime fallout), and how he would execute his philosophies and pontifications (as told to the Washington Times) as Treasury Secretary in a McCain administration. (Not to mention the irony of Gramm complaining or "whining" to the Washington Times about other people whining.)
It's nice to see that McCain tried separating himself from Gramm's statements today, but in reality, it would behoove McCain to find another economic adviser that is more compassionate to Americans who were misled into teaser rate mortgages (TILA fraud) and, at the same time as trying to keep current with their mortgage, are hoping they won't have to break the bank to buy groceries and gas in the coming months, as both have been escalating in price. I know Gramm is McCain's "guy" because he helped rescue McCain's struggling presidential campaign last summer, but McCain, if he truly wants to fix the economy, needs to begin fixing the economic priorities of his own campaign first, and the people who are non-sensically purveying those priorities, before he's even able to attempt to fix the entire economy.