Tuesday, September 16, 2008

What's Important 47

McCain collageForty-seventh in a series.

This is from Pro Publica:
With the market swooning yesterday, Sens. McCain and Obama promised to shake things up. McCain pledged to "put an end to running Wall Street like a casino."

This morning's New York Times probed the candidates' actual records. It concludes that McCain "has never departed in any major way from his party's embrace of deregulation." Indeed, the Times says, McCain "has no history prior to the presidential campaign of advocating steps to tighten standards on investment firms."

A decade ago McCain pushed unsuccessfully for a moratorium on all federal regulations. Asked about that by the Wall Street Journal this spring, McCain said, "I'm always for less regulation. But I am aware of the view that there is a need for government oversight."

McCain added that given the subprime scandal, more regulations might ultimately be appropriate but, "I am fundamentally a deregulator. I'd like to see a lot of the unnecessary government regulations eliminated, not just a moratorium."

The Times also points out that among McCain's top economic advisers are "two outspoken advocates of free market approaches, former Senator Phil Gramm and Alan Greenspan," the former chief of the Fed.

As we noted yesterday, Gramm authored a bill in 2000 that essentially stopped the government from regulating the derivatives and other fancy investments that have fueled the current crisis.
So the man who just a couple of days ago announced that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" is one of its supporters, and advised by one of its architects, and is a self-described as "fundamentally a deregulator". Is there any reason to believe he means it now when he calls for more regulation? As TPM points out
John McCain's top economic advisor, former Sen. Phil Gramm, is the guy who authored the deregulation law that most agree is the ultimate cause of today's financial meltdown. Tomorrow's and probably next week's too. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch, which swirled into brokerage oblivion today, is one of McCain's top economic advisors too.

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