This is the limit. The absolute limit.Josh Marshall, in a recent post, castigates John McCain for taking economic advice on the sub-prime mortgage crisis from former senator Phil Gramm. Why? Because Gramm was a lobbyist for the Swiss bank UBS. (Gramm no longer lobbies, but continues to serve as a bank vice president.)
The UBS connection is of concern because that firm is a huge part of the sub-prime mortgage crisis:
Forbes says that UBS is among the banks worst hit by the global credit crisis, particularly in their direct exposure to the US subprime market. According to Forbes, UBS has some $37 billion in write-downs on assets tied to bad US mortgages. In other words, the bank's very life appears to be on the line in how the US government chooses to handle the matter.(Emphasis added.) Needless to say, I agree with Marshall -- up to this point. What I don't agree with is his hypocrisy, his special pleading on behalf of the Savior From Illinois.
I've used this quote before, but let's trot it out again, since it compresses a whole huge chunk of stinkiness into one small stink-ball:
Seven of the Obama campaign’s top 14 donors consisted of officers and employees of the same Wall Street firms charged time and again with looting the public and newly implicated in originating and/or bundling fraudulently made mortgages. These latest frauds have left thousands of children in some of our largest minority communities coming home from school to see eviction notices and foreclosure signs nailed to their front doors. Those scars will last a lifetime.UBS is or was Obi's second largest contributor, after Goldman Sachs. We must quickly note that Hillary has also taken lots of money from Goldman Sachs, and from others on this list -- though I've yet to see any evidence of a substantial contribution to her from UBS, the company which (for good reason) has aroused Marshall's particular ire.
These seven Wall Street firms are (in order of money given): Goldman Sachs, UBS AG, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. There is also a large hedge fund, Citadel Investment Group, which is a major source of fee income to Wall Street.
Since strained rationalization is my favorite form of humor, I would love to see Marshall defend Obama while attacking McCain on the UBS connection. Could the former King of Bloggers possibly be more hypocritical?
By the way: As I've noted many times, Obama's chief economic adviser is a Milton Friedmanite and free-trade fundamentalist named Austan Goolsbee. In terms of basic economic weltanschauung, the difference between Gramm and Goolsbee is...what, exactly?
6 comments:
The difference is tangible:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E5D8153AF933A05752C1A9659C8B63
Forgive me, but in my opinion (worth little) I think you are off beam on this one.
Is the idea that UBS caused the sub-prime crisis? I think moronic participant would be a better description. Is the idea that Phil Gramm was in the slightest bit aware of the banks activities in sub-prime? I suspect he played golf, did intros, and gave talks to clients. Probably pretty boring talks, but in a very Texan way. I could be wrong but how do you know he did anything useful for the bank?
Its a big bank. Some people who work for it are probably pretty smart. I know some who are idiots. Doesnt prove they cant advise on McCain. I would imagine that your high school economics teacher could offer useful advice to McCain.
I have probably misunderstood completely. Sorry if I am off beam.
Harry
Harry, the points you raise are directed at Josh Marshall, not at me. My main question was, I thought, sufficiently obvious: How can Josh dis McCain on this score but not Obama?
Yup, of course you are right.
Just for the record, its hard to wholeheartedly blame banks for the stuff they kept on their balance sheets. Better to blame them for the stuff they didnt keep, and sold on to suckers. In this light, one might point to Goldman, fine firm that it is, and note that they didnt lose that much money in the crisis.
However, not blaming the banks is not quite the same as not blaming the managers. Some of these guys played key roles in facilitating the disaster (I would refer you to a blog called Calculated Risk if you want to delve into this stuff). Similarly the banks dont make much in the way of political contributions, however many of them very strongly "encourage" senior staff (that want to become more senior) to contribute to a favoured candidate - up to the max individual contribution.
Some of these managers need to sit down and have a chat with some justice dept officials.
Im sure this pedantry on my part does me no credit. Thanks Joseph.
harry
Mahalo. Your concise comments regarding UBS are right on the mark! For more about UBS and drugs, money-laundering, tax evasion, lobbyists, corruption, racketeering, etc., and Barack Obama, Phil Gramm, George Bush, John McCain, etc., check out: http://www.kycbs.net/UBS.htm
Aloha,
The Catbird
Uh, just thought I point out that Marshall was castigating McCain for taking advice from Gramm, not donations. The advice is the problem, not the donations.
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