Foreclosure Phil

Mother Jones by David Corn | May. 30, 2008 (Special Report)

Years before Phil Gramm was a McCain campaign adviser and a lobbyist for a Swiss bank at the center of the housing credit crisis, he pulled a sly maneuver in the Senate that helped create today's subprime meltdown.

Eight years ago, as part of a decades-long anti-regulatory crusade, Gramm pulled a sly legislative maneuver that greased the way to the multibillion-dollar subprime meltdown. Yet has Gramm been banished from the corridors of power? Reviled as the villain who bankrupted Middle America? Hardly. Now a well-paid executive at a Swiss bank, Gramm cochairs Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign and advises the Republican candidate on economic matters. He's been ... Full Story »

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4.4

by Michael Evelyn - Oct. 1, 2008

I don't see how McCain survives any debate with Democrats as long as Phil Gramm is advising him on the economy. There is a perfect storm brewing of lobbyist influences, wrong policy prescriptions, Washington hubris, pathetic packaging and poor timing that rain hail on McCain's economic message. This is one of an increasing number of biting articles on the role of lobbyists and out-of-touch policy prescriptions that characterize McCain's economic plan. Given that he has admitted publicly that this is not his area of expertise you are left to conclude that Gramm would be shaping his administrations economic policy. Foreclosure Phil? Stunning!