McCain "economic adviser" Phil Gramm wants a return to the ENRON era

[Truth2Tell]

New stuff from Jason Leopold over at his new site, "http://www.pubrecord.org">The Public Record":

McCain Defends 'Enron Loophole'
By Jason Leopold
The Public Record

May 19, 2008

Sen. John McCain says he opposes the $307 billion farm bill because it would dole out wasteful subsidies, but his chief economic adviser Phil Gramm also wants to stop its proposed regulation of energy futures trading, a market that was famously abused when Enron Corp. manipulated California’s electricity prices in 2001.

Clearing the way for that California price gouging, Gramm, as a powerful Texas senator in 2000, slipped an Enron-backed provision into the Commodities Futures Modernization Act that exempted from regulation energy trading on electronic platforms.

Then, over the next year, Enron – with Gramm’s wife Wendy serving on its board of directors – worked to create false electricity shortages in California, bilking consumers out of an estimated $40 billion.

Gramm left the Senate in 2002 but now has emerged as what Fortune magazine calls “McCain’s econ brain,” not only filling the Arizona senator’s acknowledged void on economic expertise ("I don’t know as much about the economy as I should") but recognized as one of McCain’s closest friends in politics. The two men talk daily.

More at: http://www.pubrecord.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=51&Itemid=8

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Phil Gramm has sowed destruction

on the middle classes since the 80s

Kick for the read.

[Imalittleteapot]

2. Phil Gramm????

That's enough to send people running from McCain - you'd think.

[KamaAina]

3. McCain: The new "Enron John"

the moniker originally applied to Texas Sen. John Cornyn (R-Obviously).

[SharonAnn]

4. Wendy Gramm, who was on the board of directors of Enron, thought it worked just

fine. She and her husband got really, really rich. too bad about things finally going bust, though.

Oh well, that's capitalism. Some win, some lose.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Phil Gramm? Fucking PHIL GRAMM is “McCain’s econ brain” ??

God help us all if he gets in.

[seasat]

6. Both the Gramms should be in jail

Their actions were at least as egregious as Duke Cunningham's and considerably more destructive.

[depakid]

8. Agreed -but they're Republicans from Texas

which means they get a pass.

[shain from kane]

7. "Ahh flunked the third, fifth, and ninth grade."

[Gman]

9. Not even Dickie Flatt in Mejia, TX likes Gramm

[Initech]

10. Yeah, that's exactly what we need - more blackouts!

More frustration and more bilking customers out of their money! Holy crap are these people totally fucking clueless or what? :grr:

[Truth2Tell]

11. More...

...

Even after Enron had collapsed in fall 2001, Sen. Gramm continued to resist congressional efforts at tightening up the rules.

In 2002, despite the accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom and other major companies, Sen. Gramm objected to the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reform bill designed to hold executives accountable for inaccuracies in financial reports.

Now, the Gramm family’s anti-regulatory agenda is returning via McCain’s presidential campaign.

As Fortune’s editor-at-large Shawn Tully wrote, "economic conservatives should take heart. McCain’s chief economic adviser – and perhaps his closest political friend – is the ultimate pure play in free market faith, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm... Most of current positions are vintage Gramm indeed."

http://www.pubrecord.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=51&Itemid=8