Former US Senator Phil Gramm: It’s the one form of bigotry that is still allowed in America, and that’s bigotry against the successful … My friend Ed Whitacre at AT&T, if there’s ever been an exploited worker, even though they made a big deal about him getting $75 million when he retired, the man added billions of dollars of value, he was exploited, it was an outrage!Occasional Links & Commentary
Only in America
David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics University of Notre Dame Notre Dame
4 comments:
Gramm epitomises almost everything that is wrong with the US political establishment. If there's a more venal politician, I can't think of one. Corrupt Pakistani and Nigerian politicians have nothing on Gramm. Gramm's so crooked that if he swallowed a nail, he'd shit a screw. Drinks are on me when this vile piece of work finally meets his maker, which in his case is Wall Street.
Wikipedia entry: Before turning to politics, Gramm was an economics professor! How tragicomic is that? He's been a corrupting influence his whole life.
Even worse.
…former Texas Senator Phil Gramm… was hired [by USB] in 2002 to “advise clients on corporate finance issues and strategy.” This was around the same time that UBS acquired Enron’s energy trading operations. Recall Gramm’s wife Wendy was on the board of Enron, which was up til then the US’s biggest bankruptcy. You can insert whatever revolving door complaint about polticos you want here, but by now its almost besides the point.
Gramm’s position at UBS is “vice chairman” — dubbed “the greatest job in business” for its combination of high status and low work rate. It is a do nothing patronage role that is reward for all the Wall Street friendly legislation Gramm has sponsored. At least, they used to be considered Wall Street friendly, prior to their leading to the Street imploding.
To me, the more significant issue is how respected Gramm’s radical deregulation philosophy was — at least at the time — by the biggest of global investment houses. His philosophy rationalized the irresponsible investing behavior of these big banks.…
Barry Ritholtz, Why Does UBS Still Employ Phil Gramm? (6/30/09)
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/06/ubs-phil-gramm
And we can add the Commodity Futures Modernization Act to Gramm's list of contributions to financial fraud.
Gramm ensured the deregulation of credit default swaps, the most damaging form of financial gambling that has been conceived. Credit default swaps are economically and financially damaging to the wider economy, and may even be said to serve absolutely no economic or financial function other than as a form of deregulated gambling, which blew up spectacularly in 2008. A Nobel Prize in economics surely beckons.
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