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Phil Gramm, background from wiki...
Gramm is a vice-chairman of UBS Investment Bank, a financial services company based in Switzerland.
He was John McCain's presidential campaign co-chair[6] and his most senior economic adviser[7] from summer 2007[8] to July 18, 2008.[9]
While advising the McCain campaign, Gramm was being paid by UBS to lobby Congress about the U.S. mortgage crisis. During this time, "the mortgage industry pressed Congress to roll back strong state rules that sought to stem the rise of predatory tactics used by lenders and brokers to place homeowners in high-cost mortgages."[10] According to Politico.com, Gramm had input on McCain's March 26, 2008 policy speech on the mortgage crisis.[11]
In a July 9, 2008 interview explaining McCain's plans in reforming the U.S. economy, Gramm downplayed the idea that the nation was in a recession, stating, "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," and "We have sort of become a nation of whiners, you just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."
[And here is the UBS statement on July 18th, the day McCain dropped Gramm from his team]:
UBS, the world's largest private banking group, stunned the financial world yesterday when it shelved all its offshore banking services for US residents and appeared to rip up the traditional Swiss franchise of secrecy, saying it was co-operating with the US's tax authorities to expose tax cheats.
Caught up in the same document sweep from the LGT Bank in Liechtenstein that exposed the private banking dealings of Australia's Frank Lowy, a UBS executive fronted a congressional inquiry in Washington DC and announced a stunning about-face.
"I am here today to make it absolutely clear that UBS genuinely regrets any compliance failures that may have occurred," said Mark Branson, UBS's Zurich-based chief financial officer of global wealth services.
"We have decided to exit entirely the business in question," he said of questionable banking services for US residents. "That means UBS will no longer provide offshore banking or security services to US residents through our bank branches."
But he also announced that UBS was now working with the US Government to "identify the names of US clients who may have engaged in tax fraud".
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24042054-643,00.html
Gee you think they might look to insider Gramm first. One, has to wonder if any of these miscellaneous facts are connected. I certainly suspect they are are all interconnected. And then further wonder if the UBS position doesn't threaten to expose the very well-off heels of Wall Street financial markets, where many must have sent their profits to places like off shore bank UBS.
With such potential tax fraud charges lurking in the wings, really who cares what Phil Gramm has to say about anything. Evidently Gramm is even more crooked than the US morgage industry. If that qualifies him to say anything meaningful about the current economic crisis in the US, I am certainly all ears....