Top McCain Advisor: Recession Just in People's Heads (Phil Gramm)

[babylonsister]

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/top_mccain_surrogate_describes.php

McCain's Top Economic Adviser Describes "Mental Recession," Calls America "Nation Of Whiners"
By Greg Sargent - July 10, 2008, 9:50AM

Hmmmm. This really won't do much to allay John McCain's big disadvantage among voters who cite the economy as a leading concern.

Check out what Phil Gramm, the top economic adviser to McCain, had to say in a new interview:

"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. "We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline" despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.

Out of touch much? McCain's top economic adviser thinks we are in a "mental recession" and thinks America is a "nation of whiners."

This is becoming a pattern. As Think Progress points out, McCain recently said that a lot of our problems are "psychological." And as we noted here the other day, when asked if we are in a recession, McCain could only bring himself to say that "I would imagine that we are."

[gratuitous]

1. What whining, Mr. Gramm?

Worker productivity is up, up, up, and wages are stagnant or falling. Someone's making a lot of money off of the sweat of American workers, but it isn't American workers. But then, what would Mr. Gramm know about working for a living, anyway?

[Beausoleil]

2. Gramm-cracker needs to get out more

He needs to see the damage he helped cause. Re: Enron Loophole

[oasis]

5. Yup, Gramm's wife, Wendy was on the Board of Directors at Enron. The senator

announced his decision not to run for re-election just months before the Enron story broke.

[Beausoleil]

7. Even worse

Corzine said high oil prices were partly a result of increased demand from countries like China and India, but that most experts believed speculation was also a contributing factor and that the volatility in the price of oil on a daily basis was a clear indication of speculation in the marketplace.

“I think everyone believes there’s too much speculation in the oil markets and a lot it flows directly from that particular loophole,” he said. “"It might as well be called the Phil Gramm loophole, because it was snuck in at the 11th hour, 59th minute to the 2000 energy policy bill, and it just is, it really needs to be addressed. And it would have a lot of impact I think certainly in the intermediate term, if not in the short term with greater oversight here.”

Corzine said the "Enron loophole” Gramm had added to the bill took exchanges and derivative oil contracts out of supervisory oversight and had been a problem in electricity markets in California a few years ago. He said it was unlikely Gramm would push back against his own amendment.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/22/1161113.aspx

He is SCUM. And his wife is too.

[oasis]

9. You're right, it's much worse. This should have been widely examined and exposed by

the MSM. Gramm is a double dose of scum.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Will this get play in the MSM? McCain's top economic guru saying

it's all in our heads and we're just a bunch of candy-asses who whine about not being able to afford increased food and gas prices? I love it when obscenely rich people say that the working classes are "whiners" for not being able to afford the basics of existence--I think it would be very helpful to the McCain campaign if this message reached a wider audience.

[babylonsister]

4. Most likely not. And this is foreclosure Phil talking, to boot. Some

bloggers have tried to point out how destructive this guy has been, but no one's sharing the info.




Who's to blame for the biggest financial catastrophe of our time? There are plenty of culprits, but one candidate for lead perp is former Sen. Phil Gramm. 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 mentioned as a possible Treasury secretary should McCain win. That's right: A guy who helped screw up the global financial system could end up in charge of US economic policy. Talk about a market failure.

Lots more at link~

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/07/foreclosure-phil.html

[bdamomma]

6. such disrespect for the American people and they are proud of it.

[Enrique]

8. two consecutive terms with a moran in the White House

technical definition of mental recession.

[lame54]

10. The recession is ON McCain's head

[Peace Patriot]

11. Well that takes the "let them eat" cake!!! nt

[Javaman]

12. Yeah, in our heads, in our wallets, in our gas tank, in our grocery bills

phil jackass gramm, moron from texas, former head of the cattlemans association that screwed inspecting beef for big rancher bucks can go fuck himself sideways with a pitchfork.

[babylonsister]

13. m$nbc just mentioned this in a one-two sentence explanation. Justification?

McSame doesn't agree. :eyes: End of story.