What a Guy!

The financial news continues to dominate my view of the world. As it does for most people. But…it’s probably not a good idea to say ‘I told you so’ to anyone you don’t know quite well. Heck, it’s just a bad idea all of the way around. And there are a thousand pundits out there right now that can hardly contain themselves. The worst ones? Those that will tell you that you should have bought gold! As they did.

Amidst all of the gloom, I did find an interesting bit of trivia and it relates to the election. Back in the 1930’s, the Glass-Steagill Act was enacted into law and that provided for two types of banking. One for safety minded consumers; commercial banks with deposits insured for $100,000 and the second for riskier ventures; investment banking. And the two types were prohibited from mingling any assets.

Then, in 1999, Clinton signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which repealed the Glass-Steagill Act and allowed the two types of banks to merge, doing away with any concerns for safety. All banks were free to do anything they darn well pleased to make money. And they did.

Phil Gramm was the author of that piece of legislation. You might remember Mr. Gramm as the fellow who recently said that most American’s were whiners. And that was when John McCain said he would have to leave his job with the McCain/Palin campaign. But…it is widely known that Mr. Gramm is still McCain’s financial advisor and is expected to be given the Secretary of the Treasury job if (gulp!) McCain is elected.

Isn’t that Wikipedia a great tool? How else would you find out about Mr. Gramm and his relationship with Enron? And where his campaign money has come from? And don’t forget... his relationship with John McCain!