McCain initially for Gramm comments, before being against them

Not that it's much of a surprise because McCain has been saying much of the same on the campaign trail except for the "whiner" remark. Of course psychology is important with economics, but then again, so are basic economic fundamentals such. Call me old fashioned, but the little things, such as cash flow, somehow mean something. Speaking of cash flow, Phil Gramm's employer UBS.

Interestingly enough, in this morning's FT there is an article about how Swiss regulators are telling UBS that they need to set aside more money to prevent a complete meltdown. In other words, Phil Gramm's employer better be sitting on a lot more cash if they are to avoid a Bear Stearns collapse. In the case of UBS, it's much worse though because it's a much larger organization. UBS has already written down close to $40 billion due to the subprime crisis, has had four consecutive quarters of losses and there is no end in site. Read more here about the outstanding problems at UBS including an inability to raise capital to remain afloat.

For McCain's economic brain to call the country "whiners" is amazing, since he has had a front row seat in the current crisis. He created the legislation that ushered in this new "anything goes" environment in finance and then went to work for one of the largest financial organizations in the world. No conflict of interest there, is there? More recently McCain's economic adviser lobbied for the troubled Swiss banking giant, seeking handouts by the American taxpayers for the self-created problems. So now Phil Gramm wants to call the US a bunch of whiners? Really? Are McCain and Gramm that out of touch that they can't appreciate the anger Americans have related to this subject?

To hell with whining, we're goddamn furious that elitists such as McCain and Gramm dumped this financial mess on the country and stuck average Americans with the bill. Can you imagine, one of the largest banks in the world asking for welfare handouts from middle class Americans? A bank? A Swiss bank, asking for American tax dollars? Gramm needs to quit his own whining about asking for corporate welfare. People living on million dollar salaries from exclusive Swiss banks or people who marry a trust fund have no idea what it's like for the rest of us. Maybe this BS works in their social circles, but it doesn't cut it back in the real world.