Obama’s economic policy is very complex and any day now he’s going to come up with a succinct way of explaining it to America. I believe that
the Obama endorsement by Warren Buffett will also carry weight with people whose bottom line issue is the economy.

One thing that bothered me last night about McCain was that he tried to turn the focus on the excess “porkbarrel” spending in Washington, rhetorically emphasizing his role as a “maverick” by opposing excess spending, yet the record clearly shows that in over 90% of cases, he voted along with Bush, an administration that by McCain’s own admission has put up an almost insurmountable debt. In other words, how can you be part of the out of control spending for 8 years and then suddenly claim to be above it, that you are the “change” that Washington needs to get its bankbooks back in order? I think that’s McCain’s strategy, and while Obama tried to undercut this tactic a few times, you have to hand it to McCain for somehow pulling off a convincing display. I would expect that now Obama’s people have a task to do – to go through the records and find bills that correspond to outlandish spending that McCain DIDN’T oppose – ones he gladly voted for.
One thing that struck me about last night is that despite the nasty nature of some of the ads these campaigns have been running lately, both men seemed fair-minded and gracious. Obama in particular struck me as a real gentleman.

Steve Waldman said, “Democrats manage the economy and the government’s finances better. Why doesn’t he go there?”
Waldman is correct. Obama missed several things. I wish he would have asked McCain for the definition of a “win” in Iraq. McCain will not answer the question. Obama also missed the Iraq government requesting a timeline and Bush has agreed.
General David Petraeus warns of long struggle ahead for US in Iraq 9/11/08
“Petraeus adopted a cautious tone in his interview with BBC’s Newsnight, saying he did not know that he would ever use the word “victory.”"
http://tinyurl.com/3svo6d
Where Credit Is Due: A Timeline of the Mortgage Crisis
A field guide to the loan sharks and politicos who got us into the predatory lending mess”
http://tinyurl.com/6bkeo7
Obama has been talking about Phil Gramm, “nation of whiners” role in the current economy crisis.
There are multiple reasons for the current economy crisis. Phil Gramm, McCain’s financial adviser, is a primary cause. The champion of deregulating the financial industry and the futures trading industry. The deregulation started during the Reagan administration.
McCain Spokesman Refuses to Say Phil Gramm Won’t Be Treasury Secretary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MjzIxJsRTo
Phil Gramm and his wife should have gone to prison. They were both taking money from Enron. In addition, the investment banks were lining the pockets of Congress. The same deregulation law allowed unregulated futures trading by Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Chase Manhattan, and etc, which is a major reason for the current economic crisis. In 1999 and 2000, Enron’s in-house lobbying shop spent over $3.4 million pursuing its deregulation agenda in Congress and at federal agencies (this total does not include the nearly $1.6 million Enron paid to lobbyists).
Enron gave more than $1.1 million to Bush’s presidential campaign: $127,525 directly to his campaign, and $713,200 to the Republican National Committee, which served as an arm of the Bush presidential campaign. Enron and Lay also gave $300,000 to the Bush-Cheney 2001 Presidential Inaugural Committee.
From 1993 to 2001, Enron gave three-quarters of its $5.3 million in contributions to the Republicans
Bush Blocks Efforts to Clamp Down On Enron’s Offshore Tax Havens
* Upon assuming office in 2001, Bush promptly scrapped plans put into place by former President Bill Clinton to significantly limit the effectiveness of these countries as tax and bank regulation havens.
Gramm’s Last Minute Move Spells Disaster for California
Enron Finances the Gramms Personally, Professionally
http://tinyurl.com/4c5qke (long article, eye-opening about lobbyist and Congress not doing their jobs)
Two Major causes: Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act that repealed the Depression-era laws separating investment banking, commercial banks, and insurance companies. Congress has been warned since at least the Enron collapse in 2001. Congress held hearing after hearing, but took no action.
Phil Gramm used deceptive means to pass the CFMA, which was written by Wall Street lobbyists.
Most people do not understand credit default swaps (CDS). Traders betting (futures) trading on the subprime loans. Goldman Sachs made 4 billion dollars in 2007 by betting that people would foreclose on their loan, most others bet people would not foreclose.
In addition to the subprime foreclosures, the CFMA has also had an affect on oil (speculators) and food prices. Once again, hearing after hearing, but no action. There are several Democratic Senators that have been proposing bills; however, there are not enough Democrats to overcome a Bush veto. Typical Republican let the free market work even though history has repeatedly proved where there is money there is fraud.
Professor Greenberger, University of Maryland School of Law, former Director, Division Trading and Markets, CFTC warned about our “New American Economy.” Greenberger has been warning about Congress’s lack of action since at least 2001. He has repeatedly testified before Congress.
“Should we have an economy that’s based on whether people make good or bad bets? Or should we have an economy where people build companies, create manufacturing, do inventions, advance the American society and make it more productive? We are rewarding people for sitting at their computers and punching in bets. That’s not the way our economy is going to be built, and India and China, with their focus on science and industry and building real businesses, are going to eat our lunch, unless the American public wakes up and puts an end to an economy that praises and makes heroes out of speculators.”
Greenberger’s statement explains why Detroit and other American manufacturers suffer while Wall Street speculators make a fortune—and your rapidly shrinking checkbook pays for it, every time you buy food, fuel or feed. All because there is no shortage of these goods, you’re just being told there is because it’s more profitable—for a few—that way.
http://tinyurl.com/4dc7pc
http://tinyurl.com/46wrgk
“Lurking in the background of this weekend’s collapse of two of Wall Street’s biggest names, is a $62 trillion segment of the $450 trillion market for derivatives that grew huge thanks to John McCain’s chief economic advisor, Phil “Americans are Whiners” Gramm. That’s because in December 2000, Gramm, while a U.S. Senator, snuck in a 262-page amendment (“The Commodity Futures Modernization Act”) to a government re-authorization bill (7,000 plus pages) that created what is now the $62 trillion market for credit default swaps (CDSs).”
http://tinyurl.com/56rkcb
“Years before Phil Gramm was a McCain campaign adviser and a lobbyist for a Swiss bank at the center of the housing credit crisis, he pulled a sly maneuver in the Senate that helped create today’s subprime meltdown. [UBS hides American money in Swiss bank accounts to avoid taxes]
As Congress and the White House were hurriedly hammering out a $384-billion omnibus spending bill, Gramm slipped in a 262-page measure called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. Written with the help of financial industry lobbyists and cosponsored by Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the chairman of the agriculture committee, the measure had been considered dead—even by Gramm. Few lawmakers had either the opportunity or inclination to read the version of the bill Gramm inserted. “Nobody in either chamber had any knowledge of what was going on or what was in it,” says a congressional aide familiar with the bill’s history
It’s not exactly like Gramm hid his handiwork—far from it. The balding and bespectacled Texan strode onto the Senate floor to hail the act’s inclusion into the must-pass budget package. But only an expert, or a lobbyist, could have followed what Gramm was saying. The act, he declared, would ensure that neither the SEC nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) got into the business of regulating newfangled financial products called swaps—and would thus “protect financial institutions from overregulation” and “position our financial services industries to be world leaders into the new century.”
http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/175497
Bush appointed the primary author to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2002. Walter Lukken is now the Acting Chairman. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) has a hold on his appointment.
December 2001
Senator Cantwell: Regulators Asleep Speculators Manipulate Oil Markets
August 06, 2008
“We are hearing that supply and demand is the culprit, but we know we are missing a federal cop on the beat,” Cantwell said. “I am calling on the Commodities Futures Trading Commission finally to do their job and shine a bright light on dark trading practices to stop excessive speculation in the oil markets.”
http://cantwell.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=301202
Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy & Environment Program
Sen. Gramm, White House (Bush Rove Cheney) Must Be Investigated for Role in Enron’s Fraud of Consumers and Shareholders
Enron was a flea next to the corporate giants such as Mobil, Exxon, BP, J.P. Morgan and Chase Manhattan, which all followed Enron Chief Kenneth Lay’s lead on asking for deregulation.”
The Bush administration’s aggressive intervention to scrap an international treaty cracking down on offshore tax havens may have greatly aided Enron’s ability to defraud its shareholders. Deregulation allowed Enron to conduct more of its operations in secret through the use of 874 subsidiaries registered in countries officially designated as tax havens and having weak bank disclosure regulations. Enron was so successful at its strategy to conceal information from regulators that billion-dollar Wall Street investment firms were caught flat-footed when the Enron empire collapsed.
http://tinyurl.com/4c5qke