Am I remembering correctly also that Gramm's wife was on the board of Enron?

I have no reason other than my native suspiciousness to believe this, but I always thought that if the names of the investors in those outside entities that Enron created to hide things and skim bucks were revealed Mr. & Mrs. Gramm would be on the list.

Oh, I forgot:

Here's the Bankruptcy bill should you choose to read it: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c107:2:./temp/~c107unLbqg::

And here's the voting record:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00036

In early April, Terry Gross interviewed Prof. Michael Greenberger, who directed the Division of Trading and Markets from 1997-99. He explained the
credit market fiasco, and on Gramms role in it:

Greenberger:.....But since the late 1980s, a much more powerful system has developed, and that is called the--and it's often referred to as "complex derivatives." And essentially, the banking community developed these products, starting in the mid-'80s, and it's just developed a herd of steam since that time, and at this point in time worldwide, there is more money invested in derivative products than there are in stocks and bonds, which usually comes as a great surprise to many people.

And these derivative products, when you boil down to their fundamentals, are essentially bets on the direction that certain events will take place. ....

And those are private transactions. They are not easily made public. You can't open the newspaper and see what's happening. And when you enter into a bet, if you want the bet, the counterparty who takes the opposite end charges you a fee
for having that bet. That's a very profitable piece of business for banks and hedge funds to do. And so that's why this is called a shadow system. We don't see it in our day-to-day lives, and it goes on sort of in what people refer to as dark markets.

GROSS: And there's no regulation?

Prof. GREENBERGER: There is no regulation. In fact, when I was in the government, we argued very strenuously that these kinds of hidden bets could be very disruptive to the financial system, and they played as important a role as securities and bonds did, which are regulated. We wanted them to be regulated. That was a battle that we lost out on, and essentially, in December 2000 on the
floor of the Senate, Phil Gramm, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced a piece of legislation that completely deregulated these markets, not only at the federal level but, for the most part, at the state level. So they are completely outside the law, so to speak.

GROSS: And what was this legislation?

Prof. GREENBERGER: It was called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. It was a 262-page bill, and it was added as a rider to an 11,000-page omnibus appropriation bill as Congress was recessing for Christmas in 2000. I would say there was no one, except the drafters of the bill, who understood what it did, and I can assure you that the drafters of the bill were not members of Congress. They were the lawyers for the investment banks on Wall Street. They convinced Senator Gramm to introduce this, they freed the system from any regulation, and we've been embarking on financial fiascoes ever since.

The whole interview is painfully blunt.

http://prairieweather.typepad.com/the_scribe/2008/04/the-shadow-syst.html

Does Gramm's wife Wendy sit on the board of directors at UBS (aka, Enron) jeebus.

You know how Wendy got to sell her stock in Enron just like Ken Lay sold his while all those Enron employees could NOT sell and how to go down the drain and lose everything. Jeebus, how is McBush different than Bush? Same old nasty people are heading everything.

mojo- thanks for that article with link... very informative and disturbing...

Credit Default Swaps are just insurance that a company/issuing entity won't go bankrupt - in fact they have since saved the municipal debt markets from imploding once it came out that the monoline insurers had taken huge positions in subprime debt. Berkshire Hathaway was/is charging huge fees to re-insure municipal debt that was insured by MBIA and AMBAC, but uninsured debt was a cheaper alternative that investors could swallow thanks to the introduction of the Muni CDS market in the fall. The uninsured alternatives help save lots of cities, states, and counties millions of dollars when they had to issue bonds that otherwise would have lined the pockets of Warren Buffett, who of course recently came out as an Obama fan.

I would probably be very careful before implying that CDS contracts are the reason that the subprime mess occurred.

So basically, Phil Gramm is almost solely responsible for the complete downturn of the US economy since 2000. Nice.

Started with the criminal activity of Enron where Phil's wife Wendy Gramm assisted in the accounting nightmare of Enron. Then the Gramm family moved on to corruption in Derivatives used by Wall Street and especially UBS. What a great family legacy of Corrupting the US Economy.

Corn did not report this first

http://www.pubrecord.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=51#comment34

McCain Defends 'Enron Loophole'

The Public Record

Sen. John McCain says he opposes the $307 billion farm bill because it would dole out wasteful subsidies, but his chief economic adviser Phil Gramm also wants to stop its proposed regulation of energy futures trading, a market that was famously abused when Enron Corp. manipulated California’s electricity prices in 2001.

Clearing the way for that California price gouging, Gramm, as a powerful Texas senator in 2000, slipped an Enron-backed provision into the Commodities Futures Modernization Act that exempted from regulation energy trading on electronic platforms.

Then, over the next year, Enron – with Gramm’s wife Wendy serving on its board of directors – worked to create false electricity shortages in California, bilking consumers out of an estimated $40 billion.

A little thing to add about Wendy Gramm:
"In 1992, Wendy Gramm, then chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, approved Enron’s request to exempt its trading of futures contracts from the oversight of her agency. She then quit the commission and, within weeks, was named to Enron’s board of directors, where her special task was to oversee Enron’s accounting procedures."

Timing. Always, timing....

And the credit card bill(s) allowing them to jack up rates on a whim. I've had a 7.9% rate on purchases, transfers and cash advances for 6 - 7 years. I usually pay the balance, I always pay on time; this month the rate on cash advances jumped to 24.99% (not that I would be stupid enough to use credit card cash advance) with no explanation. Also, there was an insert with a big promotion of 'Now pay your bill by phone, easy, fast!' and a tiny notation that 'a $15 service charge may apply.' Wasn't Gramm part of that crew as well?

Extremely interesting and informative comments everyone.

God save us from Texas politicians.

Gramm is a hack, and not particularly bright.

The important thing is to note how deeply involved McShame is with folks who are doing dastardly deeds.

Something tells me that this election is going to be one mud fest when it comes to exposing the ways in which McShame is implicated. Past. Present. It's going to be fun to see all this exposed! Trumpeted.

It will be a Muck Fest! TPM leading the charge.