Edited and borrowed thoughts on McCain and the Keating 5
*** I found these comments and statements important enough to borrow and share with you all.If you are too young to know about the Keating 5 S & L scandal of the late 80's be sure to look it up.McCain and his buddies damn near brought us to our financial knees back in the 80's .We are already bleeding laying face down on the streets right now with the financial situation we are in today.Folks we are in a recession and heading toward another great depression like there was in the 20's.Don't believe me.... go look into history....funny how it tends to repeat itself.Don't buy the Mcain crap...but please make sure you at least go out and VOTE VOTE VOTE.****
William Black -- a deputy director of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation during the "Keating Five" scandal that nearly ended McCain's political career -- says the Arizona Republican's chief errors at the time were underestimating the importance of regulation and relying too heavily on slanted advice from captains of industry.
"In the S&L crisis, he took his advice from the worst [kind of] criminal. Charles Keating is the person he went to for his policy advice," Black said. "Now, he certainly is getting advice from Phil Gramm, Carly Fiorina, Rick Davis -- the whole group of economic and top political advisers are lobbyist types. He just doesn't seem to get it, ever, that the advice is going to favor their clients. Even if they just stop being lobbyists, you can't just turn that off instantly. It's their mind state that develops. ... The biggest lesson is that, when you deregulate and de-supervise, you create an environment where control fraud emerges. You hyper-inflate bubbles; you get criminalization.
In 1991, McCain railed against raising the FDIC insurance limit from $40,000 to its current $100,000 level. "The perversity of Federal deposit insurance is exemplified by the taxpayer bailout of the savings and loan industry," McCain said, while omitting his own role in the scandal that actually precipitated the S&L crisis.
Of course McCain is repeating the mistakes he made during the S&L crises! He was never punished for his part in that mess, and believe me: he WAS a huge player in it. He only escaped going to jail by ratting on the other men involved! You don't learn from your mistakes that way. You learn that you got away with it once, so...why change what worked the first time?
This man escaped jail time by the skin of his teeth I'm sure because he aligned himself with Glenn a national hero . Go further why did he put himself on the committee to bring back the POW's from Viet Nam and thwart every measure to bring them back? Was it the 32 tapes he made and the nickname of "Songbird" his comrades gave him the reason? Those tapes have been sealed! Let's hear them Sir, and we will decide the kind of hero you were!
Those of us who recall Keating and S&L crisis know that McC wasn't cleared. He paid taxes on the $13,000 in perks and trips from Keating he neglected to report.
See, so he can say, "Cleared" and then it becomes complicated to explain why he's lying.
More important that K-5 is McC's decades-long involvement with Phil Gramm and his support/cooperation in Gramm's relentless legistation favoring deregulation.
First we got the S& L debacle that cost taxpayers $$$$
Then we got more dereg and Enron happened -- another "big surprise" -- Hah!
More dereg (thanks for McC and Gramm) and we get this financial crisis.
Isn't it all American to say, "Three strikes and you're out?" I'm voting Obama trusting he can bring in a GREAT cabinet of experts to help solve our problems. And, I'm voting Democrats into Congress because it is time to get off the stalemate and work for OUR good.
