UBS exec and McCain advisor Phil Gramm: U.S. is 'nation of whiners'

Posted Jul 10th 2008 7:21PM by Peter Cohan
Filed under: Presidential Elections

The Washington Times reports that Phil Gramm, UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) vice chairman and senior economic advisor to John McCain (R.-AZ), thinks we're a nation of whiners. Gramm's UBS is a leader on three important fronts in the effort to destroy the U.S. economy: the $1.3 trillion subprime mortgage catastrophe, the $330 billion Auction Rate Securities (ARS) freeze, and a tax evasion scheme of unknown magnitude.

The Washington Times quotes Gramm as saying: "We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining." UBS probably pays Gramm well for his services so I can see where he's coming from. He is making money and he's the only one who matters. But if you think he is helping McCain, think about these things:

Subprime. Politico.com reports that Gramm lobbied Congress, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department about banking and mortgage issues in 2005 and 2006 and received a portion of $750,000 in lobbying fees for his efforts that set the stage for the subprime mortgage catastrophe which cost UBS $32 billion in subprime losses alone.
ARS.Slate.com reports that Massachusetts accused UBS of selling retail brokerage customers ARSs -- about which I posted -- that made money for UBS's investment banking unit but caused the retail customers to suffer significant losses.
Tax evasion. Slate.com also reports that UBS's asset management business is the subject of an ongoing federal investigation, in which Bradley Birkenfeld, an American UBS private banker who was arrested on tax evasion charges, has plead guilty and is cooperating with the government. Birkenfeld helped a client bring diamonds into the U.S. by shoving them in a tube of toothpaste.

Are you comfortable with Gramm's position on Americans and with UBS's actions? I'm not.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in UBS securities.

Tags: auction rate, auction rate securit..., AuctionRate, AuctionRateSecurit..., john mccain, JohnMccain, phil gramm, PhilGramm, subprime, subprime mortgages, SubprimeMortgages, tax evasion, TaxEvasion, ubs, ubsag

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-10-2008 @ 10:17PM

thedude said...

He's right. US citizens are a bunch of whiners. They're ignorant too. They are all a bunch of passive liberal democrat types who expect the government to bail them out every time they do something stupid. Which is everyday. wasn't it PT Barnum who said "There's a sucker born every minute" Well unfortunately the entire worlds supply of suckers are all born in the USA. Fortunately for me I am one of the exceptions that prove the rule and started buying oil at $55 / barrel. $6.00 pump gas and $200 oil. I can only hope - make me a billionaire by the end of the decade.

7-11-2008 @ 12:37AM

Kent said...

I totally forgot about Phil Gramm until now. Didn't know that he is the vice chairman of UBS. If anyone can say we're whiners, Phil can. Anyone who loses $80 billion from unreported losses on his watch (forgive the pun) can say anything he wants to about us. All I can say is Sen. McCain better not appoint him Secretary Treasurer; it's equivalent to letting the fox lose in the hen house.

7-11-2008 @ 3:12AM

Petkov said...

to the Dude: ah, here we go! "Liberal" "democratic" types who "expect the gov to bail them out". Stringing a bunch of words that could mean anything. Last time I checked, the Fed (who happen to be BOTH a private AND gov organization at the same time-I dunno how they keep on pulling that trick!) gave billions of bail out money to the banks. Now the talk is the gov will also have to bail out Freedy and Fanny too. So it's OK for the gov to give billions of tax money to the big corporations, but the average citizen is a "whiny liberal" when they ask for help.

Go ahead, become a millionaire, good luck pal, when the dollar crash comes the ONLY thing all those dollars will be good for is wiping your ass with them.

7-11-2008 @ 7:39AM

Warren said...

thedude

Well, they say that wealth makes you more of what you are - and you look to be on track to become a colossal prick.

7-23-2008 @ 2:15AM

csoiii@aol.com said...

Yes i guess we whine a lot. Probably because 99% of us have the right to whine. 1% of the people have 38% of the nations wealth and pay 1% of the taxes since the Bush administration has been in power. Why would any one not in that 1% even think of voting for John McCain. I hope there is enough room in hell fo those G.O.P crooks that profess to be christian.