McCAIN'S ADVISOR CAN CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR BILLIONS IN FINANCIAL LOSSES

Former Senator Phil Gramm, seen here with Senator McCain, has cost Americans Billions of dollars.



I find it amazing that Senator John McCain has continued to surround himself with individuals such as former Senator Phil Gramm, and his wife Wendy, as close "economic" advisors. Especially when the current Mortgage Crisis, the "Enron Loophole" and now the US Bank Failures can all be blamed on the past actions of this single couple's past financial activities.

It has become very clear that back in 2000, the then Senator Phil Gramm had inserted a seemingly minor provision into the Commodities Futures Modernization Act (CFMA). Gramm's "little addition" to the act exempted energy trading from any oversight or regulation. Previously, energy trading was done mainly under the strict regulations of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which, in 2000, this last organization just happened to be Chaired by Senator Gramm's wife, Wendy. Both of these organizations had rules in place just to prevent the price distortions that Senator Gramm's little known provision eventually exempted. The CFMA bill, with its provision from Senator Gramm, was also strongly supported by the ENRON ENERGY CORPORATION. After the bill was enacted, ENRON and other traders and speculators moved their share of the energy trading business over to the "unregulated" Atlanta based Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), also now called the "dark market".

It should also be noted that when the CFMA was enacted, Senator Gramm was the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee in the then Republican Congress. In addition, the Senator's wife subsequently left the CFTC and was immediately named a Director of ENRON, where she was paid over $900,000 during her time as an ENRON Director.

In 2002, after ENRON had gone bankrupt, documents were released that showed that ENRON had not only helped write the CFMA legislation but had outwardly lobbied Senator Gramm. The results of Senator Gramm's "little addition" to the CFMA was that ENRON ended up bilking consumers out of an estimated $40 Billion. The state of California in particular suffered a long hot season of rolling power black-outs and outrageous energy price increases. And all of this was due to the "false shortages" that were perpetrated, mostly by ENRON, and other unregulated energy traders. The Bush Administration even tried to come to ENRON's rescue and President Bush personally joined in on the efforts to stop adding caps to the soaring electricity prices. Fortunately, ENRON was found out as to what they were doing illegally and eventually went into the tank, but not without also taking its employees, investors and customers with them.

Unfortunately, the Gramm's "little addition" didn't stop there. The "little addition" is now referred to as the "ENRON Loophole" and it had also permitted a hedge fund, AMARANTH ADVISERS to corner the natural gas market while operating on the "dark market" without regulation. AMARANTH ADVISERS virtually bet that the price of natural gas would go sky high and they put the bulk of their investor's money on the natural gas futures market. In 2006, natural gas prices plummeted and AMARANTH cost their investors over $6 Billion. In 2007, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) charged AMARANTH with manipulating prices and recommended a fine of $291 Million plus a forfeiture of "unjust profits". Now, no one knows how the FERC will be able to make their recommended fine stick or just what it means by "unjust profits", but at least for now, they have been stopped.

To demonstrate another area of Senator Gramm's influence, let's look at John McCain's latest vote in the Senate against the latest Senate Farm Bill. Senator McCain's aides have said that McCain is against the bill because it rewards large farms with "lucrative subsidies". But the aide also said that another reason is that Senator McCain doesn't like the "regulations that the bill imposes on the energy futures".

Senator McCain, is currently the Republican candidate for President that admits that; "I don't know as much about the US economy as I should". I wonder which of his advisors put the idea into McCain's head against the Senate Farm Bill that just also happens to provide a provision against the "ENRON Loophole"? Gee, I wonder who that could have been...?

It is interesting to hear all the comments from the conservatives about Senator Obama's relationships with individuals that may say things that people may not agree with or support. However, I don't believe I can recall any of Obama's associates or advisors that have done things that ended up costing investors or average Americans' billions of dollars. And I also have to say that one could surmise that due to Senator Gramm's "little addition" that removed any regulations, it might also have something to do with why the oil speculators in today's "dark market" have been able to move the price we pay at the pump up to more than $4.00 a gallon.
Gee, I wonder...............................