Would The Architect of Glass-Steagall Please Come On Down

Nice to see the Washington Post offer a little straight talk about America's most mavericky, mavericking maverick ever and his array of contradictory (yet evil!) economic advisers:

One of them helped deregulate the financial services industries in the 1990s, and now sits in the corporate suites of Swiss banking giant UBS, which yesterday announced $19 billion in investment losses tied to the crumbling U.S. real estate market. The other pushed one of the most aggressive and controversial mergers of the technology boom, then was sacked by the disenchanted board of Hewlett-Packard.

Former senator Phil Gramm, with his aw-shucks Texas drawl, may at first blush have little in common with Carly Fiorina, the telegenic former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard. But they share a bond: Both are leading economic advisers of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee for president, and both have reputations as the kind of aggressive capitalists that may be sliding from favor as the nation's economy edges toward recession....

The spiraling crisis in the credit and housing markets has kept Gramm in focus, fairly or not. His employer, UBS, revealed yesterday that investment losses tied to the U.S. housing market reached $37 billion over the last six months. For the last three months, UBS posted a $12 billion loss.

Gramm, UBS's vice chairman, said yesterday he was "totally unaware" of his bank's massive holdings of securities tied to subprime mortgages, but, he added, "I'm confident we'll recover."

OK, a) it seems one could be either totally unaware of the state of the bank's balance sheet, or justly confident in its solvency, but surely not both. B), could we please make a national agreement to stop pretending that people's southern or Texan accents mean they're some sort of bumpkin naïf likely to be scared by the horseless streetcars and complex derivative swaps of the big city? FFS.

Comments

[The Modesto Kid]

Your (a) seems wrong to me: I think it would make it a lot easier to maintain confidence in UBS's ability to recover from the crisis, if one maintained a state of total ignorance about UBS's investments in sub-prime mortgages. Your (b) is a good idea though.

[belle waring]

I said "justly", man. but, yeah.

[Cala]

B) is good, but to it I'd add C) the possession of a southern or Texan accent shall not be taken as evidence that the bearer is of good, plainspoken, moral character.

[Luke]

Cala, can we add a...hmm, codicil to C?

If one is in fact bearing such accent, dollars to donuts, there are excellent odds bearer has intention to do harm to the integrity of the of the republic, and should have their motives questioned at every turn.

[Gareth Wilson]

Interesting theory on the accents. How does Molly Ivins fit with it?

[dsquared]

could we please make a national agreement to stop pretending that people's southern or Texan accents mean they're some sort of bumpkin naïf likely to be scared by the horseless streetcars and complex derivative swaps of the big city? FFS

if this is preparing the ground for a campaign to get "Dallas" back on the telly, count me in.

[bitchphd]

I think the point of the comparison with Fiorina was more to emphasize that Gramm is tit free.

[The Modesto Kid]

Contra your (b), the opening monologue of No Country For Old Men is pretty amazing.