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Well PC, I don't much care for Obama, but seems awfully preferable to the mega-crook, imperialists around McCain. Phil Gramm for example. Here is the rest of the article I linked above.

Why Are We Surprised? From Enron to the Current Meltdown (cont'd)

.......The most toxic element of the current market meltdown are credit derivatives, a financial instrument that was almost non-existent prior to 2000. And the growth of the credit derivatives business is due largely to one of John McCain’s pals, former Texas senator, Phil Gramm.... Gramm hailed the measure, saying it “protects financial institutions from over-regulation.” He went on, saying it also “guarantees that the United States will maintain its global dominance of financial markets.”

Global dominance may be a worthy goal, but Gramm’s bill also contained a provision which Congressional aides referred to as the "Enron exemption.” This bit of legislative legerdemain made into law a regulatory exemption on derivatives contracts that was first rushed into place by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 1993 when that agency was chaired by Gramm’s wife, Wendy Gramm. ...

... More than any other piece of legislation, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act paved the way for the financial engineers on Wall Street to buy and sell the infamous derivatives known as “credit default swaps” with virtually no oversight. According to one Washington, D.C.-based expert on derivatives who asked that his name and affiliation not be used, the bill that Gramm sponsored “led directly to the current meltdown. In 2000, the total value of the credit derivatives business was less than $1 trillion. By this year, the credit derivatives business was worth more than $60 trillion.” ...

... Enron gave Congress and the Bush administration all of the rationales that were needed to justify proper regulation of the financial markets. Enron clearly showed the need for more cops – well paid cops who have the backing of their bosses – to patrol the corporate boardrooms and study corporate accounting practices. Enron’s bankruptcy also demonstrated the dangers of uncontrolled derivatives businesses. But those lessons were merrily ignored by Gramm, Greenspan and their cronies on Wall Street.

So I have to ask again: why are we surprised?

http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/10/09/why-are-...

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