Keating Economics: John McCain and the Making of a Financial Crisis »
Posted By Neophile 1 month, 4 weeks ago in Politics
The current economic crisis demands that we understand John McCain's attitudes about economic oversight and corporate influence in federal regulation. Nothing illustrates the danger of his approach more clearly than his central role in the savings and loan scandal of the late '80s and early '90s.
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Neophile
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Comments So Far: 252
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not2needy1 month, 4 weeks ago
Now Obama needs to do some more exposes`, and let the world know how Johnny kept Cindy out of prison after she committed forgery, fraud, theft and smuggling drugs internationally. Let the world know the kind of man John McCain is bit by bit.
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Then do another one about his record as a student at the academy, the number of planes he crashed and how many he was responsible for killing as the result of the fire on the ship Forrester*.. Then he went out to party, said he needed R
John McCain is truly a dispicable man! Everything he has done needs to be exposed. People can change, but he has been the way he is since he was a toddler! Per his own parents, his temper was so violent when he was a mere toddler that he would hold his breath until he passed out, they had to dunk him in cold water to revive him.
Is THAT the man you want with his finger on the button? If he is, God have mercy on you!-
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Georgia501 month, 4 weeks ago
The Democrat investigating the Keating 5 found absolutely no wrongdoing by McCain. He went to his Crat taskmasters and told them McCain should not be part of the investigation.
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The filth told him he could not let McCain go because it would look bad for them...all the other 4 were Democrats.
You were saying?-
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ADAGUY1 month, 4 weeks ago
"The Democrat investigating the Keating 5 found absolutely no wrongdoing by McCain."
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When did you start listening to the democrats?
http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/10/06/lets-not... -
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ETproductions1 month, 4 weeks ago
Georgia50 wrote: "The Democrat investigating the Keating 5 found absolutely no wrongdoing by McCain. He went to his Crat taskmasters and told them McCain should not be part of the investigation."
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Not true. The Senate is a very collegial club. They don't discipline their own easily. They publicly criticized McCain for exercising "Poor judgment". Cranston was "reprimanded". Riegle and DeConcini were "Criticized for acting improperly". McCain and Glenn got off with "Exercising poor judgment".
You try loosing 150 billion dollars of taxpayer money outside the Senate, and you get a whole lot worse than "Exercising poor judgment" or -- shudder -- "A reprimand".
The telling point is that the whole debacle was brought about by McCain's passion for deregulation and laissez-faire capitalism -- and McCain learned NOTHING from it. He's been busily deregulating us into the 700 Billion mortgage meltdown.
He now claims he's going to "Clean up the greed and corruption on Wall Street and K Street. Riiiight. Erm, that's what the regulators you hate actually are for, Senator. -
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lfergie8121 month, 4 weeks ago
Georgia50
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The whole thing was squashed because the whole Bush family was knee deep in the scandal and daddy was the president at the time.
http://members.tripod.com/rationalrevolution0/war/...
You were saying?? -
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dunkirk1 month, 4 weeks ago
Sounds like a case of poor judegement by McCain . SO we have McLame making bad decisions on fianancial matters costing people their life savings. Yeah lets see if hes learned his lesson. Altho if you look his push for deregualtion has led to the disaster we;re facing now. And CPns the part you always leave out when you mention the bill he was for well after it wasw being tossed about and defeated by a REPUBLICAN controlled committee was he was FOr Deregulation BEFORE he was against it BEFORE he was for it again. WHatever the people want to hear is what McSame will say. Lets not forget what the Republicans objected to in teh original bailout wasnt 700 billion going to Wall Street but the call for OVERSIGHT on how the money is used and accountability.
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raats66621 month, 4 weeks ago
Georgia50-"The Democrat investigating the Keating 5 found absolutely no wrongdoing by McCain."
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Actually, that's NOT true. They found that he did nothing CRIMINAL, but was sanctioned for 'poor judgement'.
Most NORMAL people would consider that 'wrongdoing'. Just because you weren't CAUGHT breaking the law does NOT mean you didn't do anything wrong. -
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Lurch1 month, 3 weeks ago
That is blatantly wrong.
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They found that McCain had done plenty wrong, actually the most wrong. But McCain was in political survival mode, on TV every chance he had explaining to all who would listen how he was a POW.
Behind the scenes, McCain was placing all the blame and focus on the others. He was truly a backstabber and a phony. McCain took more money and favors from Keating than anybody in the world. He should have been charged with felony tax dodging, which he only admitted to after caught. You or I would have been, but then again we`re not former POWs like John keeps reminding us every time he is politically in trouble.
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TheVisionary1 month, 4 weeks ago
Obama will likely not hit McCain hard enough on Keating 5 because that isn't his style and some people may consider it "too old" considering it happened about 20 years ago. I wouldn't call McCain "truly a dispicable man" despite the fact that I do not want him to be our president and fear his presidency as much as I did Bush's. I would call Cheney a despicable man, but McCain is a man driven by a kind of blind ambition to be president despite having no real plan for bringing this country out of the rut it's in.
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Osbama_lin_BidenComment removed: User banned.4 Replies
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raats66621 month, 4 weeks ago
TheVisionary: "Obama will likely not hit McCain hard enough on Keating 5 because that isn't his style and some people may consider it "too old" considering it happened about 20 years ago."
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You what I REALLY love. That in the eyes of the NeoCons this is "too old" and "irrelevant" (even though it DIRECTLY caused the $700 Billion Wall Street bailout) but Bill Ayers "is absolutely relevant because it shows that Barack Obama has poor judgement in who he associates with."
The fact that Bill Ayers actions were 40 years ago, the fact that Bill Ayers DIDN'T cost the US tax payers over $120 BILLION and oh, did I mention, Ayers NEVER went to jail (unlike Keating who DID go to jail as a DIRECT result of his actions which John McCain was involved in).
So I'm just a little curious can ANYONE tell me WHY Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright ARE so relevant with regard to Barak Obama and Charles Keating is NOT relevant with regard to John McCain?
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Klarissa1 month, 4 weeks ago
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five
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The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The five senators, Alan Cranston (D-CA), Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), John Glenn (D-OH), John McCain (R-AZ), and Donald W. Riegle (D-MI), were accused of improperly intervening in 1987 on behalf of Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of a regulatory investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB). The FHLBB subsequently backed off taking action against Lincoln.
Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in 1989, at a cost of $2 billion to the federal government. Some 23,000 Lincoln bondholders were defrauded and many elderly investors lost their life savings.
The substantial political contributions that Keating had made to each of the senators, totalling $1.3 million, attracted considerable public and media attention.
After a lengthy investigation, the Senate Ethics Committee determined in 1991 that Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald Riegle had substantially and improperly interfered with the FHLBB in its investigation of Lincoln Savings, with Cranston receiving a formal reprimand.
Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised "poor judgment".
All five of the senators involved served out their terms.-
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Progressive1 month, 4 weeks ago
Is that the latest GOP revision to wikipedia? I think that's why teachers don't allow kids to use wikipedia for homework references.
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72LIAME1 month, 4 weeks ago
RE' USS FORRESTAL---IT WAS HIS PLANE THE "BOMB\" FELL OFF OF---HE WAS IN THE COCKPIT--WAITING TO TAKE OFF..WHY DID THE BOMB "DROP" OFF???
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HOW DID A MAN WHO CAME IN ALMOST DEAD LAST IN HIS CLASS AT THE NAVAL ACADEMY--GET SENT TO NAVY FLIGHT TRIANING???
MAYBE WHEN YOUR DAD IS AN ADMIRLA???? WHY DID HE NOT GET WASHED OUT ???MAYBE BECAUSE HIS DAD WAS AN ADMIRAL???
A CASE COULD BE MADE--MCCAIN IS A SCREW UP,,WITH POWERFUL FRIENDS...
HE TAKES THE SIDE OF MEXICAN WORKERS OVER AMERICANS..HE WANTS CHEAP SCAB LABOR FOR ALL HIS RICH FRIENDS...
NO FRIEND OF THE AMERICAN WORKER..-
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beavith11 month, 4 weeks ago
how's about you stop screaming?
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it wasn't his plane the bomb fell off. redo your research. then let it go.
when you come out of a military academy, you make choices as to what job you want to head to next.. you get matched up with available openings. let it go.
72Lame.. let me ask you a question... what do you call the guy that graduates last in his medical school class? doctor.
all graduating members of an academy are highly functioning individuals half are going to finish in the upper half, half are going to finish in the lower half. let it go.
as far as getting washed out, there's no way for you to know. the only folks that would know are the naval academy. are they talking? let it go.
a case could be made that he's ascrewup, but it wouldn't be very compelling. let it go.
he takes the side of mexican workers over americans? WTF is that about? let it go.
you've made mistaken/unsubstantiated allegations. you've got nothing. let it go. -
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Klarissa1 month, 4 weeks ago
The Forrestal Disaster, July 29, 1967
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At the time of this incident Lt. Cdr. McCain already had flown several bombing missions over North Vietnam from the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. As he was in his A-4 Skyhawk, loaded with two, 1,000-pound bombs and waiting on the carrier deck for his turn to launch, a Zuni missile accidentally fired from another aircraft, swooshed across the carrier deck and struck either McCain's plane or one next to it.
That triggered a fire and a series of bomb and missile explosions that killed 134 sailors. McCain himself barely escaped alive. He quickly leaped from his plane into the pool of burning jet fuel that immediately surrounded him. About 90 seconds later he was blown 15 feet back when the first bomb “cooked off” and exploded, killing several nearby firefighters.
James M. Caiella has written a scholarly article about the disaster, which appeared in the Fall 2003 issue of Foundation magazine, a publication of the National Naval Aviation Museum, located in Pensacola, Fla. Caiella, who is now associate editor of Proceedings and Naval History magazines, published by the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis, generously shared with us copies of some key documents which he obtained from the Navy under the Freedom of Information Act. They include a typed transcript of the sworn testimony that McCain gave less than two weeks after the disaster, on Aug. 5, 1967, and also a written statement he submitted prior to his testimony, describing the first moments of the disaster:
McCain, 1967 statement: I heard a loud explosion and immediate fire all around the airplane . . . Smoke and flame were around the cockpit so I unstrapped . . . and unplugged my oxygen hose, keeping my visor down. I looked to the aft of the airplane and saw nothing but flame and I could see burning fuel in front and around the airplane but it did not look too bad to the forward. I opened the canopy and walked out on the refueling probe and jumped from the end of it, landing just on the edge of the fire and rolled clear..
McCain said that he rushed to help another pilot who had gotten out of his plane and had jumped into the flames and rolled clear, but was still on fire.
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amervtrn1 month, 4 weeks ago
If you are playing the blame game or fighting the party wars, you are a Loser. This has been coming on for over forty years. Educate yourself. Do not let rhetoric lead you. Those who fail to remember the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat them.There is nothing here we have not seen before.
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lfergie8121 month, 4 weeks ago
If you would have said 30 years I might be inclined to agree but you're right. This whole crisis was brought on by politicians on both sides that took money from the bank lobbyist in exchange for deregulation. For the Republicans to blame the Democrats for the economic collapse in their campaign ads is ludicrous and insults the intelligence of the American people.
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Endoscopy1 month, 4 weeks ago
Typical neophile smear story. This video shows only a totally super biased version of what happened. In both houses there is a bipartisan ethics committee. Equal numbers of both parties. These people take their job seriously.
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There were 5 Senators who attended that meeting.
Alan Cranston (D-CA)
Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ)
John Glenn (D-OH)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Donald W. Riegle (D-MI)
Notice that there were 4 Democrats and 1 Republican. These are the Keating 5 that the Liberals like to try and hang around McCains neck.
Problem with this hack job.
2 Senators, John Glenn and John McCain, were exonerated of any ethics violations.
3 Senators,Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, and Donald W. Riegle, were found guilty of ethics charges and were censured.
Three Democrats found guilty. And neophile thinks to try and blame McCain for what he was found NOT GUILTY of doing.
With regards to finance of the mess we are in.
The CRA created under Carter and signed in 1977 and modified in 1992 under Clinton and went into effect in 1995 caused the sub prime loans and FORCED banks to have a good CRA rating if they wished to expand and add new branch offices. So they made bad loans as a cost of doing business forced on them by the banking regulators.
In 2000 Clinton asked congress to modify the regulations. In 2003 Bush requested congress to look into the problem that Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac were getting into.problems. In 2005 and 2006 the same thing happened. The Democrats howled and charged all kinds of mean and nasty things on the part of the man bringing the facts of his investigation to congress. There are videos of them. Barney Frank said that there is nothing wrong with Fannie and Freddy. Threats of a filibuster in the senate can kill any bill if the party out of power wants it killed. So in 2005 the bill was reported out of committee and that was all.
What did McCain say?
I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.
I urge my colleagues to support swift action on this GSE reform legislation.
The Democrats refused to listen to McCain and the rest is history. Thank you Liberals and Democrats for creating this mess in the first place and then refusing to fix it while it was still easier to do..
Typical neophile smear job full of twisted facts. Are you proud of smearing an honorable man. Of course you have no concept of honor from the stories I see you push here at Propeller. And you are a scout.-
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lfergie8121 month, 4 weeks ago
Very good Endo. Four Democrats and one Republican so why didn't George H W Bush who was president at the time try destroy the Democrats and leave one fairly new Republican senator out to dry. Because his boys were knee deep in the scandal also and he wanted the investigation into the Savings and Loan scandal to stop.
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You point out that the Democrats refused to listen but in reality it was the Republicans that refused to listen to John McCain's grandstanding. If McCain was truly against deregulation why would he have Phil Gramm, who pushed the deregulation bill in 1999, as his financial adviser? Because McCain's as phony as a three dollar bill, that's why. -
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raats66621 month, 4 weeks ago
Endo-"Notice that there were 4 Democrats and 1 Republican. These are the Keating 5 that the Liberals like to try and hang around McCains neck."
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It's so nice that we can ALWAYS count on you and your mentality 'sure we such but you suck MORE.'
No one is disputing that Democrats were involved. Unlike NeoCon, Democrats USUALLY have NO trouble slamming stupid Democrats.
The DIFFERENCE is that McCain is NOW trying to say that the current economic crisis is the FAULT of Democrats when the FACT is that it was Republican (and McCain leading the charge) that brought about the very deregulation that made this meltdown possible.
The fact that McCain was involved in the Keating mess and learned NOTHING speaks VOLUMES about his steadfast belief that personal/corporate profits are MORE important then what is best for American taxpayers or American citizens. -
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lfergie8121 month, 4 weeks ago
“Campaigning in Camden, SC, McCain said ‘I am a proud Republican conservative with a 17-year record of voting, not rhetoric, but voting against higher taxes, for smaller government, for less regulation.’” [Greenville News, 1/10/00]
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“I Have A Long Voting Record In Support Of Deregulation.” McCain, at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing as having said, “I have a long voting record in support of deregulation.” [St. Petersburg Times, 6/5/03]
In the Immediate Wake of Bear Stearns, McCain’s Response Was to Call for Less Regulation. In a major economic speech, after offering a diagnosis of the troubles facing the housing and financial markets, John McCain’s proposed solution was less overall regulation. “In financial institutions, there is no substitute for adequate capital to serve as a buffer against losses. Our financial market approach should include encouraging increased capital and financial institutions by removing regulatory, accounting and tax impediments to raising capital.” [McCain speech, 3/25/08] -
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Tangent0011 month, 4 weeks ago
"The CRA created under Carter and signed in 1977 and modified in 1992 under Clinton and went into effect in 1995 caused the sub prime loans and FORCED banks to have a good CRA rating if they wished to expand and add new branch offices. So they made bad loans as a cost of doing business forced on them by the banking regulators."
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First off, the CRA 'went into effect' when it was passed in 1977 and was designed to prevent the practice of 'red-lining' whereby a bank could refuse a loan based solely on the house being in a 'bad (usually minority) neighborhood'. The facts are, one half of the current bad sub-prime loans were issued by private mortgage firms that were not under CRA regulation at all. Another third were loans by CRA regulated banks, but had nothing to do with CRA compliance. That leaves one sixth of existing bad paper that MIGHT be attributable to CRA. But then, when CRA was weakened, sub-prime loans INCREASED.
No, it was the gradual elimination of the Glass-Steagall Act and legislation that allowed mortgage firms to merge with insurance and other financial firms, effectively creating the 'financial services' industry. These new mega-entities operated with fewer and fewer regulations, shuffling bad debt around to make themselves look far healthier than they actually were. And THAT, my friend, was started by the veto-proof Republican congress of 1999. -
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Lurch1 month, 3 weeks ago
McCain was caught redhanded, as the worst of the Keating Five. He had taken the most money and gifts, and had become personally involved with advancing Keating`s business schemes.
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However, McCain went on a nation-wide TV blitz reminding everyone he was a tortured POW.
Behind the scenes, McCain added up all the illegal gifts and immediately sent a check from his wife`s account for all the back taxes he had illegally evaded.
He played the sympathy card in public while playing the CYA card in private as well.
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Will13131 month, 4 weeks ago
but .. but .. there were DEMOCRATS involved too..
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yes they were and all of them Democrat and Republican should have shared a cell with Mr. Keating..
BILLIONS AND BILLIONS that one cost us.. .. kinda like today..
but hey ... deregulation is good..-
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mivan41 month, 4 weeks ago
You guys SOOOOOO very badly need to get a clue. McCain was acquitted of ALL wrong doing in the Keating case, but three Democrats went to JAIL. Now Obama and Dodd are the top donation getters from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae! and the two have supported Fannie and Freddie by RESISTING OVERSIGHT proposals that both McCain and Bush had presented earlier! Follow the money - THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO UMMMM..
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