[forestal]

Yep, add it to their legacy...

In the 1990s, after the Republicans took control of Congress, Phil Gramm was able to pass the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which largely deregulated the banking industry and allowed banks to merge with securities firms. John McCain strongly supported and voted for the bill. After that, Gramm slipped an amendment into an omnibus appropriations bill which deregulated the trading of financial instruments and allowed banks and brokers to trade mortgages as if they were stocks and bonds. This opened up the floodgates to massive trading of sub-prime mortgages.
...

Gramm later left the senate for a top position with UBS, a giant international financial firm which owns banks and investment firms such as PaineWebber. At UBS, Gramm lobbied Congress, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the Treasury Department on behalf of the banks. He sought to have Congress pass a law designed to forbid states from enforcing stronger laws against predatory lending. As a result of Gramm’s efforts, the law forbidding state regulation of banks was passed, and lenders were free to practice predatory lending. Sub-prime mortgages became routine, and the trading of sub-prime mortgages in bulk became a widespread practice on Wall Street. When millions of people defaulted on those mortgages, the economy went into a tailspin.

Now John McCain, one of the Republicans who deregulated the banks and brokerages and enabled this disaster to happen, is running for President. Without any trace of irony, this Republican is shouting out against the lack of bank regulation! This Republican is talking about putting the chief congressional deregulator of banks, Phil Gramm, into the Cabinet as Treasury Secretary. We are being asked to forget about the perennial Republican opposition to bank regulation and to forget about McCain’s role as a deregulator. We are asked to forget that Phil Gramm and other McCain advisors have been powerful lobbyists for the banking industry.