Deutsche-Welles, a German news outlet available over PBS
was highly illuminating tonight. Apparently many top toffs in
China have acquired offshore Caribbean numbered accounts
as tax shelters. I chuckled, thinking, "Never let it be said that
bad habits can't be copied". But I stopped smiling when the
next sentence revealed that these bad actors' actions are being
directly mediated by American-influenced UBS and
another bank or two.
Once again Phil Gramm demonstrates there isn't a pot of
slime he's unwilling to lick from. He has enjoyed a high position
with UBS since about 2002, after spending several terms in
the U.S. Senate; in ~1999 he convinced others and another
Southerner, President Clinton, to eviscerate the Glass-Steagall
Banking Act(s), passed in 1933 and 1934 . These acts kept the
banks from irresponsible expropriating and speculating with
depositors' funds; recessions in the intervening 60+ years were
as nothing to now.
It took less than ten years for this deregulation to create cretin-
inspired exotic financial instruments, CDOs, unregulated hedge
funds, et al., to play a major role in bringing down the world's
economy, aka the Great Recession, 2007. Despite Pollyanna
forecasting and hopeful chirps from feel-good economists, the
bald numbers don't lie: until we get to a sustained unemployment
level of between five and 6% in the U.S., the "recovery" has only
been in the New York financial district and related exchanges
across the country...oh, and in their wealthy clients' portfolios,
the top five percent or so.
Back to that wily Texian, "filthy" Phil Gramm: It is no
coincidence, but rather, cause and effect, which has UBS
functioning as China's dirty laundry machine--here they are,
the Chinese, the U.S.'s frenemies at present, aping our
scurrilous, secret tax evasion practices.
Say, Phil, can we get you to wash your hands now,
free yourself from the world-wide pollution you've
helped to generate? If you HAD a conscience we
might be able to persuade you....
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Oh yes.
ReplyDeleteMuch of what Mr G and DA BOYZ!!! are doing is WASHING a shore.MY, MY, MY!
Lester, you always make me laugh--Dan thinks you are funny too. But there's always a message with the humor also--best wishes!
DeleteOh yeah, that's the same Phil Gramm who once referred to us collectively as "a nation of whiiiiners!" That disgusting excuse for a human being will never change.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, Senator Elizabeth Warren is planning to introduce a bill that will revive the Glass-Steagall Act. And, surprisingly, John McCain has agreed to co-sponsor it. But unless, against heavy odds, the Democrats can recapture the House this November, we can probably look forward to another couple of years of a do-nothing Congress, with plenty of Phil Gramm acolytes --- "Gramm Crackers", so to speak.
Crackers is right--nuthatches that like to eat the crackers, absorbing every bad idea....
DeleteAccording to the Wharton School, PA, CDOs are back. I've always said few learn from experience, and this is just another instance of that, sadly. If only others' stupidity didn't trail the rest of us in its wake!
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