Posted on 09/15/2008 9:47:14 AM PDT by flyfree
Please see excerpt from John McCain’s remarks to be delivered at a town hall meeting today in Orlando at 12:45pm on the economy and the Obama campaign’s attacks: “Today we are seeing tremendous upheaval on Wall Street. The American economy is in crisis. Unemployment is on the rise and our financial markets are in turmoil. People are concerned about our economic future. But let me say something: this economic crisis is not the fault of the American people. Our workers are the most innovative, the hardest working, the best skilled, most productive, most competitive in the world. My opponents may disagree, but those fundamentals of America are strong. No one can match an American worker. Our workers sell more goods to more markets than any other on earth. Our workers have always been the strength of our economy, and they remain the strength of our economy today. “But their efforts are not being matched at the top. From Washington to Wall Street, the top of our economy is broken. We have seen self interest, greed, irresponsibility and corruption undermine the hard work of the American people. “It’s time to set things right. When I am President, we’re going to put an end to the abuses in Washington and on Wall Street that have resulted in the crisis we are seeing unfold today. “Enough is enough. We are going to reform the way Wall Street does business and put an end to the greed that has driven our markets into chaos. We will stop multimillion dollar payouts to CEO’s who have broken the public trust. We will put an end to running Wall Street like a casino. We will make businesses work for the benefit of their shareholders and employees. And we will make sure that your savings, IRA, 401k and pension accounts are protected.”
Oh please! He sounds like a raging populist loon. Yeah, government reform and more regulations are just what we need. This from the guy who gave us McCain-Feingold.
Heaven help us. McBama - two sides of the same socialist coin.
he needs to start tieing pelosi and reid’s LACK of oversight to these financial problems.
If McCain wants to put our financial house in order, he needs to repeat this mantra. Reduce wasteful government spending! Reduce taxes! (especially on capital) Reduce the burden of government regulation! Maintain a stable currency! Foster low energy prices!
Push these policies.
Sure you need to punish fraud and cheating on Wall Street, ie. criminal activity. Don't simply punish success or luck.
Do these things and you will see a boom that will erase the housing bust and eliminate the credit crunch as investors both here and abroad regain confidence that they will be able to actually earn a decent rate of return on their money here.
On the flip side, if you increase regulation, let the Bush tax cuts expire, increase taxes on business ... in other words, the Obama plan, you will see a continued flight from the dollar and our markets and the housing bust will cause a banking crisis that will bring our economy down around us.
Politically, maybe. In the end, I am not sure how much I want or trust Congressional oversight of the markets. In fact I believe that the more there is, the more corruption likely.
Actually (and this is from a small government conservative) McCain is making some sense here. Lehman failed because it chose to be long in securities of dubious value, i.e. auction rate securities and securitized and allegedly collateralized mortgage obligations and when Barclays demanded that the Treasury guarantee the value of some of that paper, the Treasury refused. Auction rate securities failed, at least temporarily, because the ultimate market for them consisted of the very companies that were creating them and selling them to investors. Securitized mortgage obligations failed in part because the excess liquidity created by them caused the underlying collateral to become overvalued. Some reform of the regulation of the securities and banking industries is appropriate here. At the very least the way that the rating agencies and the bond insurers function should be examined.
Saw McCain on FoxNews. Simply dreadful. No energy or confidence showing. “CEO pay”, “greed”, “immigration reform”. NOTHING about corrupt Democrats in Congress protecting Fannie and Freddie, or sweetheart mortgage deals for Democrats from Countrywide, or Obama’s allies in Fannie and Freddie.
“LACK” is probably a poor choice of words-it should be more like pelosi and reid’s incompetent oversight.
I don't trust any politician as I believe they are all out for their own personal enrichment. Many will do most anything to further this goal including corrupt illegal acts.
I don't trust most businessman for the very same reasons.
McCain is right. Washington and Wall Street are broke.
Wall Street pads the pockets of republicans and democrats in congress and get themselves free from any oversight.
And when their greed leads them over a cliff, they go
get themselves a fat cat deal from those they own in Congress. The American tax payer keeps getting screwed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.