McCain/Palin stumps are disintegrating into hate rallies

[nbachris2788]

<p>Mr. Payne,</p>

<p>I didn’t write this, but this it should do:</p>

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A little history first. The Glass-Steagall Act was passed in 1933 as a reaction to the events that caused the Great Depression. The best known product of this act is the establishment the FDIC, which has made citizens secure in the knowledge that their savings accounts are protected even if the bank that has their money goes belly up.</p>

<p>The act also contains a huge array of regulations that control speculation and reduce the risk of banks becoming illiquid. Section 21 is the part that is most interesting to us though, it places a wall between investment institutions and depository institutions. A bank that deals in investments cannot take deposits, and a depository bank cannot make investments; An institution that wishes to do both has to create separate business units with separate balance sheets. Banks worked pretty well under those regulations for quite a few decades.</p>

<p>This all changed in 1999 when the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act removed the firewall between investment and depository banks. The repeal of the investment/deposit firewall of the Glass-Steagall Act has been cited by economists Robert Kutner, Robert B. Ekelund, and Mark Thornton as a key contributor to the subprime mortgage crisis and by extension the recent failures of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, and other institutions that are “too big to fail”.</p>

<p>So that gets me back to John McCain’s single vote, which if you haven’t guessed by now he voted YEA in the roll call vote for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. At some point in 1999 his Maverickiness saw something good in removing the firewall between investment and depository banks. A firewall placed to reduce the very same risky behavior of financial institutions that caused the bank failures and the Crash of '29. A fire wall that, for more years than McCain has been alive, has helped our economy weather every major economic storm that has hit our nation. He has not addressed why he believed at the time that it was best to remove that protection.</p>

<p>McCain has no good answer today as to why he voted for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. If he is faced with this vote in a debate he is going to be caught like a deer in headlights. Obama simply needs to asks McCain directly, “why did you vote for a bill in 1999 that repealed an act that was created after the Great Depression to prevent the greed driven shenanigans that are afflicting our economy today?” Such a question will mortally wound the McCain campaign, because it will focus the crowd of pitchfork and torch wielding voters that are looking for somebody to blame for this mess.</p>

<p>McCain is trying to hide from his record right now, because his record on the economy will resonate with the public… and it can destroy him and his chances in November.

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