Don't know why McCain wants the connection to Gramm. Gramm is not good for his campaign. Oh, but I don't care. All the better for the Democrats?

It shows again that prominent Republicans just don't know the difference between right and wrong.

Now we have a GOP former WH press secretary who writes a book stating that the press was not tough enough in asking questions! Iraq and other major problems in our country are their fault, you see.

Gramm is one of the architects of the Gramm-Leach banking deregulation act that abolished regulations put in place after The Depression to keep banking, securities, and insurances industries separate.

Among other things, it also basically created some of the exotic products such as derivatives and credit swaps that have gotten some big banks (and state pension plans) in trouble and made it virtually impossible for investors to know what they are buying.

It also overrode state usury laws, and allowed banks to set credit card rates as high as any national bank operating in their state. This means a bank can ignore state interest limits and charge the same 30% or whatever charged by a credit card company operating out of South Dakota, where there were (are?) no usury laws meaning they can charge whatever they want. So what do you think happened to credit card interest rates?

The bill also strengthened consumer privacy and disclosure, but at the cost of compromise on the usury rules and the gift of letting banks, brokerages, and insurance companies freely share your private financial information unless you "opt out."

I'm no economist or financial guru, but I have a general sense that the capital markets and financial services industries are less stable and the average person's money, whether in banks or investments, is less safe. And even if it is safe, the average person basically has no way of knowing, while at the same time banks and brokerages know everything about you including things you probably don't know such as your credit score and predictive behavior.

P.S. I believe I recall sending Pres. Clinton a letter urging him to veto this.