And let's not forget that three days after the ink was dry on that bill, one Bob Rubin (remember him from Clinton's administration?) went to work for Citibank - as co-chairman.

Nice eh?

Well now to be fair, these banks have spent plenty of money lobbying with both political parties. But that's not the real issue. No, that's the fact that Mr. Gramm has been recently on the payroll of UBS as a lobbyist - as recently as December 2007!

"'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' reported Tuesday night that lobbying disclosure forms, filed by the giant Swiss bank UBS, list McCain's campaign co-chair, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, as a lobbyist dealing specifically with legislation regarding the mortgage crisis as recently as Dec. 31, 2007."

But my outrage isn't just directed at the fact that UBS had Mr. Gramm lobbying on the housing bailouts (specifically, against for homeowners and one would assume "for" the banks), although perhaps it should be, given that Mr. Gramm worked tirelessly to (successfully) kill the bill that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to "cram down" modifications on delinquent mortgages - a right that judges used to have before bankruptcy "reform" removed it.

Oh no. My ire is directed at the fact that UBS has apparently directed its staff not to visit the United States:

"UBS has told members of its former private banking team responsible for rich US clients not to travel to America.

The Swiss bank has also made lawyers available to the more than 50 bankers involved, many of whom have left UBS since it decided last November to wind down its cross-border private banking business for US ­customers."

What's this about? Oh, its rather quite simple. You see, UBS is alleged to have helped some very rich clients of the bank evade (illegally, it would appear) the Internal Revenue Service. You know, tax evasion?

Yeah. See, according to US law you are subject to tax no matter where you stick your assets. But many wealthy people have been known to establish offshore bank and brokerage accounts in places like Lichenstein and Switzerland, which have rather solid bank secrecy laws. They then trade or otherwise make money using that money, and don't report it. The IRS, having no means to compel a bank or other institution in a nation beyond the United States to produce records, is stuck.

But whether you can get away with it or not doesn't change the law, which is that as a United States Citizen you have a duty to report all your income and pay taxes on it.

UBS is alleged to have helped a significant number of very wealthy Americans evade paying those very same taxes by hiding income offshore. That's a serious federal offense, if its true.

But heh, it all seems to be ok, right? After all, UBS still has regulatory authority to operate in the United States; there are still plenty of UBS offices all over the land, including one near me.

Yet the company is directing its executives not to travel to the United States.

Oh, and Gramm, who is McCain's economic adviser, is taking money from this very same company as a lobbyist.

How very nice.

As I've pointed out, if we elect Senator Obama in November (as I believe we will) as President your taxes will go up. That's a foregone conclusion. But Senator Obama at least has been honest enough to tell you that your taxes will go up.

Senator McCain, on the other hand, has as a chief economic adviser a guy who is lobbying on behalf of a firm that is alleged to have helped a certain very few, very rich United States citizens evade paying those very same taxes, which of course means that you and I, who aren't so wealthy and aren't inclined to felonious conduct, get to pay extra taxes. That very same advisor has put a significant amount of effort into insuring that when you are ripped off due to unfair or even deceptive loan practices, and you go bankrupt as a result, the judge can't modify the terms of that loan - a right that he used to have before it was stripped from him as part of bankruptcy "reform."

Now I accept that taxes are going to go up one way or another after the November elections. It is inevitable that Bush's tax cuts will expire, given the composition of The House and Senate. I accept that.

But Senator Obama is honest enough to tell us that these outcomes will be headed our way, and, at least as far as I can tell, the very wealthy who are inclined to take their money and stick it in an offshore account won't be exempt.

McCain, on the other hand, has as his chief economic adviser a guy who is doing lobbying work for a bank that is accused of helping some very wealthy clients illegally evade paying those very same taxes, along with (successfully) lobbying to insure that if you got screwed by one of those very nice bankers the bankruptcy judge can't help you.

And people wonder why, for the first time since I first gained the franchise at the age of 18, I'm inclined to vote for Obama for President come November?

(PS: And lest you think this is simply a Democrat thing, its not. If Hillery were the front-runner I'd have to vote for Mickey. After all, it was her husband that led to this unprecedented financial rape of the public in the first place with that same Senator Gramm's bill in the late 90s....)

One final thing. While the market liked the Durables report, have a peek inside and look at defense and non-defense. Defense orders up 4.8%, non-defense down 1.4%.

CNBS, of course, made a lot of noise about the fact that "ex transport" durables were up, but they said nothing about the non-defense decline, nor the fact that inventories are at the highest level since the series tracking them was started in 1992.

In other words manufacturers are building a lot of "stuff" but it ain't getting sold, and the civilian economy continues to slow significantly. The entire "improvement" this month was on the back of defense spending, presumably to replace the bullets and bombs that our boys are expending over in Iraq.

Our national lie-and-spin "bubblevision" network, of course, said the exact opposite this morning - that the civilian economy is stronger than expected and "there are no signs of a recession."

CNBS has become Goebbels-Vision at its finest, sucking the American Investor in through blatantly and intentionally omitting key pieces of information from their "reporting."

Govern yourselves accordingly.