A Nation of Whiners!

[Nbadan]

WTF happened to Phil Gramm? The man single-handedly most responsible for the speculation market increase of the price of oil and McSame's chief economic advisor, thinks your a bunch of whiners..



WZjiE-hY9hU

[Nbadan]

I mean....these comments are so disingenuous that even the McSame is distancing themselves from them...


yYq0ccYvFFk

You have to wonder, is this the kind of future economic leadership that we can expect from a McCain cabinet? Is this the kind of economic leadership this country is going to need in the next 4 years as we try and save ourselves from the Bush and do-nothing Congress recession? Do you want the man who lobbied for legislation that has led to $4 gas to lead us into a economic oblivion? Is this the country you want to leave for your kids?

[Nbadan]

At a recent meeting with the Wall Street Journal editorial board, Republican presidential candidate John McCain admitted he "doesn't really understand economics" and then pointed to his adviser and former Senate colleague, Phil Gramm - whom he had brought with him to the meeting - as the expert he turns to on the subject, The Huffington Post has learned. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/21/short-on-econo...

After joining the campaign, Gramm has remained by the candidate's side to "vouch for Mr. McCain's fiscal and security bona fides, " according to the Dallas Morning News. Even prior to McCain's flop, Gramm was advocating on his behalf, writing a flattering February 2007 oped in the Wall Street Journal on his behalf.

And to whom did McCain tell Moore he turns to for advise? "His foremost economic guru," wrote the columnist, "is former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm (who would almost certainly be Treasury secretary in a McCain administration)."



Now Today McCain acts like he doesn't even know the man while Gramm continues to stand by his statement that this is a "nation of whiners . .(suffering) a mental recession"


Slate (http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/trailhead /)



McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm did his candidate no favors Wednesday when he told the Washington Times that the current economic downturn is a "mental recession." "We have sort of become a nation of whiners," Gramm said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."

Off-message much?

McCain repudiated Gramm’s comments: "Phil Gramm does not speak for me. I speak for me, so I strongly disagree." Obama, meanwhile, mocked him.

But Gramm refused to play the gaffe game. "I'm not going to retract any of it,” he told the Washington Post. "Every word I said was true." He explained that although "the economy is bad," it doesn’t qualify as a "recession." And that other part? "When I said we've become a nation of whiners, I'm talking about our leaders. I'm not talking about our people."

The funny part is, recession or not, Gramm and his investors have felt the pain as much as anyone. Just look at the stock of UBS, where Gramm serves as vice chairman. It’s dropped by 70 percent over the last year. (See Daniel Gross' recent Slate piece to find out why.)


http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/2170587/2180642/2195125/080710_TH_ubs.jpg

[Jimmy]

No wonder Chump and RandomGuy only want to talk about 9/11 they want to forget their daddy Bush fucked us all for life.

[Oh, Gee!!]

The funny part is, recession or not, Gramm and his investors have felt the pain as much as anyone. Just look at the stock of UBS, where Gramm serves as vice chairman. It’s dropped by 70 percent over the last year.

sounds like the perfect time for a government bail-out

[Sec24Row7]

Dan all you fucking do is whine... and you are complaining about this why?

[xrayzebra]

WTF happened to Phil Gramm? The man single-handedly most responsible for the speculation market increase of the price of oil and McSame's chief economic advisor, thinks your a bunch of whiners..


Well he was talking about you Dimm-o-craps. Whine is your first, middle, and last name. According to most of you the U.S. is going to hell in a handbasket and we do nothing but screw over everyone else in the world and deserve to put back into the stone age because we use all the resources of the world.


I mean....these comments are so disingenuous that even the McSame is distancing themselves from them...



You have to wonder, is this the kind of future economic leadership that we can expect from a McCain cabinet? Is this the kind of economic leadership this country is going to need in the next 4 years as we try and save ourselves from the Bush and do-nothing Congress recession? Do you want the man who lobbied for legislation that has led to $4 gas to lead us into a economic oblivion? Is this the country you want to leave for your kids?

Yeah, I hope so. A little straight talk in the election would be nice. But as usual McCain shot himself in the foot. You dimm-o-craps are the luckiest people in the world to have McCain as your opponent. McCain is doing just about everything he can to lose this election. Our only hope is that Obama isn't as smart as McCain......we are truly doomed.

I hope he is smart enough to listen to Gramm.

[Oh, Gee!!]

Dan all you fucking do is whine... and you are complaining about this why?

:whine

[ChumpDumper]

No wonder Chump and RandomGuy only want to talk about 9/11 they want to forget their daddy Bush fucked us all for life.Neither of us are Bush supporters.

[JoeChalupa]

Well he was talking about you Dimm-o-craps. Whine is your first, middle, and last name. According to most of you the U.S. is going to hell in a handbasket and we do nothing but screw over everyone else in the world and deserve to put back into the stone age because we use all the resources of the world.



Yeah, I hope so. A little straight talk in the election would be nice. But as usual McCain shot himself in the foot. You dimm-o-craps are the luckiest people in the world to have McCain as your opponent. McCain is doing just about everything he can to lose this election. Our only hope is that Obama isn't as smart as McCain......we are truly doomed.

I hope he is smart enough to listen to Gramm.

You mean straight talk like Obama's "bitter" remarks? I see.

[xrayzebra]

You mean straight talk like Obama's "bitter" remarks? I see.

Which straight talk are you referring to in regards to Obama, most of his remarks he normally has to clarify by changing his stance on the issue.

About the "bitter" thingy, wasn't those suppose to be just for the left wing liberals in SF? And said only to satisfy their alter ego's. I certainly wouldn't consider it straight talk. Just Obama BS.

[ChumpDumper]

:lol @ pretending McCain is a straight talker.

[xrayzebra]

:lol @ pretending McCain is a straight talker.

who said he was? He speaks for himself, while shooting himself in the foot.

[JoeChalupa]

Which straight talk are you referring to in regards to Obama, most of his remarks he normally has to clarify by changing his stance on the issue.

About the "bitter" thingy, wasn't those suppose to be just for the left wing liberals in SF? And said only to satisfy their alter ego's. I certainly wouldn't consider it straight talk. Just Obama BS.

Oh, I see. When it is McCain's straght-talk express you find it okay but when it is Obama you call it bullshit.

You are fair and balanced. :rolleyes

[boutons_]

Gramm as economic advisor, maybe Treasury Secy, to Old McFlop is vastly more significant than Wright as pastor to HUSSEIN!

[xrayzebra]

^^Chief whiner in charge.

[ChumpDumper]

who said he was? He speaks for himself, while shooting himself in the foot.Oh, he'll let Fox News speak for him when it comes to terraist fist jabs and madras education.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Eh, Phil Gramm was right. Just look at the pussies on this board like croutons and Dan. Whine whine whine.

And you've got a Democratic candidate in Obama who won't let the oil companies drill anywhere, is against nuclear power, promotes ethanol that drives up food costs, and whose sole solution to the energy problems we are facing is to go tax the oil companies (who would just pass the cost onto us :lol ).

Of course liberals are outraged at Gramm's comments, whining is the sole purpose for living for some of the far left.

[PEP]

Eh, Phil Gramm was right. Just look at the pussies on this board like croutons and Dan. Whine whine whine.

And you've got a Democratic candidate in Obama who won't let the oil companies drill anywhere, is against nuclear power, promotes ethanol that drives up food costs, and whose sole solution to the energy problems we are facing is to go tax the oil companies (who would just pass the cost onto us :lol ).

Of course liberals are outraged at Gramm's comments, whining is the sole purpose for living for some of the far left.

:toast

[boutons_]

"won't let the oil companies drill anywhere"

the oilcos have plenty of off-shore permits and leases, but they aren't drilling. Take that up with them.

As per dickhead's 2001 Secret National Energy Plan, aka Invade Iraq, the oilcos are waiting to get their hands on the much cheaper Iraqi oil.

[boutons_]

"The oil companies already have access to some 34 billion barrels of offshore oil they haven't even developed yet, but ending the federal moratorium on offshore drilling would probably add only another 8 billion barrels"

"You may ask why big oil hasn't gotten around to the 34 billion barrels already available to them offshore, given the staggering price for oil? The answer is pretty much the same reason why the EIA analyst told me that ending the federal moratorium is "certainly not going to make a difference in the next 10 years": It ain't easy being non-green off-shore."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-romm/mccains-cruel-offshore-dr_b_111945.html

Gramm created the Enron loophole and made sure private banking remained unregulated, two "free market" contributions to where we are now.

[Nbadan]

We'll see who's whining come Nov.....

I. Phil Gramm Knows That Economic Wellbeing Is All a State of Mind….And Creative Bookkeeping

Some people were surprised when Phil Gramm, formerly a United States senator from Texas and currently working with the John McCain for president campaign said what he said. I quote the Washington Times:


"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession…We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline"


http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/jul/09/mccain-advise... /

If you look at Phil Gramm long enough, you get depressed.

He looks like Droopy.

He is starting to sound more and more like Droopy, too.


Yesterday, after the press got wind of what Phil Gramm said, John McCain pretended to throw him under the bus. He said that he was thinking about making him ambassador to Belarus or some other god awful country that Wendy Gramm would just hate. However, as of today, former Senator Gramm is still an economic adviser with the McCain Campaign.

Anyone who knows anything about the Gramms and Enron should be wondering why on earth John “Keating 5” McCain would want to associate with people like this.

Frank Rich from 2002

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9807E7DD...

Phil Gramm, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, and his wife, Wendy (a former federal regulator now on Enron's board), could pass for one of Enron's wholly owned Cayman Island subsidiaries.

II. Enron Got Its Start in The First George Bush Administration….And Wendy Gramm Was There


Like a proud mother hen, Wendy Gramm laid the golden egg that kept on giving for almost a decade. Here is how the scam worked.

Enron’s orgy of greed began in 1992 with the passage of the National Energy Policy Act which allowed power producers to compete for the sale of electricity to utilities.

The 1992 Act gave Enron the springboard it needed to catapult itself from a small gas pipeline company to the seventh largest US corporation. For a half a decade, 1995 through 2000, it achieved a 40 percent annual increase in the value of its stock. Regretfully, during this period of spectacular growth, Enron was blissfully ignored by the SEC, which did not audit the company’s financial reports in any year from 1997 through 2001.

Enron was recklessly empowered by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which issued an exemption for futures trading in energy derivatives. This was Enron’s most lucrative business. 4/ Speculators, including Enron, used these financial instruments to drive the cost of wholesale electricity to astronomical levels. As it grew in size, the Enron octopus bought off political candidates with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contribution to guarantee its success. 5/ The utter neglect of FASB, the SEC and the CFTC permitted Enron to run amuck and steal both investors and employees life savings.

...

The Chairperson at the time of the CFTC ruling was Wendy Graham, the wife of Senator Graham of Texas. Mrs. Graham resigned her position with the CFTC in 1993. She joined Enron’s Board 6 months after approving the ruling that was favorable to the company. The integrity of this woman is highly suspect.


http://www.quarterly-report.com/energy/enron.html

The above article is entitled “The Octopus of Greed”. Do we really want another slimy tentacle monster in our White House?

Know the enemy. Wendy Gramm.

III. Here is What Bob Herbert Said About the Gramms and Enron in 2002


People do remember why Phil Gramm had to leave the Senate, right? Because he was up to his waddle in the scandal. Same for his lovely wife. In case people have forgotten, here is an excellent editorial at the NYTs. Please read the whole piece. Beautiful work by Bob Herbert. He describes how Phil Gramm crafted legislation “that exempted energy commodity trading from government regulation and public disclosure. It was a gift tied with a bright ribbon for Enron.” *

After Wendy laid the golden egg and went to work for Enron

.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01E0D8...


According to a report by Public Citizen, a watchdog group in Washington, ''Enron paid her between $915,000 and $1.85 million in salary, attendance fees, stock options and dividends from 1993 to 2001.''

As a board member, Ms. Gramm has served on Enron's audit committee, but her eyesight wasn't any better than that of the folks at Arthur Andersen. The one thing Enron did not pay big bucks for was vigilance.


In other words, she was paid to look the other way.

Herbert describes the Republican obsession with “deregulation” which is really just a desire to return to the good old days when businessmen could make a profit off people without regard to the harm they did them. In other words, the days of robber barons and swindlers.

Enron exploited the deregulation mania to the max, and the result has been economic ruin for thousands upon thousands of hard-working families. As Public Citizen put it, ''Enron developed mutually beneficial relationships with federal regulators and lawmakers to support policies that significantly curtailed government oversight of operations.''

The kind of madness that went on at Enron could only have flourished in the dark. Arthur Andersen was supposed to have been looking at the books, but the vast shadows cast by the ideology of deregulation allowed that company to escape effective scrutiny as well. So you have revolving-door abuses and pernicious financial arrangements between companies like Enron and auditors like Andersen that are similar to those between private companies and government agencies.

Who's left to look out for the small fry?

If the deregulation zealots had their way, we'd be left with tainted food, unsafe cars, bridges collapsing into rivers, children's pajamas bursting into flames and a host of corporations far more rapacious and unscrupulous than they are now.


Bravo, Bob Herbert. Well said! This was back in 2002. Notice how much bad food we have had since then and how many bad drugs the FDA has allowed on the market. And we all watched in horror as that bridge collapsed....

* aka "The Enron Loophole" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_Futures_Moderniz...


IV. Now We Know Why Phil Gramm Hates “Whiners”


My, how Phil Gramm must have hated the voices of all those Americans who lost their life savings when Enron went belly up because of his wife’s corporate malfeasance and his own political efforts to aid her. $65 billion in investments were lost when Enron failed and it was revealed that the corporation was nothing but a house of cards, “an elaborate accounting hoax”.

http://www.cpa.org.au/booklets/enron.pdf

Phil Gramm had to leave the Senate because of those “whiners”, people who could not accept the fact that they had been robbed of their jobs or their pensions. Didn’t those people understand that it was their fate to suffer so that their betters could live like the actors on Dallas and Dynasty ?



V. How Does Phil Gramm's History in the Senate Prepare Him to Handle the Current Economic Recession?

Simple answer: it doesn't.


Phil Gramm knows only one thing. He knows how to cater to large corporations who want federal regulators off their backs so that they can rape consumers. The price gouging of California---Enron jacking up the wholesale price as much as it wanted and then making utility companies in California pay until they went bankrupt---is what Gramm knows how to facilitate. He does not know jack about how to deal with the lopsided economy that has resulted from oil price manipulation---transportation, manufacturing, travel, food prices affected---because it goes against his grain to attempt to rein in corruption in any one market sector. If John McCain seriously intends to have the King and Queen of deregulation, Phil and Wendy Gramm running the show during his administration, then we can expect the economy to do more of what it has done under Bush. Every effort by business to cheat, cut corners, make a quick buck will be rewarded. There will be no incentive for investment, because the get rich quick loop holes could change with the next president, so businesses will want to take advantage of them right now. Make your million or billion and then retire, that will be the thinking. This will be the chance for those who did not manage to accumulate quite as much as they would have liked under the Bush-Cheney administration. And of course, a chance for all those who are currently members of the Bush-Cheney administration to make their way into private industry and get rich quick before the rules change.

Four more years of increasing income and wealth disparity is just what we need to change this recession into a full blow Second Great Depression.


xh9kOVYzaKE

[Nbadan]

Wash, rinse, repeat...


yf4koXENsNs

[JoeChalupa]

Eh, Phil Gramm was right. Just look at the pussies on this board like croutons and Dan. Whine whine whine.

And you've got a Democratic candidate in Obama who won't let the oil companies drill anywhere, is against nuclear power, promotes ethanol that drives up food costs, and whose sole solution to the energy problems we are facing is to go tax the oil companies (who would just pass the cost onto us :lol ).

Of course liberals are outraged at Gramm's comments, whining is the sole purpose for living for some of the far left.

Why are you whining about boutons and dan?

[ChumpDumper]

A Board of Whiners!

[Sec24Row7]

Why are you whining about boutons and dan?

Umm... no I think he was laughing at them... like im laughing at you for your lame ass attempt to turn that around on him...

If that was aggie whining... then "black hole" is a racially insensitive term...

[boutons_]

If one isn't Repug, right-wing, bubba, dubya-sucker, etc, then one is a Dem, a liberal, a traitor, a terrorist-lover, and now a whiner.

"If you aren't with us, you're against us", a Great American Lie.

Gramm is a Repug slime bag, just another reason to disqualify McSenileFlop from consideration.

[Nbadan]

Meanwhile, ABCNeo-ConNews has pulled out its 'experts' to explain to you that you've had it good for so long. recession-smecession....it's all in your head!

'Nation of Whiners' Could Have Credence
Expert: Consumers Are Too Emotional, Media Exaggerates 'Catastrophes'
By KATE SNOW and LEE FERRAN
July 13, 2008


This week, former Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, economic adviser to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., gave an interesting persepective on the nation's economic concerns by calling the U.S. a "nation of whiners."

While the comment ruffled feathers across the nation and prompted swift condemnation from presumptive presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and McCain, according to consumer psychologist Kit Yarrow, Gramm was on to something.

"I think the way consumers feel about things is very emotional," Yarrow told "Good Morning America" today. "Those emotions are trumping reality, creating a snowball, which makes the economy worse. It's not as bad as consumers feel like it is."

Yarrow, who is also the Russell T. Sharpe Professor of Business at Golden Gate University, says that lack of consumer confidence has been caused by an negative overreaction to recent economic trends.

"We've had great prosperity for the last few years," Yarrow said. "We had very cheap gas. We've had a lot of increase in our home values. We've had it really pretty good as the stock market increases. Emotion is always caused by this mismatch between what we perceive and reality. It's really emotion, the psychology, that's contributing to our economy right now in a negative way."

ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5365939&page=1)

Consumer PSYCHOLOGIST... :lmao

[Nbadan]

This is exactly what I am posting about in other threads....Obama or one of his supporters make a slip up and the M$M is on them like white on rice, but a McCain economic adviser makes a slip and you see any number of columns supporting them no matter how extremely out of touch it makes them look, as another example from the 'liberal' Washington Post shows....

Phil Gramm Is Right

By Amity Shlaes
Saturday, July 12, 2008; Page A13


"In serious consideration for ambassador to Belarus." That's the role John McCain joked that former senator Phil Gramm might have in a McCain administration. Gramm is McCain's most senior economic adviser, the one best qualified to lead the finance team of a McCain presidency. Now, however, Gramm faces political exile because he made the mistake of telling the truth.

What prompted the abrupt demotion? The short answer is what might be called Campaign Econ. Campaign Econ says the American economy is a certain way because Americans think it is. Campaign Econ competes with real economics and often wins -- with damage that extends way beyond, say, the political career of either Phil Gramm or John McCain.

Consider what happened this week. While speaking with the Washington Times, Gramm said that the country was not in a true recession but a "mental recession." He also said, "We have sort of become a nation of whiners" and "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline."

Gramm was right about the recession and stood by his recession comments on Thursday. A recession is two consecutive quarters in which the economy shrinks, and last quarter it grew. But no matter. Voters feel they are in a recession, and so they are, at least according to Campaign Econ.

Gramm's second sin was political. Calling voters whiners is to shame them. He later rephrased this comment, saying it was not voters he meant but politicians. That's because shaming voters is something American politicians simply don't do. Campaign Econ is unabashedly populist, and to seek to elicit shame is regarded as unpardonably elitist. Earlier this year, the McCain team was already terrified of seeming elitist. His advisers convinced themselves that the closeness of the primary contest was due to a lack of generosity. In January, when the McCain folks were desperate to win the Michigan primary, they ground their teeth down as Mitt Romney pandered to the auto industry. Romney's promise of unlimited support for carmakers won him that primary -- but not the nomination. Still, since then, McCain's advisers have sought to prove that he understands Campaign Econ; consider their proposal of a summer gas tax holiday.

Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/11/AR2008071102543.html)


Amity Shlaes is a senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of "The Forgotten Man." She recently spoke at a meeting hosted by the Mercatus Center and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which is chaired by Wendy Gramm, wife of Phil Gramm."

[boutons_]

Haven't heard it from McSame, but it looks like Gramm is jettisoned. what a shame

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/mccain_camp_gramm_is_not_advis.php

[xrayzebra]

Haven't heard it from McSame, but it looks like Gramm is jettisoned. what a shame

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/mccain_camp_gramm_is_not_advis.php

I thought he made that pretty obvious the other day.

[Sportcamper]

I disagree with Phil Gramm…This political forum is filled with anti American whiners…But as a whole, people in the USA are still proud of their country…

[MannyIsGod]

We are a nation of whiners. And we're led by a bunch of fucking appeasers who try to cater to every fucking whine so unless Gramm is going to propose some real life tough love perhaps he should just stfu.

[JoeChalupa]

After Obama wins the election we'll see whining from the conservative republicans and wannabe libertarians like yoni and the lead whiner will be Rush Limpballs.

[Marcus Bryant]

We are a nation of whiners. And we're led by a bunch of fucking appeasers who try to cater to every fucking whine so unless Gramm is going to propose some real life tough love perhaps he should just stfu.

More or less. A politician can't state the obvious these days. Everyone in this country expects their losses to be socialized and their gains to be tax free. Fannie and Freddie are the latest examples. When things go against you, it's time for the Fairy Federal Godmother to step in and bail your ass out.

[Nbadan]

How Phill Gramm ruined the economy...


064C5UrRfP4

'We don't need no stinking regulation!'

[Nbadan]

Former Senator Phil Gramm resigned late Friday as a co-chairman of Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, capping a day filled with controversy for Mr. McCain, the presumed Republican nominee.

“It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Senator McCain on important economic issues facing the country,” Mr. Gramm said in a statement issued by the campaign. “That kind of distraction hurts not only Senator McCain’s ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country’s problems, it hurts the country.”

Mr. Gramm, a multimillionaire banker, has been under fire since last week, when he dismissed concerns about the troubled economy by referring to “a mental recession.” He also said the United States had become “a nation of whiners,” a remark providing fodder for Democrats to portray Republicans as out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Americans.

Since the start of his campaign, but particularly since the onset of the most recent economic turmoil, Mr. McCain has been struggling to convince voters of his ability to manage the economy, an area he has acknowledged in the past as a weakness. Mr. Gramm, in addition to being a close friend, helped design his economic program and, until last week’s gaffe, was being mentioned as a possible treasury secretary in a McCain administration.

Linky (http://www.hungangels.com/board/viewtopic.php?p=507670#507670)

You gotta love how Gramm trashes Americans, gets called on it, quits and blames Obama

[Nbadan]

Make no mistake about it, the reason Gramm quit the McCain camp was not because the bank he chairs was caught yesterday shielding tax cheats!


UBS vows to expose tax-cheat clients
Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent | July 19, 2008


UBS, the world's largest private banking group, stunned the financial world yesterday when it shelved all its offshore banking services for US residents and appeared to rip up the traditional Swiss franchise of secrecy, saying it was co-operating with the US's tax authorities to expose tax cheats.

Caught up in the same document sweep from the LGT Bank in Liechtenstein that exposed the private banking dealings of Australia's Frank Lowy, a UBS executive fronted a congressional inquiry in Washington DC and announced a stunning about-face.

"I am here today to make it absolutely clear that UBS genuinely regrets any compliance failures that may have occurred," said Mark Branson, UBS's Zurich-based chief financial officer of global wealth services.

"We have decided to exit entirely the business in question," he said of questionable banking services for US residents. "That means UBS will no longer provide offshore banking or security services to US residents through our bank branches."

But he also announced that UBS was now working with the US Government to "identify the names of US clients who may have engaged in tax fraud".

He said while Swiss banking laws prevented client disclosure, "such privacy protections do not apply when disclosure of client names is requested in connection with an investigation of tax fraud". Mr Branson said the 80,000 worldwide employees of UBS -- the investment bank has a substantial presence in Australia -- were alarmed by reports of misconduct.

"They want to know that such misconduct does not belong in UBS and that the firm's ethics match their own. I am here today to tell you and to tell them that no, that kind of misconduct does not belong in UBS," he said.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations' report claimed that UBS and the LGT Bank, located in Liechtenstein and owned by the principality's royal family, helped many US citizens dodge taxes.

The committee, chaired by Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, said that through elaborate schemes at many banks in tax havens around the world, US citizens annually avoided up to $US100 billion ($103 billion) in tax payments. The report accused tax haven nations of engaging in "economic warfare against the United States and honest hard-working American taxpayers".

The subcommittee said UBS had an estimated 19,000 "undeclared accounts" for US citizens hiding $US18 billion in assets from the Internal Revenue Service. The effect of the UBS's change is that it will now direct US clients to the wealth management operations of its US-regulated businesses, rather than branches of its Swiss-domiciled businesses, which operate under Swiss law and allows the avenue of hiding assets from US tax authorities.

Linky (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24042054-643,00.html)