Presidential Candidates Want Foxes Guarding the Henhouse

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In his column today, Paul Krugman notes that former Sen. Phil Gramm, a major advocate for de-regulation of the financial services industry and thus one of the two men perhaps most responsible for the current economic crisis, is John McCain’s chief economic adviser.

Aside from Gramm, Krugman’s main scapegoat is Alan Greenspan, who Sen. Hillary Clinton now wants to appoint to a “an emergency working group on foreclosures” to “recommend new ways to confront the nation’s housing finance troubles,” according to the Associated Press. Barack Obama, like Clinton, has received oodles of money from Wall Street. Krugman says those donors “surely believe that they’re buying something in return.” Let’s hope all three candidates are not as beholden to the financial services industry as they seem.

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