Phil Gramm

Phil Gramm was born in Georgia in 1942 and graduated from the University of Georgia in 1964, and received his doctorate in economics in 1967 from the same university. He then taught economics at Texas A & M until 1978. He was then elected to the U.S. Congress and served from 1978 until 1985. He than became a U.S. Senator from 1985 until he retired in 2002. He now works with UBS as vice chairman of the investment banking division.

While Gramm has had a very successful political career, lately some of his accomplishments have come back to bite him. In 1999, Gramm led the charge to introduce legislation in the Senate to deregulate the financial services industry, and is being blamed by some for the national sub-prime mortgage crisis and global economic meltdown that we are now experiencing.

During Senator John McCain’s unsuccessful bid to become President, Phil Gramm was his campaign chairman and economic advisor. After some very questionable public comments made by Gramm, he resigned his position with McCain. McCain quickly distanced himself from Gramm.

He was investigated by the Federal Election Committee (FEC) in 1985, and was later fined $30,000, which was one of the largest fines ever imposed by the FEC. Gramm has also been involved with failed Savings and Loans that have cost the tax payers hundreds of millions of dollars, and has also been a strong supporter of energy de-regulations that have worsened the energy situation in America.