U B S(crewed)

Awesome!

The prospect of being locked out of the bailout set off alarm bells among chief executives of overseas banks whose American affiliates also hold distressed mortgage-related assets, like Barclays and UBS. The original text provided access to the $700 billion bailout for any financial institution based in the United States.

As the day wore on, some raised their concerns with the Treasury Department...By Saturday evening, the language had been changed to allow any financial institution “having significant operations” in the United States.

Phil Gramm, of course, is the architect of McCain's response to the housing mortgage crisis (laughable as it was) this Spring, he may still be his Treasury Secretary nominee. He is also vice chairman of UBS's US division and a lobbyist for UBS.

Oh, well at least McCain didn't meet any of those Fanny Mae folks at a greeting line -- he just let them run his campaign.

Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.

Like I said, awesome!

[cross posted at Firedoglake]