THEY HAVE PHIL GRAMM, WE HAVE CHUCK SCHUMER

Schumer is a perfect example of a Democrat who works for Corporate America to the detriment of our entire society. The NY Times has a decent 4 page article about Schumer's many defenses of the Free Market Fairy and I was struck by this one in defense of the corrupt ratings agencies. In 2006, Cox of the SEC wanted more control over these whores:

At that time, revenues for the agencies were skyrocketing. The housing market was robust, and Wall Street investment firms were paying the agencies to rate various mortgage-backed securities after first advising the firms — and also collecting fees — on how to package them to get high credit ratings.

It was an obvious conflict of interest, financial experts now say. Despite their high ratings, many of those securities, based on risky loans, would prove worthless, roiling markets and threatening financial institutions worldwide.

But Mr. Schumer argued that the companies voluntarily met requirements to eliminate such possible conflicts. He suggested that regulators simply encourage competition and disclosure of agencies’ ratings methods. There was perhaps no need for an intrusive new law, he said in the spring of 2006. “They’ve implemented their codes of conduct,” Mr. Schumer told Mr. Cox at a Senate hearing. “They’re making good-faith efforts.”