Obama or McCain, Who's Better on Finance Mess?

As the markets melt down, Barack Obama and John McCain sound a lot alike.

Both of the presidential hopefuls are criticizing lax regulation and Wall Street greed, while they're both declaring the situation a mess (although McCain first offered an assessment that the economy is fundamentally strong, a point that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg also made yesterday). Jackie Calmes, formerly of The Wall Street Journal and now of The New York Times, has an informative piece today about the two men's record on these issues.

Basically, McCain has historically been a deregulator, despite his sounding like a neo-populist the last couple of days. Obama doesn't have much of a record on these issues, but was prescient in warning about the housing mess in early '07 and surrounding himself with those who are inclined to regulate.

I thought the piece, which was overall quite good, had some odd moments. John Thain, soon to be a middle manager at Bank of America, is lauded as a "pragmatic, nonideological, moderate Republican." (One adjective will do ya.) And it's ominously noted that employee's of Merrill Lynch, where Thain is still, I guess, technically C.E.O., were McCain's largest donors. Would have been good to note that Dick Fuld, C.E.O. of bankrupt Lehman Brothers, was a big Obama contributor and Goldman Sachs employees are Obama's top corporate givers. I'm not sure that makes any difference in where these candidates stand.

In any event, the piece was a good reminder that these guys have different records. I'm gonna comfort myself to think that the likes of Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Pete Peterson, and Thain would prevail in a battle for the soul of a President McCain. But it could just as easily be Phil Gramm. Eeek.

Matt Cooper

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