So, John McCain has decided to make up with Phil Gramm and once again list him as an adviser to his campaign. Well, folks, Gramm is the gift that will continue to give.

The story has been brewing for several months now, but has come to a head this week ending with a Senate Hearing by Senator Carl Levin. It starts off with a disgruntled computer tech in Liechtenstein who came forward with the names of several super rich citizens, US Citizens included, who had secretly set up bank accounts there with the purpose of avoiding paying taxes on the money. Join me below as I connect the dots to John McCain.

From the initial article:

Hundreds of super-rich American tax cheats have, in effect, turned themselves in to the IRS after a bank computer technician in the tiny European country of Liechtenstein came forward with the names of US citizens who had set up secret accounts there, according to Washington lawyers investigating the scheme.

And not only did he come forward with the names of the wealthy, he also implicates global banking giant UBS. And guess who's Vice Chairman of UBS Investment Bank? None other than John McCain's on again economic adviser, Phil Gramm.

The investigation has been going on for at least 5 years and even prompted UBS to warn it's employees not to travel to the US for fear of being arrested. And Senator Carl Levin held hearings yesterday to investigate the tax evasion.

Each year, the United States Treasury loses an estimated $100 billion in tax revenues from offshore tax abuses. Tax havens are engaged in economic warfare against the United States and honest, hardworking American taxpayers.

First is LGT, a private bank owned by the royal family of Liechtenstein. Lichtenstein is a tiny alpine nation whose 35,000 citizens would fill one-third of the University of Michigan football stadium. It has no airport, but supports 15 banks that together boast of holding more than $200 billion in assets. Lichtenstein also boasts of secrecy laws that are more stringent than even those that have made Switzerland synonymous with hidden bank accounts.

The second bank is UBS, a Swiss bank. It is one of the world's largest financial institutions, the world's largest manager of private wealth, and a public company of international renown. Yet, as we will hear today, UBS has an estimated 19,000 so-called "undeclared accounts" for U.S. citizens with an estimated $18 billion in assets that have been kept secret from the IRS.

Senator Levin showed a chart to show some of the tactics the banks used to try and hide the money. Below are just some of the tricks of the trade.

So far, I haven't seen anything in the MSM that links Phil Gramm to this despite the fact that he's the Vice Chairman of UBS Investment Bank. Any association to UBS by an Obama adviser/surrogate would have the punditry in apoplexy. The division of the bank that Gramm works in may not be directly involved in the tax evasion scheme, but, great galloping ghosts, look at the man's past history involving corporate scandal! And this is the SECOND scandal involving UBS on the heel of the mortgage crises. Not to mention his and his wife's connection to Enron, one of the biggest corporate scandals in history.  

In article after article from the New York Times, to Bloomberg, to the Wall Street Journal, not one article mentions Phil Gramm in connection to UBS other than in late May, when it was reported that he had formerly lobbied for UBS. And even then the concern was the fact that he lobbied for them, not the fact that that he actually worked for them!

And this is the guy McCain wants as an economic adviser? Even suggested him as Treasury Secretary? As McCain once said, he doesn't know a lot about economics, and BOY does it show.

Rec this up if you think this deserves wider attention. The American People should know that with John McCain, the economy will only get worse.