A Chronology of Failures, Bailouts and Sales

A chronology of the dissolution of various investment corporations, banks. Note where McCain's comment on the economy falls. And people trust this person?

March 16: BearStearns is sold to JP Morgan Chase
July 11: IndyMac Bank fails; placed in FDIC conservatorship
September 14: Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy; Merrill Lynch sold to Bank of America
September 8: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac taken over by the US gov't
September 15: Lehman Brothers declares bankruptcy
September 15: McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound
September 17: AIG Insurance group is lent $85 BILLION by the Federal Reserve
September 21: Lehman Brothers is sold
September 25: WaMu sold to JP Morgan Chase

A Washington Post article details McCain's championing of deregulation in various economic sectors over the past two decades. Amongst the highlights, including how he pushed through legislation that has contributed to this mess. And that his mentor, former Senator Phil Gramm, was the author of this legislation:

"In 2002, McCain introduced a bill to deregulate the broadband Internet market, warning that "the potential for government interference with market forces is not limited to federal regulation." Three years earlier, McCain had joined with other Republicans to push through landmark legislation sponsored by then-Sen. Phil Gramm (Tex.), who is now an economic adviser to his campaign. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act aimed to make the country's financial institutions competitive by removing the Depression-era walls between banking, investment and insurance companies.

That bill allowed AIG to participate in the gold rush of a rapidly expanding global banking and investment market. But the legislation also helped pave the way for companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans and investments."

and

"In the 1990s, he backed an unsuccessful effort to create a moratorium on all new government regulation. And in 1996, he was one of only five senators to oppose a comprehensive telecommunications act, saying it did not go far enough in deregulating the industry."