How many times is Phil "Enron Loophole" Gramm going to quit the McCain campaign? Seems to me he stepped down a week or so ago after he called Americans a bunch of whiners and said our economic troubles were a 'mental recession'.

Didn't McCain let him go after that? I thought he was going to send him to Belarus. Did he bring him back after the heat died down? Well, looks like he's off the bus again, and this time I'm afraid McCain's going to have to cut his best bud and chief economic adviser loose for good.

The press is blaming it on the 'whiner' remarks, but I really don't think that's it. You see, our economic troubles are not 'all in our head', despite McCain and Gramm's insistence. A substantial bit is in offshore bank accounts, as the Guardian explains.

UBS closed the Swiss bank accounts of US clients, thousands of whom are believed to have sheltered assets to avoid paying taxes. ...

In an explosive seven-page deposition, Birkenfeld claims he was encouraged to win clients at UBS-sponsored tennis tournaments and major art events. UBS bankers, he said, assisted wealthy Americans to conceal ownership of their assets by creating 'sham' offshore trusts. Misleading and false documentation was routinely prepared to facilitate this, and the motivation, he concluded, was to ensure that UBS continued to manage a staggering $20bn of assets owned by wealthy US individuals, which generated the bank $200m in fees each year.

'By concealing US clients' ownership and control in the assets held offshore, [UBS] managers and bankers... defrauded the IRS and evaded US income tax,' reads the statement.

(here comes the money quote)

UBS's links to the US financial establishment centre on its vice-president, Phil Gramm. Gramm, a former Texas senator who is co-chairman of John McCain's campaign, is tipped to be his choice for Treasury Secretary if he is elected.

Oh, that's bad. McCain, who admits to not knowing much about the economy, picked a chief economic adviser who knows enough to help the rich avoid paying their fair share of taxes, leaving the burden to the rest of us. Wonder if Carly will be the next to go? She's got a little offshore history of her own. She was also the original source of McCain's rather awkward Viagra/birth control moment which, once you get past how stupid it made McCain look, is really disturbing from a health care perspective. Or maybe McCain will hang on the the rest of his economic team, such as it is, and dump the sweatshop guy/lobbyist next.

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a hearing and released their findings on offshore tax havens Thursday. Additional hearings on the matter are scheduled for next week in both the Finance and Homeland Security committees.

NECN has video of Sen. Kerry's comments on offshore tax havens and the impact on our economy.

Senator Kerry and Senator Obama recently passed legislation to eliminate one offshore tax loophole.

Kerry drafted the payroll tax provision after The Boston Globe reported in March that Houston-based KBR had avoided hundreds of millions of dollars in payroll taxes for 10,000 American employees in Iraq by hiring them through shell companies based in the Cayman Islands.

Pretty sure McCain didn't show up to vote on that.

Sen. Kerry has a long history of investigating international banking scandals, as we learned from the BCCI investigation, so it's important that he's helping shine a light on this issue. It's amazing what you can turn up when you follow the money.

Isn't it interesting that this time, following the money has lead us straight to the McCain campaign?