MCCAIN'S TOP ECONOMIC ADVISER: AMERICANS NEED TO STOP "WHINING" ABOUT THE ECONOMY

Huffingtonpost:
In an interview with the Washington Times, McCain's top economic adviser Phil Gramm tells America to suck it up and stop complaining about the economy:
"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. "We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline" despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.

Gramm, whose extensive ties to Enron proved problematic during the firm's implosion several years ago, was serving as a lobbyist for the international banking and subprime mortgage giant UBS until April. As Mother Jones documented, Gramm played a key role in the subprime meltdown during his time in the Senate.

Just yesterday, McCain himself said "I would imagine that we are" in a recession. But he and Gramm are still on the same page: in April McCain said "a lot of our problems today are psychological."