Talk:Jake Garn

Controversy?

Why in the world is this trivial matter presented here in this biography?

1988 Controversy As reported in the University of Utah Chronicle, Senator Garn was ill received by the audience of students at a scheduled debate at the University of Utah. Third party candidate Mary Zins of the Socialist Workers Party (United States), made an impromptu and uninvited appearance; as forum moderator Ted Wilson, former Mayor of Salt Lake City, tried to prevent Ms. Zins from taking the podium, the crowd began to chant "Let her speak!" and shouted profanities at the flustered senator. During the rest of the debate, Senator Garn was constantly heckled and badgered concerning his support of the Contras in Nicaragua and the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan.

This is a stupid entry! It should be removed.

Not stupid per se. But it is trivial and unimportant. I will delete it. MichaelSH 02:11, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Very close to who?

"He is very close to Milo Scovtle Marsden Jr."

Who is this person and why is he significant? He is not mentioned anywhere else on Wikipedia. Google finds a Milo Steven Marsden[1] who is an attorney from Garn's state. I am going to assume that is the same person. That Garn is "close" (whatever that is supposed to mean) does not seem to be of any importance assuming it not supposed to be scandalous. I am going to delete it. If there really some reason for it to be in Wikipedia than don't just put it back in but explain the signficance. MichaelSH 02:11, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Selection as Astronaut

The article does not mention how he was selected as an astronaut. I would like to see something on that.--Daysleeper47 03:56, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

All I can find is that he was part of a 'Congress Observer Selection' that also included Bill Nelson. But I can't find that on any official government/NASA web pages. Ehurtley 02:05, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Anything more on this? He had a lot of flight time, but it says he was a payload specialist, not pilot. In education it mentions a degree in Finance, but nothing about Engineering, Chem, or Bio. Did they have him do experiments on bundled mortgage backed securities in microgravity? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.249.51.26 (talk) 19:12, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Observer and guinea pig. Added with sources. TJRC (talk) 17:51, 13 April 2011 (UTC)

Rank?

The astronaut box states he was a Brigader General in the USAF, but the text states he retired as a colonel? Was he promoted post-retirement?

As far as I can find (in multiple sources, including the official NASA biography,) he was only a Colonel. I've changed that while fixing the infobox. Ehurtley 01:59, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Unreferenced space sickness statement

I've removed the following statement as per WP:BLP because it is potentially libelous and unreferenced:

Garry Trudeau suggested NASA create a scale of spacesickness and name it after him, and he was quickly dubbed "Barfin' Jake" by his Senate colleagues.

I've replaced it with a referenced statement about the space sickness scale based on him. -kotra (talk) 01:28, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

A few questions

The article states that he retired as a Colonel but was promoted to Brigadier General after his shuttle flight (with both statements having citations). However, he's listed as a Colonel in an infobox. Shouldn't he be listed with his final rank (even if it came after his retirement)? Additionally, there is very little info about his time in the Senate, including why he left (i.e. did he lose a vote or retire?). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.142.211.252 (talk) 05:26, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

With respect to "why he left", I added a statement that he retired. TJRC (talk) 23:21, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

The Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act

The article says, "...the Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, the law that deregulated the savings and loan industry and led to the Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s." That's POV nonsense, obviously written by someone who dislikes Garn. It is the opposite of the truth.

Actually, the Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act reduced the exposure of S&Ls to the economic forces which caused the S&L crisis, though it was insufficient to save many of them. (Also, it only partially deregulated S&Ls.)

Prior to this Act, S&L's were required by law to issue fixed-rate, long-term mortgages, and cover them with short-term demand deposits, an inherently very risky combination. Those requirements, in combination with wild gyrations in interest rates in the late 1970s and early 1980s (the result of wild gyrations in monetary policy from President Carter's G. William Miller and Paul Volker appointments to the Fed), were the main cause of the S&L crisis. S&Ls had to cover the long-term, low-interest-rate mortgages with high-interest-rate demand deposits, which caused huge losses. (Fraud was also a factor in some cases.)

The Garn–St. Germain Depository Institutions Act allowed S&Ls to issue variable-rate mortgages, which greatly reduced their exposure to losses from interest rate shifts. Unfortunately, it didn't solve the problem of the already-issued mortgages, so it was too little too late to save many S&Ls. NCdave (talk) 19:46, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

I dug through the history to try to discover who wrote that sentence. Unfortunately, it was contributed by an anonymous IP. NCdave (talk) 20:19, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

I've changed the article to say that the Act "attempted to forestall" the S&L crisis.

That it attempted to do so seems indisputable. In fact, the very title of the Act said that its purpose was "...strengthening the financial stability of home mortgage lending institutions..."

I am confident that it did, indeed, strengthen the S&L industry, just not by enough to save many of the S&Ls. But obviously not everyone agrees, so I included thee the word "attempted," which leaves the question open about what effect it actually had. I hope that wording is acceptable to all. NCdave (talk) 20:27, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

external link?

Would an interview with transcript with Jake Garn from 1987 be useful here as an external link? Focus of conversation is nuclear weapons policy. http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_814169DD7AD5488484D8F521FD63729D (I have a conflict of interest; otherwise I would add it myself.) Mccallucc (talk) 18:29, 23 March 2016 (UTC)