Subject: Comments for File Number S7-12-11

May 19, 2011

I’m writing because my family and I were affected by the economic collapse of 2008, and we don’t want it to happen again.

THE GREEDY AND RECKLESS BANKSTERS WILL NOT REGULATE THEMSELVES SO IT MUST DONE FOR THEM; THEY BROUGHT THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD TO ITS ECONOMIC KNEES WITH THEIR CARELESS AND STUPID BEHAVIOR AND THEY ARE ALL READY TO REPEAT IT AGAIN BY GIVING EXTRAVAGANT BONUSES TO INCOMPETENT PEOPLE. THEY ARE BLINDED AND STRUCK DUMB BY GREED. STOP PREDATORY LENDING!

Wall Street greed and outrageous pay practices were a major cause of the collapse. One way to change the incentives so they don’t collapse our economy again would be for regulators to use a *safety index* for incentive compensation, instead of a profit index.

Currently, most bankers receive stock options. So if they can generate more profits, the stock price goes up, and their options become more valuable.

Instead, what if they used the bank’s bond price, which measures the overall ability of the bank to repay its own debt? Another measure of bank stability is the spread on credit default swaps (the insurance-like policies that are essentially bets, where one gambler bets with another that a particular firm will fail). The closer a bank comes to failing (such as in failing to pay of its bond debt), the bigger the spread on credit default swaps.

Thank you for considering my comment,

Paul Mayer