May 19, 2011
The events of 9/11 and the recession that followed damaged my husband's small business. Next, we had Katrina on our coast (which demolished my husband's parents' house and he had to help them rebuild), plus the economic collapse of 2008, and then the BP fiasco last summer! Were my family and I affected by the economic collapse of 2008? You betcha. And we don’t want it to happen again.
My mother said in the 1980s that the banks and Wall Street should not be deregulated. Boy! Was that ever an understatement. She lived through the first great recession, so I am glad that she did not live to see THIS great recession!
James Madison would be shocked to see what has become of our democracy and the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution. Big corporations have more rights than citizens do: They can buy elections; the Republicans think these "small businesses"--ha! should not pay taxes; and those big banks that caused this recession in the first place are deemed too big to fail. So, of course, the very individuals who made the illegal financial decisions that caused the financial debacle are rewarded with millions and billions in bonuses, while banks foreclose on the houses of individuals. Many of these Wall Street leaders appear to have perjured themselves during their Senate testimony. I say that we should go after them with the Rule of Law, freeze their assets, and use those assets to help balance the budget. They and their Republican cronies are the ones that destroyed our budget surplus in the first place!
One way to change the incentives so Wall Street doesn’t collapse our economy again would be for regulators to set up a way for shareholders to grab back ill-gotten gains.
If it turns out that the profits in a given year were built on shoddy practices that become clear in the out-years, those bonus payments should be forfeited.
To accomplish this, we would have to have more regulators in the first place. And Eric Cantor is assuring his cronies that the Republicans would never let that happen.
So if you--in the office of the SEC, The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and elsewhere--have an ounce of decency left in you and want your grandchildren to live in a true democracy, I suggest that you do something to help.
I am doing what I can. I am teaching students to write on a contract basis. Unlike most teachers, I have neither health benefits nor retirement benefits from my job. But then, perhaps you have heard of those in Wisconsin and elsewhere who would prefer that no teachers in the United States have these benefits.
Thank you for considering my comment, ’m writing because my family and I were affected by the economic collapse of 2008, and we don’t want it to happen again.
One way to change the incentives so Wall Street doesn’t collapse our economy again would be for regulators to set up a way for shareholders to grab back ill-gotten gains.
If it turns out that the profits in a given year were built on shoddy practices that become clear in the out-years, those bonus payments should be forfeited.
Thank you for considering my comment,
jeanne lebow