May 19, 2011
I’m writing because my family and I have been deeply affected by the economic collapse of 2008, and we want to see reforms to make sure this will never happen again.
Our business, publishing two small newspapers, has been profoundly hurt by the damage to our local economy. Our local businesses are struggling and cannot afford the advertising that supports our papers. We have been reduced to depending on legal notices of foreclosures -- a truly depressing measure of the state of our community, and a shaky prop on which to continue to operate our business. We would not be in this trouble if not for Wall Street greed, dishonesty, and outrageous pay practices. It is maddening that those practices continue uninterrupted, while those of us who had nothing to do with the collapse of the economy struggle year after year to hold on to our businesses, jobs, and homes -- or lose them.
I believe the incentives should be changed so they don’t collapse our economy again, possibly by using a *safety index* for incentive compensation, instead of a profit index.
The wealthy players in the financial industry should never be allowed to create and sell risky products that, while they succeed, enrich those people, but when they fail, devastate the rest of us.
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,
Andrea Blooma