May 23, 2011
I’m writing because my family and I were adversely affected by the economic collapse of 2008, and we don’t want it to happen again.
My older daughter was graduated in 2010 with honors from a famous university. She is employed, but ina job that does not pay a living wage and which she can "afford" only with financial support. She and her sister (a sophomore) face economic uncertainty unknown to my generation.
There are many needed reforms for our banking system, aka Wall Street.
We need to move away from a system which rewards uncontrolled risk-taking.
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.
We need to restore the idea that banks play a critical role in our economy and that they should exercise a degree of care in their business operations which reflects the damage which can be done by unrestrained pursuit of profits regardless of risks.
We need to reinforce the concept of safety and soundness of our banks and recognize that a healthy banking systems is vastly more important than unrestrained corporate greed benefiting a few.
I believe that effective control of risks by our banking system is a matter of national security.
Thank you for considering my comment,
Robert Walker