May 19, 2011
I’m writing because my family has been affected by the economic collapse of 2008. I have siblings that are teachers, and education funding is being cut in many states because sub-prime loans were rated triple A and sold to state governments. Now the average person on the street is paying for what Wall Street did. This will damage the country's future by cutting essentials such as education and health care.
Wall Street fraud and outrageous pay practices were the cause of the collapse. One way to change the incentives so they don’t collapse our economy again would be to delay the each bonus for several years, at least five or seven, and make it conditional on loan repayments. That way, we’ll know if the loans they made in year one remain good. In the bad days, bankers paid themselves on the volume of loans (mortgages) they generated, not on their quality. This must stop.
Thank you for considering my comment,
John Wakefield