Oct. 31, 2022
October 31, 2022 Team, I think this is pretty simple and, frankly, I'm amazed there even needs to be discussion surrounding this. We know swaps were amongst the primary culprits (apart from greed) that resulted in the 2008 financial crisis. Did anything change since then? I wouldn't think this would be a topic of discussion if they had. We know swaps can be highly profitable, but simultaneously highly risky. Reporting of swap positions takes away at least some of the risk, without necessarily detracting from the reward. What you're dealing with, as you know, are handshake deals between primarily banks and other financial institutions. When those parties fail, who picks up the tab? Normal tax paying people like me, as we saw in 2008. And have I, as a normal tax paying person, benefited from this risk taking? No, no I have not. So Wall Street assumes all of the reward, but none of the risk - that hasn't changed since 2008. It's far past due that we stop letting Wall Street put our retirement plans, le t alone the global economy, at risk due to their unchecked and unregulated greed. We had rules in place for this, and then \"magically\" they were repealed. \"Magically\" meaning through oppressive corporate and governmental lobbying. Simply put, why do we let the criminals have any say in the rules that are there to govern their behavior and consequences? That's like asking the bank robber for their input on whether robbing a bank should be legal, and what the consequences should be. My point is that swaps pose a true and imminent threat to financial stability. Why we allow these to go unchecked and unregulated is beyond me. We already know what the consequences are when these swap positions go awry. Are we actually sitting here considering whether or not to stop that from ever happening again? And to any banks, hedge funds, or corporations saying this will be too expensive to implement...too expensive for who? Them? They spend billions per year on corporate and government lobbying, I'm confident they can afford to file some paperwork. Or if they find the paperwork is too daunting (yeah right), then remind them that no one has or ever had a gun to their head making them take swap positions. That was their choice, and will continue to be their choice in this new and more fair playing field where, I sure hope, swaps are reported PUBLICLY, and heavily regulated. Again, this is simple stuff team. It doesn't take a data analyst or rocket scientist to say \"Swaps caused a large part of the 2008 financial crisis, and they're STILL not properly reported or regulated? Seems obvious to me we should be doing a lot about that.\" Yet here we are, asking the criminals for their input on the subject when they have a materially substantial interest in swaps NOT being reported or regulated. Somehow we take their comments and input as having the same weight as someone like me who has no material interest or benefit from swaps being reported and regulated, other than to ensure that I'm not getting screwed over again like in 2008.