September 27, 2011
it is pretty clear that the "definition" of an investment company was meant to be a company who invests in stocks and trading of "stocks" or "bonds", when it says "securities".
and that it is pretty clear that some of the exemptions were meant for companies who trade in Government backed securities.
the MREITS that primarily invest in Government backed mortgages should fit into "government securities", and that should be clarified to the affirmative.
the "rating agencies" couldn't even rate a fish, let alone a security, they appear to be set up as a tax on investors, with the agencies actually doing nothing to regulate.. judging from the lack of ratings on the bundles of mortgages that banks were selling... (MREITS appear to have nothing to do with the fraud that was going on there)
if you have an agency that can verify that the MREIT's assets are real, then by all means, do that. the MREITs do report every quarter, so if it is possible check and make sure they actually have the mortgages they say they have. but isn't this the same as what you should do for any other company out there?
in otherwords, don't regulate an MREIT out of existence when this is exactly the same thing as any company....
yes look over their shoulder and improve how you look over every company's shoulder... because you are not catching the crooks out there... more time should be used to pursue ways of improving how you look over a shoulder, rather than redefining what is working for government backed MREITS. they are not the ones that failed, "investment companies" and Banks are the ones that failed.
Section 3(c)(5) seems to be quite specific and appear to mean exactly what an MREIT is, so i am not sure why you have a question there?
and please fix the mess of a tax paperwork nightmare for both investors and companies that is a security like for example KMP and other partnerships like that, instead of changing something that appears to be working.. (for Government security MREITS)
make the paperwork for our tax nightmares easier please...