March 2, 2009

Subject: Recommendations -- cc of letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,

Why is the US government waiting to implement costless solutions to help solve our nation’t financial problems?

Last autumn, the US government temporarily banned short-selling in financial stocks. That provided a pause however brief which enabled troubled financial institutions to raise private capital at palatable levels. Today, it is nearly impossible for any financial company to raise capital at any price except for taxpayer-provided money in the form ofbailouts

Likewise, the so-calleduptick rul was reinstated last autumn –!requiring short-sellers to wait for a stock to rise before shorting (betting against) the stock. Why was that subsequently repealed, and to what end?

Many US-based companies have billions of dollars stashed offshore monies that would be heavily taxed if repatriated back to US soil. But the return of private capital in the United States is exactly what is needed. If these monies are never going to return to the United States under current tax rules, why not grant a termporary reprieve to enable companies to return this money so it can be spent to benefit our economy

In a similar vein, since attractive private capital is essential to restoring confidence in the financial markets, why not offer a tax incentive for investors who make investments in financial companies in 2009 Any capital gains would be tax free if the investor holds their stock for a defined period of time –!perhaps a year.

Why not ban new credit default swaps from being created? These toxic instruments serve no useful purpose to society they solely serve the interest of sheer speculators.

I believe that these actions would be helpful complements to the fiscal and monetary stimulus that are currently being applied to our economy –!and the beauty of these additional actions is that they cost the US taxpayer absolutely nothing to implement.

Sincerely yours,

Adam B. Bergman, CFA
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Citizen, Voter and Taxpayer

Cc:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

SEC Commissioner Mary Schapiro