Subject: Comments for File Number S7-12-11

May 22, 2011

I’m writing because my family and I were affected by the economic collapse of 2008, and we don’t want it to happen again.

Wall Street greed and outrageous pay practices were a major cause of the collapse. Actually they receive a paycheck. For this they should be doing a good job, otherwise they should be fired. This giving out of exceedingly high bonuses is obscene.

Currently, most bankers receive stock options. So if they can generate more profits, the stock price goes up, and their options become more valuable.

Instead, what if they used the bank’s bond price, which measures the overall ability of the bank to repay its own debt? Another measure of bank stability is the spread on credit default swaps (the insurance-like policies that are essentially bets, where one gambler bets with another that a particular firm will fail). The closer a bank comes to failing (such as in failing to pay of its bond debt), the bigger the spread on credit default swaps.

Thank you for considering my comment,

Virgene Link