May 19, 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. I have been a successful marketing person for twenty years. When the crash hit, all of my clients stopped marketing due to budget pressure - a bad sign in itself - which threw me into a tailspin I am still not out of.
I am extremely well-educated about the causes of the crash. The language of Wall St. doesn't daunt me. It was a pyramid scheme of epic proportions, from the mortgage sharks to the investment banks to the rating co's to the giants like AIG who knowingly bought into the short term private gain, long term public loss game. There are many, many people who should be in jail for a long time - instead they are back at it, and collecting obscene bonuses in the process.
This has to stop if this country is to regain any sense of propriety - and if we are to have a future that benefits the majority, not the very small minority that now control 40% of the wealth .
Consider what Wall St. actually adds to our economy. Very little. Consider what the crash did to the segments of our economy that actually create products to be sold, and create jobs in the process. It nearly sank it.
Why are we protecting people who contribute so little, act criminally, and who endanger the very fabric of our society?
We must have more, not less, regulations - and while we're at it, let's stop calling them regulations and just start calling them rules. Everyone needs rules to play by - especially unruly, greedy, reckless people.
Also, we need to tax speculation and exotic (and worthless) investments like derivatives.
Wall Street greed and outrageous pay practices were the major cause of the economic collapse that put me, and millions of Americans out of work. One way to change the incentives so they don’t collapse our economy again would be to cap and delay the bonuses for several years, at least five or seven. 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.
Thank you for considering my comment,
Peter Herring