May 21, 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. We are a middle class family. We have always paid our taxes and live honestly. We are super voters and participate fully in the democratic process. We now see how wall street greed very nearly brought our country to its knees. Only agencies such as yours can make the changes necessary to prevent this sort of catastrophe from happening again. This is the role of government: to do what individuals cannot do alone to preserve the nation. My family lives on less than $120,000 per year. My family deserves to be protected from the sociopathic greed of wall street.
One way to change the incentives so Wall Street doesn’t collapse our economy again would be for regulators to set up a way for shareholders to grab back ill-gotten gains.
If it turns out that the profits in a given year were built on shoddy practices that become clear in the out-years, those bonus payments should be forfeited.
Thank you for considering my comment,
sherrell Holtshouser