February 7, 2022
As a young retail investor and entrepreneur, I am in wholehearted agreement with the proposed regulations specified in File No. S7-32-10.
The blatant market manipulation and abuse of market maker privileges (made possible by a "self-regulated" financial system with significant influence over federal and state authorities in addition to regulatory bodies) threatens not just the global confidence in the capital markets of the United States of America, but the ideals of freedom and fairness upon which this country was founded.
These proposed regulations give me renewed confidence that the current financial system can be reformed to ensure a free and fair capital market, but financial criminals and the illegal practices of "too big to fail" investment banks must be brought to justice, and more severe penalties for violating federal securities laws must be levied against said malefactors such that breaking the law is no longer a normalized cost of doing business. If such a state is allowed to exist, the protection of retail investors will continue to be undermined, and we set a dangerous precedent for the mockery of the rights of future generations of Americans. Indeed, we all share a universal responsibility within our lifespans to not just improve upon our own individual human condition within our lifetime but safeguard those who have yet to be born from the debts and oppression already levied against them. The SEC needs an immediate history lesson on the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. Large banks have been exploiting loopholes in its framework since before I was born, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1998 dismantled time-tested protections for the American people and paved the way for the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 less than 10 years following its inception. The underlying root cause of the Great Recession has yet to be resolved as of 2022, and further manipulation of our markets by overleveraged financial institutions fueled by dangerously centralized financial power will set the United States on a destructive course towards tyranny. As the SEC continues its duties to protect American investors, do not forget the hard-learned lessons of the past. I conclude with the immortal words of President Andrew Jackson: "If our power over means is so absolute that the Supreme Court will not call in question the constitutionality of an act of Congress the subject of which "is not prohibited, and is really calculated to effect any of the objects intrusted to the Government," although, as in the case before me, it takes away powers expressly granted to Congress and rights scrupulously reserved to the States, it becomes us to proceed in our legislation with the utmost caution. Though not directly, our own powers and the rights of the States may be indirectly legislated away in the use of means to execute substantive powers. We may not enact that Congress shall not have the power of exclusive legislation over the District of Columbia, but we may pledge the faith of the United States that as a means of executing other powers it shall not be exercised for twenty years or forever. We may not pass an act prohibiting the States to tax the banking business carried on within their limits, but we may, as a means of executing our powers over other objects, place that business in the hands of our agents and then declare it exempt from State taxation in their hands. Thus may our own powers and the rights of the States, which we can not directly curtail or invade, be frittered away and extinguished in the use of means employed by us to execute other powers. That a bank of the United States, competent to all the duties which may be required by the Government, might be so organized as not to infringe on our own delegated powers or the reserved rights of the States I do not entertain a doubt. Had the Executive been called upon to furnish the project of such an institution, the duty would have been cheerfully performed." -Andrew Jackson, veto address of 1832, recharter of the Bank of the United States. Best Regards,Benjamin Stephens Chief Operating Officer www.EZKote.com