Comment Text:
NPR Radio did a story on 2.10.11 relating to your hearings on reforms to the CFTC regulations, as authorized by the recent Financial Reform legislation.
The inmates are running the asylum. This is Dick Cheney assembling the CEO's of all the major oil/energy companies to hammer out national energy policy (with the laudable exception that your hearings are public).
I understand these are incredibly complex instruments. I am not an economist or mathematician, but a retired American taxpayer who (along with the rest of the country) is on the hook for $1.75 TRILLION in mortgage-backed securities made possible by unregulated, black-box OTC derivatives (CDO's) created by the very experts you are relying on to "assist" you with the new regulations. Are you mad?
I BEG YOU, please explore the Frontline report on this very issue at the following PBS site:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/
This site deals with exactly what you are attempting to accomplish -- the regulation of the derivatives market.
If you have not yet heard this woman's name, find her: Brooksley Born. She is a long-time securities attorney who was the Director of the CFTC during the George W. Bush administration (specifically 10/08 when the markets failed).
Do not let history repeat itself by failing to properly regulate and oversee the monstrous derivative market.
Thank you for your consideration.
T. A. Hoffman
American Taxpayer
