Comment Text:
My name is Bill Ragen and my family was directly hurt by the Wall St-caused financial melt down. Both my brothers are landscape contractors who are just getting by because of the hard times. One cousin, who is a bricklayer, has to work hundreds of miles from home. And I could go on, but you get the idea. We never again want to be called on to bail out big corporations and Wall Street banks for irresponsible gambles.
Effective oversight of the $700 trillion global derivatives market is a key to meaningful reform. Because this market is inherently global, risks can be transferred around the world with the touch of a button. The proposed guidance you have issued on cross-border application of Dodd-Frank derivatives rules shows that you understand the importance of this issue. But the proposal contains multiple loopholes that could allow foreign affiliates of Wall Street banks to escape regulation. Big U.S. banks and other major U.S. derivatives users are global corporations with hundreds if not thousands of foreign affiliates. If we don’t regulate them everywhere, we can’t regulate them anywhere. Please make this guidance stronger to ensure that new Dodd-Frank derivatives protections will directly apply to the full global activities of all important participants in the U.S. derivatives markets.
