Comment Text:
“I am Retired Federal Employee and Veteran of the USAF Gary Fieldsend. I have a total of 35 years and 8 months of government service, and here is how my family was affected by the financial crisis. My oldest son owns a home that is now underwater (the mortgages owed are more than the resale/assessed value of the property), and the second mortgage is no longer being paid due to the unreasonable interest rate (the loan was structured so that the rate increased after 2 years, and payments are more than he can afford). I never again want to be called on to bail out big corporations and Wall Street banks for irresponsible “heads I win, tails you lose” gambles. Banks took advantage of a rising real estate market to push toxic mortgages that are no longer affordable, and most are refusing to work with the mortgagees to restructure the loans. Who is bailing out the consumers and homeowners? The lessons have not been learned, the banks are as large as ever, and another financial crisis is only a matter of time.
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.
