Comment Text:
My name is David Wilkes and here is how my family and I were affected by the financial crisis. I work for a nonprofit and volunteer with several nonprofits. Social service groups and community arts groups have been devastated due to the greed of the big banks on Wall Street. The crooks who brought the world economy to a screeching halt have not been held accountable. They went home with their bonuses and were let off the hook. 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. At the very least we need to allow the Dood-Frank rules work as intended. Better yet, break up the big banks and bring back Glass-Stegall. These mega-banks are too big to manage internally and impossible to regulate externally.
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.
Thank you,
David R. Wilkes
