Comment Text:
I am Carol Gerl, and here is how my family and I were affected by the financial crisis. I lost my job three and a half years ago, and have only now managed to find part time work (up to 31 hours per week) at low pay. Meanwhile I watched unethical businesses being bailed out, their managers and owners continuing to rake in huge sums of money, and the rest of my countrymen flail to hold on to enough money for food and shelter as they lost their homes, their work, and their dignity.
I've watched students with graduate degrees accept minimum wage jobs because they had no other choice. The result of that is people who do not have higher skills and abilities have NO work opportunities from which to draw.
I've watched numerous people in their 50s slowly comprehend that they have been involuntarily retired out of the workforce without compensation or assistance. They spend their savings just for basic living expenses- those savings intended to supplement the miserly supplements expected from Social Security insurance.
I've listened as politicians threaten to privatize and reduce all expected earned benefits, break the few remaining unions, and continue to offshore remaining work; all while refusing to invest in the country which grants them their corporate charters, huge public largesse through public subsidies and tax expenditures, and lax enforcement of laws meant to protect the public and common weal of the nation from abuses and vagaries of their business practices.
I've listened to politicians and nasty scolds attempt to shame and humiliate the victims of these economic crimes. I've listened to politicians promise to protect these reprobate recidivist financiers and gamblers without a thought for the devastation wrought by their greedy and unethical activities. 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. Casino-based economies are bad investments. Divest.
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.
